"Poor Charles Felters was quite thunderstruck at the reception
I gave him. His gay partner of last evening's dance had changed
into a veritable fury. I told him plainly I didn't care a jot for
him. He hesitated, he stammered, and couldn't make up his mind to
go. I was expecting Lord William every moment to take leave of me,
and I would not have them meet. In my confusion my eyes rested on a
'trophy of arms' with which my father had decorated one side of the
room. Scarcely knowing what I was about, I seized a foil, handed it
to my would-be lover, and taking another myself, I took up my position
on guard, exclaiming--
"'The man who wins my love shall win it with the sword.'
"The miserable ninny never even observed that the foils were buttoned,
but, throwing down his, rushed out of the room in the greatest alarm."
"I have heard of this feat of arms, Francis," I said, laughing;
"and, moreover, that Felters is still running away from you."
"'Voila comme on ecrit l'histoire.' I have myself heard he made a
voyage round the world to escape from me; but the truth is he only
made a tour up the Rhine, fell in with the daughter of a clergyman,
and married her. She has made him a happy man, and he is now the
father of a family; nevertheless, all his relations bear me the most
intense hatred, and lose no opportunity of serving me a malicious
turn. I still held my foil in my hand when Lord William entered the
room. His look was sufficient to show me his disapprobation.
"'If your father had taken my advice, Francis,' he said, 'he would
have waited some little time before informing you of the intentions of
Felters; still there was no reason for your acting in this way. For
shame to treat a poor fellow, who perhaps never had a foil in his
hand before, in such a manner. But, well! I have always hesitated
about putting you to the test; permit me now, however, to take the
place of the miserable fugitive.'
"And without waiting for an answer he picked up Felters' foil,
and cried--
"'En garde!'
"I literally did not know what I was doing. I would not decline
his challenge, and I determined to show him that he was not fencing
with an inexperienced girl. He handled his foil with a lightness and
firmness of hand I had little expected to find in a man of letters,
confining himself, however, to parrying my attacks only; and yet this
he did so skilfully that I was unable to touch him. I exhausted myself
in my desperate efforts, but I would not ask for quarter.
"'You see such exercise requires more than the arm of a woman,'
he said coolly.
"My wild despair and anger seemed to give me strength, and falling
in upon him I broke my foil upon his breast. He, with a smile, had
neglected to parry this attack, and I saw a thin stream of blood
trickle down his shirt-front. Now I was overwhelmed with sorrow and
repentance. Sir John and grandfather immediately came upon the scene.
"'It is nothing, gentlemen,' he said to them, 'only a scratch;
a little satisfaction which I owed to Miss Francis, and which will
perhaps cure her of her taste for such unladylike weapons.'
"'I will never, never more touch them,' I cried in terror when I saw
his pocket-handkerchief, which he had applied to the wound, saturated
with blood.
"And I have kept my word, though it has not prevented my obtaining
a wide reputation as a duellist. Neither Charles Felters nor the
servant of Lord William could hold their tongues, though the latter
had been forbidden by his master to say a word on the subject. I was
reminded very unpleasantly, next time I appeared in the town, that
the affair had become public property. Lord William would not allow us
to send for a surgeon, but had the wound dressed by his own servant;
and, fortunately, it turned out to be less dangerous than I feared
at first. I sought my own room, and hid myself there with all the
remorse of a Cain. I resolved to throw myself at his feet and beg his
pardon. But the reaction to my excited state of feelings had now set
in, and I fell exhausted on a sofa, where I slept for several hours
a feverish kind of sleep. When I awoke Lord William was gone. After
this I was seriously ill; and on my recovery my grandfather took me
as soon as possible to the Werve for the fresh country air. Sir John
told me, when I was quite well, that Lord William had certainly given
proof of his good-nature to allow me to touch him; for while at Eton
he had been considered one of the best fencers in the school, and
just before quitting England he had fought a duel with an officer in
the Horse Guards, and wounded him in a manner that report said was
likely to be fatal.
"My answer to this was that I had never suspected Lord William of
being a duellist.
"'That he never was; but in this instance his honour was at stake. He
could not leave the insult of this captain unpunished. Perhaps,
however, he would have acted more justly if he had put his wife
to death; and though an English jury would certainly have brought
him in guilty of murder, yet, considering the great provocation he
had received, public opinion would have sympathized with him in the
highest degree. Now he is reconciled to her again, at least in outward
appearance; but he has written to me that he is going to make a tour
all over the world.'"
"And you have never since heard of this 'My lord?'" I asked Francis,
to whose story I had listened with as much sorrow as attention.
"Never; and I don't even know his family name to this day. Changes now
followed in rapid succession. My father died suddenly; my grandfather
was promoted in rank, and we removed to Zutphen, where I proposed
to begin a new life. But though we break with our antecedents, it is
impossible to sponge out the past. However, more of this hereafter. I
must attend to the other gentlemen, otherwise I shall be accused of
neglecting my duties. I will tell you more of this history at another
time if it interests you; for it is a relief to me to confide it to
a friend. Only never begin the subject yourself, as there are moments
when I cannot bear to think of it."
"I promise you this, Francis," I replied, pressing her hand.
It would be impossible for me to recount all the feelings which passed
through my mind in listening to Francis's trials. I will not weary you,
dear William, for I acknowledge I felt sad and irritable. And yet I
tried to think these were her "campaign years," as she calls them,
though it was evident her heart had suffered long before she attained
her twenty-fifth birthday. If she had told me of deception, so common
in the world, of an engagement broken off, of a misplaced affection,
such things would not have troubled my peace of mind. What affected
me was to think this Englishman had won the place in her affections
which I wished to be the first to occupy--that place which permits
a man to inspire a woman with confidence, and exercise over her an
influence authoritative and beneficial. Time had done much to cool
her love for him, but she had not forgotten him; and it was certainly
a devotion to his memory which rendered her so indifferent to the
merits of other men. I wondered if she had told me all this history
in order to make me comprehend the improbability of my being able
to replace her ideal. Had she not told me on the heath, on our first
meeting, that if she suspected I came to demand her hand in marriage,
she would leave me there and then? I felt myself diminishing in her
estimation. And there was a portrait of William III. hanging over
the mantelpiece which seemed to say to me, ironically, "Too late,
too late!"
Yet again I asked myself whether I was not growing jealous of a vain
shadow. Eight years had passed since these events. She was no longer a
little girl, who could imagine she saw a Romeo in her mentor who was a
long way on the wrong side of forty. Who could say that the comparison,
which she could not fail to make now, would be to my disadvantage?
I determined not to remain in this perplexity. At the risk of
committing an imprudence, I made up my mind to ask her whether she
regarded the loss of her Lord William as irreparable. It was necessary
for me to know what chance of success was left me.
This night I slept little, for I was rolling over in my mind all
sorts of extravagant declarations which I intended to make to my
cousin next day. This, however, was the day preceding the General's
birthday, and Francis was fully occupied with the Captain in making
all sorts of preparations; so that during the whole day I never once
could find a suitable moment to begin the subject. The master of the
village school would bring up to the Castle his best pupils to recite
verses made for the occasion; the clergyman and the notables would
also come to offer their congratulations.
Francis sent me to the post-office to fetch a registered letter for
her. [4] General von Zwenken was in a bad humour because Rolf had no
time to amuse him, and finding myself rather in the way I went off
to my room to write.
Here in the afternoon I found on my table a little Russian leather
case, on which my initials had been embroidered above the word
Souvenir. Inside I found a bank-note equivalent to the sum Francis had
borrowed of me; on the envelope which inclosed it she had written,
in a bold hand, the word Merci, her name, and the date. The case
itself was not new. Poor dear girl! she must have sat up half the
night to work my initials in silk, as a surprise. I now felt more
than ever how dear she was become to me, and I promised myself not
to temporize any longer. Then the idea occurred to me: If I can get
her permission, I will ask her hand of the General to-morrow after
I have congratulated him on his birthday.
This idea threw me into a transport of joy. I got up from my chair
with the intention of seeking my cousin and bringing matters to a
crisis at any risk. My hand was already on the handle of the door,
when I thought I heard a tap at the window. Immediately a hoarse
voice called several times--
"Francis! Francis!"
Astonished, and wishing to know who this could be, I stood
motionless. The voice cried again--
"Francis, if you don't open the window I will break the sash all
to pieces."