Graustark

  XI. LOVE IN A CASTLE

  As the day wore on Lorry grew irritable and restless. He could not bringhimself into full touch with the situation, notwithstanding Harry'sfrequent and graphic recollections of incidents that had occurred andthat had led to their present condition. Their luncheon was served inthe Count's room, as it was inadvisable for the injured man to go to thedining-hall until he was stronger. The court physician assured him thathe would be incapacitated for several days, but that in a very shorttime his wound would lose the power to annoy him in the least. The Countand Countess Halfont, Anguish and others came to cheer him and to makehis surroundings endurable. Still he was dissatisfied, even unhappy.

  The cause of his uneasiness and depression was revealed only by themanner in which it was removed. He was lying stretched out on the couch,staring from the window, his head aching; his heart full of a longingthat knows but one solace. Anguish had gone out in the grounds afterassuring himself that his charge was asleep, so there was no one in theroom when he awakened from a sickening dream to shudder alone over itsmemory. A cool breeze from an open window fanned his head kindly; abright sun gleamed across the trees, turning them into gold and purpleand red and green; a quiet repose was in all that touched him outwardly;inwardly there was burning turmoil. He turned on his side and curiouslyfelt the bandages about his head. They were tight and smooth, and heknew they were perfectly white. How lonely those bandages made him feel,away off there in Graustark!

  The door to his room opened softly, but he did not turn, thinking it wasAnguish--always Anguish--and not the one he most desired to--

  "Her Royal Highness," announced a maid, and then--

  "May I come in?" asked a voice that went to his troubled soul like acooling draught to the fevered throat. He turned toward her instantly,all the irritation, all the uneasiness, all the loneliness vanishinglike mist before the sun. Behind her was a lady-in-waiting.

  "I cannot deny the request of a princess," he responded, smiling gaily.He held forth his hand toward her, half fearing she would not take it.

  The Princess Yetive came straight to his couch and laid her hand inhis. He drew it to his lips and then released it lingeringly. She stoodbefore him, looking down with an anxiety in her eyes that would haverepaid him had death been there to claim his next breath.

  "Are you better?" she asked, with her pretty accent. "I have been sotroubled about you."

  "I thought you had forgotten me," he said, with childish petulance.

  "Forgotten you!" she cried, quick to resent the imputation. "Let me tellyou, then, what I have been doing while forgetting. I have sent to theRegengetz for your luggage and your friend's. You will find it much morecomfortable here. You are to make this house your home as long as youare in Edelweiss. That is how I have been forgetting."

  "Forgive me!" he cried, his eyes gleaming. "I have been so lonely that Iimagined all sorts of things. But, your Highness, you must not expect usto remain here after I am able to leave. That would be imposing--"

  "I will not allow you to say it!" she objected, decisively. "You are theguest of honor in Graustark. Have you not preserved its ruler? Was itan imposition to risk your life to save one in whom you had but passinginterest, even though she were a poor princess? No, my American, thiscastle is yours, in all rejoicing, for had you not come within its doorsto-day would have found it in mournful terror. Besides, Mr. Anguish hassaid he will stay a year if we insist."

  "That's like Harry," laughed Lorry. "But I am afraid you are glorifyingtwo rattlebrained chaps who should be in a home for imbeciles instead ofin the castle their audacity might have blighted. Our rashness was onlysurpassed by our phenomenal good luck. By chance it turned out well;there were ten thousand chances of ignominious failure. Had we failedwould we have been guests of honor? No! We would have been stoned fromGraustark. You don't know how thin the thread was that held your fate.It makes me shudder to think of the crime our act might have been.Ah, had I but known you were the Princess, no chances should have beentaken," he said, fervently.

  "And a romance spoiled," she laughed.

  "So you are a princess,--a real princess," he went on, as if he hadnot heard her. "I knew it. Something told me you were not an ordinarywoman."

  "Oh, but I am a very ordinary woman," she remonstrated. "You do not knowhow easy it is to be a princess and a mere woman at the same time. Ihave a heart, a head. I breathe and eat and drink and sleep and love. Isit not that way with other women?"

  "You breathe and eat and drink and sleep and love in a different world,though, your Highness."

  "Ach! my little maid, Therese, sleeps as soundly, eats as heartily andloves as warmly as I, so a fig for your argument."

  "You may breathe the same air, but would you love the same man that yourmaid might love?"

  "Is a man the only excuse for love?" she asked. "If so, then I must saythat I breathe and eat and drink and sleep--and that is all."

  "Pardon me, but some day you will find that love is a man, and"--here helaughed--"you will neither breathe, nor eat, nor sleep except with himin your heart. Even a princess is not proof against a man."

  "Is a man proof against a princess?" she asked, as she leaned againstthe casement.

  "It depends on the"--he paused "the princess, I should say."

  "Alas! There is one more fresh responsibility acquired. It seems to methat everything depends on the princess," she said, merrily.

  "Not entirely," he said, quickly. "A great deal--a very greatdeal--depends on circumstances. For instance, when you were MissGuggenslocker it wouldn't have been necessary for the man to be aprince, you know."

  "But I was Miss Guggenslocker because a man was unnecessary," she said,so gravely that he smiled. "I was without a title because it was morewomanly than to be a 'freak,' as I should have been had every man, womanand child looked upon me as a princess. I did not travel through yourland for the purpose of exhibiting myself, but to learn and unlearn."

  "I remember it cost you a certain coin to learn one thing," he observed.

  "It was money well spent, as subsequent events have proved. I shallnever regret the spending of that half gavvo. Was it not the means ofbringing you to Edelweiss?"

  "Well, it was largely responsible, but I am inclined to believe that acertain desire on my part would have found a way without the assistanceof the coin. You don't know how persistent an American can be."

  "Would you have persisted had you known I was a princess?" she asked.

  "Well, I can hardly tell about that, but you must remember I didn't knowwho or what you were."

  "Would you have come to Graustark had you known I was its princess?"

  "I'll admit I came because you were Miss Guggenslocker."

  "A mere woman."

  "I will not consent to the word 'mere.' What would you think of a manwho came half-way across the earth for the sake of a mere woman?"

  "I should say he had a great deal of curiosity," she responded, coolly.

  "And not much sense. There is but one woman a man would do so much for,and she could not be a mere woman in his eyes." Lorry's face was whiteand his eyes gleamed as he hurled this bold conclusion at her.

  "Especially when he learns that she is a princess!" said she, her voiceso cold and repellent that his eyes closed, involuntarily, as if anunexpected horror had come before them. "You must not tell me that youcame to see me.

  "But I did come to see you and not Her Royal Highness the PrincessYetive of Graustark. How was I to know?" he cried impulsively.

  "But you are no longer ignorant," she said, looking from the window.

  "I thought you said you were a mere woman!"

  "I am--and that is the trouble!" she said, slowly turning her eyes backto him. Then she abruptly sank to the window seat near his head. "Thatis the trouble, I say. A woman is a woman, although she be a princess.Don't you understand why you must not say such things to me?"

  "Because you are a princess," he said, bitterly.

  "No; because I am a wom
an. As a woman I want to hear them, as, aprincess I cannot. Now, have I made you understand? Have I been boldenough?" Her face was burning.

  "You--you don't mean that you--" he half whispered, drawing himselftoward her, his face glowing.

  "Ach! What have I said?"

  "You have said enough to drive me mad with desire for more," he cried,seizing her hand, which she withdrew instantly, rising to her feet.

  "I have only said that I wanted to hear you say you had come to see me.Is not that something for a woman's vanity to value? I am sorry you havepresumed to misunderstand me." She was cold again, but he was not to bebaffled.

  "Then be a woman and forget that you are a princess until I tell you whyI came," he cried.

  "I cannot! I mean, I will not listen to you," she said, glancing abouthelplessly, yet standing still within the danger circle.

  "I came because I have thought of you and dreamed of you since the dayyou sailed from New York. God, can I ever forget that day!"

  "Please do not recall--" she began, blushing and turning to the window.

  "The kiss you threw to me? Were you a princess then?" She did notanswer, and he paused for a moment, a thought striking him which atfirst he did not dare to voice. Then he blurted it out. "If you do notwant to hear me say these things, why do you stand there?"

  "Oh," she faltered.

  "Don't leave me now. I want to say what I came over here to say, andthen you can go back to your throne and your royal reserve, and I can goback to the land from which you drew me. I came because I love you. Isnot that enough to drag a man to the end of the world? I came to marryyou if I could, for you were Miss Guggenslocker to me. Then you werewithin my reach, but not now! I can only love a princess!" He stoppedbecause she had dropped to the couch beside him, her serious face turnedappealingly to his, her fingers clasping his hands fiercely.

  "I forbid you to continue--I forbid you! Do you hear? I, too, havethought and dreamed of you, and I have prayed that you might come. Butyou must not tell me that you love me-you shall not!"

  "I only want to know that you love me," he whispered.

  "Do you think I can tell you the truth?" she cried. "I do not love you!"

  Before he had fairly grasped the importance of the contradictorysentences, she left his side and stood in the window, her breast heavingand her face flaming.

  "Then I am to believe you do," he groaned, after a moment. "I find aprinces and lose a woman!"

  "I did not intend that you should have said what you have, or that Ishould have told you what I have. I knew you loved me or you would nothave come to me," she said, softly.

  "You would have been selfish enough to enjoy that knowledge withoutgiving joy in return. I see. What else could you have done? A princess!Oh, I would to God you were Miss Guggenslocker, the woman I sought!"

  "Amen to that!" she said. "Can I trust you never to renew this subject?We have each learned what had better been left unknown. You understandmy position. Surely you will be good enough to look upon me everafterward as a princess and forget that I have been a woman unwittingly.I ask you, for your sake and my own, to refrain from a renewal of thisunhappy subject. You can see how hopeless it is for both of us. I havesaid much to you that I trust you will cherish as coming from a womanwho could not have helped herself and who has given to you the power toundo her with a single word. I know you will always be the brave, trueman my heart has told me you are. You will let the beginning be theend?"

  The appeal was so earnest, so noble that honor swelled in his heart andcame from his lips in this promise:

  "You may trust me, your Highness. Your secret is worth a thousand-foldmore than mine. It is sacred with me. The joy of my life has ended, butthe happiness of knowing the truth will never die. I shall remember thatyou love me--yes, I know you do,--and I shall never forget to love you.I will not promise that I shall never speak of it again to you. As I liehere, there comes to me a courage I did not know I could feel."

  "No, no!" she cried, vehemently.

  "Forgive me! You can at least let me say that as long as I live Imay cherish and encourage the little hope that all is not dead. YourHighness, let me say that my family never knows when it is defeated,either in love or in war."

  "The walls which surround the heart of a princess are black and grim,impenetrable when she defends it, my boasting American," she said,smiling sadly.

  "Yet some prince of the realm will batter down the wall and win at asingle blow that which a mere man could not conquer in ten lifetimes.Such is the world."

  "The prince may batter down and seize, but he can never conquer. Butenough of this! I am the Princess of Graustark; you are my friend,Grenfall Lorry, and there is only a dear friendship between us," shecried, resuming her merry humor so easily that he started with surpriseand not a little displeasure.

  "And a throne," he added, smiling, how ever.

  "And a promise," she reminded him.

  "From which I trust I may some day be released," said he, sinking back,afflicted with a discouragement and a determination of equal power. Hecould see hope and hopelessness ahead.

  "By death!"

  "No; by life! It may be sooner than you think!"

  "You are forgetting your promise already."

  "Your Highness's pardon," he begged.

  They laughed, but their hearts were sad, this luckless American andhapless sovereign who would, if she could, be a woman.

  "It is now three o'clock--the hour when you were to have called to seeme," she said, again sitting unconcernedly before him in the windowseat. She was not afraid of him. She was a princess.

  "I misunderstood you, your highness. I remembered the engagement, but itseems I was mistaken as to the time. I came at three in the morning!"

  "And found me at home!"

  "In an impregnable castle, with ogres all about."