The Princess Dehra. Scott John Reed
I left them all to come here,” she answered.
“But now you would go back.”
She smiled up at him. “Yes, but with you, dear – not alone.” Her hand stole into his. “Tell me, sweetheart, why you will not go – might it cause Frederick to deprive you of the succession?”
For a space the Duke made no answer, gazing the while steadily into the distance, with eyebrows slightly drawn. And she, having dared so far, dared further.
“Surely, dear, he would not wrong you by making Armand king!” she exclaimed, as though the thought had but that moment come.
He turned to her with quick sympathy, a look of warm appreciation in his eyes. The answer she had played for trembled on his lips – then died unspoken.
He bent down and kissed her forehead.
“We of the Dalbergs still believe, my dear, that the King can do no wrong,” he said, and swung her to the floor. “Come, let us walk on the wall, and forget everything except that we are together, and that I love you.”
She closed her eyes to hide the flash of angry disappointment, though her voice was calm and easy.
“Love!” she laughed; “love! what is it? The infatuation of the moment – the pleasure of an hour.”
“And hence this eagerness for Paris?”
She gave him a quick glance. “May be, my lord, to prolong our moment; to extend our hour.” He paused, his hand upon the door.
“And otherwise are they ended?” he asked quietly.
She let her eyes seek the door. “No – not yet.” He slowly closed the door and leaned against it.
“My dear Madeline,” he said, “let us deal frankly with each other. I am not so silly as to think you love me, though I’m willing to admit I wish you did. You have fascinated me – ever since that evening in the Hanging Garden when you made the play of being the Archduke Armand’s wife. Love may be what you style it: ‘the infatuation of the moment; the pleasure of an hour.’ If so, for you, my moment and my hour still linger. But with you, I know, there is a different motive; you may like me passing well – I believe you do – yet it was not that which brought you here, away from Paris – ‘the boulevards and the music.’ You came because – well, what matters the because: you came; and for that I am very grateful; they have been pleasant days for me – “
She had been gazing through the window; now she looked him in the eyes.
“And for me as well,” she said.
“I am glad,” he answered gravely – ”and it shall not be I that ends them. You wish to know if I am still the Heir Presumptive. You shall have your answer: I do not know. It rests with the King. He has the power to displace me in favor of Armand.”
She smiled comprehendingly. It was as she had feared.
“And the Princess Royal is betrothed to Armand,” she commented.
Lotzen shrugged his shoulders. “Just so,” he said. “Do you wonder I may not go to Paris?”
She went over to the fireplace, and sitting on the arm of a chair rested her slender feet on the fender, her silk clad ankles glistening in the fire-light.
“I don’t quite understand,” she said, “why, when the American was restored to Hugo’s rank, he did not, by that very fact, become also Heir Presumptive – his line is senior to yours.”
There was room on the chair arm for another and he took it.
“You have touched the very point,” he said. “Henry the Third himself restored Hugo and his heirs to rank and estate; but it needs Frederick’s decree to make him eligible to the Crown.”
“And has he made it?”
He shook his head. “I do not know – ”
“But, surely, it would be promulgated, if he had.”
“Very probably; but not necessarily. All that is required is a line in the big book which for centuries has contained the Laws of the Dalbergs.”
She studied the tip of her shoe, tapping it the while on the fender rod.
“When will this marriage be solemnized?” she asked.
He laughed rather curtly. “Never, I hope.”
She gave him a quick look. “So – the wound still hurts. I beg your pardon; I did not mean to be unkind. I was only thinking that, if the decree were not yet made, the wedding would be sure to bring it.”
He put his arm around her waist and drew her over until the black hair pressed his shoulder.
“Nay, Madeline, you are quite wrong,” he said. “The Princess is nothing to me now – nothing but the King’s daughter and the American’s chief advocate. I meant what you did: – that the marriage will lose me the Crown.”
For a moment she suffered his embrace, watching him the while through half closed eyes; then she drew away.
“I suppose there is no way to prevent the marriage,” she remarked, her gaze upon the fire.
He arose and, crossing to the table, found a cigarette.
“Can you suggest a way?” he asked, his back toward her, the match aflame, poised before his face.
She had turned and was watching him with sharp interest, but she did not answer, and when he glanced around, in question, she was looking at the fire.
“Want a cigarette?” he said.
She nodded, and he took it to her and held the match for its lighting.
“I asked you if you could suggest a way,” he remarked.
She blew a smoke ring toward the ceiling. “Yes, go back to Dornlitz and kill the American.”
“Will you go with me?” banteringly.
“Indeed I won’t,” with a reminiscent smile; “I have quite too vivid a memory of my recent visit there.”
“And the killing – shall I do it by proxy or in person?”
“Any way – so it is done – though one’s best servant is one’s self, you know.”
He had thought her jesting, but now he leaned forward to see her face.
“Surely, you do not mean it,” he said uncertainly.
“Why not?” she asked. “It’s true you have already tried both ways – and failed; but that is no assurance of the future. The second, or some other try may win.”
A tolerant smile crossed his lips. “And meanwhile, of course, the American would wait patiently to be killed.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “You seem to have forgot that steel vests do not protect the head; and that several swords might penetrate a guard which one could not.”
“Surely,” he exclaimed, “surely, you must have loved this man!”
She put his words aside with a wave of her hand.
“My advice is quite impersonal,” she said – “and it is only trite advice at that, as you know. You have yourself considered it already scores of times, and have been deterred only by the danger to yourself.”
He laughed. “I’m glad you cannot go over to my enemies. You read my mind too accurately.”
“Nonsense,” she retorted; “Armand knows it quite as well as I, though possibly he may not yet have realized how timid you have grown.”
“Timid!”
She nodded. “Yes, timid; you had plenty of nerve at first, when the American came; but it seems to have run to water.”
“And I shall lose, you think?”
She tossed the cigarette among the red ashes and arose.
“Why should