THE POOR DEAR PRINCE
"You have something to tell me: what is it?" asked Prince Theobald, as
he entered Eveline's drawing-room in answer to a letter from her,
written after her interview with her husband.
"I wish to leave Vienna."
"Ah! this is sudden. And where are you going?"
"My husband is obliged to go to Paris. I am going with him."
The prince looked inquiringly at her. "Have you, then, grown tired of
being under my care?"
"I am afraid I cannot deny it. I am like a slave in a gilded cage. I
am a sort of prisoner, and I want to see life."
"You repent, then, of the promise you made me? Well, then, I release
you; but stay with me."
"I should be too proud to receive benefits from any one to whom I am
ungrateful. Besides, it would be enough for me to know that you are
the master of the palace to take all sense of freedom from me. I don't
want to receive any more favors."
"You wish to become an actress?"
"I do wish that." Eveline laid a stress on the last word.
"From ambition?"
"I cannot say so. If I were ambitious I should be more diligent. I
want my freedom. I don't want my wings clipped. I like to feel I can
use them as I choose."
"That is rather a dangerous experiment for any one so young and pretty
as you are."
"One never falls so low that one cannot rise again."
"Where did you learn that?"
"From what I see every day."
"You are resolved to leave me?"
"I am--I am--I am!" Eveline repeated these words impatiently.
"Then I had better free you from my disagreeable society as soon as
possible," said the prince, taking up his hat. Then, with an ironical
bow, he added, "Forgive me, madam, for the weary hours I must have
imposed upon you."
Eveline, with an impatient stamp of her foot, turned her back upon
him. The prince, when he had got as far as the anteroom, found that he
had forgotten his walking-stick in the drawing-room. It had been a
Christmas present from Eveline, and he would not leave it with her. He
went back to fetch it.
He opened the door gently, and he saw a sight that surprised him.
Eveline still stood with her back to him. She had in her hands the
stick he had come for, which she kissed two or three times, sobbing
bitterly. The prince withdrew gently. Everything was made clear to
him. Eveline quarrelled with him to make the separation less hard for
him. She pretended to be mean and ungrateful in order that he might
forget her more easily. Why did she do this?
The next day the prince found the solution of this riddle. His servant
brought him the key of Eveline's apartments. The lady had left by the
very earliest train. The prince hastened to the palace, and he then
understood why it was that Eveline had left. She had taken nothing;
everything was there. She was a pearl among women. A lock of her hair
was wound round the handle of the walking-stick--her beautiful hair,
which fell from the crown of her head to her feet.
* * * * *
Eveline arrived in Paris before Kaulmann. It had been settled between
them that she should stop at a hotel until he arranged where she
should live.
Some weeks later Felix came and said: "Your house is ready for you.
Will you come and see it?"
Eveline drove with Felix to her new home, which was in the Rue
Sebastopol, one of the best situations in Paris, the first floor. As
she came into the apartment her heart beat. Everything was familiar to
her eyes--the cherry-colored curtains, the carpets, the dove-colored
panels, the black marble fireplace, the oval frames in china, the
window looking into the garden--all as in Vienna. The same pictures,
the same service of silver, the wardrobes, the jewel-cases, even to
the glove which she had left upon the table.
The tears fell from her eyes as she murmured to herself, "The good,
kind prince!"
Felix, however, with perfect _aplomb_, took all the credit to himself,
and asked her, "Have I not arranged your apartment to your taste?"
Eveline made him no answer. Her thoughts were with the good, kind
prince, her best friend. To him she owed her engagement at the
Opera-house in Paris, the wreaths that were thrown to her on her first
appearance, the carriage she drove in every day. All was due to the
paternal interest of Prince Theobald, who, from the day he called her
his daughter, had never ceased to care for her as his child.