H.R.H. THE PRINCESS IMPETUOSITY
The Princess Margaret spoke low and confidentially to the secretary of
embassy as they paced along. Johann Pyrmont felt correspondingly
awkward. For one thing, the pressure of the Princess's hand upon his arm
distracted him. He longed to have her on his other side.
"You are noble?" she said, with a look down at him.
"Of course!" said the secretary quickly. The opposite had never occurred
to him. He had not considered the pedigree of travelling merchants or
Hamburg architects.
The Princess thought it was not at all of course, but continued--
"I understand--you would learn diplomacy under a man so wise as the High
Councillor von Dessauer. I have heard of such sacrifices. My brother,
who is very learned, went to Italy, and they say (though he only laughs
when I ask him) worked with his hands in one of the places where they
print the new sort of books instead of writing them. Is it not
wonderful?"
"And he is so brave," said the secretary, whose interest suddenly
increased; "he won the tournament yesterday, did he not? I saw you give
him the crown of bay. I had not thought so brave a man could be learned
also."
"Oh, my brother has all the perfections, yet thinks more of every
shaveling monk and unfledged chorister than of himself. I will introduce
you to him now. I am a pet of his. You will love him, too--when you
know him, that is!"
"Devoutly do I hope so!" said the secretary under his breath.
But the Princess heard him.
"Of course you will," she said gaily; "I love him, therefore so will
you!"
"An agreeable princess--I shall get on well with her!" thought Johann
Pyrmont. Then the attention of his companion flagged and she was silent
and distrait for a little, as they paced through courts and colonnades
which to the secretary seemed interminable. The Princess silently
indicated the way by a pressure upon his arm which was almost more than
friendly.
"We walk well together," she said presently, rousing herself from her
reverie.
"Yes," answered the secretary, who was thinking that surely it was a
long way to the summer parlour, where he was to meet the Prince.
"I fear," said the Princess Margaret quaintly, "that you are often in
the habit of walking with ladies! Your step agrees so well with mine!"
"I never walk with any others," the secretary answered without thought.
"What?" cried the Princess, quickly taking away her hand, "and you swore
to me even now that you never helped a lady from her horse in your
life!"
It was an _impasse_, and the secretary, recalled to himself, blushed
deeply.
"I see so few ladies," he stammered, in a tremor lest he should have
betrayed himself. "I live in the country--only my maid----"
"Heaven's own sunshine!" cried the Princess. "Have the pretty young men
of Plassenburg maids and tirewomen? Small wonder that so few of them
ever visit us! No blame that you stay in that happy country!"
The secretary recovered his presence of mind rapidly.
"I mean," he explained, "the old woman Bette, my nurse, who, though now
I am grown up, comes every night to see that I have all I want and to
fold my clothes. I have no other women about me."
"You are sure that Bette, who comes for your clothes and to see that you
have all you want, is old?" persisted the Princess, keeping her eyes
sharply upon her companion.
"She is so old that I never remember her to have been any younger,"
replied the secretary, with an air of engaging candour.
"I believe you," cried the outspoken Princess; "no one can lie with such
eyes. Strange that I should have liked you from the first. Stranger that
in an hour I should tell you so. Your arm!"
The secretary immediately put his hand within the arm of the Princess
Margaret, who turned upon him instantly in great astonishment.
"Is that also a Plassenburg custom?" she said sharply. "Was it old Bette
who taught you thus to take a lady's arm? It is otherwise thought of in
our ignorant Courtland!"
The young man blushed and looked down.
"I am sorry," he said; "it is a common fashion with us. I crave your
pardon if in aught I have offended."
The Princess Margaret looked quizzically at her companion.
"I' faith," she said, "I have ever had a curiosity about foreign
customs. This one I find not amiss. Do it again!"
And with her own princessly hand she took Johann's slender brown fingers
and placed them upon her arm.
"These are fitter for the pen than for the sword!" she said, a saying
which pleased the owner of them but little.
The Courtlander Otto, who had been on guard at the gate, had meantime
been relieved, and now followed the pair through the corridors to the
summer palace upon an errand which he had speciously invented.
At this point he stood astonished.
"I would that Prince Wasp were here. We should see his sting. He is
indeed a marvel, this fellow of Plassenburg. Glad am I that he does not
know little Lenchen up in the Kaiser Platz. No one of us would have a
maid to his name, if this gamester abode in Courtland long and made the
running in this style!"
The Princess and her squire now went out into the open air. For she had
led him by devious ways almost round the entire square of the palace
buildings. They passed into a thick avenue of acacias and yews, through
the arcades of which they walked silently.
For the Princess was content, and the secretary afraid of making any
more mistakes. So he let the foreign custom go at what it might be
worth, knowing that if he tried to better it, ten to one a worse thing
might befall.
"I have changed my mind," said the Princess, suddenly stopping and
turning upon her companion; "I shall not introduce you to my brother. If
you come from the Ambassador, you must have matters of importance to
speak of. I will rest me here in an arbour and come in later. Then, if
you are good, you shall perhaps be permitted to reconduct me to my
lodging, and as we go, teach me any other pleasant foreign customs!"
The secretary bowed, but kept his eyes on the ground.
"You do not say that you are glad," cried the Princess, coming
impulsively a step nearer. "I tell you there is not one youth----but no
matter. I see that it is your innocence, and I am not sure that I do not
like you the better for it."
Behind an evergreen, Otto the Courtlander nearly discovered himself at
this declaration.
"His innocence--magnificent Karl the Great! His Plassenburger's
innocence--God wot! He will not die of it, but he may be the death of
me. Oh, for the opinion of Prince Wasp of Muscovy upon such innocence."
"Come," said the Princess, holding out her hands, "bid me goodbye as you
do in your country. There is the Prince my brother's horse at the door.
You must hasten, or he will be gone ere you do your message."
At this the heart of the youth gave a great leap.
"The Prince!" he cried, "he will be gone!" And would have bolted off
without a word.
"Never mind the Prince--think of me," commanded the Princess, stamping
her foot. "Give me your hand. I am not accustomed to ask twice. Bid me
goodbye."
With his eyes on the white charger by the door the secretary hastily
took the Princess by both hands. Then, with his mind still upon the
departing Prince, he drew her impulsively towards him, kissed her
swiftly upon both cheeks, and finished by imprinting his lips heartily
upon her mouth!
Then, still with swift impulse and an ardent glance upward at the palace
front, he ran in the direction of the steps of the summer palace.
The Princess Margaret stood rooted to the ground. A flush of shame,
anger, or some other violent emotion rose to her brow and stayed there.
Then she called to mind the straightforward unclouded eyes, the clear
innocence of the youth's brow, and the smile came back to her lips.
"After all, it is doubtless only his foreign custom," she mused. Then,
after a pause, "I like foreign customs," she added, "they are
interesting to learn!"
Behind his tree the Courtlander stood gasping with astonishment, as well
he might.
"God never made such a fellow," he said to himself. "Well might he say
he never kissed any but ladies. Such abilities were lost upon mere men.
An hour's acquaintance--nay, less--and he hath kissed the Princess
Margaret upon the mouth. And she, instead of shrieking and calling the
guard to have the insulter thrust into the darkest dungeon, falls to
musing and smiling. A devil of a secretary this! Of a certainty I must
have little Lenchen out of town!"