Mrs. Fitz Part 22

The members of the Emba.s.sy closed around Fitz.

"Come into the ballroom, sir," said the Amba.s.sador, who had turned deadly pale.

"When I have seen the Princess into safety I will oblige you," said Fitz. "But it would be more convenient if we arranged a meeting in Paris."

"You shall meet me now, sir," said the Amba.s.sador.

Coverdale moved forward into the circle that had been formed.

"I am afraid that is impossible," said the Chief Constable. "The practice of duelling has no sanction in this country. For all concerned it will surely be more convenient to meet at Paris."

Coverdale's intention was pacific, and he is a man of weight, but the princ.i.p.als in this affair were likely to be too much for him.

"Arbuthnot," said Fitz, "be good enough to accompany the Princess to the Savoy. We will come on presently."

For a moment the issue hung in the balance. The Amba.s.sador had demanded satisfaction and Fitz was more than willing to grant it. But Coverdale was equally resolute. To the best of my capacity I seconded his efforts, but with men so headstrong and so implacable it was almost impossible to exert any kind of authority.

"If you don't care to support me," said Fitz to Coverdale, "perhaps you will not mind taking the place of Arbuthnot. I daresay you other fellows will come on to the ballroom."

To our dismay, Fitz, with a rea.s.sumption of the Napoleonic manner, turned towards the staircase.

"What is to be done?" I inquired of the Chief Constable anxiously. "I am a man of peace myself, but one of us must see him through."

"I agree with you--the cursed firebrand! But one of us must stay, and the other must look after the Princess."

The Chief Constable did not conceal the fact that he had a predilection for the latter duty.

"I don't know much about affairs of honour," said I, "and I should greatly prefer that a man of more experience took a thing like this in hand; but I can quite believe that your official position----"

"Official position be d.a.m.ned!" said the Chief Constable. "If you honestly think I shall be of more use than you, there is no more to be said. We are here to make ourselves useful and we must see this thing through."

"Very well, I will look after the Princess, and you go to the ballroom and do what you can to save the situation."

CHAPTER XIV

A DEPLORABLE INCIDENT

It was with a feeling akin to despair that I saw Coverdale follow the others up the stairs. In the first place my own position was invidious. But there was nothing to be done. It was beyond question that Fitz must have a tried man like Coverdale at his elbow, whilst also it was necessary that a person with some pretensions to responsibility should take charge of the lady who was safely outside in the electric brougham. Yet, uppermost in my thoughts, was a more insistent care. The affair had taken a very ugly turn. Fitz had shown himself to be a man who did not stick at trifles, whilst von Arlenberg, unless his manner belied him, was cast in a similar mould. It was therefore with some uneasiness that I went to offer my services to her Royal Highness. That distinguished personage was seated greatly at her ease, yet with a slight frown upon her somewhat imperious countenance.

"Where is Nefil?" said she.

"I have to tell you, ma'am," said I, "that Mr. Fitzwaren is--er--discussing certain important matters with his Excellency, and that if it is agreeable to you he desires me to accompany you to your hotel."

"What are the matters?" Her gaze in its directness seemed to pa.s.s right through me.

"There are--er--certain details that have to be adjusted."

"Well, I hope Nefil will be able to shoot straight."

Whether I was more taken aback by the cynicism of the remark or by its sagacity, it would be fruitless to inquire. But to this pious hope I had nothing to add; and I stood feeling decidedly uncomfortable at the door of the car. There was no room in front by the side of the chauffeur, and I had received no invitation to take a seat within.

The pause was awkward, but somehow there seemed to be no help for it.

"Well?" said the lady, not without a suspicion of acerbity.

Even that I could not take for an invitation to get in. I stood acutely conscious that my embarra.s.sment told against me.

"Aha, _les Anglais_!" The malice was not too genial. "Would you haf me open the door?"

I told the chauffeur to drive to the Savoy, and took the proffered seat by the side of the Crown Princess of Illyria.

The discovery has no claim to be original, but in order to find out what a woman really is, one should sit with her alone and _tete-a-tete_. The opportunity for frankness is not likely to be neglected upon either side, since a display of that engaging quality upon the one part seems automatically to evoke it on the other.

No sooner was I seated by the side of Mrs. Fitz than I felt more at ease. She was so sentient, so responsive; a creature who, beneath the trenchant reserve of her manner, was alive in every nerve.

She patted my knees with her fan.

"Aha, _les Anglais_!" In the light of the lamps, I thought her eyes were like stars. "So brave, so honest and so _bete_--I love them all!"

The spell of her presence seemed to overpower me.

"My brave Nefil will kill him, will he not?"

"I fear," said I, "that one of them will not see to-morrow."

"Indeed, yes; it cannot be otherwise."

Her calmness amazed me. And yet there was nothing callous or unnatural in it. Perhaps it might be described as the outward expression of an imperial nature. At least that was the impression that I gained. When her servants drew their swords in her cause they must not look for a p.r.i.c.k in the arm. Let them prepare to stake their lives and to yield them gladly. I s.h.i.+vered slightly; it was barbarous that a woman could thus offer the father of her children to the G.o.ds, yet it was sublime.

All too soon we arrived at the restaurant where Fitz had ordered supper for seven. The place was filling up rapidly after the theatres. We sat on a sofa in the foyer to wait for our party; I with an acute anxiety and a sense of foreboding that held me tongue-tied; my companion with a detachment of mind that in the circ.u.mstances seemed almost inhuman. For her sake a man was being done to death; one whom she loved, or one whom her father honoured. But whatever Fate's decree, her nature was schooled to the point of submission.

Seated by my side in the foyer, she subjected the throng of returning playgoers to a frankly humorous and malicious scrutiny. These English who were so _bete_ amused her vastly. The clothes they wore, the airs they gave themselves, the things they did and the things they refrained from doing, not a detail escaped that audaciously frank, that alertly curious intelligence.

"Your women are not as you, you fine, big English good dogs," she said, bestowing another indulgent pat upon my knees. "_Les Anglaises_, how prim and pinched they are, what dresses they wear, and how they do walk! But I adore _vos jolis hommes_: was ever such distinction, such charm, such stupidity! _Mon pere_ shall have an English regiment. I will raise it myself, and be its colonel."

Her laughter was deep and rich and full of malice. Even I, stupid and stricken with fear as I was, was yet sufficiently indiscreet to attempt to seize the opportunity.

"It will be the easiest thing in the world, ma'am. Have you not raised it already?"

Another indulgent pat was my reward.

"_Tres bon enfant_! _Quel esprit_! You shall sit by my side when we eat."

Her ridicule had a velvet sheath, but even an Englishman, who felt as miserably ineffectual as did I, was susceptible of the thrust.

It is difficult for the average Briton, acutely conscious that he is enduring the patronage of a superior, to be easy, graceful and natural in his bearing; to say the appropriate things in the appropriate way, and to carry off the situation lightly. Every moment that I sat by the side of her Royal Highness in the centre of the public gaze, I felt my position to be growing more invidious. The pose of my companion seemed to become more Olympian; while if I ventured a half-hearted _riposte_ or a timid pleasantry, I suffered for it; or if I remained silent and respectful--and that after all is the only course to take in the presence of our betters--I furnished an additional example of the heaviness of my countrymen.