The fierce heat of the day is over, the rays of the westering sun cast
mildly gleaming bands of gold here and there amid the pleasing
confusion of furniture in the drawing-room, where both coverings and
hangings of Flemish stuff made the prevailing colour a dim, cool green.
The world forgetting, the betrothed pair were standing by a little
table whereon was a large, blue Sevres vase, filled with crimson
Jacqueminot roses, a vase, whereof the depressing shape was that of a
funeral urn, and whereof the decorations were after the pedantic taste
of the first Empire, with medallions of gaudy flowers upon a dark-blue
surface. Oswald and Gabrielle had just agreed in declaring the vase
almost as hideous as the pretentious monstrosity placed in the library
of the Vatican as a memorial of Napoleonic generosity.
"Mamma's Russian relatives have a positive passion for blue Sevres
vases, and green malachite table tops upon gilded tripods," said
Oswald, "but one cannot throw a well-meant gift out of doors!"
And then they went on to talk of the future, of their wedding-trip
which was to be to the East, and to laugh over certain events of the
first days of their young affection, in that fair spring-time in Paris.
Suddenly Gabrielle interrupted their talk with "Now you are yourself
again, but at dinner you looked so cross, I was absolutely afraid of
you!"
"Oh, you foolish little girl, how could you be afraid of me?"
"You mean that a great lion like you, is far too noble to hurt a poor
little King Charles!"
He shook his head, saying, "I never should think of comparing you to a
King Charles."
"To what would you compare me then?" she asked, lifting her large,
shining eyes to his.
"Are you angling for flattery, Ella?" he said banteringly.
"Flattery from you?" was her half-offended reply.
"Ah, I did not mean that,--I will tell you to what I love to liken
you," he whispered very softly, leaning towards her,--"to a white lily,
Ella,--you are just as pure and fair, with a golden heart deep down in
your breast."
Her dark-blue eyes glittered with tears of tenderness.
"Oh Ella, if you only knew how I long to clasp you in my arms this
moment, and kiss away the tears from those dear eyes! But ...." and he
gave a glance around.
"No one is looking," she said saucily.
It was true; the ladies were absorbed in teazing Pistasch about his
last conquest, and Truyn and Georges were again at it in argument over
the internal policy of the government; but none the less did the sound
of her own audacious little speech startle Gabrielle, and when Oswald
with a merry glance whispered "Say that again, Gabrielle," she turned
away.
"How Papa is shouting!" she observed in order to change the subject as
quickly as possible. And in fact Truyn's voice is tolerably loud as he
utters the significant, momentous words: "It is our mission to protect
the people from the influence of ambitious political theorists, and
from its own folly!"
"He is in a downright fury," assents Oswald, "let us try to calm him,
Ella." And as they went together towards the two politicians, Oswald
said, "Would you not like to have a rubber, uncle, before you carry out
your mission?"
Truyn, as became his age, had a weakness for whist, quite as pronounced
as for politics, and therefore accepted the proposal. The ladies were
politely invited to play, but no one accepted save Fraeulein Klette, and
since Pistasch refused point-blank to have her for a partner, the four
gentlemen sat down to the game by themselves.
The sunbeams slant more and more, one long, level ray is now shining
directly through the bouquet of crimson roses in the ugly Sevres vase,
the flowers glow like strange, weird jewels.
A carriage stopped before the castle. "Who can it be?" said Countess
Lodrin.
It was the Baroness Melkweyser. The customary greetings over, she
begged the gentlemen not to let her interrupt their game, and sank into
an arm-chair beside the Countess Lodrin. "I hope I do not disturb you!"
she exclaimed. "I really could not stand it another hour over there. I
was perfectly wild!"
"Aha!" Mimi Dey smiled provokingly. "I cannot pity you as much as you
seem to expect, Zoe; I thought you would repent it, when I heard you
were staying with those queer people."
"What would you have?" said the Baroness meekly enough, "I have known
those Caprianis ever so long, they live magnificently in Paris."
"Indeed?" asked Mimi, "does any one visit them?"
"Oh yes, crowned heads even," said Zinka, "and especially Princes of
the blood travelling incog."
"Oh, they--why, they go even to the _Mabille_," said Mimi,
"and--well--perhaps there is a certain similarity between ....!"
"Oh, no, no," interrupted Zoe, "they have very decent manners; Capriani
even turned out of his house lately a person who came without an
invitation."
"Really?" said Zinka, "that, certainly, shows great progress; but is it
true that at the Conte's last ball neither the eldest daughter, nor her
husband was present?"
"Yes," Zoe admitted. "Those are some of the insolent airs with which
Larothiere contrives to awe his father-in-law."
"Go on," said Mimi.
"I do not say that only the _elite_ appear at these balls. _C'est
toujours le monde a cote_, as they say in Paris, but,--good Heavens!
these Caprianis have been of service to me, and they always heaped me
with attentions, but here they are beginning to behave positively
disagreeably to me."
"Perhaps your services in your native country have not answered their
expectations," said Mimi, "Pistasch told me that you had been invited
to Schneeburg on purpose to introduce the Caprianis into Austrian
society. Was that only one of his poor jokes, or ...."
"I really did promise to do my best ...."
"My dear Zoe'," exclaimed Mimi Dey horrified, "had you clean forgotten
your Austria?"
"No, I had not forgotten it, only I fancied that in the last
twenty-five years you might have conformed somewhat to the spirit of
the age; but no, you are precisely the same as ever. When will you
cease to entrench yourselves behind triple barriers?"
"When we feel sure that no suspicious individual will try to invade our
realm," said Mimi; "our circle, moreover, is quite large enough, and if
we are asked to admit a stranger, at least we have a right to discover
beforehand whether he will or will not be an acquisition."
That this didactic little speech was uttered principally for her
edification, the Countess Truyn was perfectly aware. She merely smiled
calmly.
"I have no prejudices," asserted Fraeulein Klette boldly. "I am
perfectly ready to be introduced to the Caprianis."
"Yes, you are a great philosopher," replied Mimi, gravely patting her
on the shoulder, "we all know that."
"I shall not fail to represent to Capriani the advantage to be derived
from your acquaintance," said Zoe drily. "And now I must make haste and
execute a commission; I should really prefer to extricate myself from
these associations, but since I have got into the claws of this vulture
I must keep him in good humour at least until he has gotten my finances
into a better condition. And that brings me to what I have to ask of
you, Wjera; I want you to do me a great favour." Up to this point the
Countess Lodrin had taken no part in the conversation, but had
continued, apparently lost in thought, to work away with her large
wooden needles at her woollen piece of knitting. Zinka, who had been
watching her, thought her unusually pale. "A favour? What is it?" asked
the Countess.
"It is about your 'old Vienna' set of china, which you used to be so
anxious to complete. The other half was at Schneeburg, and now belongs
to Capriani. When he learned from me that you--er--were very fond of
the set, he--er--asked me,--very kindly, as you must admit,--to offer
you his half."
The Countess's large wooden needles clicked louder, and more busily
than ever, but she said not a word in reply.
"You really would do me a very great favour, Wjera," persisted the
baroness, "three weeks ago he asked me to say this to you, and I have
only to-day brought myself to do it. You will embarrass me exceedingly
by rejecting the china."
Then Wjera with a quick angry gesture dropped her work, and looked up.
Her face in its stern pallor was like chiselled marble, but a dark glow
shone in her eyes; Zinka thought that she had never beheld anything
more beautiful or more haughty than that face at that moment. "What
price does your Herr Capriani ask for the china?" she asked curtly.
"Price?--Price?--he will deem himself only too happy by your acceptance
of it...!"
"Ossi, that's a revoke!" exclaimed Pistasch spreading out two tricks
upon the whist-table.
"He is playing very carelessly," remarked Truyn.
"Every allowance must be made for a man in love," said Georges kindly
as he shuffled the cards.
Oswald, whose back was towards his mother, heard her say: "Your
Monsieur Capriani's officiousness seems to me to pass all bounds. Pray
tell him _de ma part_ that I am quite ready to buy the service of him,
at any price that he may name, however high, but that it is not my
habit to accept gifts from those with whom I neither have nor wish to
have any social intercourse."
"But, good Heavens! I had forgotten one half of my message," said Zoe,
striking her forehead. "He expressly hoped that you would see in this
little attention nothing more than a proof of respectful esteem from a
former servant,--he would not venture to say friend,--of your family.
He assures me that he attended yourself and your husband years ago
while you were in the Riviera, and he declares that if you do not
recognise Conte Capriani, you will surely remember Doctor--Doctor--I
have forgotten the name--but at any rate the doctor that you had
there."
"Why it must be Stein!" exclaimed Fraeulein Klette.
"Yes, that was the name," said Zoe.
"Why, I knew him," Fraeulein Klette went on eagerly. "You must remember
me to him; he was practising at Nice, when I spent the winter with the
Orczinskas. The women raved about him--he was a very handsome man then,
and he had invented a hygienic corset, all the women wore it.--You must
have known him too, Wjera. I am certain that I met him once at your
villa, that winter that you and your husband passed in the Riviera."
"He declares that he attended your husband," said Zoe.
There was a brief--a very brief pause, and then the Countess said
clearly and distinctly, "Possibly, but it does not interest me, and you
can tell him from me that I do not remember it!"
"How young you look when you're angry, Wjera," said Mimi Dey, laughing,
"the old demon flashes in your eyes when you're vexed."
"There's a deal of pleasure in playing whist with you, Ossi," exclaimed
Truyn at the same moment,--he was Oswald's partner,--"that's five
trumps that you have thrown away--I had a slam in my hand."
"How could I guess that you had anything in diamonds?"
"I led."
"Clubs."
"No, diamonds! Just look."
"Don't you think that Ossi, when he puts on that gloomy face, looks
astonishingly like young Capriani?" observed Pistasch.
No longer master of himself Oswald threw his cards down on the table.
"Come, come, behave yourself, Ossi," said Truyn.
"There's no use in trying to jest with you: you are as sensitive as a
commoner," grumbled Pistasch.
"Let us rather say as irritable as a crowned head," said Georges
laughing, "_Les extremes se touchent_."
"I really believe it is the reappearance of your old family spectre
which must have affected your nerves lately, Ossi," Pistasch said
innocently.
"Which family spectre are you talking of?" asked Oswald hoarsely.
"Have you several of them then?" asked Pistasch. "I know only of the
blind one that laughs--my man told me to-day while I was dressing that
it has been heard laughing again. The butler had told him so."
"The gardener was talking to me of it to-day too," said Georges, "but I
told him that there have been no ghosts since '48; ghosts as an
institution were quite done away with by the March revolution,
whereupon, as he is an aspiring person addicted to free thinking he
replied that he had arrived at that same conclusion himself."
"Stupid superstition!" muttered Oswald; then controlling himself by an
effort he said very quietly, but pale as ashes. "Shall we not have
another rubber?"