A STANIEF'S OWN
It was a pity that, amidst all the gorgeous ceremony and confusion of
welcome, Iria did not see the warm affection of Stanief's greeting to
Allard. Perhaps she would have been less hopelessly afraid when the
little Emperor took her hand and presented to her the tall, superb noble
whose dark face, finely emotionless, resembled a cameo. Whose velvet
eyes she dared not seek behind their curtaining lashes.
Yet Stanief was faultlessly courteous, even kind in his grave manner. It
might have been merely that he was so different from her fancies of the
last weeks.
The wedding was to take place in two days; two days of festivities, of
marvelously decorated streets, of wonderful balls by night. Iria did
exactly as she was told; yielded dazedly to Adrian's caresses and
accepted the Regent's lavish gifts. Like a beautiful toy she allowed her
ladies to dress her half a dozen times a day, and listened submissively
to her mother's advice. But the afternoon before her wedding-day, she
saw Stanief alone for the first time.
After all, it was not really alone. The Emperor had been chatting with
her on the great glass-enclosed balcony, and as Stanief came toward
them, he rose with a significant smile and went back to the
reception-hall. Still, from that crowded reception-hall they were only
separated by arching, open arcades; only slightly screened by towering
palms and flowers in huge vases.
Stanief took the chair beside his fiancee and looked at her; this was
the first moment when he could do so without feeling himself watched by
all curious eyes. He had read perfectly the terror under her mute
passivity, the shrinking of her tiny frost-cold hand from his touch, and
he pitied her with all his heart. Now, in the lustrous rose-pink gown
against which her transparent skin showed without a tinge of color, her
bronze-bright head averted, her mouth curved in childish pathos, she
inspired him with an anger against Adrian which he had never felt for
himself.
"Princess," he said gently, "we have seen so little of each other until
now, nor shall we again until after to-morrow. May I say something which
has been in my thoughts since we met yesterday?"
"As you will, monseigneur," she murmured.
"I think it is as you will," Stanief corrected, smiling in spite of
himself. "But I accept the permission. Will you forgive me if I have
imagined that you feared me, Princess?"
Iria raised her topaz eyes to his in complete dismay.
"Monseigneur, you are angry--"
The sentence broke; those firm, steadily tranquil eyes of his caught and
held hers.
"Angry? Why? But I am sorry, deeply sorry, for the net of policy which
has enmeshed us both and left me no power of freeing you. And I would
do all possible, Princess, to make this less hard for you. There is no
need to be afraid of me in any way. I do not know what they have told
you of me; if I govern the Empire severely, it is that order may come
from chaos, no more. Of what else I may be accused--"
"Monseigneur!"
He smiled again at her tone, rather sadly.
"Oh, I know my enemies. But such things have no place between you and
me. John Allard was of your suite; perhaps he could have told you that I
am not all harshness."
She snatched her gaze from his and blushed as he had never seen a woman
blush before, the heavy crimson staining her very forehead.
"He did tell me--that, monseigneur."
"Then I would ask you to trust me, Princess. To-morrow you will come to
my house; there will be no other change in your life which you do not
wish. I am not a reigning sovereign, there is no reason why you should
not keep with you the ladies of your own country whom you prefer. If
you desire, I will have the Emperor ask your mother to remain with you
for a few months."
Iria shook her head. Her mother's constant surveillance threatened even
the peace Stanief offered, and prohibited rest.
"You are good to me, monseigneur," she faltered. "I will stay with you,
please."
He understood, knowing the lady in question.
"Thank you," he answered, and after a moment, "A Stanief guards his own;
so much, at least, our race has of loyalty. And to guard you all I can,
that is all I claim. There are enough more serious troubles, Princess,
without adding the artificial one of fear. If there is sorrow to you in
this marriage, it is beyond my cure; but rest quietly in my
guardianship."
The shadow of a sob crossed Iria's sensitive face; she looked up at him
bravely and gratefully.
"You are good," she said hurriedly. "I never hoped you would be like
this to me, monseigneur. No one ever thought of me so carefully before,
never. But it is right to tell you, _because_ you are so good. I know
that you did not wish this marriage, either, we are alike so. Baron
Dalmorov informed me this morning."
"I am infinitely indebted to Baron Dalmorov," observed Stanief, his dark
brows contracting in an expression that might have terrified into flight
Iria's new-found confidence, if she had not been absorbed in her
confession.
"I was not hurt, monseigneur; it made it easier to know. And now I can
tell you; I, I hate secrets. There was some one--oh, some one quite
impossible and who does not care for me at all. He does not dream I ever
thought, like that. But I fancied he was some one else--I misunderstood.
It was not his fault in any way. I had to tell you, monseigneur; it
seemed to me right to do so."
Stanief leaned forward and laid his hand over the cold hands folded in
her lap. He had never before believed that a woman could be frank,
never imaged one who "hated secrets." It was as if he stood on the
threshold of a room all perfume and whiteness; and not the most
accomplished coquette could have devised a means of moving him so
profoundly.
"All my life I shall remember that you gave me your confidence, Iria,"
he answered, with exquisite delicacy and respect. "So far I am happier
than you; I love no one. Have no doubt, no dread of anything I can save
you. Some good may come of all this, how can we tell? And at least there
is no need of making it worse by not understanding. You will not shrink
so much from to-morrow, now?"
She met his eyes, helpless as a child in the great reaction; his warm
clasp seemed to melt the chill despair of the last days, a little color
came back to her cheek and something flashed rainbow-like upon her
lashes.
"Not now," she sighed quiveringly. "Thank you, monseigneur."
Stanief raised her hand to his lips, and presently they went back to the
Duquesa. After which he went in search of Adrian.
The Emperor was talking to Allard when his cousin came up to the alcove
where they were ensconced, and he sat motionless with astonishment at
sight of Stanief's steel-hard glance and compressed lips.
"Cousin?" he exclaimed, daunted in spite of himself.
Allard had risen at the approach, but Stanief did not regard him and
Adrian gave no permission to retire.
"Sire," Stanief said, in the markedly quiet tone that came with his rare
anger, "it is frequently your Imperial Majesty's pleasure to submit me
and my affairs to the discussion or criticism of Baron Dalmorov. I have
made no complaint, I make none now, but there is a limit to such
endurance. The lady who is to be my wife--"
Allard moved involuntarily; Adrian raised his hand in swift protest.
"Cousin, I assure you--"
Stanief saluted him formally.
"Sire, I have just learned that Baron Dalmorov has had the tact to
inform the Princess Iria that I was marrying her under compulsion and
against my will. This insult to madame, this falsehood--"
"Cousin!"
"This falsehood, sire--since, having met the Princess, it is my earnest
desire to have the honor of her hand--this is too much. Baron Dalmorov
is your attendant; I request your justice. If it is refused--"
"Well, cousin?" Adrian asked mechanically, rather in stupor than
challenge at Stanief's words.
Stanief's usually veiled glance glinted clear and ice-cold.
"Sire, Dalmorov shall account to me now; and I to you later."
Allard, familiar with both, bit his lip in an agony of anxiety. For an
instant Adrian wavered, then his eyes fell, beaten down by those of his
kinsman.
"Whatever you wish," he conceded, docilely as Iria could have spoken.
"He had no right, no excuse from me. Go bid Dalmorov come here, Allard."
The surrender was complete. Relieved and surprised, Allard obeyed,
hazarding a guess that the Emperor's own fondness for Iria had
influenced the answer.
But Adrian had not lived ten months with his Regent without learning
more than a childish love of command. He looked up again at the stately
figure that towered over him, glittering in the semibarbaric
magnificence of dress demanded by etiquette.
"Come by me, Feodor," he urged, with a gesture of invitation to the
chair at his side.
"Thank you, sire," without moving.
Adrian surveyed him, then stooped to the first apology of his life,
however imperiously spoken.
"I never told any one at all of your unwillingness to marry Iria,
Feodor. If it is known, it is because you yourself seized every possible
delay. Come here; I do not wish Dalmorov to find you standing there."
Stanief complied, and Adrian laid a hand on his sleeve.
"Then you love Iria, after all?" he asked, with hesitating curiosity.
"Love? In twenty-four hours? Hardly, sire; but I guard my own."
The young Emperor lifted his head no less proudly.
"And so do I, cousin. Dalmorov shall satisfy you."
Half an hour after Iria had returned to the suite appointed to her and
her mother, she received a visit from Baron Dalmorov--a very different
Dalmorov from the malicious, self-confident gentleman of the morning,
and who offered her so abject an apology for his mistaken and untrue
statement regarding the Grand Duke's attitude, that the Gentle Princess
was quite distressed. She sent him away reassured and apparently
grateful, then fell to connecting events. Recollecting Stanief's
expression during her naive account and the carriage of his head as he
had crossed the reception-hall to Adrian, she had no difficulty in
divining the reason for Dalmorov's sudden contrition. But Stanief's
strength no longer chilled her with terror; instead she stood with
relief behind its shelter.
There was a ball at the palace that night. Stanief never danced, but
every one else did, and the Emperor opened the evening with the
Princess. It was obvious to all why Stanief had been forced to this
marriage, whenever Adrian was seen with Iria; the boy so evidently
liked, indeed, loved her. And the fifteen-year-old autocrat was always
popularly supposed to be without affection.
Near the end of the evening Stanief came across Allard, who was leaning
against a flower-wreathed pillar and watching the dancers with grave,
unseeing eyes. The other man studied him for a minute, then laid a hand
on his shoulder.
"John, I have scarcely seen you to-night. You look troubled."
Allard started and turned, his face brightening warmly.
"I am not dancing to-night, monseigneur," he explained. "That is all."
"Why not?"
The gray eyes fell.
"I was--a bit out of sorts, perhaps."
Stanief stood silent, his own expression becoming very somber. Allard
waited quietly; he indeed bore the stamp of fatigue in his pallor and
the dark circles beneath his eyes.
"It is a tangled skein, this life of ours," Stanief said at last, "and
not wholly of our spinning. You are with the Emperor to-night?"
"Every night now, monseigneur."
"Then I may not see you until morning. Good night, John."
Allard smiled with the cordial brilliancy that always sprang in
response to his name on Stanief's lips.
"Good night, monseigneur," he answered lovingly.
The next morning, with all elaborate ceremony, the marriage took place.
It was remarked that when the Princess stood up, in as much snowy satin,
old lace and pearl as could be crowded upon one small feminine figure,
opposite Stanief in the vast cathedral, her wide eyes never left his
face, and she seemed to find support in his composure. And when they
came down the aisle together, her little white-gloved fingers clung to
the white sleeve of his uniform as if there alone she touched some
reality in the bewildering panorama.
"Did you ever see the frail edelweiss growing on a ledge of some
ice-fringed granite cliff?" whispered the volatile Vasili in Allard's
ear. "Look, pray, at our Grand Duchess."
"The edelweiss is safe, at least," Allard replied soberly. "Perhaps
safer than the cliff."