"The dear Let.i.tia will be eating her own lunch by this time, and won"t miss me if my half hour is a long one," she thought. "And anyway, I said half an hour or _so_. That means almost anything, when it comes to an argument."
Another moment, and the girl had started. She was brave at first; but when she had gone half way--a way which was longer and far more difficult than she had fancied--she was conscious of a certain sinking of the heart. She even felt some qualms of sympathy with the sentiments and intentions Miss Portman had expressed, and heartily wished herself back by that good lady"s side. But it was against her principles to be conquered, especially when being conquered meant turning coward, or something like it, and she scrambled on obstinately, her cheeks burning, her heart thumping, and her lips pressed together.
What a grim, remorseless giant the mountain was, and what a mere, creeping fly upon its vast shoulder, she! Little cared the old mountain that she was a Royal Princess, and that the Emperor who ruled the land of which it was part, had the intention of marrying her. It would thwart that imperial intention without a qualm, nor turn a pebble if the poor little Princess toppled over its cruel shoulder and fell in a small, crushed heap, without ever having looked upon the face of the Rhaetian Emperor.
Then there came a later moment when, like Miss Portman, whom she had so recently laughed to scorn, the Princess felt that she could neither go on, nor go back. She was horribly homesick. She wanted her mother and the garden at Hampton Court, and would hardly have thrown a glance of interest at Leopold if he had appeared before her eyes. There were tears in those eyes and she was hating the mountain, and all Rhaetia, with her whole strength, when from the mysterious distance round the corner of the plateau there came the sound of a man"s voice, cheerfully yodeling.
Never had a sound been so welcome, or seemed so sweet. It was to Virginia as the voice of an angel. "Help!" she called. "Help!" first in English, and then, on second thoughts, in Rhaetian.
The yodeling abruptly stopped, and a man appeared round a corner of rock beyond the green plateau. The sun shone in his eyes, and he shaded them with his hand to look up at her. Virginia stared, hopefully, expectantly. A glance photographed a tall figure in a gray coat pa.s.semoiled with green; a soft green cap of felt; short trousers; bare knees; knitted stockings; nailed boots. Thank heaven, no tourist, but evidently a mountain man, a guide or a chamois hunter, perhaps; at all events, one capable of coming to her rescue. These things she saw and thought, in a flash; and then, the brown hand that had shaded his eyes, dropped. She caught sight of his face.
It was the Emperor.
A moment ago she had felt that she could look at him with indifference, and would a thousand times over prefer a glimpse of the dear old house at Hampton Court, with an easy way to reach it. But now, everything was changed. There was no longer any danger. He was there. He was coming to help her. A Power higher than his had arranged this as their first encounter, and would not have taken the trouble to bring him to her here, if the meeting were to end in ignominy or disaster.
He had run across the plateau; now the nailed boots were ringing on rock. She could gaze down upon his head, he was so close to her. He was looking up. What a n.o.ble face it was! Better than all the pictures. And the eyes--
Virginia was suddenly and wildly happy. She could have sung for joy, a song of triumph, and losing her head a little she lost her scant foothold as well, slipped, tried to hold on, failed, and slid down the steeply sloping rock.
If the man had not sprung forward and caught her, she would probably have rolled over the narrow ledge on which he stood, and gone bounding down, down the mountain side, to her death. But he did catch her, and broke the fall, so that she landed lightly beside him, and within an ace of being on her knees.
After all, it had been a narrow escape; but the man"s arms were so strong, and his eyes so brave, that Virginia scarcely realized the danger she had pa.s.sed. It seemed so inevitable now, that he must have saved her, that there was room in her thoughts for no dreadful might-have-been. Was it not the One Man sent to her by Destiny, when if this thing had not been meant, since the hour of her birth, it might easily have been some mere tourist, sent by Cook?
[Ill.u.s.tration: _She lost her scant foothold, slipped, tried to hold on, failed, and slid down the rock_]
All her life had but led up to this moment. Under the soft hat of green felt adorned with the beard of a chamois, was the face she had seen in dreams. A dark, austere young face it was, with more of Mars than Apollo in its lines, yet to her more desirable than all the ideals of all the sculptors since the world began. He was dressed as a chamois hunter, and there was nothing in the well-worn, almost shabby clothes to distinguish the wearer from the type he chose to represent.
But as easily might the eagle to whom in her heart she likened him, try to pa.s.s for a barnyard fowl, as this man for a peasant, so thought the Princess.
CHAPTER IV
THE EAGLE"S EYRIE
So she had gone on her knees to him after all--or almost! She was glad her mother did not know. And she hoped that he did not feel the pulsing of the blood in her fingers, as he took her hand and lifted her to her feet. There was shame in this tempest that swept through her veins, because he did not share it; for to her, though this meeting was an epoch, to him it was no more than a trivial incident.
She would have keyed his emotions to hers, if she could, but since she had had years of preparation, he a single moment, perhaps she might have been consoled for the disparity, could she have read his eyes.
They said, if she had known: "Is the sky raining G.o.ddesses to-day?"
Now, what were to be her first words to him? Dimly she felt, that if she were to profit by this wonderful chance to know the man and not the Emperor--this chance which might be lost in a few moments, unless her wit befriended her--those words should be beyond the common. She should be able to marshal her sentences, as a general marshals his battalions, with a plan of campaign for each.
A spirit monitor--a match-making monitor--whispered these wise advices in her ear; yet she was powerless to profit by them. Like a school-girl about to be examined for a scholarship, knowing that all the future might depend upon an hour of the present, the dire need to be resourceful, to be brilliant, left her dumb.
How many times had she not thought of her first conversation with Leopold of Rhaetia, planning the first words, the first looks, which must make him know that she was different from any other girl he had ever met! Yet here she stood, speechless, epigrams turning tail and racing away from her like a troop of playful colts refusing to be caught.
And so it was the Emperor who spoke before Virginia"s _savoir faire_ came back.
"I hope you"re not hurt?" asked the chamois hunter, in the _patois_ dear to the heart of Rhaetian mountain folk.
She had been glad before, now she was thankful that she had spent many weeks and months in loving study of the tongue which was Leopold"s. It was not the _metier_ of a chamois hunter to speak English, though the Emperor was said to know the language well, and she rejoiced in her ability to answer the chamois hunter as he would be answered, keeping up the play.
"I am hurt only in the pride that comes before a fall," she replied, forcing a laugh. "Thank you many times for saving me."
"I feared that I frightened you, and made you lose your footing," the chamois hunter answered.
"I think on the contrary, if it hadn"t been for you I should have lost my life," said Virginia. "There should be a sign put up on that tempting plateau, "All except suicides beware.""
"The necessity never occurred to us, my mates and me," returned the man in the gray coat, pa.s.semoiled with green. "Until you came, gna"
Fraulein, no tourist that I know of, has found it tempting."
Virginia"s eyes lit with a sudden spark. The spirit monitor--that match-making monitor--came back and dared her to a frolic, such a frolic, she thought, as no girl on earth had ever had, or would have, after her. And she could show this grave, soldier-hero of hers, something new in life--something quite new, which it would not harm him to know. Then, let come what would out of this adventure, at worst she should always have an Olympian episode to remember.
"Until _I_ came?" she caught up his words, standing carefully on the spot where he had placed her. "But I am no tourist; I am an explorer."
He lifted level, dark eyebrows, smiling faintly. And when he smiled, half his austerity was gone.
So beautiful a girl as this need not rise beyond agreeable commonplaceness of mind and speech to please a man; indeed, this particular chamois hunter expected no more than good looks, a good heart and a nice manner, from women. Yet this beauty bade fair, it seemed, to hold surprises in reserve.
"I have brought down n.o.ble game to-day," he said to himself; and aloud; "I know the Schneehorn well, and love it well. Still I can"t see what rewards it has for the explorer. Unless, gna" Fraulein, you are a climber or a geologist."
"I"m neither; yet I think I have seen something, a most rare thing, I"ve wanted all my life to see."
The young man"s face confessed curiosity. "Indeed? A rare thing that lives here on the mountain?"
"I am not sure if it lives here. I should like to find out," replied the girl.
"Might one inquire the name of this rare thing?" asked the chamois hunter. "Perhaps, if I knew, it might turn out that I could help you in the search. But first, if you"d let me lead you to the plateau, where I think you were going? Here, your head might still grow a little giddy, and it"s not well to keep you standing, gna" Fraulein, on such a spot. You"ve pa.s.sed all the worst now. The rest is easy."
She gave him her hand, pleasing herself by fancying the act a kind of allegory, as she let him lead her to safe and pleasant places, on a higher, sunnier level.
"Perhaps the rare thing grows here," the chamois hunter went on, looking about the green plateau with a new interest.
"I think not," Virginia answered, shaking her head. "It would thrive better nearer the mountain top, in a more hidden place than this. It does not love tourists."
"Nor do I, in truth," smiled the chamois hunter.
"You took me for one."
"Pardon, gna" Fraulein. Not the kind of tourist we both mean."
"Thank you."
"But you have not said if I might help you in your search. This is a wild region for a young lady to be exploring in, alone."
"I feel sure," responded the Princess, graciously, "that if you really would, you could help me as well as any one in Rhaetia."
"You are kind indeed to say so, though I don"t know how I have deserved the compliment."