"O, no," said Maurice."I simply complained that Madame the countess had kept me too long under the stars.But here is Colonel Mollendorf, freshly returned from Brunnstadt to inform you that the army is fully prepared for any emergency.Is not that true, Colonel?" as he beheld that individual standing in the doorway.
"Yes; but how the deuce--your pardon, ladies! --did you find that out?" demanded the Colonel.
"I guessed it," was the answer."But there will be no need of an army now.Come, John, the Colonel, who is no relative of the king's minister of police, has not the trick of concealing his impatience.He has something important to say to Madame, and we are in the way.Come along, AEneas, follow your faithful Achates;Thalia has a rehearsal."
Fitzgerald thrust his pipe into a pocket."Good night, Madame,"he said diffidently; "and you, countess.""Good night, Colonel," sang out Maurice over his shoulder, and together the pair climbed the stairs.
Fitzgerald was at a loss how to begin, for something told him that Maurice would demand an explanation, though the affair was none of his concern.He filled his pipe, fired it and tramped about the room.Sometimes he picked up the end of a window curtain and felt of it; sometimes he posed before one of the landscape oils.
"You have something on your mind," said Maurice, pulling off his hussar jacket and kicking it across the room.
"Madame has promised to be my wife."
"And the conditions?" curtly.
Fitzgerald pondered over the other's lack of surprise."What would you do if you loved a woman and she promised to be your wife?""I'd marry her," sitting down at the table.
"What would you do in my place, and Madame had promised to marry you?" puffing quickly.
"I'd marry her," answered Maurice, banging his fist on the table, "even if all the kings and queens of Europe rose up against me.
I would marry her, if I had to bind her hands and feet and carry her to the altar and force the priest at the point of a pistol, which, in all probability, is what you will have to do.""I love her," sullenly.
"Do you know who she is?"
"No."
"Would it make any difference?"
"No.Who is she?"
"She is a woman without conscience; she is a woman who, to gain her miserable ends, will stop neither at falsehood, deceit nor bloodshed.Do you want me to tell you more? She is--""Maurice, tell me nothing which will cause me to regret your friendship.I love her; she has promised to be my wife.""She will ruin you."
"She has already done that," laconically.
"Do you mean to tell me--"
"Yes! For the promise of her love I am dishonored.For the privilege of kissing her lips I have sold my honor.To call her mine, I would go through hell.God! do you know what it is to be lonely, to starve in God-forsaken lands, to dream of women, to long for them?""And the poor paralytic king?"
"What is he to me?"
"And your father?"
"What are my dead father's wishes? Maurice, I am mad!""You are a very sick man," Maurice replied crossly."What's to become of all these vows--""You are wasting your breath! Do you remember what Rochefoucauld said of Madame de Longueville?--`To win her heart, to delight her beautiful eyes, I have taken up arms against the king; I would have done the same against the gods!' Is she not worth it all?" with a gesture of his arms which sent the live coals of his pipe comet-like across the intervening space."Is she not worth it all?""Who?--Madame de Longueville? I thought she was dead these two hundred years!""Damn it, Maurice!"
"I will, if you say so.The situation is equal to a good deal of plain, honest damning." Maurice banged his fist again."John, sit down and listen to me.I'll not sit still and see you made a fool.Promises? This woman will keep none.When she has wrung you dry she will fling you aside.At this moment she is probably laughing behind your back.You were brought here for this purpose.Threats and bribes were without effect.Love might accomplish what the other two had failed to do.You know little of the ways of the world.Do you know that this house party is scandalous, for all its innocence? Do you know that Madame's name would be a byword were it known that we have been here more than two weeks, alone with two women? Who but a woman that feels herself above convention would dare offer this affront to society? Do you know why Madame the countess came? Company for Madame? No; she was to play make love to me to keep me out of the way.Ass that I was, I never suspected till too late!
Madame's name is not Sylvia Amerbach; it is--"The door opened unceremoniously and in walked the Colonel.
"Your voices are rather high, gentlemen," he said calmly, and sat down in an easy chair.
