AT a sufficiently late hour, or to be more exact, at three in the afternoon, Madame von Rosen issued on the world. She swept downstairs and out across the garden, a black mantilla thrown over her head, and the long train of her black velvet dress ruthlessly sweeping in the dirt.
At the other end of that long garden, and back to back with the villa of the Countess, stood the large mansion where the Prime Minister transacted his affairs and pleasures. This distance, which was enough for decency by the easy canons of Mittwalden, the Countess swiftly traversed, opened a little door with a key, mounted a flight of stairs, and entered unceremoniously into Gondremark's study. It was a large and very high apartment; books all about the walls, papers on the table, papers on the floor; here and there a picture, somewhat scant of drapery; a great fire glowing and flaming in the blue tiled hearth; and the daylight streaming through a cupola above. In the midst of this sat the great Baron Gondremark in his shirt-sleeves, his business for that day fairly at an end, and the hour arrived for relaxation. His expression, his very nature, seemed to have undergone a fundamental change. Gondremark at home appeared the very antipode of Gondremark on duty. He had an air of massive jollity that well became him; grossness and geniality sat upon his features; and along with his manners, he had laid aside his sly and sinister expression. He lolled there, sunning his bulk before the fire, a noble animal.
`Hey!' he cried. `At last!'
The Countess stepped into the room in silence, threw herself on a chair, and crossed her legs. In her lace and velvet, with a good display of smooth black stocking and of snowy petticoat, and with the refined profile of her face and slender plumpness of her body, she showed in singular contrast to the big, black, intellectual satyr by the fire.
`How often do you send for me?' she cried. `It is compromising.'
Gondremark laughed. `Speaking of that,' said he, `what in the devil's name were you about? You were not home till morning.'
`I was giving alms,' she said.
The Baron again laughed loud and long, for in his shirt-sleeves he was a very mirthful creature. `It is fortunate I am not jealous,' he remarked. `But you know my way: pleasure and liberty go hand in hand. I believe what I believe; it is not much, but I believe it. -- But now to business. Have you not read my letter?'
`No,' she said; `my head ached.'
`Ah, well! then I have news indeed!' cried Gondremark. `I was mad to see you all last night and all this morning: for yesterday afternoon I brought my long business to a head; the ship has come home; one more dead lift, and I shall cease to fetch and carry for the Princess Ratafia.
Yes, `tis done. I have the order all in Ratafia's hand; I carry it on my heart. At the hour of twelve to- night, Prince Featherhead is to be taken in his bed and, like the bambino, whipped into a chariot; and by next morning he will command a most romantic prospect from the donjon of the Felsenburg.
Farewell, Featherhead! The war goes on, the girl is in my hand; I have long been indispensable, but now I shall be sole. I have long,' he added exultingly, `long carried this intrigue upon my shoulders, like Samson with the gates of Gaza; now I discharge that burthen.'
She had sprung to her feet a little paler. `Is this true?' she cried.
`I tell you a fact,' he asseverated. `The trick is played.'
`I will never believe it,' she said. `An order in her own hand?
I will never believe it, Heinrich.'
`I swear to you,' said he.
`O, what do you care for oaths -- or I either? What would you swear by? Wine, women, and song? It is not binding,' she said. She had come quite close up to him and laid her hand upon his arm. `As for the order -- no, Heinrich, never! I will never believe it. I will die ere I believe it. You have some secret purpose -- what, I cannot guess -- but not one word of it is true.'
`Shall I show it you?' he asked.
`You cannot,' she answered. `There is no such thing.'
`Incorrigible Sadducee!' he cried. `Well, I will convert you; you shall see the order.' He moved to a chair where he had thrown his coat, and then drawing forth and holding out a paper, `Read,' said he.
She took it greedily, and her eye flashed as she perused it.
`Hey!' cried the Baron, `there falls a dynasty, and it was I that felled it; and I and you inherit!' He seemed to swell in stature; and next moment, with a laugh, he put his hand forward. Give me the dagger,' said he.
But she whisked the paper suddenly behind her back and faced him, lowering. `No, no,' she said. `You and I have first a point to settle.
Do you suppose me blind? She could never have given that paper but to one man, and that man her lover. Here you stand -- her lover, her accomplice, her master -- O, I well believe it, for I know your power. But what am I?' she cried; `I, whom you deceive!'
`Jealousy!' cried Gondremark. `Anna, I would never have believed it! But I declare to you by all that's credible that I am not her lover.
