"I can a.s.sure you, Mrs. Van Reinberg--" I began.
"Now listen here, Mr. Courage," she interrupted. "I"m not the sort of woman to complain at what I don"t try to alter. What"s the good of having a husband whose nod is supposed to shake the money markets of the world, if you don"t make use of him?"
I nodded sagely.
"You are quite right," I said. "Money, after all, is the greatest power in the world to-day. Money will buy anything!"
"I guess so, if it"s properly spent," Mrs. Van Reinberg agreed. "Only very few of my country-people have any idea how to use it to get what they want. They go over the other side and hire great houses, and bribe your great ladies to call themselves their friends, and bribe your young men with wonderful entertainments to come to their houses. They spend, spend, spend, and think they are getting value for their money. Idiots!
The great lady whom they are proud to entertain one night is as likely as not to cut them the next. Half the people who go to their parties go out of curiosity, and half to meet their own friends. Not one to see them!
Not one because it does them the slightest good to be seen there. They are there in the midst of it all, and that is all you can say. Their motto should be "on sufferance." That"s what I call going to work the wrong way."
"You have," I suggested, "some other scheme?"
She drew her chair a little closer to mine, and looked around cautiously.
"I have," she admitted. "That is what we are all here for--to discuss it and make our final plans."
"And Prince Victor?" I murmured.
"Precisely! He is in it, of course. I may as well tell you that he"s dead against my making a confidant of you; but I"ve a sort of fancy to hear what you might have to say about it. You see I"m a practical woman, and though I"ve thought this scheme out myself, and I believe in it, there are times when it seems to me a trifle airy. Now you"re a kind of level-headed person, and living over there, your point of view would be interesting."
"I should be glad to hear anything you might have to tell me, Mrs. Van Reinberg," I said slowly; "but you must please remember that I am an Englishman."
"Oh! we don"t want to hurt your old country," she declared. "I consider that for all the talk about kinship, and all that sort of thing, she treats us--I mean women like myself--disgracefully. But that"s neither here nor there. I"ve finished with England for the present. We"re going to play a greater game than that!"
Mrs. Van Reinberg had dropped her voice a little. There was a somewhat uncomfortable pause. I could see that, even at the last moment, she realized that, in telling me these things, she was guilty of what might well turn out to be a colossal indiscretion. I myself was almost in a worse dilemma. If I accepted her confidence, I was almost, if not quite, bound in honor to respect it. If, as I suspected, it fitted in with the great scheme, if it indeed formed ever so small a part of these impending happenings in which Guest so firmly believed, what measure of respect were we likely to pay to it? None at all! If I stopped her, I should be guilty, from Guest"s point of view, of incredible folly; if I let her go on, it must be with the consciousness that I was accepting her confidences under wholly false pretences. It was a big problem for a man like myself, new to the complexities of life. I could only think of Guest"s words: "Conscience! For Heaven"s sake, man, lock it up until we have done our duty."
I leaned against the wooden rail of the piazza, looking across the grounds. Within a dozen yards or so of us, several of Mrs. Van Reinberg"s guests, with a collection of golf sticks, were clambering into a huge automobile. Beyond the pleasure gardens was a range of forest-covered hills, yellow and gold now with the glory of the changing foliage. In the valley was a small steeplechase course, towards which several people were riding. The horse which had been saddled for me was still being led about a little way down the avenue. With the exception that there was no shooting party, it was very much like the usual sort of gathering at an English country house. And yet it all seemed wholly unreal to me! I felt a strong inclination--perhaps a little hysterical--to burst out laughing.
This was surely a gigantic joke, planned against the proverbial lack of humor of my countrymen! I was not expected to take it seriously! And yet, in a moment, I remembered certain established facts, of which these things were but the natural sequel. I remembered, too, a certain air of seriousness, and a disposition towards confidential talk, manifested among the older members of the party. Mrs. Van Reinberg"s suppressed but earnest voice again broke the silence. She called me back to her side.
"Mr. Courage," she said, "you are going to marry Adele?"
"I hope so," I answered confidently, glancing away to where she stood talking to Mr. de Valentin on the piazza steps.
"I shall treat you then," she declared, "as one of the family. To-night, after dinner, we are going to hold the meeting for which this houseful of people was really brought together. I invite you to come to it.
Afterwards you will understand everything! Now I must hurry off, and so must you! Your horse is getting the fidgets."
She swept off down the piazza. Mr. de Valentin came forward eagerly to meet her. I saw his face darken as she whispered in his ear.
CHAPTER XXV
A CABLE FROM EUROPE
Dinner that night was a somewhat oppressive meal. Several new guests had arrived, some of whom bore names which were well known to me. There was a sense of some hidden excitement, which formed an uneasy background to the spasmodic general conversation. The men especially seemed uncomfortable and ill at ease.
"Poor father," Adele whispered to me, "he would give a good many of his dollars not to be in this."
I glanced across at our host, who had come down from New York specially in his magnificent private car, which was now awaiting his return on a siding of the little station. He was a hard-faced, elderly man, with a shrewd mouth and keen eyes, sparely built, yet a man you would be inclined to glance at twice in any a.s.semblage. He wore a most unconventional evening suit, the waistcoat cut very high, and a plain black tie. Two footmen stood behind his chair, and a large florid lady, wearing a crown of diamonds, and with a European reputation for opulence, sat on his right hand. Neither seemed to embarra.s.s him in the least, for the simple reason that he took no notice of them. He drank water, ate sparingly, and talked Wall Street with a man a few places down the table on the left. His speech was crisp and correct, but his intonation more distinctly American than any of his guests". On the whole, I think he interested me more than any one else there.
"By the bye," I remarked, "I ought to be having a little private conversation with your father this time, oughtn"t I?"
She smiled at me faintly.
"It is usual," she a.s.sented. "I don"t think you will find that he will have much to say. I am my own mistress, and he is too wise to interfere in such a matter. But--"
"Well?"
"You are a very confident person," she murmured.
"I am confident of one thing, at any rate," I answered, "and that is that you are going to be my wife!"
She rebuked me with a glance, which was also wonderfully sweet.
"Some one will hear you," she whispered.
I shook my head.
"Every one is too busy talking about the mysteries to come," I declared.
She shrugged her dazzlingly white shoulders.
"Perhaps even you," she murmured, "may take them more seriously some day."
A few minutes later Mrs. Van Reinberg rose.
"We shall all meet," she remarked, looking round the table, "at eleven o"clock in the library."
In common with most of the younger men, I left the table at the same time, the usual custom, I had discovered, here, where cigarettes were smoked indiscriminately. There was baccarat in the hall; billiards and bridge for those who care for them. Mrs. Van Reinberg waited for me in the first of the long suite of reception-rooms. Mr. de Valentin, who had been talking earnestly to her most of the time during the service of dinner, remained only a few paces off. It struck me that Mrs. Van Reinberg was not in the best of humors.
"Mr. Courage," she said, "I think it only right that I should let you know that Mr. de Valentin strongly objects to your presence at our meeting to-night."
"I am very sorry to hear it," I answered. "May I ask upon what grounds?"
"He seems to imagine," she declared, "that you are not trustworthy."
Mr. de Valentin hastily intervened.
"My dear Mrs. Van Reinberg!" he exclaimed.
"I hope you will believe, Mr. Courage," he continued, turning towards me, "that nothing was further from my thoughts. I simply say that as you are not interested in the matter which we are going to discuss, your presence is quite unnecessary, and might become a source of mutual embarra.s.sment."
"On the contrary," I a.s.sured him, "I am very much interested. Perhaps Mr.
de Valentin does not know," I added, turning towards Mrs. Van Reinberg, "that your stepdaughter has done me the honor of promising to be my wife."
There was a moment"s breathless pause. I saw Mrs. Van Reinberg falter, and I saw something which I did not understand flash across Mr. de Valentin"s face.