"After my bath I always lie flat on my back and bring my knees up to my chin."
There was a convulsive, shrill gasp of laughter, which would have instantly developed into an hysterical roar, had not the young Prince, with quick, tactful disregard of British convention, sprung to his feet, and with one hand holding champagne gla.s.s, and the other uplifted, commanded silence. So did the stars in their courses still fight for Paul. "My lords, ladies and gentlemen," said the Prince, "I have the pleasure to announce the engagement of Her Highness the Princess Sophie Zobraska and Mr. Paul Savelli. I ask you to drink to their health and wish them every happiness."
He bowed to the couple, lifted his gla.s.s, and standing, swept a quick glance round the company, and at the royal command the table rose, dukes and d.u.c.h.esses and Cabinet Ministers, the fine flowers of England, and drank to Paul and his Princess.
"Attrape!" she whispered, as they got up together, hand in hand. And as they stood, in their superb promise of fulfilment, they conquered. The Princess said: "Mais dis quelque chose, toi."
And Paul met the flash in her eyes, and he smiled. "Your Royal Highness, my lords, ladies and gentlemen," said he, while all the company were racking their brains to recall a precedent for such proceedings at a more than formal London dinner party; "the Princess and myself thank you from our hearts. For me this might almost seem the end of the fairy-tale of my life, in which--when I was eleven years old--her ladyship the Countess of Danesborough" (he bowed to the Maisie of years ago), "whom I have not seen from that day to this, played the part of Fairy G.o.dmother. She gave me a talisman then to help me in my way through the world. I have it still." He held up the cornelian heart. "It guided my steps to my dearest lady, Miss Winwood, in whose beloved service I lived so long. It has brought me to the feet of my Fairy Princess. But now the fairy-tale is over. I begin where the fairy-tales end"--he laughed into his Sophie"s eyes--"I begin in the certain promise of living happy ever afterwards."
In this supreme hour of his destiny there spoke the old, essential Paul, the believer in the Vision Splendid. The instinctive appeal to the romantic ringing so true and so sincere awoke responsive chords in hearts which, after all, as is the simple way of hearts of men and women, were very human.
He sat down a made man, amid pleasant laughter and bowings and lifting of gla.s.ses, the length of the long table.
Lady Danesborough said gently: "It was charming of you to bring me in.
But I shall be besieged with questions. What on earth shall I tell them?"
"The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," he replied.
"What do the Princess and I care?"
Later in the evening he managed to find himself alone for a moment with the Princess. "My wonderful Sophie, what can I say to you?"
She smiled victoriously. "Cry quits. Confess that you have not the monopoly of the grand manner. You have worked in your man"s way--I in my woman"s way."
"You took a great risk," said he.
Her eyes softened adorably. "Non, mon Paul, cheri. C"etait tout arrange. It was a certainty."
And then, Paul"s dearest lady came up and pressed both their hands. "I am so glad. Oh, so glad." The tears started. "But it is something like a fairy-tale, isn"t it?"
Well, as far as his chronicler can say at present, that is the end of the Fortunate Youth. But it is really only a beginning. Although his party is still in opposition, he is still young; his sun is rising and he is rich in the glory thereof. A worldful of great life lies before him and his Princess. What limit can we set to their achievement? Of course he was the Fortunate Youth. Of that there is no gainsaying. He had his beauty, his charm, his temperament, his quick southern intelligence--all his Sicilian heritage--and a freakish chance had favoured him from the day that, vagabond urchin, he attended his first and only Sunday-school treat. But personal gifts and favouring chance are not everything in this world.
On the day before his wedding he had a long talk with Barney Bill.
"Sonny," said the old man, scratching his white poll, "when yer used to talk about princes and princesses, I used to larf--larf fit to bust myself. I never let yer seen me do it, sonny, for all the time you was so dead serious. And now it has come true. And d"yer know why it"s come true, sonny?" He c.o.c.ked his head on one side, his little diamond eyes glittering, and laid a hand on Paul"s knee. "D"yer know why? Because yer believed in it. I ain"t had much religion, not having, so to speak, much time for it, also being an old crock of a pagan--but I do remember as what Christ said about faith--just a mustard seed of it moving mountains. That"s it, sonny. I"ve observed lots of things going round in the old "bus. Most folks believe in nothing. What"s the good of "em?
Move mountains? They"re paralytic in front of a dunghill. I know what I"m talking about, bless yer. Now you come along believing in yer "igh-born parents. I larfed, knowing as who yer parents were. But you believed, and I had to let you believe. And you believed in your princes and princesses, and your being born to great things. And I couldn"t sort of help believing in it too."
Paul laughed. "Things happen to have come out all right, but G.o.d knows why."
"He does," said Barney Bill very seriously. "That"s just what He does know. He knows you had faith."
"And you, dear old man?" asked Paul, "what have you believed in?"
"My honesty, sonny," replied Barney Bill, fixing him with his bright eyes. ""Tain"t much. "Tain"t very ambitious-like. But I"ve had my temptations. I never drove a crooked bargain in my life."
Paul rose and walked a step or two.
"You"re a better man than I am, Bill."
Barney Bill rose too, rheumatically, and laid both hands on the young man"s shoulders. "Have you ever been false to what you really believed to be true?"
"Not essentially," said Paul.
"Then it"s all right, sonny," said the old man very earnestly, his bent, ill-clad figure, his old face wizened by years of exposure to suns and frosts, contrasting oddly with the young favourite of fortune.
"It"s all right. Your father believed in one thing. I believe in another. You believe in something else. But it doesn"t matter a tuppenny d.a.m.n what one believes in, so long as it"s worth believing in.
It"s faith, sonny, that does it. Faith and purpose."
"You"re right," said Paul. "Faith and purpose."
"I believed in yer from the very first, when you were sitting down reading Sir Walter with the bead and tail off. And I believed in yer when yer used to tell about being "born to great things!"
Paul laughed. "That was all childish rubbish," said he.
"Rubbish?" cried the old man, his head more crooked, his eyes more bright, his gaunt old figure more twisted than ever. "Haven"t yer got the great things yer believed yer were born to? Ain"t yer rich? Ain"t yer famous? Ain"t yer a Member of Parliament? Ain"t yer going to marry a Royal Princess? Good G.o.d Almighty! what more d"yer want?"
"Nothing in the wide, wide world!" laughed Paul.