HEROINE WORSHIP.
It was nearly twelve o'clock before Hilda roused herself from a long and
dreamless slumber, consequent upon the fatigue and excitement of the
previous evening. She still felt somewhat exhausted, but no physician
could have administered a remedy so efficacious as the one she found
ready to hand. On the table beside her was a small packet sealed with
the imperial arms. She removed the covering; and opening the case
beneath, a beautifully painted portrait of the Emperor on an ivory
medallion met her enraptured gaze. The portrait was set round with
magnificent diamonds. But she scarcely noticed them; it was the painting
itself that charmed her. The Emperor looked just as he appeared when he
said to her, "Tell me now as woman to man, not as subject to emperor."
There was the same winning smile, the same caressing yet commanding
look. She involuntarily raised the medallion to her lips, and then
blushed rosy red over face and shoulders. She turned the medallion, and
on the back she found these words engraved: "Albert Edward to Hilda, in
testimony of his admiration and gratitude." He must have had these words
engraved during the night.
The maid entered. "Miss Fitzherbert," she said, "during the last two
hours there have been hundreds of cards left for you. There is quite a
continuous line of carriages coming to the door, and there have been
bundles of telegrams. Miss Maud is opening them."
Hilda realised the meaning of the line--
"Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame."
Then the maid told her Mrs. Hardinge was most anxious to see her and was
waiting. She would not allow her to be awakened. Hilda said she would
have her bath and see Mrs. Hardinge in the little boudoir adjoining her
dressing-room in a few minutes.
Quite recovered from her last night's agitation, Hilda looked her best
in a charmingly fashioned dressing-gown as she entered the room where
Mrs. Hardinge was waiting to receive her.
"My dear, dear girl," said that lady as she embraced her, "I am
delighted. You are well again? I need not ask. Your looks proclaim it.
You are the heroine of the hour. The Emperor learnt everything last
night, and the papers all over the world are full of it to-day. Maud
says the telegrams are from every part of the globe, not only within our
own empire, but from Europe, and the United States, and South America.
You are a brave girl."
"Pray do not say so, Mrs. Hardinge. I only did my duty--what any one in
my place would have done. Tell me all that has happened."
Mrs. Hardinge, nothing reluctant, replied with animated looks and
gestures. "Laurient has told me everything. You instructed the officer,
it seems, to keep a watch over only the occupants of the three further
rows. Lord Reginald had left those, and was approaching you. The
officer, following your words literally, allowed him to leave unwatched.
Some sixty only of the people were placed under espionage. Nearly every
one of the rest who were present is supposed to have left Melbourne,
including Lord Reginald. We sent to his house to arrest him, but he had
departed in one of his fastest long-distance air-cruisers. It is
supposed that he has gone to Europe, or to America, or to one of his
remote estates in the interior of this continent. I am not sure that the
Emperor was displeased at his departure. When the intelligence reached
him, he said to me, 'That will save Miss Fitzherbert from appearing in
public to give evidence. As for the rest, it does not matter. They have
been fooled to serve that man's ends.' So now they are free. But their
names are known; indeed, their ridiculous appearance is immortalised. A
likeness was taken of every one, but the _tout ensemble_ is superbly
grotesque. It is well so few people know the secret of artificial
magnetism."
Hilda showed Mrs. Hardinge the Emperor's magnificent present, and asked
what was she to do. Should she write a letter of thanks?
"Do so," said the shrewd woman of the world. "Who knows that he will not
value the acknowledgment as you value the gift?"
Again Hilda's face was suffused in red. "I must go away," she said to
herself, "until I can better command myself." Then she begged Mrs.
Hardinge not to mention about the Emperor's gift. "I shall only tell
Maud of it. I felt it was right to tell you."
"Of course it was," said Mrs. Hardinge; "but it may be well not to
mention it further. There are thousands of persons who honour and admire
you; but there are thousands also who already envy you, and who will not
envy you the less because of this great deed."
Then she told Hilda that the Emperor wished to do her public honour by
making her a countess in her own right. Hilda shrank from the
distinction. "It will lose me my seat in Parliament," she said.
"No. You will only have to stand for re-election, and no one will oppose
you."
"But," said the girl, "I am not rich enough."
"If report is correct, you soon will be. The river-works in New Zealand
are nearly finished; they will make you, it is said, a millionaire."
"I had forgotten them for the moment, but it is not safe to count on
their success until the test is actually made. This reminds me that they
will be finished next week; and my friends in New Zealand think that my
sister and I ought to be present, if only in honour of our dear
grandfather, who left us the interest we hold in the river. Can you
spare me for ten days?"
"Of course I can, Hilda dear. The change will do you good. Laurient is
going. He is said to have an interest in the works. And Montreal is
going also. He too had an interest, but I think he parted with it."
They discussed whether Hilda should go to the fête that was to be held
on Monday to celebrate the centenary of the completion of the irrigation
of the Malee Scrub Plains.
These plains were once about as desolate and unromantic a locality as
could be found; but a Canadian firm, Messrs. Chaffey Brothers, had
undertaken to turn the wilderness into a garden by irrigation, and they
had entirely succeeded. An enormous population now inhabited the
redeemed lands, and a fête was to be held in commemoration of the
century that had elapsed since the great work was completed. The Emperor
himself had agreed to be there. Hilda begged to be excused. Her nerves
were shaken. She would dread the many congratulations she would receive
and the requests to repeat over and over again the particulars of the
scene which inspired her now with only horror and repulsion.
"You must not show yourself to-day," Mrs. Hardinge said; "and I will cry
you off to-morrow on the ground of illness. Next day go to New Zealand,
and by the time you return you will be yourself again."
"You may say too I am abundantly occupied," said Hilda archly as Maud
entered the room with an enormous package of open telegrams in her
hands. "Dear Hilda, you do look well to-day. I am so pleased," said the
delighted girl as she flung down the telegrams and embraced her sister.
There was something singularly pathetic in the love of these two girls.
Mrs. Hardinge left them together. Hilda showed the medallion in strict
confidence. Maud was literally enraptured with it. "How noble, how
handsome, he is! I know only one other man so beautiful." Then she
paused in confusion; and Hilda rather doubted the exception, though she
knew it was their old playfellow Montreal who was intended.
"Who is the traitor," she said, "you dare to compare with your
Sovereign?"
Maud, almost in tears, declared she did not mean what she said. The
Emperor was very handsome.
"Do not be ashamed, my dear, to be true to your feelings," said Hilda
sententiously. "A woman's heart is an empire of itself, and he who
rules over it may be well content with a single loyal subject."
"Nonsense, Hilda! Do not tease me. An emperor, too, may rule over a
woman's heart."
This was rather carrying the war into the opposite camp. Miss
Fitzherbert thought it time to change the subject. They discussed the
telegrams. Then Maud told Hilda how frightfully agitated Laurient was
the previous evening. Finally they decided they would go to New Zealand
the day after the next. They debated if they should proceed in their own
air-cruiser or in the public one that left early every morning. It was
about a sixteen hours' journey in the public conveyance, but in their
own it would take less time. Besides, they wished to go straight to
Dunedin, where the girls had a beautiful residence, and where their
friends were chiefly located. Hilda represented Dunedin in the New
Zealand Parliament, and local government honours had been freely open to
her; but, under the tutelage of Mrs. Hardinge, she had preferred
entering into federal politics, though she continued in the New Zealand
Parliament. Most of the leading federal statesmen interested themselves
with one or other Dominion government. There was such an absence of
friction between the federal and the separate dominion governments that
no inconvenience resulted from the dual attention, while it led to a
more intimate knowledge of local duties. Maud bashfully remembered that
Lady Taieri had asked them to go to Dunedin on her beautiful cruiser.
"She was making up a party," said Maud; "and she mentioned that Colonel
Laurient and Lord Montreal were amongst the number."
Hilda saw the wistful look in Maud's eyes. "Let us go with Lady Taieri,"
she said; and so it was arranged.