For a little while Alexandra and Bertram sat silently side by side;
then Alexandra said--
"We are at one in the conviction that it will be in the interest of our
_proteges_ if we vanish from the scene?"
"Absolutely," replied Bertram. "I suffer acutely already, and recognise
the outrage that man is guilty of who would play Providence for
others."
"In that case I should have been guilty too," said Alexandra, "but I am
by no means dissatisfied with myself; on the contrary, I believe it is
good that things have happened thus; it was necessary. And when you
know all, you will admit that I am right. You must know it, for the
sake of the future, which will still claim much from us. Listen in
patience.
"I have rigidly adhered to your advice. I announced my departure for
noon to-day; my maid was despatched with the luggage a little before
ten; our host insisted upon escorting me in person to the town. Then I
went to see Erna. We had a memorable conversation which I cannot
reproduce to you in all its details, but the result was that Erna no
longer doubted the sincerity of my desire for her happiness; but her
pride revolted against receiving this happiness at my hands, or, if
that be saying too much, she had the painful impression that her
happiness could only be brought about at the cost of my own, in other
words, that I was still in love with Kurt, and that my marriage to Herr
von Waldor, which I announced to her as impending, was an act of
resignation, if not of despair. Of course she did not give utterance to
all this, nor did she even hint at it; these things one simply feels.
And there was another thing that came between her and the prospect
of calm happiness by Kurt's side. Dear friend, do not deny it any
longer--not to me, even if to all the world besides--you are in love
with Erna! Thank you for this pressure of the hand. It does not reveal
a secret to me, and yet I thank you for it with all my heart. You owed
me this satisfaction, as I have told you Claudine's story; and even as
Claudine's story is buried in your bosom, so the story of a noble human
heart shall be buried in mine."
Alexandra withdrew her hand with a cordial pressure from Bertram's.
They were both too much moved to be able to speak for some time. At
last Bertram said--
"And does Erna believe me to be in love with her, after all I have done
to shake her conviction?"
"I should not assert that her faith has not been shaken," Alexandra
replied, "but she was still under the sway of that intuitive feeling
which guides us women wellnigh always aright, and which in her case
betrayed itself in a hundred turns, every one of which had for its
object your future welfare and happiness. And then, my friend, you did
at last the very opposite of what you should have done to calm Erna,
and to brighten her future. You may thank Heaven that Erna does not
divine the real motive which influenced you; that between the two duels
she sees a sort of mechanical connection of time and place, if I may
say so, and not the real one. But for all that, if you had fallen in
this duel, Erna would never have consented to an alliance with Kurt,
and she would never in her heart have forgiven him for not being the
first on the ground. Whether it was within the limits of possibility to
have forestalled you, the woman's heart does not stop to inquire. The
loved one must be not only the best and noblest and bravest of men, but
the cleverest too; how he sets about it is his own concern! Dozens of
duels have been fought in my immediate neighbourhood, and, I am sorry
to say, I have been the direct cause more than once, so I had no
difficulty in understanding the whole business. That old chatterbox,
the ranger, was relating the circumstances to us at breakfast; I then
sent for your servant, and, examining him, found out that you had held
a long conversation with Kurt, which had been preceded by negotiations
between Kurt and Herr von Busche; and last of all came that
crackbrained person Fraeulein von Aschhof, and confessed her horribly
indiscreet statement to the Baron, and your remark, my friend, that you
would try to settle the matter. I saw it all as clearly as though it
had been acted before me. Then I knew, too, what I should have to do.
Again I sought Erna, and told her that your life and Kurt's honour were
both at stake; of course I took care to represent matters in such a way
that the idea could not well occur to her of your having wished to
sacrifice yourself directly for Kurt. She spurned with contumely the
idea that Kurt had only pretended not to hear the Baron's insulting
remarks; no need for me to tell her, she said, that Kurt must be
instantly informed of it. I am convinced that she felt that her fate
was about to be decided, that now once more she became fully and
thoroughly conscious of her love for Kurt. The great, strong, energetic
nature of the glorious girl shone forth in mighty radiance. I could
have knelt at her feet and worshipped her! I may say that I forgot
completely my own self, forgot that he for whom this passion was
flaming heaven-high had been the object of my own mad love. I even
concealed what I knew--that I had distinctly recognised the Baron,
when I saw him at the card-table last night, as the man who also,
at a card-table, had cheated my mother out of a hundred thousand
francs--that the Baron was not a fit man for an officer and a gentleman
to fight. I dreaded lest that objection should destroy what I saw
coming. How we hurried all over the ground in search of Kurt; how we
came upon his regiment when he had just ridden off; how a surgeon's
assistant who had been sent back to fetch some forgotten bandages or
instruments helped us to find his track; how we followed up that track
at the utmost speed of which our horses were capable; how we reached
the goal just in time to see Kurt fall, whilst his miserable opponent
flung the pistol to the ground and fled when he beheld me--all this you
know, or may easily picture for yourself. But I picture to myself how
Erna will now be leading her love to her parental abode, to keep and to
hold him there for her very own;--for what is more, what becomes more a
woman's very own than the man whom she loves, if she has to tend him
and wrestle with death for his possession;--and I picture to myself how
now only she recognises with a shudder what a lordly treasure she had
all but forfeited through exaggerated pride and obstinacy; and I think
of, all the wealth of love and bliss which is in store for them both!
And then I look at us both, at us who have opened for them the gates of
their paradise driving away into darkness like two exiles; and I ask
you, friend, have we really need to be ashamed of the part which we
have played? Or, rather, are we not fully and fairly entitled to
rejoice in our success and to be proud of it? Yes, friend, we must be
glad, we must be proud. Where else shall we, who are sick unto death,
gain the strength to get well again? For we must not, dare not die; but
we must live and be happy, to prove to those two that they may be happy
on our account. I, my friend, mean to live on; I will and shall
recover. I shall appear at Court to-night, and be beautiful and witty
if I can, or at least serene and in good-humour. And not to-day alone,
but to-morrow too, and every day, and most so by Waldor's side, for he
very surely does not marry the Princess Alexandra for the sake of
getting a moody, melancholy wife. Some secret corner somewhere will
surely be found where now and again one may weep in peace, and let the
grievous wound bleed. And you, dear friend? What shall you do? How will
you set about recovering? I should not have an hour's quiet if I had to
think you could not. Give me your word that you will recover, give me
your hand on it."
Bertram's answer did not come at once. He raised his eyes and saw the
beacon-fees blazing on the mountain tops and far away in the plains. He
heard the calls of the patrols, the neighing of many horses, the talk
and laughter of the men round the bivouac-fires, the dull thud of
marching columns. It was but a mimic warfare, but it spoke to him of a
true and earnest fight in which he was called upon to take his place in
the ranks as a good and true soldier, to do his duty as long as
strength was granted him--it might be for years, or for a few days
only. And he held out his hand to Alexandra, and said--
"Whether I shall recover, I know not. But I swear to you that I will
try!"
* * * * *