Part 12 (2/2)

I thought that she hesitated, could have sworn that she was about to admit me further into her confidence; but I suppose she considered the time unsuited; and after asking me a few questions about the car, and whether I knew the road and was a careful driver, she gave me instructions to be at the hotel at nine o'clock on the following morning. So away I went, telling myself that the world was a funny place, and wondering what Herr Joseph, the jaw-cracker, would have to say to his good lady when she did turn up at Montey and laid her new beehive hat upon his doting bosom.

This was no business of mine. I am a motor-driver, and two pound ten on Sat.u.r.day is my abiding anxiety. Give me my wages regular, and the cla.s.s of pa.s.senger who feels for the driver's palm at the journey's end, and I'll ask nothing more of Providence. So on the following morning, at nine sharp, I drove the big Delahaye round to the Ritz, and by a quarter past her ladys.h.i.+p was aboard and we were making for Dijon and the coast.

No motorist who knows anything of the game will ask me to describe this journey, or to tell him just where he should stop because of the dead 'uns of five hundred years ago, or where he should hurry on because of the livestock of to-day. I had a fine car under me, a pretty woman in the tonneau, a May-day to put life into me, and a road so fine that a man might dream of it in his sleep. And if that's not what the schoolmaster calls Eldorado, then I'll send him a halfpenny card to find out just what is.

So let it suffice to say that we went at our leisure--slept at Dijon and at Lyons, were one night at Avignon, and two nights later at Nice.

If there was anything to remark during the journey, it was Madame's growing anxiety as we approached the Mediterranean, and the number of telegrams she sent to her friends whenever we chanced to halt--even in the meanest villages.

The telegrams I had the pleasure to read more than once as I handed them over the counter; but those that were in German were no good to me, and those that were in French I could but half decipher. None the less, I got the impression that she was in a state of much distress and perplexity, and that all her messages were to one end--namely, that she should have the right to go somewhere at present forbidden her, and that the Baron Albert, whoever he might be, should be interviewed on her behalf and persuaded that she was a lady of all the virtues.

A final telegram to an English gentleman at Vienna capped all, and was not to be misunderstood. It simply said, ”I shall publish the story if they persevere.” And that seemed to me an ugly threat to come from so pretty a sender, though of its meaning I had no more knowledge than the dead.

Perhaps you will say that I was a poor sort to have been reading her telegrams at all; that it didn't concern me; and that I was paid to hold my tongue. Well, that is true enough, and Madame had little to complain of on such a score, I must say. To all and sundry who questioned me at the hotels, I just said she was the wife of a Hungarian n.o.bleman, and that she travelled for her pleasure. When we arrived at Nice, and an impertinent policeman got me into a corner, so to speak, and tried to put me through the catechism, I simply said, ”No speakee Frenchee--Mistress Americano,” and at that he shook his head and wrote it down in a note-book about as large as a grocer's ledger.

But I plainly perceived that something more than mere police curiosity accounted for all this cross-examination; and when Madame sent for me to her private sitting-room that night, I guessed immediately that something was up, and that I was about to learn the nature of it.

I shall always remember the occasion, as beautiful a night of a Southern summer as a man could hap upon. Still and starry, the sea without a ripple; the s.h.i.+ps like black shapes against an azure sky; the lights of the houses s.h.i.+ning upon the moonlit gardens; the music of the bands; the gay talk of the merry people--oh, who would go northward ho!

if Providence set him down on such a spot as this? And upon it all was the picture of Madame herself--of that lady of the gazelle's eyes and the milk-white skin, as she invited me into her sitting-room and asked me to sit down while she talked.

You could not have matched her for beauty in Nice; I doubt if you could have done it nearer than Paris and the Ritz. Dressed in a lot of fluffy stuff, with a pink satin skirt, and arms bare to the shoulders and a chain of diamonds about her neck--dressed like this, and so sweet and gracious in her manner, talking to me just as though she had known me from infancy, and asking me, Lal Britten, to help her--why, you bet I said ”Yes,” and said it so plainly that even she could not mistake me.

”Why, Britten,” says she, ”do you know what has happened to-day?”

”Couldn't guess it if I tried, madame,” said I.

”Well, then, I must tell you: they won't let me go to Monte Carlo, Britten. They say the Emperor forbids it.”

”But, madame, is there any need to ask the old gentleman's permission?

Aren't you an American citizen?”

She laughed at my idea of it, and asked me if I would like a gla.s.s of port wine, which I did to oblige her; while she took another as though she liked it, which I have no reason to suppose she did not.

”You see, Britten,” she said, presently, ”a woman is of her husband's nationality, and so, of course, I am a Hungarian. That is why the Emperor has the power to say that I must not be admitted to Monte Carlo just at the moment when my dear husband is waiting for me there. Now, don't you think it is very hard upon us both?”

”It's very hard on him, madame, seeing you are in the case. I should want to know him before I said the same thing for you, asking your pardon for the liberty.”

She took no notice of this, but casting up her eyes to heaven--and at that game Miss Sarah Bernhardt out of Paris couldn't beat her--she exclaimed:

”Oh, my poor Joseph, whatever will he think of me? I dare not contemplate it, Britten--I really dare not.”

”Then I should leave it alone, madame. Is there no way of getting this decision altered?”

”None that I can think of, unless----”

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