The Colonel of the Red Huzzars Part 74

"Show us to the apartments of Madame Dalberg," Frederick ordered.

A dozen steps brought us to a large double door.

"This is the entrance, Your Majesty," said the man.

The King rapped sharply. There was no prompt answer and he rapped again.

In a moment, the door was opened by Mrs. Spencer's maid.

"Madame is not at home," she said mechanically.

Without a word Frederick brushed her aside and stepped quickly in--and I after him.

Mrs. Spencer sat facing the door and saw us enter. It is inconceivable that she should not have been surprised, and, yet, she betrayed absolutely no sign of it. Indeed, one would have thought we were expected guests. Truly, she was a very wonderful woman.

She said something, very low, to the Duke; then, came forward and curtsied to the King.

"Your Majesty honors me overmuch," she said. And then to me--"Does this really mean that Your Royal Highness has at last decided to acknowledge me?"

Meanwhile, Lotzen had arisen and was standing stiffly at attention, his eyes on the King. I thought his face was a trifle pale--and I did not wonder.

Frederick laughed, curtly, and motioned for her to rise.

"The play is over, Mrs. Spencer," he said. "We will have no more acting, if you please."

She straightened, instantly.

"Your Majesty is pleased to be discourteous--but it seems to be a Dalberg characteristic," she sneered. Then she broke out angrily: "And, as neither you nor that renegade there,"--indicating me with a nod and a look,--"was invited here, I take it I am quite justified in requesting you both to depart. You may be a King, but that gives you no privilege to force your way into a woman's apartments and insult her. You are a brave gentleman, surely, and a worthy monarch. I suppose you brought your pet to protect you lest I offer you violence.

Well, I'll give him the chance."

Even as she said it, like a flash, she seized a heavy gla.s.s vase from the table and hurled it straight at the King.

It was not a woman's throw. Madeline Spencer had learned the man's swing, in her Army days, and, had the vase struck home, the chances are there would have been a new King in Dornlitz, that night.

And such was Lotzen's thought, for he smiled wickedly and glanced at me.

But, quick though she was, the King was quicker. He jerked his head aside. The vase missed him by the fraction of an inch and crashed to bits against the opposite wall.

Frederick turned and looked at the fragments, and at the cut in the hangings.

"Madame is rather muscular," he observed, dryly.

"And Your Majesty is a clever dodger," she said, with sneering indifference--then leaned back against the table, a hand on either side of her.

"Is it possible you are not going?" she asked.

The King smiled. "Presently, my dear madame, presently. Meanwhile, I pray you, have consideration for the ornaments and the wall."

She shrugged her shoulders.

"As I cannot expect the servants to forcibly eject their King, and as the Duke of Lotzen dare not, I presume I'll have to submit to your impertinent intrusion. Pray, let me know your business here--I a.s.sume it is business--and get it ended quickly. I will expedite it all I may. Anything, to be rid of you and that popinjay in red beside you."

"Your husband, madame," the King observed.

"Aye, my husband, for a time," she answered.

"Aye, Mrs. Spencer, your husband for a time--for a purpose--and for a consideration."

She opened her eyes wide.

"Indeed!" she laughed. "I thought the acting was over, Sire."

Frederick's manner changed.

"It is," he said sharply. "We will come to the point. Have you ink and pen?"

"Is that what you came for?" she sneered. "Have you none at the Palace?"

"Quite enough to sign an order within an hour for your incarceration if you continue obdurate," he answered.

"A kingly threat, truly," she mocked. "And, what if I be not obdurate?"

"Then it will be an order permitting you to leave Valeria at once."

"Now, Your Majesty interests me," she said. "I have been waiting for that a month and more. What is the price for this order?"

"Simply the truth, madame," said the King.

"Sometimes, the truth is the highest price one can pay," she answered.

"It will be very easy here," he said. "You have a paper purporting to be a certificate of marriage between you and Armand Dalberg."

She inclined her head.

"On it you will endorse that it is a false certificate; that you are not and never were his wife; that it was procured for you, in New York, long subsequent to its apparent date; and that you were paid an enormous sum of money--fill in the actual amount, please--to go immediately to Dornlitz, exhibit the certificate, there, and publicly claim the Grand Duke Armand as your husband. That, madame, is all."

I was observing Lotzen; and, even now, his nerve never failed him. He watched the King, intently, as he spoke. At the end, his face took on a smile of cynical indifference--and, dropping from the respectful position in which he had been standing, he turned and sat on the table, one leg swinging carelessly over the corner.

Mrs. Spencer shot a quick glance at him--but he gave no answer back.

"Your Majesty has omitted one little matter," she said. "By whom shall I say the money was paid?"

"Thank you--so I had. Make it--by persons to you unknown."

Mrs. Spencer smiled frankly.

"Your Majesty was quite right," she said. "The play is over."