An American Opinion of European Morals
"I tell you fellows for the last time," Lord Vernon was saying, "that we
can't keep this thing up any longer. Miss Rushford has served notice on
me that she's going to tell, and dashed if I blame her. Besides, there's
the note."
"The note can't hurt us--I've extracted its sting. As for Miss Rushford,
I might see her again," suggested Collins, who had been pacing nervously
up and down the room.
"See her? Nonsense! You'll do nothing of the sort! What right have we to
bother her? She'd probably send you about your business, anyway. She's
got a heart--something that diplomats know nothing about and never take
into account."
"We didn't take it into account in your case, that's true!" retorted
Collins, with covert irony.
"No, you didn't!" said the other, wheeling short around upon him. "Nor
did I take into account what a damned scoundrelly thing it was I was
persuaded into undertaking. I tell you, some of us will have to get down
and eat dirt before this thing is over!"
"Pshaw!" and Collins smiled loftily. "Before a petty German princeling?"
Vernon turned red with anger at the words, but as he opened his mouth to
reply, there came a sharp knock at the door.
"Come in!" he shouted, before the others could draw breath. "No, I'm not
going to hide!" he added, in answer to Collins's gesture. "That farce is
finished!"
The door opened and Monsieur Pelletan appeared on the threshold.
"Monsieur le Prince de Markeld!" he announced, and bowed low, as the
Prince advanced past him into the room. In the shadows of the hall,
Glück's erect figure was dimly visible.
For a moment no one spoke, but Vernon's face was flushing under the
ironical gaze bent upon it.
"So," said the Prince, at last. "It appears that you are not ill. You
have been tricking me all the time!"
"Yes," answered Vernon, not attempting for an instant to evade the
question. "Tricking you--that is the word. I am glad she has told you."
"Do you think it was quite the course for a gentleman to pursue?"
continued the Prince, in a voice singularly even.
"No," said Vernon, quietly. "I do not."
"Nor do I!" said the Prince.
Again there was a moment's silence. It was Vernon who broke it.
"When I went into this thing," he began quite steadily, "I had no
thought that it would result as it has. It seemed to me an innocent
deception, warranted by reasons of state. We could not, of course,
foresee that you would follow us here, instead of going on to London.
For some time I have found the rôle unbearable; but, until a moment ago,
I fancied I might be able to explain to you the course I have taken."
"Explain!" repeated the Prince, with bitter emphasis.
"Now, of course," went on Vernon, evenly, "I see that no explanations
are possible--that no apology, even, which I might make, would excuse
me. I don't in the least believe in duelling--I have always thought that
I would be the last person in the world to be entangled in that way--but
this seems to be one of those situations which have no other solution. I
am quite willing, anxious even, to give you any satisfaction you may
demand. It is your right."
"I agree with you," said the Prince. "It is my right. My friends will
wait upon you," and he turned toward the door.
"But this is folly!" protested Collins, his face very red. "We are
living on the verge of the twentieth century, gentlemen; not in the
seventeenth. I won't countenance this madness for an instant."
"Who asks you to countenance it?" demanded Vernon, sternly. "I repeat, I
am at the Prince's service. I am glad that it is within my power to
offer him this reparation."
"Very well," said the Prince, bowing, and again turned to the door; but
Vernon stopped him with a gesture.
"Before you go, before I can meet you, even," he said, quietly, "there
is a further explanation due you--"
"I have no wish to hear it," the Prince broke in.
"It is one which you must, nevertheless, listen to," went on Vernon,
coldly. "Confession would, perhaps, be a better word for it. Miss
Rushford did not know the whole truth."
"So!" said the Prince, with irony. "You acted unfairly, then, even with
your co-conspirators!"
Vernon flushed hotly, but kept himself in hand.
"The retort is unworthy of you," he said. "I assure you that Miss
Rushford was not in any sense a co-conspirator."
"Do you mean that she was ignorant of the deception you were playing?"
demanded the Prince, quickly.
"No; she was not ignorant of that; but she--"
The Prince held up his hand with an imperious gesture.
"No more," he said; "if this is the explanation--confession--what you
will--I repeat that I do not care to hear it."
"This is not it."
"It cannot, in any event, alter matters."
"I have no wish that it should alter matters, Your Highness!" retorted
Vernon, proudly. "When I have offered you the greatest reparation in my
power, it is ungenerous that you should--"
Again a knock interrupted him.
"Come in!" he called, recklessly.
The door opened and Archibald Rushford entered. He closed the door
carefully behind him and advanced to the middle of the room.
Vernon started forward.
"Why, how are you, Mr. Rushford?" he began, with outstretched hand. "I'm
very glad to see you."
"Oh, you are?" inquired the American, keeping his own hands firmly
behind his back. "I suppose _you're_ glad to see me, too?" he added,
turning to the Prince.
"I know of no reason why I should avoid you," returned the Prince,
proudly.
"Perhaps not," assented Rushford, drily. "The standards of gentlemanly
conduct seem to be different in the Old World and in the New. I'm glad,
however, that I've caught you two together. I suppose that little farce
of pretended illness was played only for the benefit of outsiders!"
"I assure you, Mr. Rushford," began Vernon quickly, but the American
stopped him with a gesture.
"I don't care to hear," he said. "I care nothing for your two-by-four
conspiracies and intrigues. But, I repeat, I'm glad I caught both of you
together. It enables me to tell, in the same breath, what I think of
both of you, and I am very anxious to tell you, fully and completely,
for I suppose you have been surrounded all your lives by toadies who
were afraid to tell you the truth about yourselves, or who were so like
you that they couldn't see the truth--products of the same code of
morals--a code truly European! In a word, then, I think you are both
blackguards--blackguards of the most nasty and contemptible kind--the
kind that preys upon women! I may add that you have deeply shaken my
faith in human nature, for, to look at you, one would mistake you for
gentlemen!"
The words were uttered quietly, evenly, deliberately; each one given its
full value. There was a certain dignity in Rushford's aspect which made
interruption impossible; but neither man offered to interrupt. The
Prince was biting his lips desperately; Vernon turned red and white and
red again in evident amazement.
"And having said this," concluded the American, "as emphatically as
possible, I will very gladly leave you to yourselves."
"Oh, no, you won't!" cried Vernon, fiercely, in a voice hoarse with
emotion. "I, at least, demand an explanation."
"An explanation?" and Rushford laughed, a little mocking laugh. "Can't
your conscience give you an explanation? Or is it too deadened to do
that?"
"No!" said Vernon, boldly. "My conscience gives me no explanation, which
would in any degree warrant the words you have used to me, and which I
am sure you will some day regret. It is true that my conduct here has
not been wholly straightforward; but it is Prince Frederick I have
wronged and not you in any degree. Your daughter--to whom, I presume,
you referred--knew all--"
"All?" repeated Rushford, with irony.
"Perhaps not all, but I had intended waiting upon you this afternoon and
explaining to you--"
"Oh! So you thought I was entitled to an explanation! Yes, my lord, it
seems to me that your actions will require a great deal of
explaining--more, certainly, than I have the patience to listen to. So I
pray you will spare me. I don't know anything in God's wide world more
contemptible than a married man who poses as single!"
"Married!" shrieked his lordship. "Poses! Oh!"
The door opened and Pelletan's head appeared.
"I knocked," he explained, obsequiously, "once--twice--and when none
answered, Mees Rushford insiste'--"
"Miss Rushford!" cried Vernon.
"Yes, monsieur, Mees Rushford," and Pelletan stepped to one side,
disclosing Sue.