"Jost!" echoed Sergius; "The Colossus of the Press? Surely it would take more than one man to frighten him!"
Leroy laughed.
"I grant you the Jewish centres of journalism are difficult to shake!
But they all depend on stocks and shares!"
A touch on his arm caused him to turn round,--Paul Zouche confronted both him and Thord, with a solemn worn face, and lack-l.u.s.tre eyes.
"Good-night, friends!" he said; "I have not kicked at a king with my boot, but I have with my brain!--and the effort is exhausting! I am going home to bed."
"Where is your home?" asked Leroy suddenly.
Zouche looked mysterious.
"In a palace, dear sir! A palace of golden air, peopled with winged dreams! No money could purchase it;--no "Empire Builder" could build it!--it is mine and mine alone! And I pay no taxes!"
"Will you put this to some use for me?" said Leroy, holding out a gold piece; "Simply as comrade and friend?"
Zouche stared at him.
"You mean it?"
"Of course I mean it! Zouche, believe me, you are going to be the fashion! You will be able to do _me_ a good turn before long!"
Zouche took the gold piece, and as he took it, pressed the giver"s hand.
"You mean well!" he said tremulously; "You know--as Sergius does, that I am poor,--often starving--often drunk--but you know also that there is something _here_!"--and he touched his forehead meaningly. "But to be the "fashion"! Bah! I do not belong to the Trade-ocracy! n.o.body becomes the "fashion" nowadays unless they have cheated their neighbours by short weight and falsified accounts! Good-night! You might be the King from your looks;--but you have something better than kingship--Heart!
Good-night, Pequita! You danced well! Good-night, Lotys! You spoke well!
Everyone does everything well, except poor Zouche!"
Pequita ran up to him.
"Good-night, dear Paul!"
He stooped and kissed her gently.
"Good-night, little one! If ever you show your twinkling feet at the Opera, _you_ will be the "fashion"--and will you remember Paul then?"
"Always--always!" said Pequita tenderly; "Father and Lotys and I will always love you!"
Zouche gave a short laugh.
"Always love me! Me! Well!--what strange things children will say, not knowing in the least what they mean!"
He gave a vague salute to the entire company, and walked out of the tavern with drooping head. Others followed him,--every man in going, shook hands with Lotys and Sergius Thord,--the lamps were extinguished, and the landlord standing in the porch of his tavern watched them all file out, and bade them all a cordial farewell. Pequita"s home was with her father in the house where Sergius Thord dwelt, and Lotys kissing her tenderly good-night, left her to Thord"s care.
"And who will see you home, Lotys?" enquired Thord.
"May I for once have that honour?" asked Pasquin Leroy. His two companions stared in undisguised amazement, and there was a moment"s silence.
Then Lotys spoke.
"You may!" she said simply.
There was another silence while she put on her hat, and wrapped herself in her long dark cloak. Then Thord took Pequita by the hand.
"Good-night, Lotys!"
"Good-night, Sergius!"
Leroy turned to his two friends and spoke to them in a low tone.
"Go your ways!" he said peremptorily; "I will join you later!"
Vain were their alarmed looks of remonstrance; and in another moment all the party had separated, and only Max Graub and Axel Regor remained on the pavement outside the tavern, disconsolately watching two figures disappearing in the semi-shadowed moonlight--Pasquin Leroy and Lotys--walking closely side by side.
"Was there ever such a drama as this?" muttered Graub, "He may lose his life at any moment!"
"If he does," responded Regor, "It will not be our fault. We do our best to guard him from the consequence of one folly,--and he straightway runs into another! There is no help for it; we have sworn to obey him, and we must keep our oath!"
They pa.s.sed slowly along the street, too absorbed in their own uncomfortable reflections for the interchange of many words. By the rules of the Revolutionary Committee, they were not allowed "to follow or track any other member" so they were careful to walk in a reverse direction to that taken by their late comrades. The great bell of the Cathedral boomed midnight as they climbed towards the citadel, and the pale moon peeping whitely through piled-up fleecy clouds, shed a silver glare upon the quiet sea. And down into the "slums," down, and ever deeper, into the sad and cheerless "Quarter of the Poor" Pasquin Leroy walked as though he trod lightly on a path of flowers,--his heart beating high, and his soul fully awakened within him, thrilled, he knew not why, to the heart"s core by the soft low voice of Lotys,--and glad that in the glimpses of the moonlight her eyes were occasionally lifted to his face, with something of a child"s trust, if not of a woman"s tenderness.
CHAPTER XXI
AN INVITATION TO COURT
The spring was now advancing into full summer, and some time had pa.s.sed since the Socialist party had gathered under their leaders to the voice of Lotys. Troublous days appeared to be impending for the Senate, and rumours of War,--war sometimes apparently imminent, and again suddenly averted,--had from time to time worried the public through the Press.
But what was even more disturbing to the country, was the proposed infliction of new, heavy and irritating taxes, which had begun to affect the popular mind to the verge of revolt. Twice since Lotys had spoken at the People"s a.s.sembly Rooms had Sergius Thord addressed huge ma.s.s meetings, which apparently the police had no orders to disperse, and his power over the mult.i.tude was increasing by leaps and bounds. Whenever he spoke, wherever he worked, the indefatigable Pasquin Leroy was constantly at his side, and he, in his turn began to be recognized by the Revolutionary Committee as one of their most energetic members,--able, resolute, and above all, of an invaluably inscrutable and self-contained demeanour. His two comrades were not so effectual in their a.s.sistance, and appeared to act merely in obedience to his instructions. Their att.i.tude, however, suited everyone concerned as well as, if not better than, if they had been overzealous. Owing to what Leroy had stated concerning the possibility of his arrest as a spy, his name was never mentioned in public by one single member of the Brotherhood; and to the outside Socialist following, he therefore appeared simply as one of the many who worked under Sergius Thord"s command. Meanwhile, there were not lacking many other subjects for popular concern and comment; all of which in their turn gave rise to anxious discussion and vague conjecture. A Cabinet Council had been held by the Premier, at which, without warning, the King had attended personally, but the results were not made known to the public. Yet the general impression was that his Majesty seemed to be perfectly indifferent to the feelings or the well-being of his subjects; in fact, as some of them said with dismal shakings of the head, "It was all a part of the system; kings were not allowed to do anything even for the benefit of their people." And rising Socialism, ever growing stronger, and ama.s.sing in its ranks all the youthful and ambitious intellects of the time, agreed and swore that it was time for a Republic. Only by a complete change of Government could the cruelly-increasing taxation be put down; and if Government was to be changed, why not the dummy figure-head of Government as well?
Thus Rumour talked, sometimes in whispers--sometimes in shouts;--but through it all the life of the Court and fashion went on in the same way,--the King continued to receive with apparent favour the most successful and most moneyed men from all parts of the world; the Queen drove or walked, or rode;--and the only prospective change in the social routine was the report that the Crown Prince was about to leave the country for a tour round the world, and that he would start on his journey in his own yacht about the end of the month. The newspapers made a great fuss in print over this projected tour; but the actual people were wholly indifferent to it. They had seen very little of the Crown Prince,--certainly not enough to give him their affection; and whether he left the kingdom or stayed in it concerned them not at all. He had done nothing marked or decisive in his life to show either talent, originality of character, or resolution; and the many "puffs" in the press concerning him, were scarcely read at all by the public, or if they were, they were not credited. The expression of an ordinary working-man with regard to his position was entirely typical of the general popular sentiment;--"If he would only do something to prove he had a will of his own, and a mind, he would perhaps be able to set the Throne more firmly on its legs than it is at present."
How thoroughly the young man _had_ proved that he indeed possessed "a will of his own," was not yet disclosed to the outside critics of his life and conduct. Only the King and Queen, and Professor von Glauben knew it;--for even Sir Roger de Launay had not been entrusted with the story of his secret marriage. The Queen had received the news with her usual characteristic immobility. A faint cold smile had parted her lips as she listened to the story of her son"s romance,--and her reply to the King"s brief explanation was almost as brief:--
"Nearly all the aristocracy marry music-hall women!" she said; "One should therefore be grateful that a Crown Prince does not go lower in his matrimonial choice than an innocent little peasant!"
"The marriage is useless, of course," said the King; "It has satisfied Humphry"s exalted notions of honour; but it can never be acknowledged or admitted."
"Of course not!" she agreed languidly; "It certainly clears up the mystery of The Islands, which you were so anxious to visit;--and I suppose the next thing you will do is to marry him again to some daughter of a Royal house?"
"Most a.s.suredly!"
"As _you_ were married to _me?_" she said, raising her eyes to his face with that strange deep look which spoke eloquently of some mystery hidden in her soul.
His cheeks burned with an involuntary flush. He bowed.