Love's Logic and Other Stories/Mrs. Thistleton's Princess

by Anthony Hope

 

MRS. THISTLETON'S PRINCESS

 

Chapter One

THE Great Ones of the earth do not come our way much down at Southam Parva. Our Member's wife is an "Honorable," and most of us, in referring to her, make express mention of that rank; moreover she comes very seldom. In the main our lot lies among the undistinguished, and our table of precedence is employed in determining the dividing lines between "Esquire." "Mr.," and plain "John Jones"—a humble, though no doubt a subtle, inquiry into the gradations of Society. So I must confess to feeling a thrill when I read Mrs. Thistleton's invitation to dinner at the Manor. Thistleton is lord of the manor—by purchase, not by inheritance—and lives in the old house, proceeding every day to town, where he has a fine practice as a solicitor (Bowes, Thistleton, and Kent) in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Mrs. Thistleton and the children (there are eight, ranging from Tom, nineteen, to Molly, seven, so that the practice needs to be fine) are, however, quite country-folk. Indeed Mrs. Thistleton comes of a county family—in a county situated, I must not say judiciously but perhaps luckily, at the other end of England from ours; distance prevents cavil in such matters, and, practically speaking, Mrs. Thistleton can say what she pleases about her parental stock, besides exhibiting some highly respectable coat-of-armored silver to back her discreet vaunts. Mrs. Thistleton is always discreet; indeed she is, in my opinion, a woman of considerable talent, and the way in which she dealt with the Princess—with the problem of the Princess—confirmed the idea I had of her.

The mention of the Princess brings me back to the card of invitation, though I must add, in a minor digression, that the Thistletons are the only people in Southam Parva who employ printed cards of invitation—the rest of us would not get through a hundred in a lifetime, and therefore write notes. The invitation-card, then, sent to me by Mrs. Thistleton was headed as follows: "To have the honor of meeting Her Royal Highness the Princess Vera of Boravia." Subsequent knowledge taught me that the "Royal" was an embellishment of Mrs. Thistleton's—justifiable for aught I know, since the Princess had legitimate pretensions to the throne, though her immediate line was not at this time in occupation of it—but never employed by the Princess herself. However I think Mrs. Thistleton was quite right to do the thing handsomely, and I should have gone even without the "Royal," so there was no real deception. All of us who were invited went: the Rector and his wife, the Doctor and his wife, old Mrs. Marsfold (the Major-General had, unfortunately, died the year before), Miss Dunlop (of the Elms), and Charley Miles (of the Stock Exchange).

From what I have said already it will be evident that I am no authority, yet I feel safe in declaring that never was etiquette more elaborately observed at any party—I don't care where. One of Thistleton's clients was old Lord Ogleferry, and at Lord Ogleferry's he had once met a real princess (I apologize to Princess Vera for stumbling, in my insular way, into this invidious distinction, but, after all, Boravia is not a first-class Power). Everything that Lord and Lady Ogleferry had done and caused to be done for the real—the British—princess, Thistleton and Mrs. Thistleton did and caused to be done for Princess Vera; uncomfortable things some of them seemed to me to be, but Thistleton, over the wine after dinner, told us that they were perfectly correct. He also threw light on the Princess's visit. She had come to him as a client, wishing him to recover for her, not, as Charley Miles flippantly whispered to me, the throne of Boravia by force of arms, but a considerable private fortune at present impounded—or sequestrated, as Thistleton preferred to call it—by the de facto monarch of Boravia. "It's the case of the Orleans Princes over again," Thistleton observed, as he plied a dignified toothpick in such decent obscurity as his napkin afforded. This parallel with the Orleans Princes impressed us much—without, perhaps, illuminating all of us in an equal degree; and we felt that Charley betrayed a mercantile attitude of mind when he asked briefly——

"What's the figure?"

"Upward of two million francs," answered Thistleton.

I think we all wished we had pencil and paper; the Rector scribbled on the menu—I saw him do it—and got the translation approximately accurate. Imagination was left to play with the "upward."

"How much would you take for it—cash?" asked skeptical Charley.

"The matter is hardly as simple as that," said Thistleton, with a slight frown; and he added gravely: "We mustn't stay here any longer."

So we went up-stairs, where Her Royal Highness sat in state, and we all had a word with her. She spoke just a little English, with a pretty, outlandish accent, but was not at all at home in the language. When my turn came—and it came last—I ventured to reply to her first question in French, which I daresay was a gross breach of etiquette. None the less, she was visibly relieved; indeed she smiled for the first time and chatted away for a few minutes quite merrily. Then Thistleton terminated my audience. He used precisely this expression. "I'm afraid I must terminate your audience," he said. Against any less impressive formula I might have rebelled; because I liked the Princess.

And what was she like? Very small, very slight, about half the size of bouncing Bessie Thistleton, though Bessie was not yet seventeen, and the Princess, as I suppose, nineteen or twenty. Her face was pale, rather thin, a pretty oval in shape; her nose was a trifle turned up, she had plentiful black hair and large dark eyes. In fact she was a pretty timid little lady, sadly frightened of us all, and most of all of Mrs. Thistleton. I don't wonder at that; I'm rather frightened of Mrs. Thistleton myself.

Before I went, I tried to get some more information out of my hostess, but mystery reigned. Mrs. Thistleton would not tell me how the Princess had come to put her affairs in Thistleton's hands, who had sent her to him, or how he was supposed to be going to get two million francs out of the de facto King of Boravia. All she said was that Her Royal Highness had graciously consented to pay them a visit of a very few days.

"Very few days indeed," she repeated impressively.

"Of course," I nodded with a sagacious air. Probably Her Royal Highness was due at Windsor the day after to-morrow; at any rate, that was the sort of impression Mrs. Thistleton gave.

"I wonder if the money's genuine!" said Charley Miles as we walked home.

"Is she genuine herself?" I asked.

"Well, there's a girl corresponding to her description, anyhow. I went to the club to-day and looked her up. Ought to be Queen, too, if she 'ad 'er rights. (Here he was quoting.) Oh, yes, she's all correct. But I wouldn't care to say as much for the fortune. Wonder if old Thistleton's taken it up on commission!"

"I hope she'll get it. I liked the little thing, didn't you, Charley?"

He cocked his hat rather more on one side and smiled; he is a good-natured young man and no fool in his own business. "Yes, I did," he answered. "And what the dickens must she have thought of us?"

I couldn't reply to that, though I entertained the private opinion that I, at least, had made a good impression.

So much for the introduction of the Princess. And now comes, of necessity, a gap in my story; for the next day I went to Switzerland on my annual holiday, and was absent from Southam Parva for two full months. Not seeing the English papers during most of that period, I was unable to learn whether Her Royal Highness Princess Vera of Boravia had proceeded from the Manor House, Soutkara Parva, to the Castle, Windsor, or anywhere else.

 

Chapter Two

She had not, as a fact—and a fact which came to my knowledge even before I reached my own threshold. I stepped into the train at Liverpool Street, fat, brown, and still knickerbockered. In one corner of the carriage sat Thistleton, in another Charley Miles.

"Not seen you for a day or two, old chap," said the latter genially.

I nodded and sat down opposite Thistleton, who welcomed my reappearance in a few well-chosen words. I reciprocated his civility with inquiries after his family, and finally, before biking up my paper, I added——

"And your distinguished visitor? The charming Princess? Have you any news of her?"

At the same moment I happened to catch Charley's eye. It was cocked at me in a distinctly satirical manner. For an instant I feared that the Princess had run off with the spoons, or annexed Mrs. Thistleton's garnets (we all knew them) to enrich the Boravian diadem. But after the briefest pause—which was a pause, all the same—Thistleton answered——

"She is still with us, and very well indeed, thank you."

He cleared his throat, opened The Globe, and said no more. Charley's eye drew me with an irresistible attraction; it was still cocked at me over the top of the Evening News. But he made no remark, so I fell back on my own organ of opinion, and silence was unbroken until we had passed the station immediately before Beechington—we alight (as the Company puts it) at Beechington for Southam Parva. Then, when there were just three minutes left, Thistleton glanced at Charley, saw that he was busy with his paper (the "racing" corner, unless I'm mistaken), leaned forward, and tapped my knee with his gold eyeglasses. I started slightly and accorded him my attention. There seemed to be a little embarrassment in his manner.

"By the way, Tregaskis," he said, "you remember I told you that I was engaged on certain—er—delicate negotiations on behalf of our guest?"

I nodded. "About Her Royal Highness's private fortune?"

He nodded. "They involve," he proceeded, "approaches to the present King in—er—an amicable spirit—more or less amicable. We have thought it well that for the present—provisionally and without prejudice—Her Highness should employ a designation to which her claim is absolutely beyond dispute. By a disuse—temporary, perhaps—of her proper style, she may smooth certain—er—susceptibilities, and so render my task easier and give us a better prospect of success. Our guest now prefers to be known as the Countess Vera von Friedenburg."

I nodded again—it was the only safe thing to do. Thistleton said no more, save to express a hope (as he got into his wagonette) that they would see me soon at the Manor. Charley and I started together to walk the long mile from Beechington Station to Southam Parva; the cart was to bring my luggage. We had covered some half of the distance when Charley pushed his hat well over his left ear and ejaculated——

"Rum go, ain't it, Treg? What do you make of it?"

"Her being still here, you mean?"

"Yes; and the business about her name. For a fortnight she was Her Royal Highness. Then she was Her Highness for three weeks. And for the last three she's been Countess Vera von Friedenburg!"

"Thistleton gave what appeared to me an admirable reason."

"I don't believe he'll get a sou, not if he offered to endorse the check 'Sarah Smith.' Is it likely they'd part?" By "they," I understood him to mean the Court of Boravia.

"I'm sorry for her, then."

"So am I, and for old Thistleton too. He's out of pocket, I expect, besides losing his comm. And there she is!"

"The Princess?"

"The Countess, you mean." His smile was sardonic.

"Yes, there she is," I agreed, not very helpfully, however.

"Rum go!" he added, just as he had begun, and then fell to whistling the ditty of the hour. He made only one more remark, and that fell from him just as we parted.

"Ta-ta, Treg," said he. "Old Thistles (he had an objectionable habit of abbreviating names) has got a tidy practice; but there are a good many mouths to fill, eh? And no comm.! Ta-ta!"

Was it really as bad as that? The thought made me uncomfortable. Poor girl! The title that had filled our mouths would not fill hers. And her descent in rank had been remarkable and rapid. Her fall in public esteem had, as I soon found, kept pace with it. The word as to her style of address had gone round. She was "Countess Vera" now. Mrs. Marsfold said: "Poor Countess Vera." Miss Dunlop's accent was less charitable: "Susan Thistleton's Countess" was her form of expression, and beneath it lay an undoubted sneer at the Princess's pretensions. Boravia, too, was spoken off with scant respect. "Really a barbarous place, I'm told," said the Rector. "They call their kings kings; but of course—!" He shrugged his shoulders, without, however, indicating what title the Boravians might, in accordance with British standards, appropriate to the person who had the doubtful good fortune of ruling over them. In fact they—and I don't know that I am altogether entitled to except myself—all felt a little hot when they remembered the high-mightiness of that dinner-party.

I took advantage of Thistleton's kind intimation and called on his wife. It was a fine autumn afternoon, and, while we sat in the drawing-room and talked, I looked through the open windows on to the lawn. Countess Vera sat there, surrounded by the four youngest Thistleton children—Gladys, Myra, Molly, and the boy Evanstone (Mrs. Thistleton was a Miss Evanstone). The Countess and the children all held books in their hands, and snatches of the French tongue fell on my ear from time to time.

"It's really very perplexing," said Mrs. Thistleton, "and it's difficult to do the light thing. I'm sure you credit us with wanting to do the right thing, Mr. Tregaskis?"

"I'm sure you'd do the right and the kind thing."

"The money she brought over is quite exhausted. Mr. Thistleton has spent a considerable sum in getting up her case and presenting it to the Boravian Court. His efforts meet with no attention—indeed with absolute contempt."

"They're not afraid of her?"

"Not in the least. And here she is—literally without a farthing! And hardly a gown to her back—at least, hardly one suitable for—" She broke off, ending: "But what do you know about gowns?"

"Rather a remarkable situation for a princess!"

"If she would let us beg for her, even! The Government might do something. But she won't hear of it. Then she says she'll go. Where to? What can she do? If she won't beg, she'd starve. We can't let her starve, can we? But times aren't good, and— Oh, well, I must give you some tea. Would you mind ringing?"

I obeyed. Merry laughs came from the children on the lawn.

"The kids seem to like her," said I, for want of better consolation.

"She's very nice to them. She's helping them with their French." She caught me looking at her and blushed a little. I had not seen Mrs. Thistleton blush before. Suddenly the plan came before my eyes. There was no need to blush for it; it seemed to me rather great—rather great, perhaps, on both sides, but greater on Mrs. Thistleton's. "It gives her a sense of—of doing something in return, I suppose," Mrs. Thistleton went on.

The maid brought in tea.

"Is nursery tea ready?" Mrs. Thistleton asked.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Then send the children up-stairs and tell the Countess that tea is here."

"Yes, ma'am."

Soon the Countess came—as small, as slight, as dark as ever, even more timid. I rose as she entered; she bowed nervously, and, going to the table, busied herself with making the tea. Mrs. Thistleton lay back in her armchair.

"Sit down, Mr. Tregaskis," she said. "You like making tea for us, don't you, Countess?"

"Yes, Mrs. Thistleton, thank you," said Countess Vera von Friedenburg.

Rut I didn't sit down—I couldn't do it. I leaned against the table and looked an ass all the time she made tea.

 

Chapter Three

THE next chapter, or division, or what you will, of this small history may be very short. I write it with two objects, which seem to me to justify its appearance, in spite of its fragmentary character. In the first place, it serves to exhibit the final stage of the descent of the Princess—the logical conclusion of the process which was begun when Thistleton dropped "Royal" from between "Her" and "Highness" in the train from Liverpool Street to Beechington. In the second place, it exhibits Mrs. Thistleton's good sense and fine feeling for the suitability of things. You couldn't have princesses—nay, nor countesses—about the house in that sort of position. It would have been absurd.

So here it is. I seldom give even small dinner-parties; such gatherings annoy my cook. But about a month after my return, I got leave to have four or five friends, and I bade to my board the Rector and his wife and Mr. and Mrs. Thistleton. If for no other reason than to "balance," I said in my note to Mrs. Thistleton that I should be exceedingly pleased if Countess Vera von Friedenburg would do me the honour of accompanying them. Perhaps that was a mistake in taste. I meant no harm, and I don't think that Mrs. Thistleton intended to rebuke me; though she did, I imagine, mean to convey to me a necessary intimation.

 

"Dear Mr. Tregaskis," she wrote, "Mr. Thistleton and I are delighted to accept your very kind invitation, and we shall be charmed, as always, to meet our dear Rector and Mrs. Carr. I am told to thank you very sincerely for your kind invitation to our young friend, but Fraülein Friedenburg agrees with me in thinking that during my absence she had better stay with the children.—Yours very sincerely,

"Susan Thistleton."

 

Fraülein Friedenburg! Even her particle—her last particle—of nobility gone! Friedenburg! Her Royal Highness—! Let us forget—let us and all Southam Parva forget!

It was not unkind of Mrs. Thistleton. It was right and suitable. Who should not come out to dinner, but stay and mind the children? Who save Fraülein—Fraülein Friedenburg? It would have been a ludicrous position for Her Royal Highness Princess Vera of Boravia. Leave it to Fraülein Friedenburg!

So, as Fraülein Friedenburg, she passed into our ordinary lives, and out of our ordinary thoughts, as it is the way with things when they become familiar. Mrs. Thistleton's courage and talent had saved the situation—and her own face. The Princess was forgotten, and the Thistletons' nursery governess little heeded. Who does heed a nursery governess much?

But one night, as I turned over the atlas looking for something else, I came on the map of Boravia and saw the city of Friedenburg set astride the great river, dominating the kingdom, a sentinel at the outposts of Western Europe. If Divine Right were not out of fashion, the key of that citadel should have been in the hand which ruled exercise-books for the Thistleton children. For a few moments after that I went on thinking about the nursery governess.

 

Chapter Four

So Fraülein—she soon came to be called just "Fraülein"—was not at my dinner-party; but two or three weeks later I had a little talk with her. I went up to the Manor one afternoon in October, seeking a game of croquet with Bessie Thistleton—such are our mild delights at Southam Parva—but found the whole family gone off to a Primrose League bazaar at Beechington. Only Fraülein was at home, said the parlor-maid; and Fraülein was visible in the garden, sitting under a tree, turning over the leaves of a big book. I used the privilege of a friend of the house, strolled out on to the lawn, and raised my hat to the—I mean to Fraülein. She smiled brightly and beckoned to me to come and sit by her; her words were beyond reproach, but her gestures were sometimes obstinately un-Fraüleinish, if I may so express myself. I sat down in the other deck-chair and said that it was very fine for so late in the year.

She made no reply and, raising my eyes to her face, I found her looking at me with an unmistakable gleam of amusement.

"Do you think this very funny?" she asked.

"I think it's deplorable," I answered promptly.

"It's very simple. I owe Mr. Thistleton two hundred pounds. I do this till I have worked it off."

"How many years?"

"Several, monsieur."

"And after that?"

"The children will grow up."

"Yes. And then?"

"Mrs. Thistleton will give Fraülein Friedenburg a good character."

"Meanwhile you work for nothing?"

"No. For clothes, for food, to pay my debt."

"And how do you like it?"

That question of mine, which sounds brutal, was inspired and, as I still believe, excused by the satirical amusement in her eyes; our previous meetings had shown me no such expression. Her answer to the question had its irony too. She turned over a dozen pages of the big book and came on a picture. She held the book out to me, saying——

"That's my home."

I looked at the picture of her home, the great grim castle towering aloft on the river bank. A few centuries ago the Turks had fallen back beaten from before those giant walls. Then I glanced round Mrs. Thistleton's gentle trim old garden.

"I think you've answered my question," I said.

She closed the book with a shrug of her thin little shoulders and sat silent for a moment. The oval of her face was certainly beautiful, and the thick masses of her hair were dark as night, or the inside of a dungeon in her castle of Friedenburg. (I liked to think of her having dungeons, though I really don't know whether she had.)

"And is it for ever?" I asked.

She leaned over towards me and whispered: "They know where I am." An intense excitement seemed to be fighting against the calm she imposed on herself; but it lasted only a moment. The next instant she fell back in her chair with a sigh of dejection; a listless despair spread over her face; the satirical gleam illuminated no more the depths of her eyes. The veil had fallen over the Princess again. Only Fraülein sat beside me.

Then I made a fool of myself.

"Are there no men in Boravia?" I asked in a low voice.

This at Southam Parva, in the twentieth century, and to the governess! Moreover, from me, who have always been an advanced Liberal in politics, and hold that the Boravians are at entire liberty to change the line of succession, or to set up a republic if they be so disposed! None the less, in the Thistletons' garden that afternoon, I did ask Fraülein whether there were men in Boravia.

She answered the question in the words she had used before.

"They know where I am," she said, but now languidly, with half-closed eyes.

That I might be saved from further folly, from offering my strong right arm and all my worldly goods (I was at the moment overdrawn at the bank) as a contribution towards a Legitimist crusade in Boravia—Fortune sent interruption. The family came back from the bazaar, and most of them trooped into the garden. Charley Miles was with them, having joined the party at the fête on his way back from town. As they all came up, Fraülein put the big book—with its picture of her home—behind her back; I rose and walked forward to greet Mrs. Thistleton. In an instant Charley, passing me with a careless "Hallo, Treg!" had seated himself by Fraülein and begun to talk to her with great vivacity and every appearance of pleasure—indeed of admiration.

I joined Mrs. Thistleton—and Bessie, who stood beside her mother. Bessie was frowning; that frown was to me the first announcement of a new situation. Bessie was grown up now, or so held herself, and she and Charley were great friends. Charley was doing remarkably well on the Stock Exchange, too, making his three or four thousand a year. I remembered that Thistleton had thrown out a conjecture to that effect in conversation with me once. As the father of a family of eight, Thistleton could not neglect such a circumstance. And Charley was a good-looking fellow. The frown on Miss Bessie's brow set all this train of thought moving in my mind. The fact that, the next moment, Miss Bessie swung round and marched off into the house served to accelerate its progress.

Mrs. Thistleton cast a glance at the couple under the tree—Charley Miles and Fraülein—and then suggested that I should go with her and see the chrysanthemums. We went to see the chrysanthemums accordingly, but I think we were both too preoccupied to appreciate them properly.

"It's a very difficult position in some ways," said Mrs. Thistleton suddenly.

It was so difficult as to be almost impossible. I paid my compliment with absolute sincerity. "You've overcome the difficulties wonderfully," I remarked. "I never admired your tact more. Nobody thinks of her at all now, except just as Fraülein."

"I have been anxious to do the right thing, and she has improved the children's French." She did not add that the liquidation of Thistleton's bill by services rendered was a further benefit. We cannot be expected always to remember every aspect of our conduct.

"But it is difficult," Mrs. Thistleton went on. "And the worst of it is that Bessie and she aren't very congenial. With an ordinary governess— Well, the only thing is to treat her like one, isn't it?"

"Does she object?"

"Oh, no, never. But I can't quite make her out. After all, she's not English, you see, and one can't be sure of her moral influence. I sometimes think I must make a change. Oh, I shouldn't do anything unkind. I should ask her to stay till she was suited, and, of course, do all I could to recommend her. But Bessie doesn't like her, I'm sorry to say."

By this time we had walked past all the chrysanthemums twice, and I said that it was time for me to go. Mrs. Thistleton gave me her hand.

"You don't think me unkind?"

"Honestly I think you've been kind all through, and I don't think you'll be unkind now. The situation is so very——"

"Difficult? Yes," she sighed.

I had been going to say "absurd," but I accepted "difficult." I would have accepted anything, because I wanted to end the conversation and get away. I was surfeited with incongruities—Mrs. Thistleton, Bessie, Charley Miles, and, above all, Fraülein—set in contrast with the picture in the big book—with the castle of Friedenburg frowning above the great river, waiting for its mistress, Princess Vera; the mistress who came not because—I couldn't get away from my own folly—because there were no men in Boravia! "Absurd" was the right word, however.

 

Chapter Five

THE next few weeks developed the situation along the lines I had foreseen, but endowed it with a new wealth of irony, so that it became harder than ever to say whether we were dealing with tragedy or with farce. The women of the village took arms against Fraülein. Mrs. Marsfold, Miss Dunlop (of the Elms), even the Rector's gentle wife, became partisans of Bessie Thistleton's and demanded the expulsion of Fraülein. Only Mrs. Thistleton herself still resisted, still sought after the kind thing, still tried to reconcile the interests of her family with the duty she had undertaken towards the stranger within her gates. But even she grew weaker. They were all against her, and Bessie had the preponderating word with her father now. In fine, there was every prospect that, even as the Princess Vera was banished from Boravia, so Fraülein Friedenburg would be expelled from Southam Parva.

And why? She had designs on Charley Miles! That was the accusation; and it was also, and immediately, the verdict. She wanted to catch Charley Miles—and that three or four thousand a year which by plausible conjecture he was making on the Stock Exchange! The Princess was now utterly forgotten—she might never have existed. There was only the designing governess, forgetful of her duty and her station, flying at game too high for her, at the most eligible match in the village, at the suitor (the destined suitor) of her employer's daughter, at prosperous Charley Miles of the Stock Exchange! The human mind is highly adaptable, and the relativity of things is great. These two conclusions were strongly impressed on my mind by the history of Fraülein Friedenburg's sojourn in the village of Southam Parva.

Charley had the instincts of a gentleman and was furious with "the old cats," as he called the ladies I have named, with a warmth which for my part I find it easy to pardon. Yet his mind was as their minds; he was no whit less deeply and firmly rooted in present facts. He may have been a little afraid of Bessie, perhaps in a very little committed to her by previous attentions. But that was not the main difficulty. That he was in love with Fraülein I believed then and believe now; indeed he came very near to admitting the fact to me on more than one occasion. But he was a young man of social ambitions, and the Thistletons stood high among us. (I began by admitting that we do not dwell on the highest peaks.) Mr. Thistleton's daughter was one thing, Mr. Thistleton's governess another. That was Charley's point of view, so that he wrestled with erring inclination and overthrew it. He did not offer marriage to Fraülein Friedenburg. He contented himself with denouncing the attempt to banish her, for which, after all, his own conduct was primarily responsible. But I found no time to blame him; he filled me with a wonder which became no less overwhelming because, in regard to present facts, it was in a large measure unreasonable. In truth I couldn't stand firm on present facts. The walls, the towers, the dungeons of Friedenburg, and the broad river running down below—these things would not leave the visions of my mind. They stood in obstinate contrast to Charley Miles and three or four thousand on the Stock Exchange.

One evening—it was a Monday, as I remember—Charley came to see me after dinner, and brought with him a copy of The Morning Post, an excellent paper, but one which, owing to the political convictions to which I have already referred in connection with my feelings about the lack of men in Boravia, I do not take in. He pointed to a spot in the advertisement columns, and, without removing his hat from his head or his cigar from his mouth, sank into my armchair.

"Mrs. Thistles has paid for six insertions, Treg," he said.

I read the first "insertion."

 

"A lady strongly recommends her German nursery governess. Good English. Fluent French. Music. Fond of children. Salary very moderate. A good home principal object. Well connected.—Mrs. T., The Manor House, Southam Parva."

 

Well connected! I looked over to Charley with some sort of a smile. "The good English is, of course, all right?" I said.

"Isn't it an infernal shame?" he broke out. "She won't stay a week after that!"

"It may bring an engagement," said I.

"Look here, do you think it's my fault?"

"I'm glad she says Fraülein is well connected."

"Do you think it's my fault? I—I've tried to play square—by her as well as by myself."

"I don't think we need discuss the Princess."

"Hallo, Treg!"

"Good Heavens! I—I beg pardon! I mean—why need we talk about Fraülein's affairs?"

"I was talking about mine."

"I see no connection."

He was not angry with me, though (as will have been seen) I had lost my temper hopelessly and disastrously. He got up and stood in front of the fire.

"I hadn't the pluck, Treg, my boy," he said. His voice sounded rather dreary, but I had no leisure to pity him.

"Good Heavens! do you suppose she'd have looked at you?" I cried. "Remember who she is!"

"That's all very well, but facts are facts," said Charley Miles. "I didn't mean to make trouble, Treg, old boy. On my honor, I didn't." He made a long pause. "I hope I shall be asking you to congratulate me soon, Treg," he went on.

"Ask me in public, and I'll do it."

"That's just being vicious," he complained, and with entire justice. "Bessie's a first-rate girl."

"I'm very sorry, Charley. So she is. She'll suit you a mile better than—than Fraülein."

He brightened up. "I'm awfully glad you do think me right in the end," he said. "But I'm a bit sorry for Fraülein. She'd have had to go soon, anyhow—when the children got a bit older. She'll get a berth, I expect."

"No doubt," said I. "And I'll congratulate you even in private, Charley."

"You're a decent old chap, but you've got a queer temper. I don't above half understand you, Treg." He hesitated a little. "I say, you might go and have a talk with Fraülein some day. She likes you, you know."

"Does she?" The eager words leapt from my lips before I could stop them.

"Rather! Will you go?"

"Yes. I'll have a talk with Fraülein."

"Before she goes?"

"She'll go soon?"

"I think so."

"Yes, before she goes, Charley."

With that, or, rather, after a little idle talk which added nothing to that, he left me—left me wondering still. He was sorry for Fraülein, and not only because she must go forth into the world; also because she had not been invited to become Mrs. Charley Miles! He conceived that he had made a conquest, and he didn't value it! His mistake of fact was great, but it shrank to nothing before the immensity of his blunder in estimation. I could account for it only in one way—a way so pleasing to my own vanity that I adopted it forthwith. And I'm not sure I was wrong. The veil had not been lifted for him, and he had no eyes to see through it. For me it had been raised once, and henceforth eternally hung transparent.

"That's my home." She had looked in that moment as if no other place could be.

Now, however, she was advertising for a situation, and I speculated as to how much of the truth Mrs. Thistleton would deem it wise to employ in justifying that sublime "Well-connected."

 

Chapter Six

I SAW her the next day but one—on the morning when the third "insertion" appeared in The Morning Post. Bessie Thistleton had told me, with obvious annoyance, that there had been no replies yet. "Governesses are really a drug, unless they have a degree, in these days," she had said. "Where is she? Oh, somewhere in the garden, I think, Mr. Tregaskis."

So I went into the garden and found her again under the tree. But her big book was not with her now; she was sitting idle, looking straight ahead of her, with pondering and, perhaps, fear in her great dark eyes.

She gave me her hand to shake. I kissed it.

"Nobody will kiss my hand in my next place," she said.

"Why in heaven do you do it?"

"I can't beg; and if I did, I don't think I should receive." She leaned forward, resting her hand on the arm of the chair. "We don't know who I'm to be," she went on, smiling. "Nobody but Mrs. Thistleton could carry it off if I confessed to being myself! Who shall I be, Mr. Tregaskis?"

I made no answer, and she gave a little laugh.

"You like to go?" I asked.

"No. I'm frightened. And suppose there's another Mr. Miles?"

"The infernal idiot!"

"He's wise. Only—I'm amused. They're right to send me away, though. I'm such an absurdity."

"Yes," I assented mournfully. "I'm afraid you are."

She leaned nearer still to me, half whispering in her talk. "I should never have liked him, but yet it hardly seemed strange that he should think of it. I'm forgetting myself, I think. In my next place I wonder if I shall remember at all!"

"You have your book and the picture."

"Yes, but they seem dim now. I suppose it would be best to forget, as everybody else does."

"Not everybody," I said very low.

"No, you don't forget. I've noticed that. It's foolish, but I like someone to remember. Suppose you forgot too!"

One of her rare smiles lit up her face. But I did not tell her what would happen if I forgot too. I knew very well in my own mind, though. I was not trammeled by previous attentions, nor was I making three or four thousand a year.

"You'll tell me when you go—and where?" I asked.

"Yes, if you like to know."

"And will 'they' know too?"

She looked at me with searching eyes. "Are you laughing?" she asked, and it seemed to me that there was a break in her voice.

"God forbid, madam!" said I.

"Ah, but I think you should be. How the present can make the past ridiculous!"

"Neither the past ridiculous nor the future impossible," I said.

She laid her hand on my arm for a moment with a gentle pressure.

"We have an Order at home called The Knights of Faith. Shall I send you the Cross some day—in that impossible future?"

"No. Send me your big book, with the picture of the great castle and the broad river flowing by its base."

She looked at me a moment, flushed but the slightest, and answered: "Yes." Then, as I remember, we sat silent for a while.

That silence was waste of time, as it proved. For, before it ended, Mrs. Thistleton came bounding (really the expression is excusable in view of her unrestrained elation) out of the house, holding a letter in her hand.

"Fraülein, an answer!" she cried.

We both rose, and she came up to us.

"And it sounds most suitable. I do hope you don't mind London—though really it doesn't do to be fussy. A Mrs. Perkyns, on Maida Hill—nice and high! Only two little children, and she offers— Oh, well, we can talk about the salary presently."

That last remark constituted an evident hint to me. I grasped my hat and gave my hand to Mrs. Thistleton.

"Good news, isn't it?" said she. "And Mrs. Perkyns says she has such confidence in me—it appears she knew my sister Mary at Cheltenham—that she waives any other references. Isn't that convenient?"

"Very," I agreed, and I turned to Fraülein.

"You're to go the day after to-morrow if you can be ready. Can you?" asked Mrs. Thistleton.

"I can be ready," Fraülein said.

"In the morning," Mrs. Perkyns suggested.

"I can be ready in the morning." Then she turned to me. "This is good-by, then, I'm afraid, Mr. Tregaskis."

"I shall come and see you off," said I, taking her hand.

Mrs. Thistleton raised her brows for a moment, but her words were gracious.

"We shall all be down to wish her a good journey and a happy home."

I made up my mind to say my farewell at the station—and I took my leave. As I walked out of the front gate, I met Thistleton coming from the station. I took upon myself to tell him the news.

"Good," said Thistleton. "It ends what was always a false, and has become an impossible, situation."

How about poor Mrs. Perkyns, then? But I did not put that point to him. She was forewarned by that "Well-connected." As I walked home, I pictured Thistleton putting up a board before his residence: "Princesses, beware!"

 

Chapter Seven

IT was no use telling me—as the Rector had told me more than once—that the same sort of thing had happened before in history, that a French marquis of the old régime was at least as good as a Boravian princess, and that if the one had taught dancing as an émigré, the other might teach French verbs in her banishment. The consideration was no doubt just, and even, assuaged to some degree the absurdity of the situation—since absurd things that have happened before seem rather less absurd somehow—but it did not console my feelings, nor reconcile my imagination to Mrs. Perkyns of Maida Hill, "nice and high" though Maida Hill might be. On the morning of Fraülein's departure I rose out of temper with the world.

Then I opened the morning paper, and there it was! In a moment it seemed neither strange nor unexpected. It was bound to be there some morning. It chanced to be there this morning by happy fortune, because this was the last morning on which I could help, the last morning when I could see her eyes. But it was glorious. I am afraid it sent me half mad; yet I was very practical. In a minute I had made up my mind what she would want to do and what I could do. In another five minutes I was on my bicycle, "scorching" to Beechington with that paper in one pocket, and a check on the local branch of the London and County Bank in the other. And humming in my ears was "Rising in Boravia!" "Rumored Abdication of the King!" "An Appeal to the Pretender!" Then, in smaller print: "Something about Princess Vera of Friedenburg."

I hoped she would get away before the Thistletons knew! Very likely she would, for by now Thistleton was in the train for town, and he picked up his Times at the station; the family waited for it till the evening.

From the bank I raced to the station, and reached it ten minutes before her train was due to leave Beechington. There she was, sitting on a bench, all alone. She was dressed in plain black and looked very small and forlorn. She seemed deep in thought, and she did not see me till I was close to her. Then she looked up with a start. I suppose she read my face, for she smiled, held out her hand, and said——

"Yes, I had a telegram late last night."

"You've told them?" I jerked my thumb in the direction of the Manor.

"No," she said rather brusquely.

"You're going, of course?"

"To Mrs. Perkyns'," she answered, smiling still. "What else can I do?"

"Wire them that you're starting for Vienna, and that they must communicate with you there. Ah, there are men in Boravia!"

"And Mrs. Perkyns? I should never get another character!"

"You'll go, surely? It might make all the difference. Let them see you, let them see you!"

She shook her head, giving at the same time a short nervous laugh. I sat down by her. Her purse lay in her lap. I took it up; the Princess made no movement; her eyes were fixed on mine. I opened the purse and slipped in the notes I had procured at the bank. Her eyes did not forbid me. I snapped the purse to and laid it down again.

"I had a third-class to London, and eight shillings and threepence," she said.

"You'll go now?"

"Yes," she whispered, rising to her feet.

We stood side by side now, waiting for the train. It was very hard to speak. Presently she passed her hand through my arm and let it rest there. She said no more about the money, which I was glad of. Not that I was thinking much of that. I was still rather mad, and my thoughts were full of one insane idea; it was—though I am ashamed to write it—that just as the train was starting, at the last moment, at the moment of her going, she might say: "Come with me."

"Did it surprise you?" I said, at last breaking the silence at the cost of asking a very stupid question.

"I had given up all hope. Yet somehow I wasn't very surprised. You were?"

"No. I had always believed in it."

"Not at first?"

"No; of late."

She looked away from me now, but I saw her lips curve in a reluctant little smile. I laughed.

"I don't think my ideas about it had any particular relation to external facts," I confessed. "I had become a Legitimist, and Legitimists are always allowed to dream."

She gave my arm a little pat and then drew her hand gently away.

"If it all comes to nothing, I shall have one friend still," she said.

"And one faithful hopeful adherent. And there's your train."

When I put her in the carriage, my madness came back to me. I actually watched her eyes as though to see the invitation I waited for take its birth there. Of course I saw no such thing. But I seemed to see a great friendliness for me. At the last, when I had pressed her hand and then shut the door, I whispered——

"Are you afraid?"

She smiled. "No. Boravia isn't Southam Parva. I am not afraid!"

Then—well, she went away.

 

Chapter Eight

MRS. THISTLETON is great. I said so before, and I remain firmly of that opinion. The last time I called at the Manor, I found her in the drawing-room with Molly, the youngest daughter, a pretty and intelligent child. After some conversation, Mrs. Thistleton said to me——

"A little while ago I had an idea, which my husband thought so graceful that he insisted on carrying it out. I wonder if you'll like it! I should like to show it to you."

I expressed a polite interest and a proper desire to see it, whatever it was.

"Then I'll take you up-stairs," said she, rising with a gracious smile.

Up-stairs we went, accompanied by Molly, who is rather a friend of mine and who was hanging on to my arm. Reaching the first floor, we turned to the left, and Mrs. Thistleton ushered me into an exceedingly pleasant and handsome bedroom, with a delightful view of the garden. Not conceiving that I could be privileged to view Mrs. Thistleton's own chamber, I concluded that this desirable apartment must be the best or principal guest-room of the house.

"There!" said Mrs. Thistleton, pointing with her finger towards the mantelpiece.

Advancing in that direction, I perceived, affixed to the wall over the mantelpiece, a small gilt frame, elaborately wrought and ornamented with a Royal Crown. Enclosed in the frame, and protected by glass, was a square of parchment, illuminated in blue-and-gold letters. I read the inscription:—

 

This Room was Occupied by Her Majesty the Queen of Boravia on the Occasion of Her Visit to the Manor House, Southern Parva,

27th of June, 1902.

 

"It's a very pretty idea indeed! I congratulate you on it, Mrs. Thistleton," said I.

"I do like it; and 'The Queen's Room' sounds such a nice name for it."

"Charming!" I declared.

"Why didn't you put one in the little room up-stairs too—the room she slept in all the last part of the time, mama?" asked Molly.

Well, well, children will make these mistakes. I think it was very creditable to Mrs. Thistleton that she merely told Molly to think before she spoke, in which case (Mrs. Thistleton intimated) she would not ask such a large number of foolish questions.

So Mrs. Thistleton has a very pleasant memento of her Princess. I have one of her too—a big book, with a picture of the great castle and the broad river flowing below. And in the beginning of the book is written: "To him who did not forget—Vera."

The description still applies.