"Caro Beppo," said she, turning to the servant, "clear the table, please, and then stay outside until I call you. Meantime, admit no one."
The two were left alone, and Vajdar was free to say what he wished.
Blanka made bold to rise and survey herself coquettishly in the mirror, as if to make sure of her own beauty. She was the first to speak.
"All these favourable turns in my affairs are due to your kind intervention, I infer," she began.
"Without wishing to be boastful, I must admit that they are. You know the prince: he has more whims and freaks than Caligula. He has moments when he is capable of throttling an angel from heaven, and gentle moods in which he is ready to do his most deadly enemy a secret kindness.
These latter phases of his humour it was my task to lie in wait for and turn to your account. Whether this was a difficult task or not, you who know the prince can judge."
"You will find me not ungrateful," said the princess. "In case the unpleasant affair which has called me to Rome is settled satisfactorily, I shall make over to you, as the one chiefly instrumental in effecting this settlement, the yearly allowance intended for me by the prince. For myself I retain nothing further, and wish nothing further, than my golden freedom."
Vajdar"s face glowed with feeling. He was a good actor and could summon the colour to his cheeks at will.
"But even if you should give me your all, and the whole world besides,"
he returned, "I should count it as dross in comparison with one kind word from your lips. I know it is the height of boldness on my part to strive for the object of my longing; but an ardent pa.s.sion justifies even the rashest presumption. You remember the fable of the giants"
piling Pelion upon Ossa in order to scale Olympus. I am capable of following their example. You would cease to look down on me were I of like rank with yourself; and this equality of station I shall yet attain."
"I am sure I shall be the first to congratulate you."
"The prince has promised to be a father to you if, as the result of a peaceful separation, he ceases to be your husband. A somewhat similar promise he has made to me also."
"Does he intend to adopt you as his son?" asked Blanka.
"Such is his purpose," replied Vajdar.
"And what, pray, is his motive in this?"
Benjamin Vajdar averted his face, as if contending with feelings of shame. "Do not ask me," he begged, "to betray the weakness of my poor mother. Hers was an unhappy lot, and I am the child of her misfortune.
He whose duty it is to make that misfortune good is--Prince Cagliari."
Blanka could hardly suppress an exclamation. "Oh, you scoundrel!" she was on the point of crying, "how can you dishonour your mother in her grave, and deny your own honest birth, merely to pa.s.s yourself off as a prince"s b.a.s.t.a.r.d son?" Instead of this she clapped her hands and exclaimed: "How interesting! It is just like a play at the theatre. "Is not the little toe of your left foot broken?" "Yes." "Then you are my son." Or thus: "Haven"t you a birthmark on the back of your neck?" "I have." "Let me see it. Aha! you are my long-lost boy." Or, again: "Who gave you that half of a coin which you wear on a string around your neck?" "My mother, on her death-bed." "Come to my arms. You have found your father.""
Her listener was convinced that he had to do with a credulous child whose ears were open to the flimsiest of fairy tales. He proceeded to entertain her with further interesting details of his story, after which the princess produced the anonymous letter she had that morning received. First smoothing it out on her knee,--for it had been sadly crumpled by a certain hand, and, indeed, even bore the impression of a man"s thumb in oil,--she presented it to her visitor.
"Please read that," said she, "and then explain it to me."
Vajdar had no sooner glanced at the letter than he perceived that the enemy, by a feigned retreat, had been decoying him over a mine which threatened presently to explode. Yet his a.s.surance did not desert him.
"A stupid bit of play-acting!" he exclaimed, throwing the letter down on the table.
"But whose interest could it have been to indulge in play-acting at my expense?" asked Blanka.
"I can tell you, for I recognise the handwriting. The Marchioness Caldariva wrote you that letter."
"The Marchioness Caldariva? Is she here?"
"To be sure. The prince never travels without her."
"But what motive had she thus to injure herself and, perhaps, prevent her marriage with the prince?"
"Motive enough for a woman," replied Vajdar,--"jealousy."
"Jealousy!" repeated Blanka, in astonishment.
But one glance at the face confronting her was a sufficient explanation.
That handsome face, smiling with triumph and self-confidence, made her tingle with wrath and scorn from head to foot. This man, it appeared, was impudent enough to play the role of suitor to his patron"s wife, and also, at the same time, to pose as the object of a sentimental attachment on the part of that patron"s mistress. And he smiled complacently the while.
"Sir," resumed the princess, whom that smile so irritated that she resolved to use her deadly weapon without further delay, "I appreciate your devotion to my cause, but I cannot deceive you. I must not encourage hopes that would end only in disappointment. Let this matter not be referred to again between us."
"But how if it were imposed by the prince as the indispensable condition of a peaceful settlement of your relations with him?"
"I cannot believe that such is the case," replied Blanka, calmly. "But however that may be, I cannot bind myself by any promise to you, knowing as I do that the question of matrimony between us is one that the canons of the Romish Church forbid us to consider."
"Ah, you have been studying ecclesiastical law, I see,--an error like that of the sick man that reads medical works. You undoubtedly have in mind the tenth paragraph, which forbids a son to marry his father"s divorced wife; but you should have read farther, where it is declared that a marriage p.r.o.nounced null and void by the clemency of the Pope is as if it never had been, and thus offers no hindrance to a subsequent union."
"No," rejoined the princess, "I did not refer to the tenth paragraph.
The paragraph which renders our union impossible is the fourteenth."
The shot was fired, the mark was. .h.i.t. Like a tiger mortally wounded the man sprang up and stood leaning on the back of his chair, glaring at his a.s.sailant with a fury that made her draw back in alarm. With what sort of ammunition had the gun been loaded, that it should inflict so deadly a wound,--that it should cause such a sudden and complete transformation of that complacently smiling face?
"Who told you that?" demanded Vajdar so furiously that Blanka recoiled involuntarily. "Only one person could have been your informant, and I know who that person is. I shall have my revenge on both of you for this!"
With that he was gone, hurrying out of the room and out of the hotel as if pursued by a legion of devils. Beppo came running to his mistress, and seemed surprised not to find her lying in her blood on the floor with half a dozen dagger-thrusts in her bosom.
"Well," he exclaimed, "whoever that man may be, I shouldn"t like to meet him on a dark night in a narrow street."
Blanka told her servant that if the gentleman who had just left ever called again, she should not be at home to him. Then she sent her obedient Beppo away, as she wished to be alone. First of all, she must ponder the meaning of those mysterious words that had proved so potent in routing her enemy. She could hardly wait for her lawyer to return, so eager was she to question him in the matter.
"Well," began the advocate on entering, "what have you accomplished?"
"I have not made peace."
"Why not?"
"Because it would have cost more than war. All negotiations are broken off. Read this letter."
"A devilish plot!" cried the lawyer wrathfully. "But they are fully capable of carrying it out, all three of them. Did you show this to Vajdar?"
"Yes."
"And was that why he ran out of the hotel in such an extraordinary manner that the very waiters felt tempted to seize him at the door?"
"They had no such thought, I"ll warrant," returned Blanka. "They are all in his pay. To-morrow I leave this place. You must find me a private dwelling."
"I have one for you already. The Rossis are moving out of the emba.s.sy, and have engaged a private house. They invite you to share their new quarters with them. There is ample room."
"Oh, how fortunate for me!"
"And yet the affair is not so altogether fortunate, after all. Rossi has fallen from favour, and with his fall the whole liberal party loses its influence at the Vatican."