The sunny brightness of the day was suddenly interrupted by a
thunderstorm, and the evening closed in dark and stormy. Up from the
valley and down from the wooded hills thick grey mists came rolling
along, and violent showers of rain ensued. It was chilly and
disagreeable; and the "corner by the fireside," referred to in the
letter of the Princess, seemed no longer to be a mere phrase, but to
embody a very natural wish, and one which Hildegard took care to
fulfil, by having fires kindled in all the drawing-rooms. There was
quite a party at the mansion this evening. An hour after the arrival of
the Princess, the sisters of Agatha had come; then the forest-ranger,
the Herr _Oberfoerster_, had turned up, without having brought his
ladies, on account of the disagreeable weather, but there had come with
him a young gentleman from the Forests and Woods' Department, Herr von
Busche, who had been absent for a week, and who, as he laughingly
assured them, must try very hard to make up for the many pleasant hours
he had lost. He seemed determined to carry this into practice, for he
was most indefatigable in suggesting new games and new jests, and kept
the four young ladies in constant laughter.
"_Qu'y a-t-il de plus beau_," said the Princess, talking, as before,
now French, now German with equal readiness, "thus to hear, from an
adjoining room, the happy laughter of girls, while one is sitting
snugly by the fire talking to a friend. The past and the present mingle
and separate again, like the red and blue flames among those coals; and
sometimes there flashes between them a green one, which we may take for
a light giving a glimpse of the future--and indeed it vanishes again
very swiftly. How comfortable, how beautiful everything's in your
house, _ma chere_. And how can I thank you enough for admitting me to
the full enjoyment of your charming home?"
She had seized both Hildegard's hands as she spoke, and seized them so
eagerly that the bracelets on her round white arms jingled.
"I have to thank you, Princess ..."
"For goodness' sake, do not call me that any longer. Say Alexandra,
will you not?"
"Will you say Hildegard?"
"_Cela va sans dire_--Hildegard--a beautiful name--beautiful like her
whose it is! What were we talking about? The future, yes, to be sure.
Well, there is a glorious future in store for you in your lovely
daughter."
"Do you like Erna?"
"Like her? _Mon Dieu!_ only a mother's modesty can ask this. She is
simply divine. Not that I never saw more beautiful girls--you see I am
quite frank--but there is something in her whole bearing, the way in
which she walks or stands, every movement, every gesture, her
expression, her smile, her gravity even, there is a grace and a charm
about it all which completely bewitch me, woman though I am. How may
men feel? Poor men! Poor broken hearts, I pity you!"
"She has scarcely had the chance yet of breaking hearts," replied
Hildegard with a smile; "she has only just left school."
"But even very young ladies, I am told, manage sometimes to do it,"
said the Princess. "I am afraid I broke one or two myself whilst I was
at a boarding-school, and it was a strict one, too! But to be serious,
have you already chosen for your fair child?"
"Our girls in Germany are wont to claim the right of choice for
themselves," replied Hildegard, casting a stolen glance at Bertram,
who, walking up and down the saloon with Otto, happened just at that
moment to be inconveniently near.
"A bad German peculiarity," said the Princess. "If a girl who does not
know the world, does not know men--except her father, of whom she is
afraid, and her brothers, whom she thinks ridiculous--is allowed to
choose a husband according to the confused illusions of her silly
little head--you may bet a hundred to one that the result will be
either a _betise_ or a _malheur_--which, according to the saying of
the witty Frenchman, are, however, identical terms."
"That is quite my idea, dear--Alexandra," said Hildegard, bending her
head with a courteous smile to her new-found friend; "quite my idea!"
"Clever women understand each other _a demi mot_," replied Alexandra.
"But there are exceptions, and your Erna is such an exception. She
would never dream of losing her heart to a man simply because he stands
six feet, and knows how to brush himself up and to cut a figure,
however confused things may look beneath the smoothly-parted hair,
however rotten a heart may beat behind the dainty cambric shirt-front."
Hildegard did not dare to stir; she had noticed that during the last
few words of the Princess the Baron had been standing within a couple
of steps from them, evidently with the intention of joining them. But
as neither lady seemed to see him, or wish to see him, he examined a
vase which stood upon a marble table near, and turned on his heel
again. Hildegard breathed more freely.
"You may be quite assured," said Alexandra, "I spoke in French on
purpose when I saw him coming. I had made sure that he speaks it very
badly, and understands it even worse, which, by the by, is rather
curious in a cavalier who is anxious to obtain a Court appointment."
Hildegard felt very uneasy, although it was of course out of the
question that the Princess should have meant the Baron when she spoke
of a "man standing six feet."
"You know," she said with some little hesitation, "that the Baron is
very intimate at Court?"
"I was at Court last night," replied Alexandra, "to tea. We Russians
are in very good odour at your Court, you know; and, moreover, I had
made the acquaintance of their Highnesses during their last visit to
St. Petersburg. Princess Amelia is specially gracious to me, and she is
the one who interests herself in the Baron."
"To be sure," Hildegard assented eagerly. "Pray, tell me more, it has
much interest for me."
"I have not much to tell. I mentioned in the course of general
conversation that I intended to pay you a visit to-day. This led to
Fraeulein von Aschhof and the Baron being mentioned as your guests. For
that curious lady every one seemed to have a smile, nothing more,
which, by the by, I can quite understand. About the Baron--well, _chere
amie_, since you are interested in the young man, I must be indiscreet
enough to tell you of a very confidential conversation I had afterwards
in a window recess about him with that dear old man, Count Dirnitz, the
Court-Marshal. He told me that the opinions regarding the Baron were at
least much divided at Court. The Grand Duke himself, he said, in
particular, could not overcome a certain antipathy to him, and that was
the reason why his appointment as one of the chamberlains, although
duly made out, still awaited the Grand Duke's signature. The Count said
that he himself, although he had been an intimate friend of the Baron's
father, did not know what to advise. Just then the Grand Duke came up
to us; he had heard the last words of Count Dirnitz, and said
laughingly: 'That, my good Count, happens pretty often to you; but may
I ask what it is about?' And when Dirnitz, who, I suppose, had no
option, had told him, he said: 'Well, in this case, I must admit I am
perplexed myself; I should so much like to oblige Princess Amelia, and
yet ...' Then the Grand Duke suddenly turned to me and said: '_A
propos_, Princess Volinzov, as you are going to Rinstedt to-morrow, you
might have a good look at our man. I will gladly confide the matter to
your unprejudiced decision. If you think him suitable for us, _eh
bien_, I'll risk it.' ... What a truly charming ceiling this is! Quite
a work of art."
Princess Alexandra was leaning back in her arm-chair examining through
her double eye-glass the painted ceiling.
"I see," she said, "a fine imitation of that Guercino in the Villa
Ludovisi. It is superb, truly superb!"
Hildegard was in a state of painful excitement. The young Princess had,
anyhow, impressed her greatly; now this unexpected, but of course
perfectly natural, intimacy at Court, and specially such a mission,
possibly the one solitary motive of the whole visit, and upon which the
Baron's fate depended. She felt almost dizzy, and it cost her a
considerable struggle to be able to say with some calmness--
"I beg your pardon, my dear Alexandra, but you have forgotten the main
thing."
"The main thing! What main thing?
"What your unprejudiced opinion of the Baron now is."
"To be sure!"
She looked again at Hildegard. There was an odd smile on her lips now.
"If my opinion were only unprejudiced. But how can that be when the
friends of our friends are our own, or ought to be?"
"You shall not escape thus," said Hildegard, whose sinking courage the
fair visitor's smile had revived a little.
"I do not mean to escape," replied the Princess; "only I do not quite
like to confess a silly trick to you which my memory, which is
generally very fair as far as physiognomies are concerned, is playing
me in this case. But it is simply impossible to free one's self
altogether from the influence which a marked personal likeness
exercises; and when I first saw the Baron, there came to me the most
disagreeable reminiscence of an episode of the last journey I made with
my lamented mother to Italy. However, as I ought at once to state,
there is no harm in the matter, for the Baron, whom I asked, says he
was not in Monaco that year."
"In Monaco?" cried Hildegard.
"Alas, my good mamma, the Countess Lassounska, you must know, was a
great votary of the green cloth. Well, she could afford to indulge a
passion which, among the ladies of the Russian aristocracy, not seldom
survives or reappears, when they have had to bury all other passions.
And in all others poor mamma had been so very unfortunate; but in this
she was singularly lucky. Thus, one night--it was in autumn '72--she
died next spring, four weeks after my marriage with the Prince, who had
at that time followed us to Monaco, and to whom I had just, being then
sixteen years of age, become engaged--good Lord, and he has been dead
these two years! How time passes! But what was I going to say? Oh yes;
mamma had won an immense sum one night, so much that at last she was
barely paying any attention to what she was staking, and when she
noticed a friend, she turned round to talk to him, without leaving her
chair, until the gentleman himself called her attention to the
accumulating gains, and asked if she would not withdraw them. But she
said there was no hurry, and went on chattering, to the amazement of
her neighbours and the terror of the bank, for they kept and kept
losing on the red. At last mamma did turn round again to the table, her
own curiosity roused by the divers exclamations of the bystanders; but
just at that moment a gentleman, who had been sitting by her side all
night, was pocketing the whole huge heap of banknotes and rouleaux of
gold. Mamma claimed her property, of course; the gentleman assured her
she was mistaken. Mamma knew that this was not the case, but a scene in
a gambling-room, don't you know, dear, _c'est une horreur_ for a lady
with aristocratic nerves like poor mamma, the friend she had been
conversing with wanted to interfere, so did a number of the bystanders,
and play had to be suspended. Mamma said that if the gentleman asserted
that the money was his, she would waive her claim; rose, took her
friend's arm, and left the room. Here the matter ended, and nothing
further followed, for the 'gentleman' elected to leave that very night
for Nice. There, they say, he speedily got rid of his illgotten gains.
At least, when we arrived there four weeks later, they pointed out a
gentleman in the play saloon to us who had recently lost fabulous sums.
On that occasion I saw him for the first time--I was not generally
allowed to enter the gambling-rooms--and for the last time, for he had
no sooner caught sight of our party, than he rose from the table and
vanished from the room, and I think from Nice; anyhow, he never,
appeared again during the rest of our sojourn. Mamma had given strict
orders not to take any notice; whatever of the adventurer."
"And this--adventurer, had a distant likeness to the Baron?"
"A distant likeness? No, dear, a most distinct one. That's the
misfortune!"
Alexandra was leaning back again in the arm-chair and toying with her
rings. Hildegard was staring gloomily in front of her. The execution of
her long-cherished, plan, the fulfilment of her eager desire, was now
threatened by an obstacle which seemed much worse than any previous
one; and she was already almost reduced to despair by the others that
she had to struggle against.
"A misfortune, indeed!" she said; "a great misfortune for our friend,
who, will now have to suffer so bitterly for an accident he is
guiltless of."
"How suffer, dear?"
"Were you not saying yourself a short while ago that this wretched
likeness was making it impossible for you to arrive at an unprejudiced
opinion about the Baron? Well, it matters everything to him, of course,
that your opinion should not only not be prejudiced but favourable.
And--to confess the truth--to me, to us, it matters much, very much."
Alexandra drew herself up, the old odd smile was hovering about her
lips again.
"Does it really matter so much to you?" she said. "Do I understand you
correctly?"
"Let us assume that you do," replied Hildegard, trying as she spoke to
imitate Alexandra's smile.
"Then I can only answer: _Je n'en vois pas la necessite._"
"Of what?"
"That this particular man should marry Erna. Where is the necessity? If
she were in love with him, the matter would have to be discussed at
least. Now it is not worth while. A girl like your Erna--proud,
self-willed, large-hearted--will never be in love with this Baron,
never! It is impossible, it is contrary to nature--I mean contrary to
the nature of a gifted heart, for there are gifted hearts, just as
there are gifted heads. One can, nay, one must, have absolute
confidence in both, even supposing that, from very excess of feelings
or thoughts, they seem not to have confidence in themselves. One must
let them have their way, they cannot err long."
"But they can err for all that," replied Hildegard bitterly. "Would
you not call it an error, would you think it to be in accord with the
nature of that gifted heart you speak of, if the girl in question were
to take a special interest in--out with it, were to love--a man who,
according to years, might be her father, a man of fifty?"
The question seemed to come upon Princess Alexandra as a great
surprise. She had almost risen from her chair, and was staring fixedly
at Hildegard with a burning blush on her cheek. But the very next
moment mien and colour had resumed their former state, and nestling
even more snugly in the recesses of the deep arm-chair, she said
slowly--
"This question it is impossible to answer with an unconditional Yes or
No. So much would depend upon the individual. Let us speak of the girl
first. You are of coarse referring to ..."
"To Erna."
The eyes of the Princess were all but closed now; something seemed to
flash from beneath the long eyelids.
"Of course," she replied very slowly. "And ... he?"
Hildegard bent her eyes in the direction of the opposite side of the
drawing-room, where Bertram was conversing with the forest-ranger.
"Ah!" was all the Princess said, putting up her double eyeglass and
surveying Bertram curiously. Then, after a long pause--
"Are you sure?"
"Quite."
"It is so easy to make a mistake in these things."
"There is no chance of a mistake here."
"How so?"
Hildegard hesitated before she replied. But her heart was too full. The
pain--repressed with difficulty--caused her by the merciless
condemnation of the Baron, her displeasure in reference to Bertram, her
anger against Erna--all these emotions were clamouring for expression,
although her pride bade her desist. She bent over the Princess and
whispered hurriedly--
"You will not condemn a mother even if, in her despair, she has
recourse to desperate remedies, or, at least, allows things to be done
on which she could never voluntarily determine. I was positively free
from the faintest suspicion, but Lydia--Fraeulein von Aschhof--who had
reasons of her own for exercising minute control over the gentleman's
demeanour, felt sure she had found it out. Indeed, she communicated to
me observations she had made--words she had heard, looks she had
intercepted--I thought the charge monstrous, incredible, abominable;
but my confidence was shaken--I saw with new eyes, heard with new
ears--saw and heard what caused me to shudder. And yet I would
certainly have shrunk much longer from accepting a conviction which
every day and every hour was urging upon me anew; but two days ago
Fraeulein von Aschhof brought me a letter which my daughter had written
to her cousin Agatha, written but not sent--why, I know not. Nor do I
know how Lydia--Fraeulein Von Aschhof--got hold of the letter. I
believe ..."
"Go on, go on!" said Alexandra, as Hildegard, embarrassed, was pausing.
"That does not matter at all. The chief thing is that you have seen the
letter. And what did the letter say? That she loved this man?"
"Not in these words, but in words which it were impossible to interpret
differently."
"Have you the letter still?"
"No, I am sorry to say. Lydia has ..."
"Has replaced it where she found it; of course. It's a pity, though. It
might be possible to imagine another interpretation. However, let us
assume that it is so. What have you resolved?"
"To die rather than give my consent--a thousand times rather!"
Their eyes met, and they looked; steadily at each other for a few
moments. Then the Princess nodded, and said--
"I see you are in earnest. I can quite understand it; nay, more, I will
help you. You will not have to die. I promise my help. Will you reject
it?"
She had seized Hildegard's hand.
"I shall be eternally grateful to you," said Hildegard; "but ..."
"No 'but!' I am one of these people who always do what they undertake.
You shall be content with me."
"I fear, I fear it is too late."
"We shall see about that. Now, in the first instance, bring me the man,
and leave me alone with him. One more condition: you are never to ask
me what means I have employed. Will you promise?"
"Anything you wish, my kind, good friend!"
She would have pressed the little ringed hands, (which she still held
clasped) to her lips, but the Princess prevented it by a swift
movement, saying as she did so--
"For goodness sake, do not be demonstrative! People are not to see what
intimate friends we have become!"
Hildegard had risen to fetch Bertram. Alexandra was again examining,
with the help of her double eyeglass, the painted ceiling above; but
her thoughts were not with Apollo and the nymphs.
"So now we are going to see Mr. Right! To be sure, the other one was
scarcely worth the trouble. But this one it will not be so easy to
subdue. Poor Kurt--I could take such sweet revenge here! But no, no! I
have vowed to myself, by the love wherewith I loved you, wherewith I
love you still--as a brother--that I would bring you back your loved
one though I should have to fetch her out of Inferno. I will keep my
vow. I will be able to look with a clear conscience into your beautiful
eyes to-morrow.... Ah, Mr. Bertram! Now I call this very nice of you. I
was already beginning to feel offended. I am not accustomed to be
neglected by clever people. You must try to atone for it now. Pray, sit
down!"