The Prince of Graustark

by George Barr McCutcheon

  CHAPTER V

  PRINCE ROBIN IS ASKED TO STAND UP

  Late the same evening. Prince Robin, at Red Roof, received a longdistance telephone communication from New York City. The Count was onthe wire. He imparted the rather startling news that William W.Blithers had volunteered to take care of the loan out of his ownprivate means! Quinnox was cabling the Prime Minister for advice andwould remain in New York for further conference with the capitalist,who, it was to be assumed, would want time to satisfy himself as to thestability of Graustark's resources.

  Robin was jubilant. The thought had not entered his mind that therecould be anything sinister in this amazing proposition of the greatfinancier.

  If Count Quinnox himself suspected Mr. Blithers of an ulterior motive,the suspicion was rendered doubtful by the evidence of sincerity on thepart of the capitalist who professed no sentiment in the matter butinsisted on the most complete indemnification by the Graustarkgovernment. Even King was impressed by the absolute fairness of theproposition. Mr. Blithers demanded no more than the banks were askingfor in the shape of indemnity; a first lien mortgage for 12 years onall properties owned and controlled by the government and the depositof all bonds held by the people with the understanding that theinterest would be paid to them regularly, less a small per cent ascommission. His protection would be complete,--for the people ofGraustark owned fully four-fifths of the bonds issued by the governmentfor the construction of public service institutions; these by consentof Mr. Blithers were to be limited to three utilities: railroads,telegraph and canals. These properties, as Mr. Blithers was by way ofknowing, were absolutely sound and self-supporting. According to hisinvestigators in London and Berlin, they were as solid as Gibraltar andnot in need of one-tenth the protection required by the famous rock.

  Robin inquired whether he was to come to New York at once in relationto the matter, and was informed that it would not be necessary atpresent. In fact, Mr. Blithers preferred to let the situation remain instatu quo (as he expressed it to the Count), until it was determinedwhether the people were willing to deposit their bonds, a conditionwhich was hardly worth while worrying about in view of the fact thatthey had already signified their readiness to present them for securityin the original proposition to the banks. Mr. Blithers, however, wouldgive himself the pleasure of calling upon the Prince at Red Roof laterin the week, when the situation could be discussed over a dish of teaor a cup of lemonade. That is precisely the way Mr. Blithers put it.

  The next afternoon Mrs. Blithers left cards at Red Roof--or rather, thefoot-man left them--and on the day following the Kings and their guestsreceived invitations to a ball at Blitherwood on the ensuing Friday,but four days off. While Mrs. King and the two young men werediscussing the invitation the former was called to the telephone. Mrs.Blithers herself was speaking.

  "I hope you will pardon me for calling you up, Mrs. King, but I wantedto be sure that you can come on the seventeenth. We want so much tohave the Prince and his friends with us. Mr. Blithers has taken a greatfancy to Prince Robin and Count Quinnox, and he declares the wholeaffair will be a fiasco if they are not to be here."

  "It is good of you to ask us, Mrs. Blithers. The Prince is planning toleave for Washington within the next few days and I fear--"

  "Oh, you must prevail upon him to remain over, my Dear Mrs. King. Weare to have a lot of people up from Newport and Tuxedo--you know thecrowd--it's the _real_ crowd--and I'm sure he will enjoy meeting them.Mr. Blithers has arranged for a special train to bring them up--a trainde luxe, you may be sure, both as to equipment and occupant. Zabo'sorchestra, too. A notion seized us last night to give the ball, whichaccounts for the short notice. It's the way we do everything--on aminute's notice. I think they're jollier if one doesn't go through theagony of a month's preparation, don't you? Nearly every one has wiredacceptance, so we're sure to have a lot of nice people. Loads ofgirls,--you know the ones I mean,--and Mr. Blithers is trying toarrange a sparring match between those two great prizefighters,--youknow the ones, Mrs. King,--just to give us poor women a chance to seewhat a real man looks like in--I mean to say, what marvellous specimensthey are, don't you know. Now please tell the Prince that he positivelycannot afford to miss a real sparring match. Every one is terriblyexcited over it, and naturally we are keeping it very quiet. Won't itbe a lark? My daughter thinks it's terrible, but she is finicky. One ofthem is a negro, isn't he?"

  "I'm sure I don't know."

  "You can imagine how splendid they must be when I tell you that Mr.Blithers is afraid they won't come up for less than fifteen thousanddollars. Isn't it ridiculous?"

  "Perfectly," said Mrs. King.

  "Of course, we shall insist on the Prince receiving with us. He is our_piece de resistance_. You--"

  "I'm sure it will be awfully jolly, Mrs. Blithers. What did you say?"

  "I beg pardon?"

  "I'm sorry. I was speaking to the Prince. He just called up stairs tome."

  "What does he say?"

  "It was really nothing. He was asking about Hobbs."

  "Hobbs? Tell him, please, that if he has any friends he would like tohave invited we shall be only too proud to--"

  "Oh, thank you! I'll tell him."

  "You must not let him go away before--"

  "I shall try my best, Mrs. Blithers. It is awfully kind of you to askus to--"

  "You must all come up to dinner either to-morrow night or the nightafter. I shall be so glad if you will suggest anything that can help usto make the ball a success. You see, I know how terribly clever youare, Mrs. King."

  "I am dreadfully stupid."

  "Nonsense!"

  "I'm sorry to say we're dining out to-morrow night and on Thursday weare having some people here for--"

  "Can't you bring them all up to Blitherwood? We'd be delighted to havethem, I'm sure."

  "I'm afraid I couldn't manage it. They--well, you see, they are inmourning."

  "Oh, I see. Well, perhaps Maud and I could run in and see you for a fewminutes to-morrow or next day, just to talk things over alittle--what's that, Maud? I beg your pardon, Mrs. King. Ahem! Well,I'll call you up to-morrow, if you don't mind being bothered about asilly old ball. Good-bye. Thank you so much."

  Mrs. King confronted Robin in the lower hall a few seconds later androundly berated him for shouting up the steps that Hobbs ought to beinvited to the ball. Prince Robin rolled on a couch and roared withdelight. Lieutenant Dank, as became an officer of the Royal Guard,stood at attention--in the bow window with his back to the room, veryred about the ears and rigid to the bursting point.

  "I suppose, however, we'll have to keep on the good side of theBlithers syndicate," said Robin soberly, after his mirth and subsidedbefore her wrath. "Good Lord, Aunt Loraine, I simply cannot go up thereand stand in line like a freak in a side show for all the ladies andgirls to gape at I'll get sick the day of the party, that's what I'lldo, and you can tell 'em how desolated I am over my misfortune."

  "They've got their eyes on you, Bobby," she said flatly. "You can'tescape so easily as all that. If you're not very, very careful they'llhave you married to the charming Miss Maud before you can say JackRabbit."

  "Think that's their idea?"

  "Unquestionably."

  He stretched himself lazily. "Well, it may be that she's the very oneI'm looking for, Auntie. Who knows?"

  "You silly boy!"

  "She may be the Golden Girl in every sense of the term," said helightly. "You say she's pretty?"

  "My notion of beauty and yours may not agree at all."

  "That's not an answer."

  "Well, I consider her to be a very good-looking girl."

  "Blonde?"

  "Mixed. Light brown hair and very dark eyes and lashes. A little tallerthan I, more graceful and a splendid horse-woman. I've seen her riding."

  "Astride?"

  "No. I've seen her in a ball gown, too. Most men think she's stunning."

  "Well, let's have a game of billiards," said he, dismissing Maud in away
that would have caused the proud Mr. Blithers to reel withindignation.

  A little later on, at the billiard table, Mrs. King remarked, aproposof nothing and quite out of a clear sky, so to speak:

  "And she'll do anything her parents command her to do, that's the worstof it."

  "What are you talking about? It's your shot."

  "If they order her to marry a title, she'll do it. That's the way she'sbeen brought up, I'm afraid."

  "Meaning Maud?"

  "Certainly. Who else? Poor thing, she hasn't a chance in the world,with that mother of hers."

  "Shoot, please. Mark up six for me, Dank."

  "Wait till you see her, Bobby."

  "All right. I'll wait," said he cheerfully.

  The next day Count Quinnox and King returned from the city, coming upin a private car with Mr. Blithers himself.

  "I'll have Maud drive me over this afternoon," said Mr. Blithers, asthey parted at the station.

  But Maud did not drive him over that afternoon. The pride, joy and hopeof the Blithers family flatly refused to be a party of any sucharrangement, and set out for a horse-back ride in a direction that tookher as far away from Red Roof as possible.

  "What's come over the girl?" demanded Mr. Blithers, completelynon-plused. "She's never acted like this before, Lou."

  "Some silly notion about being made a laughingstock, I gather," saidhis wife. "Heaven knows I've talked to her till I'm utterly worn out.She says she won't be bullied into even meeting the Prince, much lessmarrying him. I've never known her to be so pig-headed. Usually I canmake her see things in a sensible way. She would have married the duke,I'm sure, if--if you hadn't put a stop to it on account of hisso-called habits. She--"

  "Well, it's turned out for the best, hasn't it? Isn't a prince betterthan a duke?"

  "You've said all that before, Will. I wanted her to run down with methis morning to talk the ball over with Mrs. King, and what do youthink happened?"

  "She wouldn't go?"

  "Worse than that. She wouldn't let _me_ go. Now, things are coming to apretty pass when--"

  "Never mind. I'll talk to her," said Mr. Blithers, somewhat bleaklydespite his confident front. "She loves her old dad. I can do_anything_ with her."

  "She's on a frightfully high horse lately," sighed Mrs. Blithersfretfully. "It--it can't be that young Scoville, can it?"

  "If I thought it was, I'd--I'd--" There is no telling what Mr. Blitherswould have done to young Scoville, at the moment, for he couldn't thinkof anything dire enough to inflict upon the suspected meddler.

  "In any event, it's dreadfully upsetting to me, Will. She--she won'tlisten to anything. And here's something else: She declares she won'tstay here for the ball on Friday night."

  Mr. Blithers had her repeat it, and then almost missed the chair insitting down, he was so precipitous about it.

  "Won't stay for her own ball?" he bellowed.

  "She says it isn't her ball," lamented his wife.

  "If it isn't hers, in the name of God whose is it?"

  "Ask her, not me," flared Mrs. Blithers. "And don't glare at me likethat. I've had nothing but glares since you went away. I thought I wasdoing the very nicest thing in the world when I suggested the ball. Itwould bring them together--"

  "The only two it will actually bring together, it seems, are thosedamned prize-fighters. They'll get together all right, but what good isit going to do us, if Maud's going to act like this? See here, Lou,I've got things fixed so that the Prince of Groostuck can't very welldo anything but ask Maud to--"

  "That's just it!" she exclaimed. "Maud sees through the wholearrangement, Will. She said last night that she wouldn't be at allsurprised if you offered to assume Graustark's debt to Russia in orderto--"

  "That's just what I've done, old girl," said he in triumph. "I'll have'em sewed up so tight by next week that they can't move without askingme to loosen the strings. And you can tell Maud once more for me thatI'll get this Prince for her if--"

  "But she doesn't want him!"

  "She doesn't know what she wants!" he roared. "Where is she going?"

  "You saw her start off on Katydid, so why--"

  "I mean on the day of the ball."

  "To New York."

  "By gad, I'll--I'll see about _that_," he grated. "I'll see that shedoesn't leave the grounds if I have to put guards at every gate. She'sgot to be reasonable. What does she think I'm putting sixteen millionsinto the Grasstork treasury for? She's got to stay here for the ball.Why, it would be a crime for her to--but what's the use talking aboutit? She'll be here and she'll lead the grand march with the Prince.I've got it all--"

  "Well, you'll have to talk to her. I've done all that I can do. Sheswears she won't marry a man she's never seen."

  "Ain't we trying to show him to her?" he snorted. "She won't have tomarry him till she's seen him, and when she does see him she'llapologise to me for all the nasty things she's been saying about me."For a moment it looked as though Mr. Blithers would dissolve intotears, so suddenly was he afflicted by self-pity. "By the way, didn'tshe like the necklace I sent up to her from Tiffany's?"

  "I suppose so. She said you were a dear old foozler."

  "Foozler? What's that mean?" He wasn't quite sure, but somehow itsounded like a term of opprobrium.

  "I haven't the faintest idea," she said shortly.

  "Well, why didn't you ask her? You've had charge of her bringing up. Ifshe uses a word that you don't know the meaning of, you ought to--"

  "Are you actually going to lend all that money to Graustark?" she cutin.

  He glared at her uncertainly for a moment and then nodded his head. Thewords wouldn't come.

  "Are you not a trifle premature about it?" she demanded with deepsignificance in her manner.

  This time he did not nod his head, nor did he shake it. He simply gotup and walked out of the room. Half way across the terrace he stoppedshort and said it with a great fervour and instantly felt very muchrelieved. In fact, the sensation of relief was so pleasant that herepeated it two or three times and then had to explain to a near bygardener that he didn't mean him at all. Then he went down to thestables. All the grooms and stableboys came tumbling into the stableyard in response to his thunderous shout.

  "Saddle Red Rover, and be quick about it," he commanded.

  "Going out, sir?" asked the head groom, touching his fore-lock.

  "I am," said Mr. Blithers succinctly and with a withering glare. RedRover must have been surprised by the unusual celerity with which hewas saddled and bridled. If there could be such a thing as a horselooking shocked, that beast certainly betrayed himself as he was yankedaway from his full manger and hustled out to the mounting block.

  "Which way did Miss Blithers go?" demanded Mr. Blithers, in the saddle.Two grooms were clumsily trying to insert his toes into the stirrups,at the same time pulling down his trousers legs, which had a tendencyto hitch up in what seemed to them a most exasperating disregard forform. To their certain knowledge, Mr. Blithers had never started outbefore without boot and spur; therefore, the suddenness of his presentsortie sank into their intellects with overwhelming impressiveness.

  "Down the Cutler road, sir, three quarters of an hour ago. She refusedto have a groom go along, sir."

  "Get ap!" said Mr. Blithers, and almost ran down a groom in his rushfor the gate. For the information of the curious, it may be added thathe did not overtake his daughter until she had been at home for half anhour, but he was gracious enough to admit to himself that he had been afool to pursue a stern chase rather than to intercept her on the backroad home, which _any_ fool might have known she would take.

  His wife came upon him a few minutes later while he was feverishlyengaged in getting into his white flannels.

  "Tell Maud I'm going over to have tea with the Prince," he grunted,without looking up from the shoe lace he was tying in a hard knot. "Iwant her to go with me in fifteen minutes. Told 'em I would bring herover to play tennis. Tell her to put on tennis clothes. Hurry up
, Lou.Where's my watch? What time is it? For God's sake, look at the watch,not at me! I'm not a clock! What?"

  "Mrs. King called up half an hour ago to say that they were allmotoring over to the Grandby Tavern for tea and wouldn't be back tillhalf-past seven--"

  He managed to look up at that. For a moment he was speechless. No onehad ever treated him like this before.

  "Well, I'll be--hanged! Positive engagement. But's it's all right," heconcluded resolutely. "I can motor to Grandby Tavern, too, can't I?Tell Maud not to mind tennis clothes, but to hurry. Want to go along?"

  "No, I don't," she said emphatically. "And Maud isn't going, either."

  "She isn't, eh?"

  "No, she isn't. Can't you leave this affair to me?"

  "I'm pretty hot under the collar," he warned her, and it was easy tobelieve that he was.

  "Don't rush in where angels fear to tread, Will dear," she pleaded. Itwas so unusual for her to adopt a pleading tone that he overlooked theimplication. Besides he had just got through calling himself a fool, soperhaps she was more or less justified. Moreover, at that particularmoment she undertook to assist him with his necktie. Her soft, coolfingers touched his double chin and seemed to caress it lovingly. Helifted his head very much as a dog does when he is being tickled onthat velvety spot under the lower jaw.

  "Stuff and nonsense," he murmured throatily.

  "I thought you would see it that way," she said so calmly that heblinked a couple of times in sheer perplexity and then diminished hisdouble chin perceptibly by a very helpful screwing up of his lower lip.He said nothing, preferring to let her think that the most importantthing in the world just then was the proper adjustment of the wings ofhis necktie. "There!" she said, and patted him on the cheek, to showthat the task had been successfully accomplished.

  "Better come along for a little spin," he said, readjusting the tiewith man-like ingenuousness. "Do you good, Lou."

  "Very well," she said. "Can you wait a few minutes?"

  "Long as you like," said he graciously. "Ask Maud if she wants to come,too."

  "I am sure she will enjoy it," said his wife, and then Mr. Blithersdescended to the verandah to think. Somehow he felt if he did a littlemore thinking perhaps matters wouldn't be so bad. Among other things,he thought it would be a good idea not to motor in the direction ofGrandby Tavern. And he also thought it was not worth while resentingthe fact that his wife and daughter took something over an hour toprepare for the little spin.

  In the meantime, Prince Robin was racing over the mountain roads in ahigh-power car, attended by a merry company of conspirators whose soleobject was to keep him out of the clutches of that far-reachingoctopus, William W. Blithers.