The Adventure of Princess Sylvia Part 22

"Sure," calmly a.s.severated "Iron Heart."

"Then the more pieces in this little puzzle that I fit together, the more likely does it seem that your Miss de Courcy, who has been turning Rhaetia upside down--to say nothing of Rhaetia's Emperor--is neither more nor less than Miss Minnie Brand, one of the cleverest, and certainly one of the prettiest actresses England has owned for a century."

"You met her in England?"

"No-o, not in England"; the Prince suddenly became noncommital. "But we were great friends. After our quarrel she disappeared, disbanding her company, letting them go on while she stopped at a Rhaetian watering-place. Ha, ha! now I think of it, I should not be surprised if she had hoped to make of me a more egregious fool than she appears to have made of Maximilian. It is possible she fancied at one time that I might be a.s.s enough to offer her marriage."

"The Emperor has offered her marriage."

"_What_? With the left hand, of course--though even that would be unheard of."

"I swear to you that if something can't be done to stop him, he will make her Empress of Rhaetia. He has told me so to-day with his own lips."

"Gad! Little Minnie Brand! I didn't half appreciate her brilliant qualities."

"Yet I wager, Prince, that she appreciated yours."

Apollo shrugged his shoulders. "I believe she liked me. Yes, I believe _that_ wasn't acting."

"Is it long since you parted if I may ask as much?"

"Oh, yes, you may ask and be answered, Chancellor. It is only long enough for her to have said good-bye to the old love and taken comfortably up with the new."

"But what if she still cared for the old--if the past could be revived? Prince, I tell you frankly, I now pin all my hopes on you.

Even when I thought only that if a meeting between you two could be arranged, your fascinations might produce a speedy effect--even then I hoped something. Now, I hope _everything_--if you will consent to see her. I beg you will do that--without delay. I beg that you will send up your card, and request the lady to receive you. That alone would be much to go upon with the Emperor, who is of a jealous disposition; but, if there could be more if you could persuade her to----"

"Persuade her to--what?" asked the Prince, when the old man paused for breath and inspiration.

"If she would go to your hunting-lodge--if the Emperor could know that she was there he would be cured, once for all. Rhaetia would be saved-- by you. And regarding the business that I think has brought you--what could be better--for every one concerned?"

"What, indeed?" echoed the Prince. "For _every one_ concerned, except for Minnie Brand."

"After what she has done, need she be considered--before the interests of Rhaetia, and another most innocent Royal lady, whom she is doing her best to humiliate and put to shame?"

"I am not sure that she need be so considered," said the Prince. "At all events--I will send up my card--to Miss de Courcy. As for the rest--it must arrange itself."

He took from his pocket a little gold card-case, sparkling with jewels--a trifle which advertised itself as the gift of a woman. "This shall go upstairs," he said, selecting a bit of engraved pasteboard.

"And then--we shall see."

For five minutes, for ten minutes, after the departure of the small, silent messenger, the two men waited, talking of a subject near to both their hearts. But at the end of that time word came that Lady and Miss de Courcy would see the Prince.

"The value of a well-regulated mother!" laughed the young man, who had not requested the pleasure of meeting Lady de Courcy. "Well, whatever comes of this interview, I shall presently have something to tell you, Chancellor."

"The suspense will be hard to bear," said the old man. "I am not as young as I was, and these past four days have sorely tried me.

Remember, I pray you, all that is at stake, and do not hesitate. Have no scruple with such a woman as this. The Emperor will shortly be returning. He will lose no time in seeing the girl, and--once they have had another meeting, all our precautions will be too late."

The Prince did not smile as he went out.

He had bidden the Chancellor to await his return in the salon of the "Royal suite," which was usually put at his disposal when he was in Rhaetia, and drove in from the Niederwald to Salzbruck. Other Royalties from foreign countries, or from the provinces, occasionally occupied it also--hence its name; and Apollo was not the first Prince whom old Eberhard von Markstein had visited in the "Royal suite" of the Hohenburgerhof. The Chancellor knew by heart the rich purple hangings in the salon, with the gold double wolf-head of Rhaetia embroidered on their folds; and he sickened of them now, as the moments dragged on and on, and he was left alone.

When half an hour had pa.s.sed, he could no longer sit still on the purple velvet sofa, but walked up and down, his hands behind him, scowling at the full-length portraits of Rhaetia's former Emperors, glaring a question at his own reflection in the many huge gold-framed mirrors, a question he would have given his life to hear answered in the way he wished.

Three-quarters of an hour had gone at last, and still the Chancellor paced the room from end to end, and still the Prince did not come back to tell the news. Had the young man failed him? Had that Vivian upstairs twisted the boy round her finger, as she had twisted one who was stronger and greater than he? Was it possible that she had wormed the whole secret from the Prince and then ordered him away from the hotel, leaving her enemy fuming in the house?

But no, there were footsteps outside the door; the handle was turned.

At least the Prince was true to his promise.

As the Chancellor had said, he was no longer as young as he had been.

His lips parted; yet he could not speak, when he would have asked for the result. But the Prince caught the appeal in the glittering eyes, and did not wait to be interrogated.

"Well, I have seen the lady," he said, in a voice that was indefinably changed in the interval since he and the Chancellor had separated.

"And she is the one you had known?"

"Yes. She is the one I had known. What is more, Chancellor, it--it's all right about that plan of yours. She is going with me to Bunden."

"She is? Heaven be praised! When?

"At once. That is, as soon as she can get ready."

"Nothing could be better. I trust she goes with you alone? The presence of the mother as chaperon would be unfortunate."

"Oh, no chaperon is needed for us. The--mother stops behind with a companion they have, who is ill. It--er--it was a little difficult to arrange this matter, but--I don't think the plot will fail, provided you carry through your part as well as I have mine."

"The lady goes with you quite of her own free will?"

"I--er--I flatter myself that she is rather pleased with the invitation. In half an hour or so, if all is well, I and the lady fair will be on our way to my hunting-lodge, to spend an agreeable evening in each other's society and talk over old times. Fortunately I went straight out there this morning before coming to Salzbruck to see you; and though I was not expected back to dinner, there will be something eatable in the house, I dare say--something I need not be ashamed to offer a lady."

The Prince pulled a hunting-watch from the pocket of an elaborate waistcoat (he merited the reputation of being the best-dressed young man in Europe) and consulted it reflectively. "It is now nearly four-thirty. By six, the hour at which I should have sat down to my early dinner here (alas, for a good dinner sacrificed on the altar of duty!), we shall be approaching the outskirts of the Niederwald, my pretty friend and I. Bunden is three miles farther on, my place two miles beyond Bunden. But before seven o'clock I shall be showing the lady the beauties of my Rhaetian hunting-lodge, which I have more than once described to her. Dinner can, on one excuse or another, be delayed until nearly nine, if it would suit your book to find us in the midst of our repast. My dining-room is not a grand salon, but it has light and colour, and would not make a bad background for the last act of this little comedy. What do you say, Chancellor? I have always thought that your success as stage-manager in the Theatre of all Nations was partially due to your regard for dramatic effects."

"They are not to be despised." a.s.sented the Chancellor.

"Well, I promise you that the footlights shall be lighted, the stage set, and two of your leading puppets dressed and painted for the show, precisely at the hour of nine. When can you count on the appearance of the third?"

The bristling brows met. Von Markstein was working without scruple against Maximilian, for Maximilian's good; yet he could tolerate no light speaking of the master he would betray.

"When His Majesty telephones to me from Wandeck as he has promised to do, on his arrival there," said the old man stiffly, "I shall inform him of what has taken place in his absence. If I know him in his present ardent mood, he will order a special train to return to Salzbruck. In that case, he will arrive before eight; and all else falling as I now confidently expect, we shall be able to reach the hunting-lodge by half-past nine."

"You will find us at the third course," prophesied the Prince.

"Naturally, the Emperor's sudden appearance will come as a blow to the lady," returned the Chancellor, watching with veiled keenness the other's placid, perfect face. "She would not dare take the risk if she dreamed that he would discover her escapade and follow, great as is the temptation to enjoy your society; indeed, Prince, you must have found subtle weapons to break so soon through the armour of her prudence. I expected much from your courage and resource, once enlisted in the cause, yet I hardly ventured to expect such speedy, such unqualified success as this that seems a.s.sured."

"My weapons were sharpened on my past acquaintance with the lady,"

explained the Prince. "Without that, the desired result might have waited as many days as it has taken moments, though, at last, the end would perhaps have been the same."

"Not for Rhaetia. Every moment counts with us, as I have said.

Thanks to you, we shall win; for actress as this woman is, she will find the justification of an evening _tete-a-tete_ with you, at your hunting-lodge in the country, a task beyond her powers."