AFTER THE CURTAIN WENT DOWN
They were alone together. Adalbert and Count von Breitstein had stolen
from the room, and had ceased to exist for Leopold and Virginia.
"I'll tell you now, why I'm here, and everything else," she was
saying; but the Emperor stopped her.
"Ever since I came to myself, I wanted no explanation," he said. "I
wanted only you. That is all I want now. I am the happiest man in the
universe. Why should I ask how I came by my happiness? Virginia!
Virginia! It's a more beautiful name even than Helen."
"But listen," she pleaded. "There are some things--just a few
things--that I long to tell you. Please let me. Last night I wished to
go into a convent. Oh, it was because I loved you so much, I wanted
you to seem perfect, as my hero of romance, just as you were already
perfect as an Emperor. To think that I should have been far away, out
of Rhaetia, by this time, if Miss Portman hadn't been ill. Dear Miss
Portman! Maybe if we'd gone, nothing would ever have come right. Who
can say?
"You know, my brother came to our hotel this afternoon. When his card
arrived, we couldn't tell whether he knew our secret or not; but when
we had let him come up, we had only to see his face of surprise! He
was angry, too, as well as surprised, for he blurted out that there
were all sorts of horrid suspicions against us, and mother explained
everything to him before I could have stopped her, even if I would;
how I had not wanted to accept you unless you could learn to love me
for myself, and then--how I had been disappointed. No, don't speak;
that's all over now. You've more than atoned, a thousand times more.
"Dal explained things, too, then--very different things; about a
plan of the Chancellor's to disgust you with me, and how he--Dal--had
played into the Chancellor's hands, because, you see, he thought he
was acting wisely for his neglected sister's sake, and because he had
really supposed an actress he knows was masquerading as Miss
Mowbray. Very imprudently he'd told her that some day there might
be--something between you and his sister. She knew quite well, too,
that the real Mowbrays were our cousins; so you see, as she and he
have quarreled it might have been an easy and clever way for an
unscrupulous woman to take revenge. Dal would have gone, and perhaps
have said dreadful things to the Chancellor, who was waiting
down-stairs for news, but I begged him not. From being the saddest
girl in the world, I'd suddenly become the happiest, for the
Chancellor had told Dal, and Dal had told me, that you had _followed
Helen Mowbray to ask her to be the Empress_. That changed everything,
for then I knew you really loved her; but--just to punish you for what
I suffered through you last night, I longed to put you to one more
test. I said, 'Let the Chancellor carry out his plot. Let me go with
you to your hunting lodge.' At first Dal wouldn't consent, but when I
begged him, he did,--for generally I can get my way with people, I
warn you.
[Illustration: "_We shall never be old, for we love each other," said
the Emperor_]
"That's all, except that I hadn't realized how severe the test would
be, until you came in and I saw the look in your eyes. It was a dagger
of ice in my heart. I prayed Heaven to make you believe in me, without
a word, oh, _how_ I prayed through all that dreadful moment, and
how I looked at you, saying with my eyes, 'I love you; I am true.' If
you had failed me then, it would have killed me, but--"
"There could be no but," the Emperor broke in. "To doubt is not to
love. When a man loves, he knows. Even out of darkness, a light comes
and tells him."
"Then you forgive me--for to-night, and for everything, from the
beginning?"
"Forgive you?"
"And if I'd been different, more like other girls content with a
conventional affection, you wouldn't have loved me more?"
He took her in his arms and held her as if he would never let her go.
"If you had been different, I wouldn't have loved you at all," he
said. "But if _things_ had been different, I couldn't have helped
loving you, just the same. I should have been fated to fall in love
with Princess Virginia of Baumenburg-Drippe at first sight, exactly I
as fell in love with Helen Mowbray--"
"Ah, but at best you'd have fallen in love with Virginia because it
was your duty; and you fell in love with Helen Mowbray because it was
your duty not to. Which makes it so much nicer."
"It was no question of duty, but of destiny," said the Emperor. "The
stars ordained that I should love you."
"Then I wish--" and Virginia laughed happily, as she could afford to
laugh now--"that the stars had told me, last summer. It would have
saved me a great deal of trouble. And yet I don't know," she added
thoughtfully, "it's been a wonderful adventure. We shall often talk of
it when we're old."
"We shall never be old, for we love each other," said the Emperor.
THE END
By C. N. & A. M. Williamson
LADY BETTY ACROSS THE WATER
The discovery of America by one of the most engaging, appealing and
altogether delicious little English maids that ever "crossed the
water." Everybody will be delighted to learn precisely how Lady Betty
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the manner of its revealing is buoyant and gracious."
_Chicago News._
Six illustrations in colors by Orson Lowell. $1.50
By C. N. & A. M. Williamson
MY FRIEND THE CHAUFFEUR
An automobile romance that rushes all the way through on the third
speed. From the start in the Riviera to the finish among the mountains
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open road, delightful descriptions of scenery in Italy and Dalmatia,
and a triple love story deliciously blending sentiment and comedy.
"It is airy, jolly, refreshing, wholesome, full of
adventure, movement, fun and good spirits, sunshine and
fresh air." _N. Y. Mail._
Illustrated by Lowenheim. $1.50
By C. N. & A. M. Williamson
ROSEMARY
Fascinating beyond words is this exquisitely dainty tale, dealing with
the finer affections of a child and her mother, of a young man true to
a first love. The scene is laid at Monte Carlo in the beautiful green
Christmas-time. With the fantastic idea implanted by her nurse that on
Christmas eve the fairies granted to one her dearest wish, little
Rosemary, who lost her father at birth, sallies forth, stops a young
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there is a heart-warming reunion and a joyful celebration.
"An exquisite bit of literary handicraft. The motive of the
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chords touched in the heart." _Buffalo Courier._
Superbly Illustrated from drawings by Hatherell and with border
decorations. $1.50
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors;
otherwise, every effort has been made to remain true to the author's
words and intent.