Lilly led the way into the interior of the park, where the cl.u.s.ters of trees and the open gra.s.sy s.p.a.ces melted into purple-edged darkness. She had gotten back her calm. The desire to save him gave her strength of which she had not deemed herself capable.
"You must not misunderstand my coming to you," she began.
"Certainly not, my lady," he replied, bowing obsequiously. "The evening is so lovely, and old acquaintances like to chat with each other once in a while."
"If I had wanted anything like that," said Lilly, making no effort to conceal her sense of insult, "I should have invited you to the castle.
If I come to you instead, you can readily imagine the matter is more important."
"What can be more important to me than strolling here at my lady"s side?"
She shrugged her shoulders.
"Oh, Mr. von Prell, if you knew the difficulty you were in, you would take care not to indulge in such talk."
Lilly had never thought herself capable of so much haughtiness.
"What difficulty can I be in, my lady?" he rejoined, raising his brows and wrinkling his forehead. "My soul has worn half-mourning ever since I was condemned to live in a certain close distance from, or, rather, a certain distant proximity to--my gracious lady. Whether Tommy and myself possess the character for enduring this trial--come, come Tommy, don"t be a goose. Our lady benefactress will have no objections to your not treading on her train."
Tommy obstinately planted his forelegs and had to be dragged along like a lifeless toy.
"You"ll strangle the poor little beast," said Lilly, happy to have found a way of avoiding his personalities.
"He will simply be sharing the sensations of his master," said Von Prell, ill.u.s.trating his reply by clutching at his throat and emitting a horrible gurgle.
Such behaviour must no longer be permitted. Lilly owed it to herself and her position to resent it.
"Mr. von Prell," she said very condescendingly, "do you realize that by the same time to-morrow you will probably have been dismissed?"
He was touched at last. He frowned and bit the ends of his moustache; but then he said:
"What gives me some satisfaction in the fact is that my lady seems to take no slight interest in the matter."
Now she became angry in earnest.
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Mr. von Prell," she cried. "I wear myself out and take great risks trying to help you, and you show your grat.i.tude by making silly remarks all the time."
"Courage, Tommy," he said, taking the dog in his arms. "First they flay us, then they kick us out. Our one comfort is, we are innocent sufferers. Poor, poor Tommy."
"Don"t try to whitewash yourself," Lilly reprimanded. "Miss von Schwertfeger discovered everything--your relations--you understand--your nightly trips to my balcony and through my room--everything. Do you think I take pleasure in having to treat you like a criminal when I"ve always thought so much of you? Don"t you think I"d much rather be proud of you, than stand here and see you driven away like a stray dog? Or can you say anything in justification of yourself? Can you? Tell me."
She talked herself into such warmth that she forgot the unseemliness of her being there with him. She was now that which she wanted to be--the benevolent chatelaine, who turns everything to good account; and her breast swelled with the consciousness of her lofty ethical undertaking.
They had stepped from under the dark arches of the linden walk. A few sharply defined streaks of red still coloured the west, and cast a deep glow over his narrow, freckled face.
He looked completely crushed and penitent, and Lilly regretted having dealt with him so harshly.
"I realise," he began after a short pause, his voice quivering as with suppressed excitement, "I realise I must not let so grave a charge go without justifying myself. And I can justify myself, I most undoubtedly can. But in doing so, I am compelled to disclose a secret, which--I really do not know if I ought to initiate you into the horrible mysteries that threaten to ruin my life."
"What are they?" queried Lilly, in terrified curiosity.
"Well, then, from my boyhood up I have been pursued by an awful fate, which comes upon me when I am utterly defenceless and imposes upon me responsibility for misdeeds of which I am absolutely innocent, and places me in breakneck situations, which--I will be outspoken--I am--well, I am a somnambulist."
The merry little devils frolicked between his silvery lids, and Lilly, in spite of herself, burst out laughing. He joined in with his dear, mute tehee, which shook him like a storm; and they stood there laughing till they wearied. Lilly no longer thought of her chatelaine"s dignity, or her ethical mission.
As if by mutual agreement they turned into the deserted depths of the park, which bordered on a bosky beech grove with neither fence nor hedge between.
It grew darker at each step.
Tommy resigning himself to his fate trotted behind his master obediently.
"Well," said Von Prell, after they had recovered from their laugh, "why should I try to throw dust in your eyes? I am a poor pickerel floundering here on dry land. Have you the faintest notion of what it means to keep company with three plebeians and lead a useful vegetable existence, and from morning till evening steadfastly practise dutifulness and uprightness? It"s more than a fellow can stomach. I tell you, it"s enough to drive him to a dose of castor oil. Tommy self-denyingly helps me tide over the worst moments, but every now and then he, too, is a disappointment to me. Will my lady permit me to use this occasion for asking her an extremely important question?"
Pleased at his having grown serious, Lilly a.s.sented.
"Can you--can you wag your ears?"
She succ.u.mbed to another paroxysm of laughter as to a spell of sickness, leaning against a tree and panting for breath, while he continued with profound affliction in his voice:
"I am master of the modest art and have been proud to exercise my skill ever since I was at high school, where it was considered the acme of human accomplishments. I made up my mind to train Tommy to do the same trick, and I spent many an hour over him in difficult intellectual effort, but without result. One day, however, I discovered he could wag his ears much better than I can, and, I a.s.sume, always had been able to.
Only he did it when he wanted to, not when I wanted him to. Isn"t that distressing? Doesn"t it reflect the general aimlessness of human endeavour? O dearest baronissima, I am afraid I shall soon become a great philosopher out of sheer boredom."
Lilly could now see only the outline of his figure, behind which the dog"s eyes glowed like two beacon lights. Since her school days she had not abandoned herself so completely to a spirit of pure fun, and she had to wait until a pause came in her laughing before she could tell him it was high time to be returning.
He obediently turned on his heels, transferring Tommy"s chain from one hand to the other.
The catastrophe that menaced him seemed to have pa.s.sed from his mind.
Lilly, therefore, since time pressed and something had to be done for him, took the bit between her teeth, and reported what Miss von Schwertfeger intended to do, and what she demanded from him as the price of her silence.
Lilly was helping him, but not with that beautiful, dignified air of superiority with which she had wanted to hold out her rescuing hand. She felt she was like a playmate of his, and every few moments a half-suppressed giggle interrupted her speech.
"The worthy dame has an unconquerable desire to stand about on people"s toes," said Von Prell. "But since we"ve gotten ourselves into a sc.r.a.pe, my dear little Tommy, we"ll have to juggle to get ourselves out of it.
Thank you very much, my lady. In accordance with your instructions I will go to her and ask her to forgive me--before going I"ll oil my speaking apparatus. I will be more than repentant, I will even be roguish. That works on respectable old maids like Spanish fly. And I will use the opportunity to the best advantage for our future intercourse with each other--provided of course, my young queen agrees."
Oh, she agreed fully!
"But how will you do it?" she asked fearfully.
"Leave the matter to me," he replied. "Your duenna is a knowing old beast. But I am even more knowing. I shouldn"t be surprised if to-morrow I didn"t earn an occasional supper in the castle, at which I shall have the opportunity of looking into the eyes of my exalted mistress without being observed by the two High Mightinesses."
There were several things in his speech that grated on Lilly. He might make merry as much as he pleased at Miss von Schwertfeger"s expense, but the colonel stood on too high a plane to be the b.u.t.t of his ridicule.
And now that Von Prell was out of danger, it occurred to Lilly for the first time how detestable his conduct had been, and how lacking in character she was to be sauntering about with him in the dark, laughing at his sallies.
"One moment, Mr. von Prell," she said. "I warned you of the danger you were in, because I thought I owed it to our former friendship. But now that I have told you, we have nothing more to do with each other. My time is up. Good evening, Mr. von Prell."
With that she hurried on ahead along the obscure wood path, and gave no look around. Suddenly she felt something soft and warm and living slip between her feet. She screamed and turned about for Von Prell"s help. At the same instant a chain wound itself about her ankle, and held her fast.
Since she and Von Prell had turned back, the dog in his eagerness to get home, had been straining on the chain with all his might, and had taken her hastening off as a signal to break away, thus entangling himself in her dress. The more he tugged the more painfully the chain cut into her flesh.
That made an end of Lilly"s ire.