A Modern Mercenary

by K. Prichard and Hesketh Vernon Hesketh Prichard

  CHAPTER XXII.

  IN LOVE WITH HONOUR.

  Revonde was drenched in a sudden and depressing thaw. From her crownedridges down to the swollen river rushing at her feet, she stoodshivering in a robe of clinging mist; yet the day was warm with the rawdeceptive closeness that chills to the bone and awakens the latent germsof death.

  From the Hotel du Chancelier the winter view over the bright, beautifulcity, glittering only yesterday in its winter bedizenment of frost andsnow, was changed. Streams of dirty water poured from the roofs, and inthe streets the miry snow sluiced slowly downhill or stuck on passingboot-heels in treacherous pads.

  A thaw is demoralising; its penetrative power strikes deeper thanphysical _malaise_. With the average man or woman it damps the spirits,unstrings the will, and slackens the mental and moral fibre untilresistance of any kind becomes an effort. M. Selpdorf was in the habitof saying that the rope by which the world swings is made up of thestrands of the days rather than of the fathoms of the years. He heldthat no detail was too insignificant to be used as a factor in theconduct of affairs; thus he habitually took everyday trifles intoaccount, since small items are apt to add up handsomely in the finalfigure of any calculation. A man who says 'No' to-day may be won toconsent to-morrow under altered conditions of weather and diet.Therefore the Chancellor, who had avoided his daughter since her return,made choice of a dismal morning to bring his influence to bear upon her.He relied a good deal upon Valerie's affection for himself, which wasstrong and single-hearted. Moreover, he had trained her to the masculinehabit of taking a broad view, a bird's-eye view, of the whole of a givensubject, instead of turning the microscope of her emotions on any onepoint, after the manner of women.

  Baron von Elmur was no longer young, but he was a personage and a figurein the political world. By marrying him Valerie would place herself in aposition where her cleverness, her tact, and her beauty would be offereda wide and splendid field of activity. Besides, so Selpdorf imagined,she had no more favoured suitor.

  Valerie was sweet and proud and sensitive; her father gave her creditfor the two first qualities, but it probably would not have struck himto use that last term in describing her. He forgot that, in spite of anyamount of masculine training, a woman remains always a woman at heart.Had Valerie not met Rallywood, she might never have known as much aboutherself as she discovered during her visit to Sagan; as matters stood,however, the weak point in M. Selpdorf's theory was already understrain. The Chancellor usually breakfasted alone with his daughter. Shewas at once spirited and adaptable--adaptable enough to fall in with aman's moods, and spirited enough to hold independent opinions, an idealcombination in a comrade. Servants were rigorously excluded from theroom during the meal, that father and daughter might talk freelytogether.

  'I have hardly seen you since you came back, Valerie. I have missedyou,' Selpdorf said as he turned away from the table and lit acigarette. 'I am hurried to-day, yet I must speak to you on a subjectthat cannot be put off. One incident of your stay at the Castle has beenconstantly in my mind.'

  'Yes, father.'

  The unconcern of her voice struck Selpdorf. Things were either about togo unexpectedly well or else very badly.

  'Baron von Elmur tells me you yielded to my advice and his wishes. Infact, you consented to an engagement.'

  'Oh, yes, for the time being.'

  'My dear girl,' he returned gravely, 'it has been publicly announced. Itwas announced the same evening, I understand.'

  Valerie looked at him with a vague alarm in her eyes.

  'Only by an unlucky accident,' she replied. 'It was never intended tobe announced. Baron von Elmur assured me of that.'

  'I am sure von Elmur's intentions were most generous, but the factremains that it was made public. Valerie, you must be aware of hisfeelings towards you?'

  Valerie came round the table and sat down beside her father, slippingher hand caressingly through his arm.

  Selpdorf smiled down at her.

  'Valerie, I must ask you to consider not only your own share in thisquestion, but von Elmur's. It compromises Elmur no less than itcompromises you.'

  'I cannot carry out the engagement,' said the girl quietly.

  M. Selpdorf threw a great deal of surprise and disappointment into hiscountenance.

  'I did not know you were so greatly prejudiced against him. But,Valerie, we are honourable people, you and I, and we cannot allow Baronvon Elmur to suffer because we unluckily misunderstood one another.'

  Valerie grew very still, her fingers pressed upon her father's arm.

  'Nothing succeeds like success, and up to the present time von Elmur hassucceeded,' he went on. 'But a failure in a love affair places a man inan absurd position, and to be laughed at means loss of prestige.Wherever he is known the story will follow him. He has a brilliantfuture before him, a future that it might be the pride of any woman toshare. I think, therefore, you will hesitate before you injure him bygiving way to a girlish and perhaps passing dislike.'

  'Father, I cannot!'

  Valerie's voice was always low pitched and had the mellow sweetnesspeculiar to a contralto. But Selpdorf recognised a note in it now whichshowed him that his wishes were very far from fulfilment. She was loyaland steadfast, qualities that up to the present the Chancellor had foundvery admirable in his daughter. It is a rare pleasure for men of histype to be able to trust their womankind. In the case of his motherlessgirl, the Chancellor had enjoyed this pleasure to the full. To-day forthe first time he found himself face to face with the less convenientside of the girl's character. She was an eminently reasonable person,and though she could stick to her point she never did so without cause.Therefore Elmur's affair promised to be awkward.

  'What are your reasons?' he asked, after a pause.

  'I do not--like Baron von Elmur.'

  'That is unfortunate, but your dislike may be overcome when you know himbetter.'

  'Oh, no!--never!'

  'Why not?'

  'Is it possible to explain a dislike?' asked Valerie rather petulantly.

  'No, perhaps not--for a woman,' said Selpdorf reflectively, 'but sincethere is no other----' he waited, then putting his forefinger under hischin, he raised her face and looked into it. 'Unless indeed you prefersomeone----'

  Her eyes, which met his with the clear direct glance they had notinherited from himself, and her pale gravity dismayed him.

  'Speak, my dear child. This is a matter very near my heart,' he saidquietly.

  A tremulous smile came to Valerie's lips.

  'And near mine--or I should not oppose you, father.'

  Selpdorf pushed her away from him with a gentle hand.

  'You don't know what you are doing,' he said shortly, and gazed out withundisguised chagrin into the mists that overhung Revonde. Presently hestood up.

  'Well, well; it only goes to prove that the human element is a variablequantity,' he remarked.

  'Am I only a human element in your plans? Am I no more than that toyou?' She put her hands upon his shoulder.

  M. Selpdorf drew her nearer and kissed her forehead.

  'You know what you are to me, Valerie. I had hoped to join our interestsin all things, but----' he turned to the door.

  'Father!' the girl cried, 'don't leave me like this. You don'tunderstand. I only knew by chance. He is too noble to----'

  'Ah!' Selpdorf recollected Elmur's phrase, 'There is always thepicturesque captain of the Guard.' He paused before speaking. 'Then thisnoble individual does not propose to take my daughter from mealtogether--only to entangle her in a sentimental embarrassment?'

  'He made no claim upon me. He was compelled to--to speak--for my sake!'

  'I will not ask for further confidences to-day, Valerie. But think overthe whole of our conversation. I can trust you to be just, even to Baronvon Elmur.'

  M. Selpdorf knew that the longer an idea is brooded over, the harder itbecomes to part company with it. Therefore the forenoon was yet youngwhen von Elmur drove up to the Hotel d
u Chancelier in reply to asummons. The German plot was not yet at an end. By judiciousmanipulation, Selpdorf had gleaned a dim knowledge of Counsellor'serrand from the Duke, who was as wax in his supple hands. Counsellor'sreturn had already become one day overdue, and Selpdorf took advantageof the delay to infuse doubts and troubled surmises into the Duke'swavering mind.

  He had recovered in some measure the royal confidence, and felt almostcertain that if the English proposals could be sufficiently delayed asto seem to hang fire, he might still be able to persuade his master toenter into some provisional arrangement with Germany.

  'You have not any definite news for me, after all,' Elmur remarked atthe end of ten minutes. 'I begin to believe the Count's declaration thathis Highness can only be driven into a reasonable treaty with us by----'he stopped and sketched rapidly on the paper before him, 'by--infact--the flat of the sword, shall we say?'

  Selpdorf turned a look on his companion.

  'Could you trust Count Simon to put any man, and most of all the oneupon whose property he has a reversionary claim, in fear of death? Andfurther trust him not to put the threat into execution if provoked byfailure?'

  Elmur shrugged his shoulders.

  'We should have Duke Simon to deal with in that case, instead of DukeGustave.'

  M. Selpdorf's round forehead wrinkled slightly. He was apprehensive ofthis new temper in Elmur. The Chancellor was too clever to be quitehonest, and too honest to be quite unflinching. A man, in fact, a littleweaker and a little stronger than his fellows. 'Then the Count's methodsstill commend themselves to you, the miscarriage of the plan of Sagannotwithstanding?' he asked with an invidious smile.

  'If his Highness can be brought into a complacent frame of mind asregards our project to-day, and before the English proposals are laidbefore him, I think we shall not need the methods of the Count,' Elmuranswered. 'Count Simon has undertaken to help us on the Frontier. MajorCounsellor will be detained under some pretext at Kofn Ford block-house,and later you, Monsieur, who have so consummate a skill in covering themistakes of other people, will set this mistake right by a gracefulapology. The fat Major will arrive in Revonde behind time--that is all.In the meanwhile, his despatches will be forwarded to you if you willselect a safe person to meet the Count's messenger beyond the river.Later you can return them to Major Counsellor and score a point by theact.'

  Selpdorf made no comment, but changed the subject. 'I have had a littletalk with my daughter.'

  Elmur laid down his pen and his impassive air became more marked thanever.

  'Am I then to have the pleasure of an interview with Mademoiselleto-day?' he inquired. 'I hope she exonerates me from any blame inconnection with the announcement made at Sagan?'

  'Entirely. But she is inclined to insist that her consent wasconditional--no more.'

  'I only desire the opportunity of assuring her of my entire devotion,'said Elmur.

  'I do not fancy that she wrongs you, my dear Baron, by doubting that.'

  'There is then a difficulty on the part of Mademoiselle? It isunfortunate.'

  'It can be overcome. She is still very young, and her imagination hasbeen touched. The Englishman, Captain Rallywood, has, as you onceremarked the knack of making himself picturesque, which appeals in factto the imagination. I am myself sensible of something of the kind whendealing with him. Valerie imagines him to be quixotic.'

  'Has Mademoiselle said this?' Elmur was stiffening at every sentence.Circumstances and not liking had put these two men on the same side, andSelpdorf repaid Elmur's sneers at the helplessness of Maasau withsympathy for Elmur's position as a lover. No man likes to be pitied inhis love affairs.

  'No, no, my good friend, no name was mentioned. It may be moreconvenient that I should never know it.'

  'Then you think she may be persuaded to alter her decision with regardto me?'

  'I am certain of it.'

  'And what do you suggest shall be done with my--rival?' asked the Germanwith a sinister inflection of the voice.

  'We must break him.'

  'Will it not be possible to work in this small affair with Counsellor'sdetention? Send Captain Rallywood to Kofn Ford to undertake the custodyof Major Counsellor. Of course, it will not be necessary for you tomention the name of the person about whom your stupid Frontier officialsare to make so convenient a mistake. When Rallywood discovers theidentity of his prisoner, I fancy his honour will find the weight oftemptation put upon it too great. He also is in the English plot,remember, and he will co-operate with his countryman. He will allowCounsellor to escape. But by that time the Duke must have closed withanother ally.'

  Selpdorf comprehended that the German was playing his own game in adouble sense. He was, in fact, serving his own private interests andalso hustling Selpdorf along towards the German goal.

  'Then we shall have a court-martial,' said the Chancellor. 'Disgracewill be more effectual than death itself in this case.'

  'Disgrace? ah, yes! But I know what would happen to Captain Rallywood inmy country.' Elmur's eyes had a gleam in them.

  'I am not so well informed. Our State is more elastic in its laws thanyours. I cannot foresee what will happen to him in mine!' repliedSelpdorf smiling.

  'There is but one thing that could happen to him under military law inany country. He will be shot!' said Elmur pleasantly, then added with asudden uncontrolled irritation, 'And that too is picturesque.'

  The Chancellor spread out his hands.

  'What will you, my dear Baron? It is also conclusive. Besides, we shallhave gained our point. The fellow's breach of faith is our point.Valerie will be disillusioned; for recollect, I pray you, that Valerieis in love with honour.'