"Ah! this is superb! Who painted it, Marsa?"
"Zichy," replied Marsa.
"Ah, yes, Zichy! I am no longer astonished. By the way, there is another Hungarian artist who paints very well. I have heard of him. He is an old man; I don"t exactly remember his name, something like Barabas."
"Nicolas de Baratras," said Varhely.
"Yes, that"s it. It seems he is a master. But your Zichy pleases me infinitely. He has caught your eyes and expression wonderfully; it is exactly like you, Princess. I should like to have my portrait painted by him. His first name is Michel, is it not?"
She examined the signature, peering through her eyegla.s.s, close to the canvas.
"Yes, I knew it was. Michel Zichy!"
This name of "Michel!" suddenly p.r.o.nounced, sped like an arrow through Marsa"s heart. She closed her eyes as if to shut out some hateful vision, and abruptly quitted the Baroness, who proceeded to a.n.a.lyze Zichy"s portrait as she did the pictures in the salon on varnishing day.
Marsa went toward other friends, answering their flatteries with smiles, and forcing herself to talk and forget.
Andras, in the midst of the crowd where Vogotzine"s loud laugh alternated with the little cries of the Baroness, felt a complex sentiment: he wished his friends to enjoy themselves and yet he longed to be alone with Marsa, and to take her away. They were to go first to his hotel in Paris; and then to some obscure corner, probably to the villa of Sainte-Adresse, until September, when they were going to Venice, and from there to Rome for the winter.
It seemed to the Prince that all these people were taking away from him a part of his life. Marsa belonged to them, as she went from one to another, replying to the compliments which desperately resembled one another, from those of Angelo Valla, which were spoken in Italian, to those of little Yamada, the Parisianized j.a.panese. Andras now longed for the solitude of the preceding days; and Baroness Dinati, shaking her finger at him, said: "My dear Prince, you are longing to see us go, I know you are. Oh! don"t say you are not! I am sure of it, and I can understand it. We had no lunch at my marriage. The Baron simply carried me off at the door of the church. Carried me off! How romantic that sounds! It suggests an elopement with a coach and four! Have no fear, though; leave it to me, I will disperse your guests!"
She flew away before Zilah could answer; and, murmuring a word in the ears of her friends, tapping with her little hand upon the shoulders of the obstinate, she gradually cleared the rooms, and the sound of the departing carriages was soon heard, as they rolled down the avenue.
Andras and Marsa were left almost alone; Varhely still remaining, and the little Baroness, who ran up, all rosy and out of breath, to the Prince, and said, gayly, in her laughing voice:
"Well! What do you say to that? all vanished like smoke, even Jacquemin, who has gone back by train. The game of descampativos, which Marie Antoinette loved to play at Trianon, must have been a little like this.
Aren"t you going to thank me? Ah! you ingrate!"
She ran and embraced Marsa, pressing her cherry lips to the Tzigana"s pale face, and then rapidly disappeared in a mock flight, with a gay little laugh and a tremendous rustle of petticoats.
Of all his friends, Varhely was the one of whom Andras was fondest; but they had not been able to exchange a single word since the morning.
Yanski had been right to remain till the last: it was his hand which the Prince wished to press before his departure, as if Varhely had been his relative, and the sole surviving one.
"Now," he said to him, "you have no longer only a brother, my dear Varhely; you have also a sister who loves and respects you as I love and respect you myself."
Yanski"s stern face worked convulsively with an emotion he tried to conceal beneath an apparent roughness.
"You are right to love me a little," he said, brusquely, "because I am very fond of you--of both of you," nodding his head toward Marsa. "But no respect, please. That makes me out too old."
The Tzigana, taking Vogotzine"s arm, led him gently toward the door, a little alarmed at the purple hue of the General"s cheeks and forehead.
"Come, take a little fresh air," she said to the old soldier, who regarded her with round, expressionless eyes.
As they disappeared in the garden, Varhely drew from his pocket the little package given to him by Menko"s valet.
"Here is something from another friend! It was brought to me at the door of the church."
"Ah! I thought that Menko would send me some word of congratulation,"
said Andras, after he had read upon the envelope the young Count"s signature. "Thanks, my dear Varhely."
"Now," said Yanski, "may happiness attend you, Andras! I hope that you will let me hear from you soon."
Zilah took the hand which Varhely extended, and clasped it warmly in both his own.
Upon the steps Varhely found Marsa, who, in her turn, shook his hand.
"Au revoir, Count."
"Au revoir, Princess."
She smiled at Andras, who accompanied Varhely, and who held in his hand the package with the seals unbroken.
"Princess!" she said. "That is a t.i.tle by which every one has been calling me for the last hour; but it gives me the greatest pleasure to hear it spoken by you, my dear Varhely. But, Princess or not, I shall always be for you the Tzigana, who will play for you, whenever you wish it, the airs of her country--of our country--!"
There was, in the manner in which she spoke these simple words, a gentle grace which evoked in the mind of the old patriot memories of the past and the fatherland.
"The Tzigana is the most charming of all! The Tzigana is the most loved of all!" he said, in Hungarian, repeating a refrain of a Magyar song.
With a quick, almost military gesture, he saluted Andras and Marsa as they stood at the top of the steps, the sun casting upon them dancing reflections through the leaves of the trees.
The Prince and Princess responded with a wave of the hand; and General Vogotzine, who was seated under the shade of a chestnut-tree, with his coat unb.u.t.toned and his collar open, tried in vain to rise to his feet and salute the departure of the last guest.
CHAPTER XXII. A DREAM SHATTERED
They were alone at last; free to exchange those eternal vows which they had just taken before the altar and sealed with a long, silent pressure when their hands were united; alone with their love, the devoted love they had read so long in each other"s eyes, and which had burned, in the church, beneath Marsa"s lowered lids, when the Prince had placed upon her finger the nuptial ring.
This moment of happiness and solitude after all the noise and excitement was indeed a blessed one!
Andras had placed upon the piano of the salon Michel Menko"s package, and, seated upon the divan, he held both Marsa"s hands in his, as she stood before him.
"My best wishes, Princess!" he said. "Princess! Princess Zilah! That name never sounded so sweet in my ears before! My wife! My dear and cherished wife!" As she listened to the music of the voice she loved, Marsa said to herself, that sweet indeed was life, which, after so many trials, still had in reserve for her such joys. And so deep was her happiness, that she wished everything could end now in a beautiful dream which should have no awakening.
"We will depart for Paris whenever you like," said the Prince.
"Yes," she exclaimed, sinking to his feet, and throwing her arms about his neck as he bent over her, "let us leave this house; take me away, take me away, and let a new life begin for me, the life I have longed for with you and your love!"
There was something like terror in her words, and in the way she clung to this man who was her hero. When she said "Let us leave this house,"
she thought, with a shudder, of all her cruel suffering, of all that she hated and which had weighed upon her like a nightmare. She thirsted for a different air, where no phantom of the past could pursue her, where she should feel free, where her life should belong entirely to him.
"I will go and take off this gown," she murmured, rising, "and we will run away like two eloping lovers."
"Take off that gown? Why? It would be such a pity! You are so lovely as you are!"
"Well," said Marsa, glancing down upon him with an almost mutinous smile, which lent a peculiar charm to her beauty, "I will not change this white gown, then; a mantle thrown over it will do. And you will take your wife in her bridal dress to Paris, my Prince, my hero--my husband!"
He rose, threw his arms about her, and, holding her close to his heart, pressed one long, silent kiss upon the exquisite lips of his beautiful Tzigana.