A Modern Mercenary

by K. Prichard and Hesketh Vernon Hesketh Prichard

  CHAPTER XII.

  ANTHONY UNZIAR.

  No one could have gathered, from the quiet aspect of Rallywood's tall,soldierly figure, that a whirl of emotion was passing through his brain.Yet above all rose one dominant sensation--a vast relief. Counsellorshared his own opinion with regard to Valerie. Her daring words to theDuke had no serious meaning; they were only the natural echo of a girl'spreference for a young and beautiful woman to preside over the Court,rather than the bloated rake who now lolled uneasily in the chair beforehim. He recalled the forlorn little smile with which she had acceptedvon Elmur's lover-like protestations at Madame de Sagan's doorway. Itsforlornness had been lost upon Unziar, who had drawn but one mercilessconclusion from the little scene. Close on the heels of thesereflections a vivid recollection rose before Rallywood's mind of thefirst night he had met her. The lights and music of the grand salon ofSagan died away, and he was standing again on the ridge below the Hoteldu Chancelier, looking out over the glimmering lamps of Revonde,dominated, as always, by the regnant red eye of the Guards' Dome, and hefelt once more that strange new warmth and thrill in his veins which,at the time, he had believed to be born of an opening career beset withdanger and difficulty. To-night, however, he judged more clearly; heknew that his dull life had been rekindled, and his ambitions had takenfresh fire from the dark starlit eyes Valerie Selpdorf had raised to hisin the Counsellor's ante-room two months ago.

  'Captain Rallywood!'

  Rallywood started. The Duke made him a sign to approach. Then, risingfrom his chair, he took the young man's arm, and leaning heavily uponit, moved towards the card-room, meeting Unziar with Mdlle. Selpdorf onthe way.

  'Hey, Mademoiselle Valerie,' he stopped abruptly, 'would you teach myGuards treason?'

  'To teach your Highness's Guards treason is impossible!' repliedValerie, with a slight lifting of her proud head.

  'The influence of a beautiful woman has no limit,' retorted the Duke.

  Valerie's red lips trembled.

  'Generations have already proved the fidelity of the Selpdorfs has alsono limit. But I beg you to accept an apology for my foolish words.'

  'But such words from a Selpdorf!'

  'We have always been loyal, sire.'

  The Duke shook his head sadly.

  'But the world changes--what has been is not. And the first reasonnow-a-days why a thing should no longer be, is the fact that once itwas!'

  Valerie was almost as tall as the Duke himself, and she looked levelinto his weary eyes.

  'Have we changed with the world, sire?'

  'Not--yet,' replied the Duke bitterly; then, struck, as it seemed, bythe intrinsic spirit of the young imperial face gazing into his own, headded, 'Though you tempt a man to believe in you, Mademoiselle!'

  'I say this before your Highness and these gentlemen of your Guard,'Valerie said, her eyes flashing. 'May the Selpdorf, who ceases to betrue to your Highness and to Maasau, die!'

  In after time events brought back the vehement words to the minds of thethree who heard them.

  'And I say, "Amen!"' The Duke took her hand and added, 'Which proves,Valerie, that you have conquered your old friend, Gustave of Maasau.Come, Captain Rallywood, half-an-hour's play, and then to bed.'

  Valerie looked up at Unziar as she walked beside him.

  'And yet you would not believe me?'

  'Come!' was Unziar's reply.

  She laid her hand within his arm and passed silently through thereception rooms beside him.

  She felt that the time had come when Unziar could no more be put off bythe little wiles and evasions a woman employs who has nothing to give tothe man who loves her but a definite answer. Two luxurious chairs stoodready for occupants in the nook to which he led her, but he had nothought to give to conventionalities. He stood before her keen andwhite, and desperate with doubt.

  'Valerie, what does all this mean?'

  Though only a girl in years, Valerie was a woman in experience.Experience, not gained altogether at first hand, be it understood, butsuch as a clever woman easily gathers from the lives of those about her.As the motherless daughter of M. Selpdorf, she had had exceptionalopportunities. Thrown into the midst of a brilliant but vicious society,her eyes had seen more of the bare under-texture of life than wasperhaps desirable; she had looked upon the shift and drift of thingspolitical with an ever-present knowledge that there danger lurked andwaited; she had learned the uses of reserve, and something of the art ofresource; and, above all, her womanly perceptions had taken on a strangeedge of sensitive power, due to her father's quaint methods of pointingout to her the difference between the seeming and the true. By reason ofthis premature insight into the motives and stress of human existenceshe gained in safety and strength as her father desired; but on theother hand, she had lost the sense of happy irresponsibility that goesso far towards making up one of the sweetest essentials of youth.Luckily there is one thing which can never be quite destroyed atsecondhand--the romance and illusions that beguile boyhood and girlhood,and the liability to be so beguiled still lived in Valerie's strong andvivid nature.

  'Shall I swear that every word I spoke to the Duke just now is true?'she asked coldly. 'Although, of course, even that would not convinceyou!'

  'No, I suppose not,' he said drearily. 'You spoke openly of your hope tobe maid of honour to Madame de Sagan when she became Duchess ofMaasau--which can only mean one thing. Rallywood heard and told meexactly.'

  'You discussed me with Captain Rallywood?' she flashed out.

  Unziar's glance darkened again with a new suspicion.

  'Should you object?' he asked.

  'As it happens, I should, particularly.'

  He bit savagely at his moustache.

  'What is wrong with Rallywood?'

  'He is an Englishman. Besides, I do not care to be discussed amongst themen of the Guard!'

  'How like a woman you put me off! I did not discuss you with Rallywood,of course, as you very well know. I asked him the single question as towhat had actually been said. I knew he would not lie to me.'

  'The Guard keep their falsehoods for outsiders, I suppose?'

  Unziar liked this harping upon Rallywood less and less. He movedirritably.

  'But that is not all. You have admitted that you are going to marryElmur. That also signifies--something.'

  'Whatever it signifies, it does not signify that I am disloyal toMaasau.'

  'You have seen for yourself that there is a change here at Sagan,'argued Unziar. 'No German has ever been welcome here before. We can butguess at treason.'

  'Hush! it cannot be that, since my father has knowledge of it.'

  This was an entirely unexpected development of the difficulty. Unziarfelt the check, and even in his turbulence he changed his venue.

  'It may be so--let that rest; but nothing can alter me in the beliefthat Elmur is the natural enemy of the State. Valerie, he can give youmany things that I cannot offer you. But my love--No, hear me for once.You must hear me, Valerie! You know that I have loved you always, Idon't remember when it began--I was a boy. But Elmur at the best musthave loved others before you. Whereas I--I have thought of no one elseall my life!'

  'Why, I have heard differently, Anthony,' she interposed, with a smilethat was a vain effort to temper the intensity of his mood.

  He stamped with his spurred heel upon a fallen flower.

  'I don't pretend to be a saint; I am what other men are. You see I donot deceive you even now. But give me the chance and I will prove to youthat the Unziars can be faithful. Valerie, give me your love! For God'ssake don't say you cannot! Give me your love!'

  'Anthony!'

  It almost shocked her to see Unziar--cold and cynical Unziar--pleadingas a man pleads for escape from death, with a terrible self-abandonment.

  'Wait! Tell me this. Did you choose von Elmur?'

  'My--we--it has nothing to do with that kind of thing.'

  'I thought not! Then you will sacrifice yourself for an idea? You shallnot!'
r />   'Anthony, you are very good to me--you have always been. I know that ifI felt for you as you wish me to feel, then you could help me. But Idon't! As long as I can remember you have been my playfellow, mybrother; but not more--never this! Anthony, I love you, but not--butnot--You have been so honest with me that whatever it costs I must behonest with you. I can never do as you wish!'

  Unziar listened rather to some far-off tide of thought, as it seemed,than to her words--thoughts that flowed in upon him and quenched hope.

  'You do not love me; Elmur is beside the mark--beside the question oflove--altogether. Then, Valerie, whom do you love?'

  She gave him a frightened glance, and drew in her breath as one whoparries a blow.

  'There is no one'; then, added more firmly, 'You are mistaken--there isno one.'

  'If that be so,' responded the young man sullenly, 'then my chance is asgood as another's. I shall not give up hope! Remember that. But I havethought that Rallywood----'

  Valerie recalled the coldness of the averted grey eyes, and the memorystung her.

  'He hates me,' she replied with a haughty smile, 'as I hate him!'

  'Rallywood hates you?' he repeated in angry astonishment.

  'Yes; but whatever he may feel for me I return in full!'

  'Valerie, then you love no one? Say it again.'

  The jingle of spur and scabbard came through the flower-hung spaces, andRallywood passed within a few feet of them. He was whistling softly ashe walked along with an easy swing of his strong shoulders.

  'I love----' Valerie began, and stopped short, for Rallywood turned inhis stride as if he felt their eyes upon him.

  'His Highness has sent for you, Unziar,' he said.