The man stood and glared at us like an animal at bay. I saw his eyes dart from Maida to me, from me to the Countess, and rest on her as if begging something. And his hunted instinct was right. If there were hope left for him anywhere, it was with her.
"Don"t believe anything they say of me," he panted, dry-lipped.
"Corramini tricked me by sending his wife"s servant in your place, dressed in your things, wearing your motor-mask. She wouldn"t speak. I didn"t know the truth till I got here. I thought it was you I had run away with to Montenegro, hoping I might persuade you to marry me, when you were out of the way of your daughter, who hates me, and would ruin me with you if she could. I would have left Miss Destrey behind, if I could have hoped you"d come without her. Imagine my feelings when I found out I"d lost you! If I have frightened her it was in my blind rage against her and every one concerned in the trick. As for your chauffeur, he is not worth fighting, and as I am a gentleman, I do not even return the blows of one who is not--especially before ladies."
"Aunt Kathryn, you must not believe his falsehoods," cried Maida. "If you do--if you let yourself care for him--he will spoil your life."
The Countess petulantly stopped her ears. "I won"t listen to you," was her answer. "I knew there had been trickery of some sort, and you may as well save your breath, for whatever you say I will believe nothing against the man I love."
With that she took her fingers from her ears, and held out both hands to Dalmar-Kalm. He ran to take them, and pressed his lips ardently first upon one, then the other plump cushion of dimpled satin.
Disgusted with this exhibition of a woman"s folly, while I pitied it, I could look no more, but turned to Maida.
"Will you let me take you away?" was all that my lips said, but my eyes said more, in memory of that first moment of our meeting, which was, please G.o.d, to influence our whole future--hers and mine.
"Yes," she answered. "But--I can"t leave here without Aunt Kathryn."
"You must go with Miss Destrey, Countess," I insisted. "Whatever you may decide later in regard to Prince Dalmar-Kalm, in any case you must go with your niece and me to stop at an hotel in Cettinje, for the night."
The man would not let go her hand. "Promise me you will not leave Montenegro till you are my wife," he begged. "If you do, I feel I shall lose you for ever."
"I"ll do my best," faltered the lady, as a lady should, I suppose, who feels herself a heroine of romance. I could almost have respected that scoundrel for his diplomacy. His motto was, "Get what you want, or if you can"t, take what you can;" and he was living up to it, playing up to it before an audience as no other man I ever saw could or would. He didn"t seem to care what we thought of him, now that he was gaining his point. But when fatty degeneration of the soul sets in, there is room for little real pride in a man"s breast.
"You will not allow yourself to be prejudiced against me?" he went on.
"Never," vowed the Countess. "No one had better try it."
"I will not try after to-night, if what I have to tell doesn"t change your mind," said Maida. "But, just this once--"
"No--no!"
"Very well then, I will say nothing except--"
"Be careful!"
"Oh," and the girl turned imploringly to me, "take us somewhere, so that I can talk to her alone."
"There"s said to be a good enough hotel in Cettinje. I"ll take you both there," I ventured.
"Come and see me early--early, Prince," said the Countess.
"Yes. But I am not "Prince" to you now. I am "Otto.""
"Otto, then."
So I got them away, leaving the man behind, to his own devices, and at the door I had the joy of wrapping Maida in my big coat. How glad I was that I had brought it! I drove them to a hotel in the _place_ at the end of the long main street, and when the Countess had hurried ostentatiously off to her room, that no nefarious attempts might be made upon her resolution. She and I stood for a moment hand in hand, in the dim hall.
"You are mine?" I asked.
"Are you sure you want me?"
"I"ve been sure of that--too sure for my peace of mind since the first day I saw your dear face--the loveliest on earth. But I never thought to have you. I never thought that I would have a right to ask, for I"m poor--horribly poor."
"Oh, as if that mattered!"
"I know it doesn"t now, for this that"s happened has given us to each other. I"ll work hard and make money. Nothing can part us--I couldn"t bear it. But it seems too good to be true. Is it possible you care for me?"
"I think I"ve cared--ever since the first few days. I"d never guessed that I would meet a man like you. But oh, I did not mean to marry _any_ man."
"I know, darling. I know what you"d planned. I lay awake nights over it, wondering if, beggar as I was, I couldn"t s.n.a.t.c.h you from that cold future. But I shouldn"t have thought I had the right if this thunder-bolt hadn"t struck me."
"As Aunt Kathryn--poor Aunt Kathryn!--is always saying, "It must have been meant." I never promised that--that I would join the Sisters, you know. I suppose this is why my father would have me go abroad when I came of age. He was afraid I might make up my mind before I had--found my heart."
"Have you found it now--for sure?"
"No. I--I"ve _lost_ it."
"Angel! But you"ve got mine instead. You won"t mind marrying a beggar and being a beggaress?"
The adorable creature laughed. "I shall love it," she said. There was no one in the hall except Airole, and the shadows were asleep--so I kissed her: and knew why I had been born. I"d often wondered, but I never will again.
We had a fierce tussle with the Countess to prevent her stopping in Montenegro and marrying her Prince there and then, as soon as might be.
The truth was, and she owned it, that she was afraid to face Beechy till she had been made irrevocably a Princess. But finally we prevailed, almost by force, and tore the poor lady from her lover, who protested that he would follow, were it to the world"s end. I believed he would, too, for he had threatened to be the last man in Maida"s world; the Countess was now the last woman in his, and he would hold on to her and her money as a drowning man grasps at a substantial spar.
I shall never forget that drive down from the mountain land where a King rode to fetch a fairy bride.
At Cattaro we took the fishing boat which had carried me yesterday; and I think the sailor-men realized, when they saw what I had brought back, that I wasn"t a madman after all.
Then the spin from Castelnuovo to Ragusa that I had taken in such a different mood fifteen hours before. And at Ragusa, Beechy, still pale and shaken, springing up from her sofa to meet Maida and me as we opened the door.
Ralph sprang up too, and his chair had been drawn so close to her sofa that the rush of her white wrapper--or whatever it was--upset it.
"Where"s Mamma?" came the first question, as was natural.
"She"s gone to her room, and we"re to talk to you before she sees you,"
said Maida. "Oh Beechy, you must be good to her; she"s miserable."
Then we told the story, preparing Beechy for her mother"s decision, and I expected hysterics. But she neither laughed nor cried. She only sat still, looking curiously guilty and meek.
"Isn"t it dreadful? But I couldn"t do anything," said Maida. "He is a wicked man--you don"t know yet how wicked. He got me up to Montenegro by a horrid pretence, and when I wouldn"t promise to marry him at once he tried arguments for about an hour, then locked the door of a room in the house where we were because his motor broke down, and threatened to shoot me. I don"t know if he really would. Perhaps not. But anyway, Mr.
Barrymore saved me. He came just then and burst the door open."
"It"s all my fault from beginning to end!" broke out Beechy, tragically.
"I confessed to Sir Ralph yesterday, when I was only worried for fear something might happen, but now it _has_ happened, I"ll confess to you, too. I got afraid Mamma would really marry the Prince--oh, but that wasn"t the way it began! Just for fun, long ago, when we first started, I let him pump me--it was great fun _then_--and told him how rich Mamma was, and would be, even if she married again. I thought it would be such larks to watch his game, and so it was for a while, till I was in an awful stew for fear I"d gone too far and couldn"t stop things. I was ready then to do something desperate rather than find myself saddled with _that_ Prince for my step-father. So I sacrificed you."
"I don"t see--" Maida began; but Beechy cut her short.
"Why, when we went to that Sisterhood of yours, I overheard the Mother Superior, or whatever you call her, confiding to Mamma that you were a tremendous heiress, that you didn"t quite know how rich you were yourself, and wouldn"t be told till you were safely back from Europe. It was a secret, and I hadn"t any business to know. But I let it out to the Prince, when I was in such a state about him and Mamma, in Bellagio. He _went_ for you at once, as I knew he would--but what"s the matter, Mr.
Barrymore? It isn"t for you to be angry with me. It"s for Maida."