Abellino was very well pleased with him. New projects began to spring up in his brain; he took up his hat and bade his friend a grateful adieu, and so they parted with mutual a.s.surances of a speedy _au revoir_.
CHAPTER XVI.
LIGHT WITHOUT AND NIGHT WITHIN.
Yet it had to be.
Madame Karpathy had promised her friend to share her labours as hostess on the occasion of the feast in honour of her husband"s installation as Lord-Lieutenant, just as Lady Szentirmay had shared hers before the fox-hunt. She had vainly tortured her brain for a whole fortnight in order that she might find an excuse to release her from her promise, and not one could she find. Unfortunately, she was so well that she could not even complain on that score. What she feared above all happened.
Flora did not forget the promise that had been made, and when the great day was only a week off, she wrote to her friend that she should rely upon her at the end of that time. And so for a whole week f.a.n.n.y, resigned to her fate, but with the torment of her secret pa.s.sion in her bosom, suffered in silence at the thought of going to the house of him whom she loved as her soul"s ideal, but who would not have been too far away from her, so she thought, if he had lived in another planet.
Flora welcomed her friend with great joy, her satisfaction was unmistakably visible on her honest, lovely face as she pressed f.a.n.n.y between her arms. Rudolf"s manner was kindly and courtly, but nothing more. He was glad to see his pretty neighbour in his house and anxious to make her comfortable, but she did not interest him in the very least.
And indeed f.a.n.n.y herself found the situation much less dangerous than she had imagined. Ideals, especially ideals of the masculine gender, in their domestic circles lose very much of the nimbus which they carry about with them elsewhere. At home you hear them whistle and shout, and bully their servants and domestics, and see them immersed in everyday household affairs. You see them eat and drink and look bored. You see them with imperfect or unaccomplished toilets, and often with muddy boots, especially when they look after their own horses. You begin to realize that ideals also are as much subject to the petty necessities of life as ordinary men, and do not always preserve the precise postures you are wont to see them in when their portraits adorn the picture-galleries. With women it is quite different. Woman is born to beautify the domestic circle, woman is always fascinating whether she be dressed up or domestically dowdy, but man is least of all fascinating at home.
In a word, f.a.n.n.y felt the danger to be much less when it was actually before her than it had seemed to be when seen from afar, and she looked at Rudolf much more calmly with her bodily eyes than she had been wont to do with the eyes of her imagination.
Thus the first week which f.a.n.n.y spent at Szentirmay Castle was by no means so very painful, and after that Rudolf had to go to the capital from whence he was only to return on the day before the installation.
Meanwhile the two ladies, with the utmost forethought, were arranging everything for the approaching festivities, and whatever one of them forgot was sure to occur to the other. f.a.n.n.y began to find her position more and more natural; every day she began to gain a greater command over her tender emotions, and indeed life, practical life, makes possible and comprehensible much which poetical logic and the imagination label--absurd.
On the day of the installation, Lady Szentirmay and Madame Karpathy drove over to the county town where lodgings had been provided for the former"s husband as Governor-General, at the town-hall.
Szentirmay wished his installation to be conducted with as little pomp and ceremony as possible. The most eminent ladies of the county watched the procession from the balcony, and Madame Karpathy also was among them. It was difficult to recognize any one in particular among all those holiday faces, such a different aspect did their Oriental gravity and splendid Oriental _Kontoses_ give them. Several of the younger cavaliers saluted the ladies with their swords.
At length the carriage of the _Foispan_ came in sight with a clattering escort of twelve knightly hors.e.m.e.n. He himself was sitting bareheaded in the open carriage, and something like emotion was visible on his handsome n.o.ble face. Loud cries of "eljen! eljen!" announced his approach. Every one knew of him by hearsay as the n.o.blest of men, and every one rejoiced that the best of patriots and the most excellent of citizens should have attained the highest dignity in the county. Madame Karpathy looked at him tremblingly, better for her if she had never seen him like this.
The procession pa.s.sed across the square to the gate of the town-hall, and half an hour later Rudolf was standing in the large a.s.sembly-room filling it with his sublime impa.s.sioned words, till all who heard felt their hearts leap towards him. Madame Karpathy also heard him, she was in the gallery. Ah, it would have been better had she neither seen nor heard him there. Now she not merely loved, she adored him.
All at once she began to notice that somebody in the a.s.sembly-hall below was making frantic signs to her with hands and head, and using every available limb to attract her attention; nay, he even got upon a chair in order to be able to see her better. At first she did not recognize the man, but presently the disagreeable recollection thrilled through her that she had seen him before somewhere, and she regarded him more closely with a look of aversion--it was Mr. Kecskerey.
Why, what could have brought that worthy man thither, for it was not his way to put himself to any inconvenience without very good reason.
The sight of this man made a very disagreeable impression upon f.a.n.n.y, and jarred upon her nerves. Every time she looked at him she perceived, much to her indignation, that his eyes were fixed constantly upon her.
The official ceremonies were generally terminated by a magnificent banquet during which the a.s.sembly-room with magical rapidity was converted into a dancing-room, to which the guests then returned.
The best and bonniest of the whole country-side were together, the most ill.u.s.trious of the men and the loveliest of the women.
Rudolf opened the ball with the Princess * * * who was considered the most important personage present amongst the ladies, and then danced with all the other women in turn, according to rank. How f.a.n.n.y trembled, and how her heart began to beat, when she saw him approaching her. Lady Szentirmay had just been carried off by some young cavalier for a waltz, and she was sitting there alone.
Rudolf politely walked up to her, and with a deep bow invited her to dance. Oh, how beautiful he was! f.a.n.n.y durst not regard him at that moment. Rudolf bending half over her, offered her his arm.
Poor lady, she was scarce able to utter these few words: "I am not allowed to dance, my lord. I have been very ill."
He could not but believe what she said, as she was as pale at that moment as if she were about to descend into the tomb.
Rudolf expressed his regret in a few courtly words, and then retired.
For some time afterwards f.a.n.n.y durst not raise her eyes, as if she fancied he was still standing before her. At last, however, she did look up, and the eyes that met her gaze were--Mr. Kecskerey"s.
"The Madonna of Mount Carmel, for all the world!" said that worthy cavalier, saluting her _chapeau-bas_, and confidently drawing still nearer.
f.a.n.n.y hastily pulled herself together. She had the foreboding that she must hide her very soul from the scrutiny of this man; so she accepted his salutation with a cold smile, and made as if she were not afraid of him.
"What a loss it is to the company that your ladyship does not dance, but what a gain to me who, also, do not dance," said the hero, with impertinent familiarity. And he sat down beside Lady Karpathy as if he were an intimate friend, throwing back his dress-coat on both sides, and nursing one of his legs in both hands. "Will it bore your ladyship if we have a little talk together?"
"I am a good listener."
"During the last few days a joyous rumour has flashed through our capital which has made every one happy who has heard it."
"What rumour is that?"
"That your ladyship intends to spend the coming winter in the capital."
"It is not yet certain."
"You drive me to despair. Surely, my friend Karpathy is not such an ungallant husband? Why, he should fly to execute his wife"s wishes!"
"I have never told anybody that I wanted to reside at Pest."
"The lady is secretive," thought Kecskerey. "I know that they are making their palace at Pest habitable. We shall get to the bottom of it presently."
"Yet the Pest saloons will be very attractive this winter, and we shall form some very elegant sets. The Szepkiesdys are coming up, and we may also expect to see there Count Gergely with his mother, young Eugene Darvay, the handsome Rezso Csendey, and that genial prince of buffoons, Mike Kis."
f.a.n.n.y toyed indifferently with her fan; not one of all these persons interested her in the least.
"And I know it as a fact, that our feted friend Rudolf is also going to spend the winter there, with his handsome wife."
Hah! what impression will that make? Will she be able to conceal the smarting pain she felt at that moment? But no, she did not betray herself; she merely said, "I don"t fancy we shall go to Pest."
With that she rose from her seat. The dance was over, and Flora, hastening to her friend, pa.s.sed her arm round her waist, and they took a turn together round the room.
Mr. Kecskerey began to rock himself gently to and fro on the sofa and draw conclusions.
"Why did she sigh so deeply when she said, "I don"t fancy we shall go to Pest"?"
Just then Rudolf drew near, and Mr. Kecskerey seizing his opportunity, put his arm through Rudolf"s, and paced with him up and down the splendid saloon, as if they had been the very best friends in the world.
And here we should do well to remember that Mr. Kecskerey was a personage of remarkable consideration in the highest circles, and enjoyed a position of distinction there peculiarly his own.
The worthy cavalier--I mean Mr. Kecskerey--had just drawn Rudolf underneath a chandelier, whether that people might see them together there, or whether he himself might see Rudolf better, I cannot say. The two young belles, the queens of the ball, were walking in front of them, arm-in-arm. How beautiful they both were!
"What a pair!" cried Kecskerey, rapturously. "To which of them would that wretched mythological Paris have given the apple of Eris, if he had had to choose between two such G.o.ddesses? And how they walk, arm-in-arm.
A true _belle alliance_! Nay, I express myself badly, I ought to say _affreuse alliance_! Why, separately they are capable of subjugating the world! Why need they combine their charms? My friend, beware of this dangerous alliance; Madame Karpathy is a splendid woman."