FOR A SEASON.
Queens Fain lies upon the inner edge of Lincolnshire, in an undulating
countryside amongst great old trees, where of an evening the sun throws
bars of light across the levels of turf, where homing rooks fly in
scattered lines against a gleaming sky, the air breathes coolness and
peace, and the scene lays that ineffable spell upon the heart of which
only the exile can ever know the full pathetic power.
Round the house tall fences of yew and holly fend off the colder winds.
On an evening in early spring Rallywood and Counsellor strolled under
the shelter of a massive black wall of yew. The daffodils were blowing
about the border of the lake below them, and along the distant hedges
furry catkins were already nodding and floating on the crisp breeze.
'I have found it necessary once or twice before to say that you were a
fool, John,' said Counsellor, looking up at a corner of the great
stone-built mansion, its cold aspect yellowed and mellowed by the
strengthening sunshine.
'Always or on occasion?' Rallywood laughed easily.
'Mostly. You will not leave the Guard. If I were you I should go
to-morrow. Marry the girl as soon as she will let you, and bring her
here. Then sit down and shoot partridges. She will like it. It is better
than Maäsau.'
'It is altogether good to own the old place again,' Rallywood said, 'and
we'll do our duty by the partridges, Major, you and I, I hope,
by-and-by, but to do that and nothing else--not yet!'
'You've stalked bigger game and that has spoilt you,' grumbled the
Major. 'After Count Sagan, partridges pall. Yet it is a pity.'
'I shall bring Valerie here sometimes, of course. I think she'll like
the old place almost as much as I do.'
'More, since it is the birthplace and home of one John Rallywood,' said
Counsellor with a twist of his big moustache. 'You lucky, undeserving
beggar! So Selpdorf's gone. A queer compound.'
'His death redeemed--much,' said Rallywood, shortly.
'Yes,' Counsellor puffed out a great cloud of smoke, 'yes, but we have
no reason to forget the fact that he was very ready to secure himself at
a heavy cost to you.'
'For the sake of Maäsau,' interposed Rallywood.
'Hum--for the sake of Maäsau! And you were an inconvenient personality
also. Well, well, let it pass. But it was touch and go with you, John,
for no one could have foreseen that shaky old Gustave would rise to the
occasion as he did. And what has he done for you after all?'
'He saved my life first, and gave me the Gold Star of Maäsau
afterwards,' said Rallywood, 'an honour which I share with some
monarchs--and Major Counsellor.'
'Dirt cheap, too!' grunted Counsellor. 'I hear that Madame de Sagan sent
you a very neat congratulation.
"A genoux sur la terre
Nous rendons grâces à Dieu
Et nous lui faisons voeux
D'une double prière."
You can take your own meaning out of it,' ended the Major.
'And the people being chiefly malicious will take the wrong one.'
'That is as it may be. But for you I hope a fine morning will follow the
stormy evening. You will grow fat and selfish, John, like many a better
man.'
Rallywood smiled. He was thinking of a certain elderly diplomat who,
rumour said, had been moved out of his usual composure on one occasion
only. It was at the moment when he heard that Captain Rallywood of the
Maäsaun Guard was sentenced to be shot.
'By the way,' resumed Counsellor, 'did I tell you that I saw von Elmur
yesterday at Charing Cross? He said he was starting for Constantinople.
I bade him good-bye, but he corrected me, "Au revoir, my dear Major,"
and kissed the tips of his fingers to me as the train passed. So perhaps
the end is not yet.'
'God bless the present!' said Rallywood.
And while they walk and talk over the past and the future in the
pleasant places of England, the surf is beating round an island off the
Maäsaun coast, upon which a storm-stricken fortification has been
adapted to the use of a certain political prisoner, Count Simon of
Sagan. There he frets, and schemes, and longs through the endless
afternoons. He does not accept his destiny as final, his hopes are
unimpaired, his resolves as strong as in the old keen days at Sagan. He
clings to a blind conviction that Time and the Man must inevitably meet
together, and he lives for that meeting.
There, too, Anthony Unziar serves his country and his sovereign,
relentlessly watchful through the dead monotony of the days. At his own
urgent request he was given charge of the lonely prison, its solitude
appearing to him the one bearable condition of life. He has his work to
do and he does it well, and always between Count Sagan and his dreams
stands the irrevocable figure of the young Maäsaun.
Sometimes Sagan taunts him with his hopeless love, but he only answers
by a look. And each knows that wherever he may turn, he will find the
other standing up against him--the fierce imbruted prisoner with his
royal fearlessness, and his intense and frigid guard.
They are waiting. They have each his dream. Sagan's of empire and
revenge, for he is after all a splendid ruffian, untamable, gallant, a
man who could never be compelled to cry 'Enough' to evil fortune.
Sometimes deep in the night, while the two enemies play their long games
together, Sagan flings down the cards and laughs and speaks of another
game which will find its conclusion in the dim paths of the future. But
Unziar only smiles. If that day should ever come it will find him ready.
But to-day is not to-morrow, and 'God bless the present!' as Rallywood
said.