PATSY HAS GREATNESS THRUST UPON HER
At Hanover Lodge, in spite of the good will of the Princess, all did not
go smoothly. Every day the ladies drove out in one of the royal
carriages drawn by four beautiful bays, but with the servants and
outriders in the black liveries of Saxe-Brunswick.
On such occasions the Princess dressed plainly, as befitting her
position of exile, but it pleased her to array Patsy with a taste seldom
seen in England. On days when they went to Windsor, where the Princesses
made a pet of her, Patsy wore a dress of white muslin, simple enough,
but trimmed with point lace, Vandyked at the edges, and on her head a
most charming Leghorn gipsy hat, with wreaths of small roses round the
edge of the brim and a second row wreathed about the crown. The effect
was all Patsy's heart could desire.
It chanced that, just as the carriage drove into Staines, the party in
it became aware of a brilliant cavalcade riding towards them. The
Princess whispered to Patsy, "The Dukes--look through them, my dear, and
do not let yourself be overcome!"
Patsy had no idea of being overcome. She held her head well up, and sat
beside the Princess with a pale face but steadfast eyes. The six royal
brothers were riding three and three, the Regent being in the middle of
the first rank on a splendid iron-grey charger. He had come from a
review in Windsor Park with which he had been able to combine the
monthly perfunctory visit to his mother and sisters. He was in a hussar
uniform, extremely fantastic, the same in which he afterwards asserted
that he had commanded one of the cavalry divisions at Waterloo. He wore
a diamond belt, which is not quite according to the regulations of the
service. A diamond crown shone on his breast and the feather in his
headgear was fixed with a diamond loop.
Behind came Cambridge and York and, on the side nearest to the carriage,
the Duke of Lyonesse.
The Regent saluted the Princess and his brothers followed suit, but it
was evident that their eyes were all upon Patsy, who fearlessly perused
them as if they had been so many statues. As they rode past more than
one of the suite turned his head, but of all the salutations the
embarrassed and most formal was that of Louis Raincy, who rode with my
Lord Headford.
But Patsy was not to be passed over. She waved her hand to him and
called out briskly, "Good-day to you, Louis!"
Upon which he could do no less than turn in his saddle and salute her
again, an action which evidently brought upon him a flood of questions
from his companions. Presently, in answer to an urgent summons, Miss
Aline, sitting with her back to the horses, could see Louis ride forward
and place himself beside the Duke of York. The royal party were
evidently full of curiosity and the Princess Elsa, smiling a little,
said, "I should not wonder if some of these gentlemen find their way to
Hanover Lodge before many days! You are not afraid, Patsy?"
"I am not afraid of any one," cried Patsy, instantly fierce. And she
added with something of gratitude in her voice, "Uncle Julian sent me to
you, and I am sure that he knows what is best for me. I am quite safe
with you!"
"Certainly, dear," said the Princess, "still it would be a great thing
if we could tell these vultures that you are soon to be a Princess
yourself!"
At which Patsy looked startled but did not reply. The Princess Elsa had
never spoken so openly before. She had evidently determined to strike
the hot iron.
"The Prince of Altschloss is a good man, a brave soldier, and would, I
believe, make an excellent husband. He is devotedly in love with you and
would make you the wife of a reigning prince. It would please me
greatly--indeed, I may add that it would please your uncle and your
father still more, if one day when these Dukes called to spy out the
land, they should find Eitel before them, and affianced to you. I do not
press you--think well over it, Patsy. It would be the safest and best
solution for you, and when I leave England (as I must some day) we
should be quite near neighbours."
Patsy was terribly perturbed. She did not care deeply for any man. She
had liked to talk to Louis Raincy--at one time perhaps more than to any
man. But in the background of her mind there had always lurked a warning
of his instability.
Compared to Stair Garland, for instance, he was not to be depended upon.
She had seen him often riding with Mrs. Arlington in the park. He never
left her side in a ball-room, and rumour was busy with their names.
Even the gentle old queen, who in her leisure moments liked (none
better) to ease the tension of her mind with a spice of gossip, had said
to her, "Miss Patsy, what is this I hear of your beau--old De Raincy's
heir--that he is sticking like a burr to the skirts of the Arlington? I
thought there was a marriage forward. From what I am told, little one, I
should advise you to look after your property--that is, if you hold it
of any value."
"Your Majesty," said Patsy, with very proper submission, yet with a
twinkle in her eye, "we have a Scots proverb, 'He that will to Coupar,
maun to Coupar'--which, being interpreted, means that if Louis wants to
go to the Arlington, to the Arlington let him go--and for all I care,
stop there!"
"It is a pity," sighed the Queen, "but these young men--ah, there is no
advising them. I am sorry too, for the grief to his grandfather must be
great. The Raincys have never been warm friends of our dynasty, but that
is all over now--and forgotten on both sides. It would be well if you
could do something for him."
She sat still, evidently expecting some confidence. For there was
nothing in which Queen Charlotte took more interest than in the love
affairs of the young people about her court. Princess Elsa signalled to
Patsy to answer, and so finally she managed to say: "Your Majesty is
very kind, but I have never been engaged to Louis de Raincy. He and I
have been playmates all our lives, and I owe him some kindnesses which I
shall not forget. But there is not and never has been more than that
between us."
The Princess Elsa sat back with a sigh of relief, for she knew that some
one of the circle who heard Patsy, would certainly repeat her words to
the Prince of Altschloss.
So without exactly knowing how or why, it is certain that from this time
forth, the people in the entourage of the Princess Elsa began to
consider Miss Patricia Ferris as virtually betrothed to the hereditary
ruler of Altschloss. He had even made his demand in form from the
Princess, who, according to the Austrian etiquette, represented the
young lady's absent father, and Princess Elsa had given him her entire
permission to press his suit. Still more and better, she frequently took
Miss Aline off and left him free to do it, though in any case Miss Aline
was the last woman in the world to be a spoil-sport, even though her
kind heart might ache for Louis Raincy.
On their next visit to Windsor Queen Charlotte took the Princess aside
and pressed her, in her usual motherly fashion, on the subject.
"Of course," she said, "Prince Eitel is only the younger son of a cadet,
and his way was cleared to the dukedom on the bloody day of Wagram, when
his grand-uncle and three cousins were killed in the same charge. He
came to the throne from round the corner. Still he is prince. He cannot
help that, and I am in favour of people of our class marrying _in_ their
own class--"
"Well, Aunt Charlotte," said the Princess, "I have, as you know,
somewhat grave and personal reasons for not agreeing with you."
The Queen turned her face towards her niece. It was a kindly face, but
infinitely sad and lined with more cares than fall to the lot of most
women of her age. The ingratitude of sons, the death of daughters, the
poor troubled husband, old and witless in the King Charles ground-floor
suite, weeping for his lost eyesight or sitting smiling mirthlessly over
his violin, had marked her. But in spite of all she had kept the cult of
royalty.
Bloods should not mix. The sacred should not seek the profane.
"I know," she said, gently putting her hand out and patting the arm of
the Princess, "Brunschweig was no light trial. But are you sure you
would have been happier with your ambassador?"
"Yes," said the Princess Elsa quickly, "I am certain--if he stamped upon
me, if he killed me, I should be happier."
"You think so," said the Queen, "and I shall not try to make you think
otherwise--"
"Because, Aunt Charlotte, neither you nor any one could do that. Julian
is as faithful to-day as he was twenty years ago--as loyal, as ready to
sacrifice himself. He is the one man to be depended upon."
"Ah, because he has remained your lover. But there is my husband. He is
a good man. We have been happy these forty years--without a word,
without a quarrel, and yet, when his wits are touched, whose name comes
to his lips, whose hand does he feel when I stroke his brow?--not
mine--not his old wife's, but that of a woman dead these many years,
whom he knew before ever he saw me!"
"Ah," said the Princess, "but you were not wedded to a hulk of
corruption, and when the dear King's words are wild, he is not
responsible. You know that as well as I. At any rate there is Julian,
and he and I have done our duty. But I am fond of Eitel. He at least can
marry whom he likes. Patsy is a gentlewoman of unblemished
lineage--older than his own--and if he can win her, at least it will
keep my little Eitel from making the mistake which I made."
The Queen slowly nodded her head, thinking deeply.
"After all," she meditated, "Altschloss, though a respectable house, is
neither Hapsburg nor Hanover, and a new man like Eitel, come in by a
turn of the dice, may please himself--but--well (here she smiled) if you
have said 'Whom Elsa hath blessed let no man put asunder'--I suppose
there is no more to be done!"
"I wish it were as certain as all that," sighed the Princess, "but, in
fact, I am not at all sure about Patsy!"
"What," cried the Queen, surprised out of the pensiveness of her
matronly gravity, "surely you do not mean to say that the girl would
refuse a prince--a reigning prince?"
Elsa shook her head sadly.
"I do not know," she acknowledged, "she watches everything with those
big black eyes of hers, and she smiles. She says that one man or another
is much the same to her, and I can only hope for the best. But as a
matter of fact I have never dared to put the offer of the Prince clearly
before her. It seems better to accustom her gradually to the idea!"
"And the young man himself--your Eitel of Altschloss does not come of a
very patient race--I remember an uncle of his, but no matter--what does
he say? How does he take it? Has he spoken to your little Scot?"
"Frankly, I do not know," said the Princess. "I should judge not, by the
excellence of their comradeship."
"Is it wounded pride because of the young man of her country--that
foolish boy of old De Raincy's? He is always, as I hear, at the flounces
of the Arlington."
"I don't think Patsy cares," said the Princess. "If she showed a
preference, it would make it easier for me. I should begin to understand
her. Little Miss Aline Minto, the chatelaine of Ladykirk, who is with
us, may understand her better, but for me I own myself beaten. I cannot
get a serious answer out of the girl. If Julian were here--"
"And why is not Julian here?" said the Queen. "I understand that in your
position--but, after all, with Brunschweig living as he is doing, I do
not see that you need deprive yourself of his occasional advice."
"Thank you, Aunt Charlotte," said the Princess, stooping and kissing her
aunt's cheek, "I shall remember. But you see, Julian killed the Regent's
friend Lord Wargrove in a duel for helping one of his companions to
carry off Patsy. They charge him also with wounding the Duke of
Lyonesse, but that he did not do. Still, he gets the credit for it with
the Carlton House set, and they have a warrant out against him. Erskine
has seen to that. He cannot come to London, at least not in the
meantime."
"Ah," said the Queen, "so your friend delivered us from that rascal
Wargrove. That was one service to good order, though of course it is
wrong to duel. It is a pity that he could not be here now. If you do not
take care, that little gipsy of yours will slip through your fingers. I
know what happens to young ladies who flout at princes. There is always
another man in the background!"
"Aunt Charlotte, I am quite sure you are wrong about Patsy," said the
Princess.