“Motor to Biarritz? You must be mad,” said Dick Waring.
“Why?” I asked; though I knew why as well as he. “A nice way to receive an invitation.”
“If you must know, it's because the King of Spain will be there, visiting his English fiancée,” Dick answered.
“I wish him happiness,” said I. “I hear he's a fine young fellow. Why isn't there room in Biarritz for the King and for me?”
“The detectives won't think there is, nor will they give you credit for your generous sentiments,” said Dick.
“They won't know I'm there.”
“They knew when you went to Barcelona, from Marseilles.”
This was a sore subject. It is not my fault that my father was as recklessly brave a general, and as obstinately determined a partisan as Don Carlos ever had. If I had been born in those days, it is possible that I should have done as my father did; but I was not born, and therefore not responsible. Nor was it the King's fault that we lost our estates which my ancestors owned in the days of Charles V; nor that we lost our fortune, we Casa Trianas; nor that my father was banished from Spain. For the King was not born, therefore he was not responsible; so why should I blame him for anything that has happened to me?
It was perhaps ill-judged to visit my father's land, since to him it had been a land forbidden. But a few months after his death, when I was twenty-one, the longing to see Spain had become an obsession. And it must have been my evil star which [pg 4]influenced an anarchist to throw a bomb at a royal personage on the very day I arrived at Barcelona, thinly “disguised” under an English name.
My identity was discovered at once, as the son of the great dead Carlist. I was suspected and clapped into a cell, to wait until my innocence could be proved. This was not easy; but, on the other hand, there was no proof against me; and after an experience which scourged my pride and emptied my purse, I was released, only to be politely but firmly advised never again to show the undesirable face of a Casa Triana in Spain.
It was after this that I flung myself off to Russia, and through friendly influence got a commission in the army. I had some adventures in the Boxer rising; and though Heaven knows I have no grudge against the Japanese, the fight I made later on the Russian side gave me something to do for two years. After the Peace with Idleness, came the motor mania, and I thought of nothing else for a time. But when you have run your car for months, motoring for its own sake ceases to be all in all. You ask yourself what country you would like best to visit with the machine you love.
Pride kept me from answering that question with the name of “Spain”; but it was because Biarritz is at the door of Spain that I had just invited Dick Waring—the best of friends, the most delightful of Americans, who fought side by side with me, for fun, in China—to drive there in my Gloria car.
“Yes, they knew when I went to Barcelona,” I admitted; for Dick was familiar with the story. “But that was different. Anyhow, I'm going to Biarritz, whatever happens. You can do as you like.”
“If you will go, I'll go too,” said Dick; “and if anything happens I'll be in it with you. But you may regret your rashness.”
“I've never yet regretted rashness,” I said. “Things done on impulse always turn out for the best.”
So we started from Paris the next day, and had a splendid run, [pg 5]through scenery to set the spirit singing in tune with the thrumming of the motor.
Whatever was to happen in Biarritz, and I was far enough from guessing then, nothing happened by the way; and we arrived on a morning of blue and gold.
We put up at a private hotel out of the way from fashionable thoroughfares; and, as my childhood and early youth were passed in England, I could use an English name without making myself ridiculous by a foreign accent. As for my brown face and black eyes, many a Cornishman has a face as brown and eyes as black; therefore, I edited the name of Triana into Cornish Trevenna, and changed Cristóbal, my middle name, into Christopher.
We took our first meal in the restaurant, and everyone at the little tables near by, was talking of the King and “Princess Ena”; how pretty she was, how much in love he; how charming their romance. My heart quite warmed to my youthful sovereign, who has had seven fewer years on earth than I. I felt that, if I had had a fair chance, I should have been his loyal subject.
“I'd like to have a look at him,” said I to Waring after lunch. “The lady with the nose who sat on our left said to her husband with the chin, that the King and the two Princesses motor every afternoon. We'll motor too; and where they go, there we'll go also.”
“Take care,” said Dick.
“A cat may look at a king. So may Chris Trevenna.”
“No good advising you to be cautious.”
“Of course not. You wouldn't care a rap for me if there was.”
“Shouldn't I? Anyhow, Chris Trevenna might as well wear goggles.”
“There's no dust to-day,” said I. “It rained in the night.”
“I give you up,” said Dick. And if giving me up meant going out with me in my big blue car directly after lunch, then he kept his word. Ropes, my chauffeur, and right-hand man, who sits always in the tonneau, had already heard all about the King's automobile, and was primed with particulars. He leaned across [pg 6]to describe its appearance, as well as mention the make; and when such a car as he was in the act of picturing passed us, going round a bend of the road which leads to Spain, there was no mistaking it.
“Let's follow,” said I.
Dick sighed, but naturally I paid no attention to that.
There were five persons in the King's car. The slim young owner, three ladies, two very slender and young, and the chauffeur, all five masked or goggled, so that it was impossible to see their faces.
“I wish something would happen to them,” I said.
Waring looked shocked.
“Just enough of a something to stop the car, and tempt the ladies to take off their motor-veils. I may never have another chance to see the future Queen of Spain.”
When I was a small lad in England, I used to lie under a favourite apple-tree in the orchard of the old place where we lived, and wish with all my might for the fall of a certain apple on which eyes and heart were fixed. It was extraordinary how often the apple would fall.
In a flash I remembered those wishes and those apples as we began to gain upon the King's car. Its pace slackened, and then it stopped. The chauffeur jumped out, and two of the ladies were raising their thick veils as we came up.
As we were not supposed to know the King, who was “incog,” the ordinary civilities between motorists were in order. I slowed down, and taking off my hat, inquired in French if there were anything I could do.
The two girls, who had hastily whipped off their veils, turned and glanced at me. Both were more than pretty; blond, violet-eyed, with radiant complexions; but one seemed to me beautiful as the Blessed Damozel looking down from the star-framed window of heaven; and I was suddenly sick with jealousy of the King, because I believed that she was his Princess.
It was he who answered, in French better than mine. He thanked [pg 7]me for my kind offer, and referred me to his chauffeur, who had not yet discovered the cause of the car's sudden loss of power. But even as he spoke, the mystery was solved. There was a leak in the petrol-tank, near the bottom; the last drop of essence had run away, and, as they had come out for a short spin, there was none in reserve.
An odd chance it seemed that brought me, the son of a banished rebel, to the King's aid; but life is odd. I rejoiced because it was odd, and more because of the girl.
I had a spare bidon of petrol which, with conventional expressions of pleasure, I gave to my fellow motorist. We exchanged compliments, and as nobody stared at me askance, I had reason to believe that neither words, actions, nor looks were out of the way. Yet what I said and did was said and done with no more guidance of the mind than the gestures and speech of a mechanical doll.
I was conscious only of the girl's eyes, for I had done that unreasonable, indefinable thing—fallen in love at first sight, and I had fallen very far, and very deep. She did not glance at me often, and after the first I scarcely glanced at her at all, lest my eyes should be indiscreet. It was the most curious thing in the world, and far beyond anything that had ever happened to me; but already I knew that I could not lose her out of my life. Sooner could I lose life itself. If she were the Princess who was to be Queen of Spain, I would follow her to Madrid, come what might, just for the joy of breathing the air she breathed, of seeing her drive past me in her carriage sometimes. I had wondered, knowing the traditions of our family, many of them tragic, when love would come to me. Now it had come quickly, in a moment; but not to go as it had come. It and I would be one, for always. The girl was little more than a child, but I knew she was to be the one woman for me; and that was what I feared my eyes might tell her. So I would not look; yet the air seemed charged with electricity to flash a thousand messages, and my blood tingled with the assurance that she had had my message, that unconsciously she was sending back a message to me.
[pg 8] All this was going on in my inner self, while the outer husk of self delivered itself of conventional things.
A leak was mended, a tank filled, while my life was being remade. Then there were bows, lifting of caps, many politenesses, and the King's car shot away.
“What's the matter?” inquired Waring by and by.
“Nothing,” I answered. “Why do you ask?”
“You act as if you'd had a stroke. Aren't you going to drive on?”
“No. Yes. I'm going back,” I said, and turned the car.
“You don't mean to follow, then?”
“There's something I need to do at once at Biarritz,” I answered. It was true. I needed to find out whether she was the Princess, or—just a girl.
It was easy to learn that she was not the Princess. I did that by going into a stationer's shop and asking for a photograph of the royal lovers. It was not quite so easy to find out who she was, without pinning my new secret on my sleeve; but luckily everyone in Biarritz boasted knowledge of the King's affairs, and the affairs of the pretty Princess. Christopher Trevenna made himself agreeable after dinner to the lady with the nose, who would probably have shrunk away in fear if she had known that she was talking with the Marqués de Casa Triana.
I, in my character of Trevenna, found out that the Princess had a friend, Lady Monica Vale, daughter of the widowed Countess of Vale-Avon, who, when at home, lived in the Isle of Wight. At present, the two were staying at Biarritz, in a villa; and Lady Monica, a girl of eighteen or nineteen, sometimes had the honour of going out with the Princesses, in the King's motor.
There were other privileged friends as well; but the description of Lady Monica Vale, though painted with a colourless brush, was unmistakable.
Casually I inquired the name of the house where Lady Vale-Avon and her daughter were staying, and having learned it, I made an excuse to escape from the lady with the nose.
It was half-past ten o'clock, and a night flooded with moonlight. I strolled out, smoking a cigarette, and in ten minutes stood before the garden gate of the Villa Esmeralda.
There were lights in three or four of the windows, sparkling [pg 10]among close-growing trees; and I had not finished my second cigarette, when a carriage drove round the corner and stopped.
I moved into the background. A groom jumped down, unfastened the gate, and having opened the brougham door, respectfully aided a middle-aged lady to descend.
The moonlight showed me a clear, proud profile, and fired the diamonds in a tiara which crowned a head of waved grey hair.
There were billows of violet satin and lace to keep off the ground; and as the groom helped the wearer to adjust them under her chinchilla coat, a girl sprang out of the carriage, her white figure and rippling hair of daffodil gold in full moonlight.
I stood as a man might stand who sees a vision, hardly breathing. I made no sound, yet she turned and saw me, sheltered as I was by the dappled trunk of a tall plane-tree. It was as if I had called, and she had answered.
I knew she remembered me, and that she did not misunderstand my presence. There was no anger in her face, only surprise, and a light which was hidden as she dropped her head, and passed on through the gate.
I could have sung the song of the stars. She had not forgotten me since the afternoon. The look in my eyes then, had arrested some thought of hers, and set me apart in her mind from other men.
It was no stupid conceit which made me feel this, but a kind of exalted conviction.
When the gate was shut, I took off my hat and looked at the lighted windows. I could make her care. I said to myself, “We're meant for each other. And if that's true, though all the mountains in the world were piled up as barriers between us, I'd cross them.”
That was a vow. And through the remaining hours of the night I tried to plan how it would be best to begin its fulfilment.
Men who have gone through a campaign as close friends, have few secrets from one another; and I had none from Dick Waring. Nevertheless, I would now have kept one if it were possible; [pg 11]but it was not. If I had not told him, he would have guessed, and then he might have thought that he had the right to chaff me on losing my head.
It is only a happy lover who can bear to be chaffed, however, and a few words were enough to show my tactful American where to set his feet on the slippery path.
He too had seen the girl; therefore he could not be surprised at my state of mind. But he regretted it, and urged that the best I could do was to go away, before the thought of her had taken too deep a hold upon me.
“You see,” he said, “you're in a hopeless position; and it's better to look facts in the face. If you'd fallen in love with almost any other girl, except Princess Ena herself, you might have hoped. But as it is, what have you to look forward to? You oughtn't to have come to Biarritz. In the circumstances, and with the King here, it was bravado. Friends of his, enemies of yours, might even say it was bad taste, which is worse. And then, having come, you proceed to follow the King's motor-car; you fall head over ears in love with a girl in it, a friend of the bride-elect, to whom your real name, if she's not heard it already, could easily be made to seem anathema maranatha. But that's not all. You're here under a name not your own. If you should by luck or ill-luck get a chance to meet Lady Monica, you couldn't be introduced to her as Christopher Trevenna; it would be a false pretence; still less could you throw your real name in her face; for between the King of Spain as a friend, and you as an acquaintance, the girl would be in an uncomfortable position, to say the least. No, my dear fellow, you can't meet this young lady; and the only thing for your peace of mind, if you've really fallen in love, is to go away.”
I had no arguments with which to meet Dick's. I listened in silence, but—I made no preparation for departure. If there was nothing to be gained by staying, at least there was as little to be gained by going; for I knew that I should not forget the girl. If I were struck blind, her face would still live for my eyes, white and pure against a background of darkness.
[pg 012] We stayed on at Biarritz, but I behaved with circumspection, and made no further attempts to put myself in the King's Way, though he arrived at the Villa Mouriscot every morning from San Sebastian. Dick approved my conduct and, pitying my depression, perhaps repented his hardness. He found several Parisian friends at Biarritz, and when we had been there for three days, he came back to the hotel from the Casino one night with an important air.
“Strange how one's tempted to do things one knows one oughtn't to do,” said he. “Now, it's unwise to tell you I've met a man who knows Lady Monica Vale, yet I'm doing it.”
“What did the man say?” I asked.
“A number of things—charming, of course. She's not engaged, if that's any consolation.”
“Oh, I knew that.”
“How?”
“By her eyes.”
“Apparently she observed yours also.”
“What? She's spoken of—she—”
“The sister of my man is a friend of Lady Monica's. She told the sister about the motor-car adventure.”
“For goodness sake don't force me to ask questions.”
“I won't. I've a soft heart, which has often been my undoing. She said she'd seen the most interesting man in the world. Don't faint.”
“Don't be an ass.”
“I'm not chaffing. She did say that—honest Injun. At least, I've Henri de la Mole's word for it. His sister was at school at the convent of the Virgin of Tears with Lady Monica Vale. Lady Monica supposed the other day that we were both French, which is a compliment to your accent. She said she wished she could find out ‘who was the brown man with the eyes.’ I'm a fool to have told you that though, eh? It can't do you any good, and will probably make you worse.”
“But it has done me good.”
[pg 013] “Flattered your vanity. However, I haven't told you all yet. De la Mole says the mother's a dragon, hard as iron, cold as steel, living for ambition. She was left poor, on her husband's death, as the Vale-Avon estates went with the title to a distant relative, and the girl's been brought up to make a brilliant match. She's been given every accomplishment under Heaven, to add to her beauty; and as the family's one of the oldest in Great Britain, connected with royalty in one way or another, in Stuart days, Lady's Monica's expected to pull off something from the top branch, in the way of a marriage. De la Mole's heard that the present Lord Vale-Avon has been first favourite with the mother up till lately, though he's next door to an idiot. Princess Ena's engagement to the King of Spain has changed everything. You see, Lady Vale-Avon and her daughter live not far from the Princess, in the Isle of Wight. When the King came a-courting to England, came also, though not exactly in his train, another Spaniard, the Duke of Carmona, and—”
“Don't,” I cut in; “I won't hear his name in connection with her's. That half Moorish brute!”
“He may have a dash of Moorish blood, but he's not half Moorish; and if he's a brute, he's a good-looking brute, according to de la Mole, also he's one of the richest young men in Spain. Lady Vale-Avon—”
I jumped up and stopped Dick. “I'm in earnest,” I said. “I can't bear to listen. I know the sort of things you'd say. But don't. If you do, I think I'll kill the fellow.”
“Ever met him?”
“No. The men of my house and of his have been enemies for generations. But I've heard of certain exploits.”
“He's coming here to stop with his mother, the old Duchess, who's been spending the winter at Biarritz. Another reason for you to vamose.”
“You mean, to stay. At least, he shan't have a clear coast.”
“I don't see how you can hope to block it.”
[pg 014] “I will—somehow.”
“No doubt you're a hundred times the man he is, but—fate's handicapped you for a show place in the matrimonial market. You are—”
“A man countryless and penniless. Don't hesitate to state the case frankly.”
“Well, you've said it. While the other's rich, and a grandee of Spain. And, though de la Mole says the King doesn't care for him, on account of something or other connected with the Spanish-American War, he's bound to become a persona grata at Court if he marries a friend of the young Queen; and, no doubt, that influences his choice.”
“Thank Heaven, Lady Monica isn't Spanish.”
“Ah, but Spain's the fashion now. And you haven't heard all my news. Henri de la Mole says Lady Monica is asked to be a maid of honour for the young Queen of Spain, the one Englishwoman she's to have in attendance.”
“At least the wedding won't be till June. It's only the end of February now. I've got more than three months.”
“You haven't got one. Soon after the Princesses leave Biarritz, Lady Vale-Avon and Lady Monica are going to visit the old Duchess of Carmona in Spain.”
“What, they're going to Seville?”
“If her house is there. I'm telling you what I've been told.”
“The principal house of the Duke is in Seville, though he has a place near Granada, and a flat in Madrid as a substitute for a fine house that was burned down.”
“Then Seville's where they'll be. Anyhow, they're to see the great show in Holy Week there.”
It was as if Dick had suddenly drenched me with iced water.
For a few seconds I did not speak. Then I said, “Are you trying to break it to me that the match is arranged?”
“I told you Lady Monica wasn't engaged.”
“And I told you I knew she wasn't. But that isn't to say the mother, the woman ‘as hard as iron and cold as steel,’ hasn't [pg 15]planned her daughter's future, a girl so young, and always kept under control.”
“It looks as if the wind was setting in that quarter. A person of Lady Vale-Avon's type would hardly accept such an invitation if she didn't intend something to come of it.”
“You're certain the invitation's been accepted?”
“Certain. Angèle de la Mole has been with her brother in Spain, and Lady Monica's been asking her advice about what to take and what to wear. The Duke himself is in Paris, buying a new automobile; at least, so his mother says; but other people say he's at Monte Carlo. Anyhow, he's expected here in time for the ball.”
“What ball?”
“Didn't I tell you? A masked ball the old Duchess is giving in honour of Princess Ena. A grand affair it will be, says de la Mole. There's been jealousy about the invitations, which have been carefully weeded.”
“You and I'll accept,” said I.
“We're not likely to have the chance.”
“Sometimes a man must make a chance. I shall meet Lady Monica at the Duchess's ball.”
“All right. Suppose you go in the garb of a palmer?”
“Eh?”
“I was thinking of another first meeting, case not dissimilar, you know, Romeo and Juliet. My poor, mad friend, there's more hope for a Montague with a Capulet than for a Casa Triana with a friend of the future Queen of Spain, and the daughter of a Lady Vale-Avon.”
“Romeo won Juliet.”
“It wasn't exactly a fortunate marriage. See here, if you're going in for the part of Romeo, it's no good asking me to play Mercutio.”
I looked at Dick and smiled. “I shall ask nothing,” I said. “Yet—”
“Yet, you know mighty well, if you want a Mercutio, I'll be [pg 16]ready to take up the rôle at a moment's notice all for the sake of your beaux yeux. Well, you're right. There's something queer about you, Ramón, which makes us others glad to do what we can, even if it were to cost our lives. If you'd been a king in exile, you'd have had no trouble in finding followers. From your French valet to your Russian soldiers; from your English chauffeur to your American friend, it's pretty well the same. I expect you'll get to that masked ball.”
“If I don't, it won't be for lack of trying,” said I.
“But—”
“But what—”
“This affair of yours is going to end in tragedy—for someone,” said Dick.
During the next two or three days I found more to do. I got Dick to introduce me to his friend Henri de la Mole, not as Christopher Trevenna, but under my own name, and when he and his sister had been interested in what they chose to think a romance, I was able to learn through them that, curiously enough, Lady Vale-Avon had arranged for her daughter to appear at the ball as Juliet.
The costume, it seemed, decided itself, because there happened to be among Lady Vale-Avon's inherited and most treasured possessions, an interesting pearl head-dress of the conventional Juliet fashion. This had been sent for from England; and if I could succeed in getting to the ball, as I fully intended to do, I should have little difficulty in identifying the head that I adored.
Had I not taken de la Mole more or less into my confidence, he would have done nothing to further my interests; but, if I really have any such power as Dick Waring hinted, I used it to enlist de la Mole upon my side. Finally he not only agreed, but offered to help me enter the Duchess of Carmona's house as one of her masked guests. He had been asked to stand at the door that night, and request each person, or in any case the man of each party, to raise his mask for an instant. This, in order to keep out reporters and intruders of all sorts; and his promise was to let me pass in unchallenged. I might count on his good offices, not only in that way, but in any other way possible, for “all the world loves a lover,” said he. And he wished me the best of luck, though he looked as if he hardly expected me to have it.
[pg 018] Probably it was foolish and conceited, but I could not resist playing up to the rôle Dick suggested. She was to be Juliet. I would be Romeo.
By this time, no doubt, the Duchess's invited guests had their costumes well under way; I had to get mine, and the only way to have something worthy of the occasion was to go to Paris for it. I did go, and was back in Biarritz in two days.
The rest moved easily, without a hitch. The night of the ball came. I dressed and went alone, rather than drag Dick into an affair which might end disagreeably.
I did not put myself forward, but stood for a while and watched the dancers, waiting for my chance.
Carmona had arrived the day before. I had never met him, but what I had heard I did not like; and having seen him once or twice in London, at a distance, he was recognizable in a costume copied from a famous portrait of that Duke of Alba who loomed great in Philip the Second's day. Because of a slight difference one from the other, in the height of his shoulders, he was difficult to disguise; and though the arrangement of the costume was intended to hide the peculiarity, it was perceptible.
When the “Duke of Alba” had danced twice in succession with Juliet Capulet, I could bear my rôle of watcher no longer. Besides, I knew that I had not much time to waste. For the sake of de la Mole, who had run the risk of admitting a stranger, I must vanish before the hour for the masks to fall. When I took off my cap and bowed before this white Juliet with the pearl-laced plaits of gold, she gazed at me through her velvet mask in the silence of surprise. I could not guess whether she puzzled herself as to what was under my yellow-brown wig and my mask; but at least she must know it was Romeo who begged a dance.
I did not urge my claim on such a plea, however, least it should rouse Carmona's opposition, and cause him to keep the girl from me if he could. I merely said, “The next is our dance,” risking a rebuff; but it did not come.
[pg 019] “Yes,” she said, almost timidly. It was the first time I had heard her speak, and her voice went to my heart.
The Duke stared, as though he would have stripped off my mask by sheer force of curiosity. But he had to let the girl go; and as the music began she was in my arms. I hardly dared believe my own luck. Neither of us spoke. I was lost in the sense of her nearness, the knowledge that it was the music which gave me the right to hold her thus, and that when the music died I must let her go.
But a quick thought came. If we danced the waltz through, Carmona or someone else would claim her for the next. If I could hide the girl before it was over, perhaps I might keep her for a little time. Indeed, I must keep her, if this meeting were not to end in failure; for there were things I had to say.
The conservatory was too obvious; and the shallow staircase with its rose-garlanded balusters, and its fat silk cushion for each step, would soon be invaded by a dozen couples. What to do, then? I would have given much to know the house.
“I must speak with you,” I said at last. “Where can we go?”
She did not say in return, “Do you know me, then?” or any other conventional thing. The hope in me that she had remembered well enough to guess who I was, brightened. She would not have answered a person she regarded as a stranger, as she answered me,
“There's a card-room at the end of the corridor to the left, off the big hall, where we might rest for a moment or two,” she said. “But I mustn't stop long.”
“No,” I promised. “I won't try to keep you. I ask only a few moments. I can't tell how I thank you for giving me those.”
I threw a glance round for Carmona, and saw him dancing with a stately Mary Stuart. I guessed his partner to be Lady Vale-Avon; and if I were right, it was a bad omen. She was not a woman to care for extraneous dancing, therefore she favoured Carmona in particular.
Still, for the moment he was occupied; and when his back was [pg 20]turned I whisked Lady Monica out of the ball-room, past the decorated staircase in the square hall, and to the room at the end of the corridor. There I pushed aside a portière and followed her in.
She had been right; the room was unoccupied, though two or three bridge tables were ready for players. In one corner was a small sofa. The girl sat down, carefully leaving no place for me, even had I presumed; and, leaning forward, clasped her little hands nervously round her knees.
Then she looked up at me through her mask; and I did not keep her waiting.
“I've no invitation to-night,” I said. “But I had to come. I came to see you. Do you forgive me for saying this?”
“I—think so,” she answered.
“You would be sure, if you knew all.”
“I do know. At least—I mean—but of course, I oughtn't to be here with you.”
“According to convention you oughtn't. Yet—”
“I'm not thinking of conventions. But—oh, I should hate you to misunderstand!”
“I could never misunderstand.”
I snatched off my mask and stood looking down at her, knowing that my face would say what was in my heart, and not now wishing to hide the secret.
“You know,” I said, “that I've worshipped you since the first moment I saw you. It was impossible to meet you in any ordinary way, for you have no friend who would introduce to you the Marqués de Casa Triana. Have you ever heard that name before, Lady Monica?”
“Yes,” she answered frankly. “I heard it yesterday. From Angèle de la Mole.”
“Her brother's a friend of my best friend.”
“I know.”
“If it hadn't been for him, I should have had great trouble in getting here to-night. Yet I would have come. Did Mademoiselle de la Mole tell you that I loved you?”
[pg 021] Lady Monica dropped her head and did not answer, but the little hands were pressed tightly together.
“I've always been proud of my name,” I said, “though it's counted a misfortune to bear it; but when I saw you, then I knew for the first time how great a misfortune it may be.”
“Why?”
“Because my only happiness can come now in having you for my wife; and even if I could win your love, you wouldn't be allowed to marry my father's son.”
“Your father may have been mistaken,” the girl faltered. “I do think he was. But he was a gloriously brave man. Even the enemies against whom he fought must respect his memory. I—I've read of him. I—bought a book yesterday. You see—I've thought about you. I couldn't help it. We saw each other only those few minutes, and we didn't even speak; yet somehow it was different from anything else that ever happened to me.”
“It was fate,” I said. “We were destined to meet, and I was destined to love you. If I thought I could make you care, that would give me a right I couldn't have otherwise; the right to try and win your love, and beat down every obstacle.”
“I could—I do care,” she whispered. “Even if I were never to see you again, I shouldn't forget. This—would be the romance of my life.”
“Angel!” I said. And then she took off her mask, with such a divine smile that I could have knelt at her feet as at the shrine of a saint.
“Isn't it wonderful?” she asked. “I didn't find out your name till yesterday, though I tried before; and we don't know each other at all—”
“Why, we've known each other since the world began. My soul had been waiting to find yours again, and found it the other afternoon, on the road to my own land. That's what people who don't understand call ‘love at first sight.’”
“I think it must be so; because there was never anything like that first minute when you looked at me.”
[pg 022] “If I could have known, it would have saved me sleepless nights. For now you're mine, my dearest, just as I am yours. Nothing can take you from me now.”
“Ah, I'm afraid! Even if—everything were different in your life, it would be difficult; for—there's someone else in mine already.”
“There can be no one else, since you care for me.”
“Not truly in my life. But there's someone my mother wants me to marry.”
“The Duke of Carmona.”
“You knew?”
“You see, I've thought of nothing but you; and I've learned all I could about what concerns you.”
“I don't like him, not even as a friend. He's handsome enough, but I'm sure he has a most horrible temper. I could be afraid of him. I believe I am afraid. And mother—you don't know her, but—when she makes up her mind that you're to do a certain thing, you find yourself doing it. That's one reason I was so glad when you came to-night, and said, ‘The next is our dance,’ in such a determined way. Not only did you take me away from him, but—I felt you'd try to keep me from him, in the end.”
“Try!” I echoed. “I will keep you. Trust me my darling. I've been foolish to come to Biarritz under another name. This isn't Spain; and even a Casa Triana has a right to be here. But luckily not much harm's done. Through the de la Moles I'll be presented to Lady Vale-Avon; I'll tell her that, though compared to the days when my people counted for something in the history of Spain, I'm penniless, still my father left me enough to live on and keep a wife who loves me better than she loves society. I'll tell Lady Vale-Avon that there are countries in which my name's well thought of, even in these piping times; that there I'll do something worth doing—”
“You've already done things worth doing,” the girl broke in; “splendid things.”
[pg 023] “I've done nothing yet, but I'll change that. I'll ask your mother to give me a chance—to wait—”
“No,” she insisted. “Mother would refuse, and everything would be worse than ever.”
“Darling one, they couldn't be worse. Because now, I'm doing what I oughtn't to do, although it's been forced upon me by my love. To deserve you in the faintest degree, I must be open in my dealings. I must speak to Lady Vale-Avon.”
“She'll never consent.”
“At least I shall have done the right thing. Now we've had this talk, now you know that you're all the world, and heaven besides, to me, even for your mother's sake you won't throw me over, will you?”
“No, a thousand times no. I didn't dream loving would be like this. It would kill me to give you up.”
“Then nothing can part us.”
“It makes me feel brave to hear you say so. But—you don't know mother.”
“I know myself, and I trust you.”
“I'm so young, and—I've never been allowed to have my own way. I've always given up.”
“Because you were alone, with no one to help you. Now you have me.”
“That's true. But—”
“Precious one, there's no 'but.'”
“I wish I could think so! Yet something seems to say that if you speak to mother, we shall be lost. I love you—but—do let it be kept secret for a while.”
“With what end?”
“I hardly know. Only, I've the strongest presentiment it would be best.”
“And I've the strongest conviction that not only would it be wrong, but that you wouldn't respect me if I consented.”
“I beg of you, wait at least till the royalties leave Biarritz before you tell mother, or anyone, who you are.”
[pg 024] I could not help smiling, though rather bitterly. “You've heard about my adventure in Barcelona?”
“Yes, from Angèle. I couldn't bear it if you were to have trouble here.”
“There's no danger of that.”
“One can't tell. Circumstances which you don't foresee might seem to involve you in some plot. Oh, if you love me, wait till the royalties have gone.”
How could I refuse those soft eyes, and those little clasped hands?
I caught the hands and crushed them against my lips, the rosy fingers that smelled of orris, and the polished nails like pink jewels. As I bent over my love, the curtain which covered the doorway waved as in a gust of wind.
Quick as light, Monica snatched away her hands, but it was too late. Carmona was holding back the portière for Lady Vale-Avon.
He must have been watching. He must have known that I had brought Lady Monica to this room. He must have fetched the girl's mother on purpose to find us together.
These were the thoughts in my mind as I faced the two, mask in hand.
They had seen me kissing Monica's fingers. It was useless to hope that they had not.
“Leave the room instantly, my daughter,” said Lady Vale-Avon, in a low voice. She too had taken off her mask.
It was a disastrous situation for me, and one all too difficult to carry off with dignity.
“Madame,” I said. “I am the Marqués de Casa Triana. I met Lady Monica some time ago, and have this moment told her that I love her. Now, I ask your consent to—”
“Casa Triana here!” exclaimed Carmona, in a tone which could have expressed no more of horror, had I been a bandit at large.
“Have no fear for your house,” I could not help sneering.
[pg 025] He gave me a look not to be forgiven a man by a man. “I have no such fear,” he said; “but there are those here whose safety is dear to me; and your name is not one which should be spoken under the same roof.”
It was thus that he chose to inform Lady Vale-Avon, if she had been ignorant of it, that I was a notorious character.
“Will you tell me,” he went on, “how you found your way into my mother's house, where no one of your name could be an invited guest?”
“There's a window,” said I, thinking to save de la Mole, “by which the world and his wife might enter.”
“I saw you, masked, in the ball-room half an hour ago.”
Half an hour ago! Perhaps he was not exaggerating. But the thirty minutes, if there had been thirty, had passed like one.
“I was there,” I admitted, “looking for Lady Monica Vale. We danced together, and I brought her here—”
“Who is this man, Duke?” Though she spoke to him, Lady Vale-Avon's eyes, cold as points of steel, pierced mine.
“A person who, whatever his intentions may be, ought not to be in Biarritz while King Alfonso's here.”
“I remember the name now. And he has come to your house, uninvited; he proposes to marry my daughter—a man whom I've never seen! You have your answer, Marqués de Casa Triana, if you need an answer. It is, no. Pray accept it quietly, and cease to persecute us, otherwise I must ask the Duke to act for me, as I have no husband or son. Is that enough?”
“It is not enough,” I echoed. “I love your daughter, and I trust she cares for me. I will not give her up.”
“Monica, I told you to go, and you disobey me,” exclaimed Lady Vale-Avon. “Now, I tell you to send this man away.”
“Mother—I love him,” faltered the girl. “Wait—when you've heard—when you know what he is—”
“You talk like a child, Monica,” her mother said. “You are a child. It's your one excuse; but this man, who must have [pg 26]hypnotized you, has reached years of discretion. If he will not leave the room, we must.”
“I'll go, Lady Vale-Avon,” I said, “but first let me say once more, frankly, I will never give up your daughter.” Then I looked straight at Monica. “Trust me,” I said, “as I trust you; and have courage.”
With that I bowed, and walked out at the window by which I hoped the Duke thought I had come in.
“I'm not sure,” I heard him say to Lady Vale-Avon, “that I oughtn't to inform the police. In Barcelona, six or seven years ago—”
I waited for no more.