Part 11 (1/2)
”Pardon the indiscretion, but you blushed.”
”Yes, I felt it, but I don't know why,” she answered with an almost artless innocence in her gaze. The prince could not help smiling.
”Countess, Countess!” he said, shaking his finger at her as if she were a child. ”Guard your imagination; it will prove a traitor some day.”
The countess, as if with a sweet consciousness of guilt, drew down the uplifted hand with a movement of such indescribable grace that no one could have remained angry with her. The prince knelt at her feet an instant, not longer than a blade of gra.s.s requires to bend before the breeze and rise again, then he stood erect, somewhat paler than before, but perfectly calm.
”I'll go in and tell my valet to serve our dinner here.”
”If you please, Prince,” replied the lady, gazing absently down the street.
Andreas Gross entered the garden. ”Everything is settled, Your Highness. I have talked with Josepha's relatives and guardian and they will be very glad to have you take her.”
”All, even the Christ-Freyer?”
”Certainly, there is no objection.”
She had expected something more and looked at the old man as if for the rest of the message, but he added nothing.
”Ought not Freyer to come here, in order to discuss the particulars with me?” she asked at last, almost timidly.
”Why, he goes to see no one, as I told you, and he surely would not come to speak of Josepha, for he is ashamed of her. He says that whatever you do will be satisfactory to him.”
”Very well,” replied the countess, in a somewhat disappointed tone.
”What a comical tete-a-tete!” a laughing voice suddenly exclaimed behind the fence. The countess started up, but it was too late for escape; she was caught.
A lady, young and elegantly dressed, accompanied by two older ones, eagerly rushed up to her.
”Dear Countess, why have you hidden yourself here at the farthest corner of the village? We have searched all Ammergau for you. Your coat-of-arms on the carriage and your liveries at the old post-house betrayed you. Yes, yes, when people want to travel _incognito_, they must not journey with genuine Wildenau elegance. We were more cautious.
We came in a modest hired conveyance. But what a life this is! I was obliged to sleep on straw last night. Hear and shudder! On _straw_! Did you have a bed? You have been here since yesterday?”
”Why, Your Highness, pray take breath! Good morning, Baroness! Good morning, Your Excellency!”
The Countess von Wildenau greeted all the ladies somewhat absently, yet very cordially. ”Will you condescend to sit on this bench?”
”Oh, you must sit here, too.”
”No, It is not large enough, I am already seated.”
She had taken her seat on the root of a tree, with her face turned toward the street, in which she seemed to be deeply interested. The ladies were accommodated on the bench, and then followed a conversation which no pen could describe. This, that, and the other thing, matters to which the countess had not given a single thought, an account of everything the new comers had heard about the Ammergau people, the appearance of the Christ, whom they had already met, a handsome man, very handsome, with magnificent hair, and mysterious eyes--not the head of Christ, but rather as one would imagine Faust or Odin; but there was no approaching him, he was so unsociable. Such a pity, it would have been so interesting to talk with him. Rumor a.s.serted that he was in love with a n.o.ble lady; it was very possible, there was no other way of explaining his distant manner.
Countess von Wildenau had become very quiet, the eyes bent upon the street had an expression of actual suffering in their depths.
Prince Emil stood in the doorway, mischievously enjoying the situation.
It was a just punishment for her capricious whims that now, after having so insolently refused to see her friends, she should be compelled to listen to this senseless chatter.
At last, however, he took pity on her and sent out his valet with the table-cloth and plates.
”Oh, it is your dinner hour!” The ladies started up and Her Highness raised her lorgnette.