That Boy Of Norcott's Part 27

"No; I believe I heard it,--but I am not familiar with English names, and it has escaped me; but I will present you by and by to Count Greorge Szechenyi, who was at Baden when the Hunyadi met them,--he'll tell you more of them."

I a.s.sured her that my curiosity was most amply satisfied already. It was a cla.s.s, in which I could not expect to find an acquaintance, far less a friend.

"There is something almost forced in this humility of yours," cried she. "Are we to find out some fine morning that you are a prince in disguise?" She laughed so merrily at her own conceit that Madame Hunyadi asked the cause of her mirth.

"I will tell you later on," said she. We soon afterwards rose to go into the drawing-room, and I saw as they laughed together that she had told her what she said.

"Do you know," said the Countess Hunyadi, approaching me, "I am half of Madame Palfi's mind, and I shall never rest till you reveal your secret to us?"

I said something laughingly about my _incognito_ being the best coat in my wardrobe, and the matter dropped. That night I sang several times, alone, and in duet with the Palfi, and was overwhelmed with flatteries of my "fresh tenor voice" and my "admirable method." It was something so new and strange to me to find myself the centre of polite attentions, and of those warm praises which consummate good breeding knows how to bestow without outraging taste, that I found it hard to repress the wild delight that possessed me.

If I had piqued their curiosity to find out who or what I was, I had also stimulated my own ambition to astonish them.

"He says he will ride out with me to-morrow, and does n't care if I give him a lively mount," said one, speaking of me.

"And you mean to gratify him, George?" asked another.

"He shall have the roan that hoisted you out of the saddle with his hind quarters."

"Come, come, gentlemen, I'll not have my _protege_ injured to gratify your jealousies," said Madame Hunyadi; "he shall be my escort."

"If he rides as he plays billiards, you need not be much alarmed about him. The fellow can do what he likes at the cannon game."

"I 'd give fifty Naps to know his history," cried another.

I was playing chess as he said this, and, turning my head quietly around, I said, "The secret is not worth half the money, sir; and if it really interests you, you shall have it for the asking."

He muttered out a ma.s.s of apologies and confused excuses, to all the embarra.s.sment of which I left him most pitilessly, and the incident ended. I saw, however, enough to perceive that if I had won the suffrages of the ladies, the men of the party had conceived an undisguised dislike of me, and openly resented the favor shown me.

"What can you do with the foils, young gentleman?" whispered Szechenyi to me, as he came near.

"Pretty much as I did with you at billiards awhile ago," said I, insolently; for my blood was up, and I burned to fix a quarrel somewhere.

"Shall we try?" asked he, dryly.

"If you say without the b.u.t.tons, I agree."

"Of course, I mean that."

I nodded, and he went on,--

"Come down to the riding-school by the first light tomorrow then, and I 'll have all in readiness."

I gave another nod of a.s.sent, and moved away. I had enough on my hands now; for, besides other engagements, I had promised the Countess Palfi to arrange a little piece for private theatricals, and have it ready by the time of Count Hunyadi's return. So far from feeling oppressed or overwhelmed by the multiplicity of these cares, they stimulated me to a degree of excitement almost maddening. Failure somewhere seemed inevitable, and, for the life of me, I could not choose where it should be. As my spirits rose, I threw off all the reserve I had worn before, and talked away with an animation and boldness I felt uncontrollable.

I made _calembourgs_, and dashed off impromptu verses at the piano; and when, culminating in some impertinence by a witty picture of the persons around me I had convulsed the whole room with laughter, I sprang up, and, saying good-night, disappeared.

The roars of their laughter followed me down the corridor, nor did they cease to ring in my ears till I had closed my door.

CHAPTER XXIX. AN UNLOOKED-FOR MEETING

I could more easily record my sensations in the paroxysm of a fever than recall how I pa.s.sed that night. I am aware that I wrote a long letter to my mother, and a longer to Sara, both to be despatched in case ill befell me in my encounter. What I said to either, or how I said it, I know not.

No more can I explain why I put all my papers together in such fas.h.i.+on that they could be thrown into the fire at once, without leaving any, the slightest, clew to trace me by. That secret, which I had affected to hold so cheaply, did in reality possess some strange fascination for me, and I desired to be a puzzle and an enigma even after I was gone.

It wanted one short hour of dawn when I had finished; but I was still too much excited to sleep. I knew how unfavorably I should come to the encounter before me with jarred nerves and the weariness of a night's watching; but it was too late now to help that; too late, besides, to speculate on what men would say of such a causeless duel, brought on, as I could not conceal from myself, by my hot temper. By the time I had taken my cold bath my nerves became more braced, and I scarcely felt a trace of fatigue or exhaustion. The gray morning was just breaking as I stole quietly downstairs and issued forth into the courtyard. A heavy fall of snow had occurred in the night, and an unbroken expanse of billowy whiteness spread ont before me, save where, from a corner of the court, some foot-tracks led towards the riding-school. I saw, therefore, that I was not the first at the tryst, and I hastened on in all speed.

Six or eight young men, closely m.u.f.fled in furs, stood at the door as I came up, and gravely uncovered to me. They made way for me to pa.s.s in without speaking; and while, stamping the snow from my boots, I said something about the cold of the morning, they muttered what might mean a.s.sent or the reverse in a low half-sulky tone, that certainly little invited to further remark.

For a few seconds they talked together in whispers, and then a tall ill-favored fellow, with a deep scar from the cheek-bone to the upper lip, came abruptly up to me.

"Look here, young fellow," said he. "I am to act as your second; and though, of course, I 'd like to know that the man I handled was a gentleman, I do not ask you to tell anything about yourself that you prefer to keep back. I would only say that, if ugly consequences come of this stupid business, the blame must fall upon you. Your temper provoked it, is that not true?"

I nodded a.s.sent, and he went on.

"So far, all right. The next point is this. We are all on honor that, whatever happens, not a word or a syllable shall ever escape us. Do you agree to this?"

"I agree," said I, calmly.

"Give me your hand on it."

I gave him my hand; and as he held it in his own, he said, "On the faith of a gentleman, I will never reveal to my last day what shall pa.s.s here this morning."

I repeated the words after him, and we moved on into the school.

I had drawn my sofa in front of the fire, and, stretching myself on it, fell into a deep dreamless sleep. A night's wakefulness, and the excitement I had gone through, had so far worked upon me that I did not hear the opening of my door, nor the tread of a heavy man as he came forward and seated himself by the fire. It was only the cold touch of hi fingers on the wrist as he felt my pulse that at last aroused me.

"Don't start, don't flurry yourself," said he, calmly, to me. "I am the doctor. I have been to see the other, and I promised to look in on you."

"How is he? Is it serious?"

"It will be a slow affair. It was an ugly thrust,--all the dorsal muscles pierced, but no internal mischief done."

"He will certainly recover then?"

"There is no reason why he should not. But where is this scratch of yours? Let me see it."

"It is a nothing, doctor,--a mere nothing. Pray take no trouble about it."

"But I must I have pledged myself to examine your wound; and I must keep my word."

"Surely these gentlemen are scarcely so very anxious about me," said I, in some pique. "Not one of them vouchsafed to see me safe home, though I had lost some blood, and felt very faint!"

"I did not say it was these gentlemen sent me here," said he, dryly.