He caught the glance, and, with an involuntary movement of impatience, his hand, which up to now had so carefully masked the expression of his face, came crashing down upon the table.
"Lydie," he said impetuously, "in the name of G.o.d throw aside your armour for one moment! Is life so long that you can afford to waste it? Have you learned the secret of perpetual youth that you deliberately fritter away its golden moments in order to rush after the Dead Sea fruit of domination and power? Lydie!" he whispered with pa.s.sionate tenderness; "my little Lydie of the crisp chestnut hair, of the fragrant woods around Cluny, leave those giddy heights of ambition; come down to earth, where my arms await you! I will tell you of things, my little Lydie, which are far more beautiful, far more desirable, than the sceptre and kingdom of France; and when I press you close to my heart you will taste a joy far sweeter than that which a crown of glory can give. Will you not listen to me, Lydie? Will you not share with me that joy which renders men the equal of G.o.d?"
His hand had wandered up the damask curtain, gently drawing its heavy folds from out her clinging fingers. The rich brocade fell behind him with a soft and lingering sound like the murmured "Hush--sh--sh!" of angels" wings shutting out the noise and glare beyond, isolating them both from the world and its conflicts, its pa.s.sions, and its ceaseless strife.
Secure from prying eyes, Gaston de Stainville threw all reserve from him with a laugh of pride and of joy. Half kneeling, wholly leaning toward her, his arms encircled her young figure, almost pathetic now in its sudden and complete abandonment. With his right hand he drew that imperious little head down until his lips had reached her ear.
"Would you have me otherwise, my beautiful proud queen?" he whispered softly. "Should I be worthy of the cleverest woman in France if my ambition and hopes were not at least as great as hers? Lydie," he added, looking straight into her eyes, "if you asked me for a kingdom in the moon, I swear to G.o.d that I would make a start in order to conquer it for you! Did you, from sheer caprice, ask to see my life"s blood ebbing out of my body, I would thrust this dagger without hesitation into my heart."
"Hush! hush!" she said earnestly; "that is extravagant talk, Gaston.
Do not desecrate love by such folly."
""Tis not folly, Lydie. Give me your lips and you, too, will understand."
She closed her eyes. It was so strange to feel this great gladness in her heart, this abas.e.m.e.nt of all her being; she, who had so loved to dictate and to rule, she savoured the inexpressible delight of yielding.
He demanded a kiss and she gave it because he had asked it of her, shyly wondering in her own mind how she came to submit so easily, and why submission should be so sweet.
Up to now she had only tasted the delights of power; now she felt that if Gaston willed she would deem it joy to obey. There was infinite happiness, infinite peace in that kiss, the first her vestal lips had ever granted to any man. He was again whispering to her now with that same eager impetuosity which had subjugated her. She was glad to listen, for he talked much of his love, of the beautiful days at Cluny, which she had feared that he had wholly forgotten.
It was sweet to think that he remembered them. During the past year or two when evil tongues spoke of him before her, of his recklessness, his dissipations, his servility to the growing influence of the Pompadour, she had not altogether believed, but her heart, faithful to the child-lover, had ached and rebelled against his growing neglect.
Now he was whispering explanations--not excuses, for he needed none, since he had always loved her and only jealousies and intrigues had kept him from her side. As he protested, she still did not altogether believe--oh, the folly of it all! the mad, glad folly!--but he said that with a kiss she would understand.
He was right. She did understand.
And he talked much of his ambitions. Was it not natural? Men were so different to women! He, proud of his love for her, was longing to show her his power, to rule and to command; she, half-shy of her love for him, felt her pride in submitting to his wish, in laying down at his feet the crown and sceptre of domination which she had wielded up to now with so proud and secure a hand.
Men were so different. That, too, she understood with the first touch of a man"s kiss on her lips.
She chided herself for her mistrust of him; was it not natural that he should wish to rule? How proud was she now that her last act of absolute power should be the satisfaction of his desire.
That new Ministry? Well, he should have it as he wished. One word from her, and her father would grant it. Her husband must be the most powerful man in France; she would make him that, since she could: and then pillow her head on his breast and forget that she ever had other ambitions save to see him great.
Smiling through her tears, she begged his forgiveness for her mistrust of him, her doubts of the true worth of his love.
"It was because I knew so little," she said shyly as her trembling fingers toyed nervously with the lace of his cravat; "no man has ever loved me, Gaston--you understand? There were flatterers round me and sycophants--but love----"
She shook her head with a kind of joyous sadness for the past. It was so much better to be totally ignorant of love, and then to learn it--like this!
Then she became grave again.
"My father shall arrange everything this evening," she said, with a proud toss of her head. "To-morrow you may command, but to-night you shall remain a suppliant; grant me, I pray you, this fond little gratification of my overburdened vanity. Ask me again to grant your request, to be the means of satisfying your ambition. Put it into words, Gaston, tell me what it is you want!" she insisted, with a pretty touch of obstinacy; "it is my whim, and remember I am still the arbiter of your fate."
"On my knees, my queen," he said, curbing his impatience at her childish caprice; and, striving to hide the note of triumph in his voice, he put both knees to the ground and bent his head in supplication. "I crave of your bountiful graciousness to accord me the power to rule France by virtue of my office as Chief Comptroller of her revenues."
"Your desire is granted, sir," she said with a final a.s.sumption of pride; "the last favour I shall have the power to bestow I now confer on you. To-morrow I abdicate," she continued, with a strange little sigh, half-tearful, half-joyous, "to-morrow I shall own a master. M.
le Comte de Stainville, Minister of the Exchequer of France, behold your slave, Lydie, bought this night with the priceless currency of your love! Oh, Gaston, my lord, my husband!" she said, with a sudden uncontrollable outburst of tears, "be a kind master to your slave--she gives up so much for your dear sake!"
CHAPTER V
THE FIRST TRICK
A shrill laugh suddenly broke on their ears. So absorbed had Lydie been in her dream that she had completely forgotten the other world, the one that laughed and talked, that fought and bickered on the other side of the damask curtain which was the boundary of her own universe.
Gaston de Stainville, we may a.s.sume, was not quite so unprepared for interruption as the young girl, for even before the shrill laugh had expended itself, he was already on his feet, and had drawn the damask curtain back again, interposing the while his broad figure between Lydie d"Aumont and the unwelcome intruder on their privacy.
"Ah! at last you are tracked to earth, _mauvais sujet_," said Mme. de Pompadour, as soon as the Comte de Stainville stood fully revealed before her. "Faith! I have had a severe task. His Majesty demanded your presence a while ago, sir, and hath gone to sleep in the interval of waiting. Nay! nay! you need make neither haste nor excuses. The King sleeps, Monsieur, else I were not here to remind you of duty."
She stood at the bottom of the steps looking up with keen, malicious eyes at Gaston"s figure framed in the opening of the alcove, and peering inquisitively into the sombre recesses, wherein already she had caught a glimpse of a white satin skirt and the scintillation of many diamonds.
"What say you, milady?" she added, turning to the florid, somewhat over-dressed woman who stood by her side. "Shall we listen to the excuses M. de Stainville seems anxious to make; meseems they are clad in white satin and show a remarkably well-turned ankle."
But before Lady Eglinton could frame a reply, Lydie d"Aumont had risen, and placing her hand on Stainville"s shoulder, she thrust him gently aside and now stood smiling beside him, perfectly self-possessed, a trifle haughty, looking down on Jeanne de Pompadour"s pert face and on the older lady"s obviously ill-humoured countenance.
"Nay, Mme. la Marquise," she said, in her own quiet way, "M. le Comte de Stainville"s only excuse for his neglect of courtly duties stands before you now."
"_Ma foi_, Mademoiselle!" retorted the Marquise somewhat testily. "His Majesty, being over-gallant, would perhaps be ready enough to accept it, and so, no doubt, would the guests of M. le Duc, your father--always excepting Mlle, de St. Romans," she added, with more than a point of malice, "and she is not like to prove indulgent."
But Lydie was far too proud, far too conscious also of her own worth, to heed the petty pinp.r.i.c.ks which the ladies of the Court of Louis XV were wont to deal so lavishly to one another. She knew quite well that Gaston"s name had oft been coupled with that of Mlle. de St.
Romans--"_la belle brune de Bordeaux_," as she was universally called--daughter of the gallant Marechal just home from Flanders. This gossip was part and parcel of that multifarious scandal to which she had just a.s.sured her lover that she no longer would lend an ear.
Therefore she met Mme. de Pompadour"s malicious look with one of complete indifference, and ignoring the remark altogether, she said calmly, without the slightest tremor in her voice or hint of annoyance in her face:
"Did I understand you to say, Madame, that His Majesty was tired and desired to leave?"
The Marquise looked vexed, conscious of the snub; she threw a quick look of intelligence to Lady Eglinton, which Lydie no doubt would have caught had she not at that moment turned to her lover in order to give him a smile of a.s.surance and trust.
He, however, seemed self-absorbed just now, equally intent in avoiding her loving glance and Mme. de Pompadour"s mocking gaze.
"The King certainly asked for M. de Stainville a while ago," here interposed Lady Eglinton, "and M. le Chevalier de Saint George has begun to make his adieux."
"We"ll not detain Mlle. d"Aumont, then," said Mme. de Pompadour. "She will wish to bid our young Pretender an encouraging farewell! Come, M.
de Stainville," she added authoritatively, "we"ll to His Majesty, but only for two short minutes, then you shall be released man, have no fear, in order to make your peace with _la belle brune de Bordeaux_.
Brrr! I vow I am quite frightened; the minx"s black eyes anon shot daggers in this direction."
She beckoned imperiously to Gaston, who still seemed ill at ease, and ready enough to follow her. Lydie could not help noting with a slight tightening of her heartstrings with what alacrity he obeyed.
"Men are so different!" she sighed.
She would have allowed the whole world to look on and to sneer whilst she spent the rest of the evening beside her lover, talking foolish nonsense, planning out the future, or sitting in happy silence, heedless of sarcasm, mockery, or jests.
Her eyes followed him somewhat wistfully as he descended the two steps with easy grace, and with a flourishing bow and a "_Mille graces_, Mlle. Lydie!" he turned away without another backward look, and became merged with the crowd.