The George Barr McCutcheon Megapack: 25 Classic Novels and Stories

by George Barr McCutcheon

  “Now, tell me everything,” he said. “From beginning to end. What became of you after that day at St. Cloud, whither have you journeyed, and wherefore were you so bent on coming to this now blessed Interlaken?”

  “Easily answered. Nothing at all became of me. I journeyed thither, and I came because I had set my heart on seeing the Jungfrau.”

  “But you had seen it many times.”

  “And I hoped that I might find peace and quiet here,” she added quite distinctly.

  “You expected to find me here, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, but I did not regard you as a disturber of the peace.”

  “You knew I would come, but you didn’t know why, did you, Bedelia?” He leaned a little closer.

  “Yes, I knew why,” she said calmly, emotionlessly. He drew back instantly, chilled by her directness. “You came because there was promise of an interesting adventure, which you now are on the point of making impossible by a rather rash exhibition of haste.”

  He stared at her shadowy face in utter confusion. For a moment he was speechless. Then a rush of protesting sincerity surged up within him and he cried out in low, intense tones: “I cannot allow you to think that of me, Miss Guile. If I have done or said anything to lead you to believe that I am—”

  “Oh, I beg of you, Mr. Schmidt, do not enlarge upon the matter by trying to apologise,” she cried.

  “I am not trying to apologise,” he protested. “I am trying to justify what you are pleased to call an exhibition of haste. You see, it’s just this way: I am obliged to make hay while the sun shines, for soon I may be cast into utter darkness. My days are numbered. In a fortnight I shall be where I cannot call my soul my own. I—”

  “You alarm me. Are you to be sent to prison?”

  “You wouldn’t look upon it as a prison, but it seems like one to me. Do not laugh. I cannot explain to you now. Another day I shall tell you everything, so pray take me for what I am today, and ask no questions. I have asked no more of you, so do you be equally generous with me.”

  “True,” she said, “you have asked no questions of me. You take me for what I am today, and yet you know nothing of my yesterdays or my tomorrows. It is only fair that I should be equally confiding. Let there be no more questions. Are we, however, to take each other seriously?”

  “By all means,” he cried. “There will come a day when you may appreciate the full extent of my seriousness.”

  “You speak in riddles.”

  “Is the time ripe for me to speak in sober earnest?” he questioned softly. She drew back again in swift alarm.

  “No, no! Not now—not yet. Do not say anything now, Mr. Schmidt, that may put an end to our—to our adventure.”

  She was so serious, so plaintive, and yet so shyly prophetic of comfort yet to be attained, that his heart warmed with a mighty glow of exaltation. A sweet feeling of tenderness swept over him.

  “If God is good, there can be but one end to our adventure,” he said, and then, for some mysterious reason, silence fell between them. Long afterward—it seemed hours to him!—she spoke, and her voice was low and troubled.

  “Can you guess why I am being watched so carefully, why I am being followed so doggedly by men who serve not me but another?”

  “Yes. It is because you are the greatest jewel in the possession of a great man, and he would preserve you against all varlets,—such as I.”

  She did not reveal surprise at his shrewd conjecture. She nodded her head and sighed.

  “You are right. I am his greatest jewel, and yet he would give me into the keeping of an utter stranger. I am being protected against that conscienceless varlet—Love! If love lays hands upon me—ah, my friend, you cannot possibly guess what a calamity that would be!”

  “And love will lay hands upon you, Bedelia,—”

  “I am sure of that,” she said, once more serene mistress of herself after a peculiarly dangerous lapse. “That is why I shudder. What could be more dreadful than to fall into the clutches of that merciless foe to peace? He rends one’s heart into shreds; he stabs in the dark; he thrusts, cuts and slashes and the wounds never heal; he blinds without pity; he is overbearing, domineering, ruthless and his victims are powerless to retaliate. Love is the greatest tyrant in all the world, Mr. Schmidt, and we poor wretches can never hope to conquer him. We are his prey, and he is rapacious. Do you not shudder also?”

  “Bless you, no! I’d rather enjoy meeting him in mortal combat. My notion of bliss would be a fight to the death with love, for then the conflict would not be one-sided. What could be more glorious than to stand face to face with love, hand to hand, breast to breast, lip to lip until the end of time? Let him cut and slash and stab if you will, there would still be recompense for the vanquished. Even those who have suffered most in the conflict with love must admit that they have had a share in the spoils. One can’t ignore the sweet hours when counting up the bitter ones, after love has withdrawn from the tender encounter. The cuts and slashes are cherished and memory is a store-house for the spoils that must be shared with vanity.”

  “It sounds like a book. Who is your favourite author?” she inquired lightly.

  “Baedeker,” he replied, with promptness. “Without my Baedeker, I should never have chanced upon the route travelled by love, nor the hotel where I now lodge in close proximity to—”

  “Will you please be sensible?”

  “You invite something to the contrary, Bedelia,” he ventured.

  “Haven’t I requested you to—”

  “I think of you only as Bedelia,” he made haste to explain. “Bedelia will stick to you forever, you see, while Miss Guile is almost ephemeral. It cannot live long, you know, with so many other names eager to take its place. But Bedelia—ah, Bedelia is everlasting.”

  She laughed joyously, naturally. “You really are quite wonderful, Mr. Schmidt. Still I must change the subject. I trust the change will not affect your glibness, for it is quite exhilarating. How long do you purpose remaining in Interlaken?”

  “That isn’t changing the subject,” said he. “I shall be here for a week or ten days—or perhaps longer.” He put it in the form of a question, after all.

  “Indeed? How I envy you. I am sorry to say I shall have to leave in a day or two.”

  His face fell. “Why?” he demanded, almost indignantly.

  “Because I am enjoying myself,” she replied.

  “I don’t quite get your meaning.”

  “I am having such a good time disobeying my father, Mr. Schmidt, and eluding pursuers. It is only a matter of a day or two before I am discovered here, so I mean to keep on dodging. It is splendid fun.”

  “Do you think it is quite fair to me?”

  “Did I induce you to come here, good sir?”

  “You did,” said he, with conviction. “Heaven is my witness. I would not have come but for you. I am due at home by this time.”

  “Are you under any obligations to remain in Interlaken for a week or ten days?”

  “Not now,” he replied. “Do you mind telling me where you are going to, Miss Guile?”

  “First to Vienna, then—well, you cannot guess where. I have decided to go to Edelweiss.”

  “Edelweiss!” he exclaimed in astonishment. He could hardly believe his ears.

  “It is the very last place in the world that my father would think of looking for me. Besides I am curious to see the place. I understand that the great Mr. Blithers is to be there soon, and the stupid Prince who will not be tempted by millions, and it is even possible that the extraordinary Miss Blithers may take it into her head to look the place over before definitely refusing to be its Princess. I may find some amusement—or entertainment as an on-looker when the riots begin.”

  He was staring at her wide-eyed and incredulous. “Do you really mean to say you are going to Graustark?”

  “I have thought of doing so. Don’t you think it will be amusing to be on the scene when the grand climax occurs? Of course, the Princ
e will come off his high horse, and the girl will see the folly of her ways, and old Mr. Blithers will run rough shod over everybody, and—but, goodness, I can’t even speculate on the possibilities.”

  He was silent. So this was the way the wind blew, eh? There was but one construction to be put upon her decision to visit the Capital of Graustark. She had taken it into her head “to look the place over before definitely refusing to be its Princess!” His first thrill of exultation gave way to a sickening sense of disappointment.

  All this time she was regarding him through amused, half-closed eyes. She had a distinct advantage over him. She knew that he was the Prince of Graustark; she had known it for many days. Perhaps if she had known all the things that were in his cunning brain, she would not have ventured so far into the comedy she was constructing. She would have hesitated—aye, she might have changed her methods completely. But she was in the mood to do and say daring things. She considered her position absolutely secure, and so she could afford to enjoy herself for the time being. There would be an hour of reckoning, no doubt, but she was not troubled by its promise of castigation.

  “Poor Prince!” she sighed pityingly. He started. The remark was so unexpected that he almost betrayed himself. It seemed profoundly personal. “He will be in very hot water, I fear.”

  He regarded her coldly. “And you want to be on hand to see him squirm, I suppose.”

  She took instant alarm. Was she going too far? His query was somewhat disconcerting.

  “To be perfectly frank with you, Mr. Schmidt, I am going to Graustark because no one will ever think of looking for me in such an out-of-the-way place. I am serious now, so you must not laugh at me. Circumstances are such that I prefer to seek happiness after a fashion of my own. My parents love me, but they will not understand me. They wish me to marry a man they have picked out for me. I intend to pick out my own man, Mr. Schmidt. You may suspect, from all that you have seen, that I am running away from home, from those who are dearest in all the world to me. You knew that I was carefully watched in Paris. You know that my father fears that I may marry a man distasteful to him, and I suppose to my mother, although she is not so—”

  “Are his fears well-founded?” he asked, rudely interrupting her. “Is there a man that he has cause to fear? Are—are you in love with some one, Bedelia?”

  “Do not interrupt me. I want you to know that I am not running away from home, that I shall return to it when I see fit, and that I am not in love with the man they suspect. I want you to be just with me. You are not to blame my father for anything, no matter how absurd his actions may appear to you in the light of the past few days. It is right that he should try to safeguard me. I am wayward but I am not foolish. I shall commit no silly blunder, you may be sure of that. Now do you understand me better?”

  She was very serious, very intense. He laid his hand on hers, and she did not withdraw it. Emboldened, his hand closed upon the dainty fingers and an instant later they were borne to his hot lips.

  “You have said that I came here in search of a light adventure,” he whispered, holding her hand close to his cheek as he bent nearer to her. “You imply that I am a trifler, a light-o’-love. I want you to understand me better. I came here because I—”

  “Stop!” she pleaded. “You must not say it. I am serious—yes, I know that you are serious too. But you must wait. If you were to say it to me now I should have to send you away and—oh, believe me, I do not want to do that. I—I—”

  “You love no one else?” he cried, rapturously.

  She swayed slightly, as if incapable of resisting the appeal that called her to his heart. Her lips were parted, her eyes glowed luminously even in the shadows, and she scarcely breathed the words:

  “I love no one else.”

  A less noble nature than his would have seized upon the advantage offered by her sudden weakness. Instead, he drew a long, deep breath, straightened his figure and as he gently released the imprisoned hand, the prince in him spoke.

  “You have asked me to wait. I am sure that you know what is in my heart. It will always be there. It will not cut and slash and stab, for it is the most tender thing that has ever come into my life—or yours. It must never be accused of giving pain to you, so I shall obey you—and wait. You are right to avoid the risk of entrusting a single word of hope to me. I am a passer-by. My sincerity, my honesty of purpose remain to be proved. Time will serve my cause. I can only ask you to believe in me—to trust me a little more each day—and to let your heart be my judge.”

  She spoke softly. “I believe in you, I trust you even now, or I would not be here. You are kind to me. Few would have been so generous. We both are passers-by. It is too soon for us to judge each other in the full. I must be sure—oh, I must be sure of myself. Can you understand? I must be sure of myself, and I am not sure now. You do not know how much there is at stake, you can not possibly know what it would mean to me if I were to discover that our adventure had no real significance in the end. I know it sounds strange and mysterious, or you would not look so puzzled. But unless I can be sure of one thing—one vital thing—our adventure has failed in every respect. Now, I must go in. No; do not ask me to stay—and let me go alone. I prefer it so. Good night, my comrade.”

  He stood up and let her pass. “Good night, my princess,” he said, clearly and distinctly. She shot a swift glance into his eyes, smiled faintly, and moved away. His rapt gaze followed her. She entered the door without so much as a glance over her shoulder.

  “My princess,” he repeated wonderingly, to himself. “Have I kissed the hand of my princess? God in heaven, is there on earth a princess more perfect than she? Can there be in all this world another so deserving of worship as she?”

  Late at night she sat in her window looking up at the peaceful Jungfrau. A dreamy, ineffably sweet smile lay in her dark eyes. The hand he kissed had lain long against her lips. To herself she had repeated, over and over again, the inward whisper:

  “What will my dear, simple old dad say if I marry this man after all?”

  In a window not ten feet away, he was staring out into the night, with lowering eyes and troubled heart, and in his mind he was saying:

  “What will my people do if I marry this woman after all?”

  CHAPTER XX

  LOVE IN ABEYANCE

  Two days went by. They were fraught with an ever-increasing joy for the two who were learning to understand each other through the mute, though irresistible teachings of a common tutor. Each succeeding hour had its exquisite compensation; each presented the cup of knowledge to lips that were parched with the fever of impotence, and each time it was returned empty by the seekers after wisdom. There were days in which Love went harvesting and prospered amazingly in the fields, for each moment that he stored away against the future was ripe with promise. He was laying by the store on which he was to subsist to the end of his days; he allowed no moment to go to waste, for he is a miser and full of greed. Not one word of love passed between these two who waited for the fruit to ripen. They were never alone together. Always they were attended by the calm, keen-eyed Mrs. Gaston, who, though she may have been in sympathy with their secret enterprise, was nevertheless a dependable barrier to its hasty consummation.

  She had received her instructions from the one now most likely to be in need of a deterring influence; the girl herself. After that evening on the porch, Bedelia had gone straight to her duenna with the truth. Then she made it clear to the good lady that she was not to be left alone for an instant to confront the welcome besieger. And so it was that when Robin and Bedelia walked or rode together, they were attended by prevention. In the Casino, at the gaming tables, at the concert, or even in the street he was never free to express a thought or emotion that, under less guarded conditions, might have exposed her to the risk she was so carefully avoiding.

  He understood the situation perfectly and was not resentful. He appreciated the caution with which she was carrying on her own campaign, and he was
not unmindful of the benefits that might also accrue to him through this proscribed period of reflection. While he was sure of himself by this time, and fully determined to risk even his crown for the girl who so calmly held him at bay, he was also sensible of the wisdom of her course. She was not willing to subject herself or him to the dangers of temptation. As she had said, there was a great deal at stake; the rest of their lives, in truth.

  There was one little excursion to Grindelwald and its glacier, and later an ascent of the Schynige Platte. Even a desperate horror of the rack and pinion railway up and down the steep mountain did not daunt the incomparable chaperone. (True, she closed her eyes and shrank as far away from the edge of eternity as possible, but she stuck manfully to her post.) He dined with them on the two evenings, and with them heard the concerts.

  There were times when he was perplexed, and uncertain of her. At no time did she relax into what might have been considered a receptive or even an encouraging mood. He watched eagerly for the love-light that he hoped to surprise in her eyes, but it never appeared. She was serene, self-contained, natural. That momentary dissolving on her part when she sat with him in the shadows was the only circumstance he had to base his hopes upon. She had betrayed herself then by word and manner, but now she had her emotions well in hand.

  Her lovely eyes met his frankly and without the faintest sign of diffidence or self-consciousness. Her soft laugh was free and unconstrained, her smile gay and remotely suggestive of mischief. At times he thought she was playing the game too well for one who professed to be concerned about the future.

  On the third day he was convicted of duplicity. She went off for a walk alone, leaving him safely anchored in what he afterwards came to look upon as a pre-arranged game of auction-bridge. When she came in after an absence of at least two hours, the game was just breaking up. He noted the questioning look that Mrs. Gaston bestowed upon her fair charge, and also remarked that it contained no sign of reproof. The girl went up to her room without so much as a word with him. Her face was flushed and she carried her head disdainfully. He was greatly puzzled.