"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.
"Ah, Prince Emil"s valet! So the faithful Toggenburg is with you."
"Certainly, ladies!" said a voice from the door, as the prince came forward. "Only I was too timid to venture into such a dangerous circle."
Peals of laughter greeted him.
"Yes, yes; the Prince of Metten-Barnheim timid!"
"At present I am merely the representative of Countess Wildenau"s discharged courier, whose office, with my usual devotion, I am trying to fill, and doing everything in my power to escape the fate of my predecessor."
"That of being sent away?" asked the baroness somewhat maliciously.
Countess Madeleine cast a glance of friendly reproach at him. "How can you say such things, Prince?"
"Your soup is growing cold!" cried the d.u.c.h.ess.
"Where does Your Highness dine?"
"At the house of one of the chorus singers, where we are lodging. A man with the bearing of an apostle, and a blacksmith by trade. It is strange, all these people have a touch of ideality about them, and all this beautiful long hair! Haven"t you walked through the village yet?
Oh, you must, it"s very odd; the people who throng around the actors in the Pa.s.sion Play are types we shall not soon see again. I"m waiting eagerly for to-morrow. I hope our seats will be near. Farewell, dear Countess!" The d.u.c.h.ess took the arm of the prince, who escorted her to the garden gate. "I hope you will take care that the countess, under the influence of the Pa.s.sion, doesn"t enter a convent the day after to-morrow."
"Your Highness forgets that I am an incorrigible heretic," laughed Madeleine Wildenau, kissing the two ladies in waiting, in her absence of mind, with a tenderness which they were at a loss to understand.
The prince accompanied the ladies a short distance away from the house, while Madeleine returned to Josepha, as if seeking in the society of the sorrowful, quiet creature, rest from the noisy conversation.
"Really, Countess von Wildenau has an over-supply of blessings. This magnificent widow"s dower, the almost boundless revenue from the Wildenau estates, and a host of suitors!" said the baroness, after the prince had taken leave to return to "his idol."
"Yes, but she will lose the revenue if she marries again," replied the d.u.c.h.ess. "The will was made in that way by Count Wildenau because his jealousy extended beyond the grave. I know all the particulars. She must either remain a widow or make a _very_ brilliant match; for a woman of her temperament could _never_ accommodate herself to more modest circ.u.mstances."
"So she is not a good match?" asked Her Excellency.
"Certainly not, for the will is so worded that on the day she exchanges the name of Wildenau for another, the estates, with the whole income, go to a side branch of the Wildenau family as there are no direct heirs. It is enough to make one hate him, for the Wildenau cousins are extravagant and avaricious men who have already squandered one fortune.
The poor countess will then have nothing except her personal property, her few diamonds, and whatever gifts she received from her husband."
"Has she no private fortune?" asked the baroness, curiously.
"You know that she was a Princess Prankenburg, and the financial affairs of the Prankenburg family are very much embarra.s.sed. That is why the beautiful young girl was sacrificed at seventeen to that horrible old Wildenau, who in return was forced to pay her father"s debts," the d.u.c.h.ess explained.
"Oh, so _that"s_ the way the matter stands!" said Her Excellency, drawing a long breath. "Do her various admirers know it? All the gentlemen undoubtedly believe her to be immensely rich."
"Oh, she makes no secret of these facts," replied the d.u.c.h.ess kindly.
"She is sincere, that must be acknowledged, and she endured a great deal with her nervous old husband. We all know what he was; every one feared him and he tyrannized over his wife. What was all her wealth and splendor to her? One ought not to grudge her a taste of happiness."
"She laid aside her widow"s weeds as soon as possible. People thought that very suspicious," observed the baroness in no friendly tone.
"That is exactly why I say: she is better than her reputation, because she scorns falsehood and hypocrisy," replied the d.u.c.h.ess, leading the way across a narrow bridge. The two ladies in waiting, lingering a little behind, whispered: "_She_ scorn falsehood and deception! Why, Your Excellency, her whole nature is treachery. She cannot exist a moment without acting some farce! With the pious she is pious, with the Liberals she plays the Liberal, she coquets with every party to maintain her influence as ex-amba.s.sadress. She cannot cease intriguing and plotting. Now she is once more a.s.suming the part of youthful artlessness to bewitch this Prince Emil. Did you see that look of embarra.s.sment just now, like a young girl? It is enough to make one ill!"
"Yes, just see how she has duped that handsome, clever prince, the heir of a reigning family, too," lamented Her Excellency, who had daughters.