CHAPTER XVIII
THE PRINCESS COMMANDS
We slept late the next morning, Hugh and I. Indeed, Hugh always sleptlate unless he had the luck to be awakened. We did not breakfast tillLinn had returned from her watch-dog march along with Alida to the houseof the Sous-Prefet.
There was now no regular drill, and instead of roll-call it was regardedsufficient if we reported to the guard which remained in permanenceplaying at cards and "bouchon" under the central bastion of the fort.This Hugh and I did, remaining a little while to gossip with Victor Dorand others of our company who were lounging about the barrack square. Ifear that during those weeks we passed for rather sulky dogs who wouldnot share our bone with our neighbours. For, having little to do, theyoung fellows of the first Milanese often followed with admiring eyesthe daily progress of Alida and Linn in the direction of theSous-Prefecture. We had requests for introductions even from the youngerofficers, but all such we referred to Keller Bey, knowing that the oldman would be able to deal with any intrusion. And indeed matters stoppedthere till the regiment was disbanded, and the Italians were sent homeat the expense of the French Republic.
Meantime we continued, as Saunders McKie would have said, "living athack and manger," free of the privileges of the house of Keller Bey andLinn his wife.
Since Alida had taken my advice and written to her father that she wouldnot marry the brown man, nor leave the life for which he had educatedher for that of the harem, she had treated me as an intimate friend andadviser. We had long talks together, so often and so long, indeed, thatI could see that Keller Bey and Linn were seriously troubled. Perhapsthey were a little jealous also, but for all that they did not dream ofopposing their wills to the slightest wish of their ward.
"What shall I do when you are gone?" Alida cried one day. It was stillearly forenoon, for the Sous-Prefet's lady had to attend a Governmentfunction. Besides, it was a dismalish day outside with a low crawl ofleaden clouds overhead, and along the horizon only one swiftly eclipsedstreak of gold bead-work to show where the sunshine was at work.
"I can _not_ stay on here, content with only the round of teachingvisits, and the love of these two good souls! 'I have had playmates--Ihave had companions,' as your poet sings, and now there is you--andHugh--who have come to me to show me how lonely I was."
She thought a while, and then in her imperious way she sketched aprogramme.
"There is no reason why Keller Bey and Linn should stop here. The houseis well placed, and one of the best in the town. It would let to-morrow.Why should we not all go to Aramon and be happy? We could find a housethere and company--all those girls, Hugh's sisters, of whom you havetold me. I should be so happy. And we would get away from the brown man.He would not know where to find us if he should come back!"
She clapped her hands joyfully, as if the matter were already settled,and ran upstairs to break the matter to Keller and Linn. When next I sawthese two I was conscious of a little chill in the atmosphere. Theythought that I was responsible for the wish of Alida to leave Autun andgo to Aramon.
"Do you think it is a proper thing," said Linn, "that a maid shouldfollow two young men?"
"I think you wrong her," I said, "unwittingly of course, but certainlyyou mistake Alida. It springs from no feeling of love for either of us,but she has now tasted comradeship and the equality of years for thefirst time. She thinks there is nothing else worth living for in theworld. She will change her mind by and by. Her mind and affection willturn again to her elders."
So I spoke from the unplumbed depths of a youthfulself-sufficiency--that curious malady (happily fleeting) which compelsall clever young men to feel called upon to lay down rules for theirelders and for the world about them, at or about the age of twenty-one.
Linn and Keller looked at one another in a kind of hopelessbewilderment. I think they felt that this was only the first of a seriesof changes from the quiet life they had been leading. They toldthemselves that they need expect no more happy uneventful days anddelicious nights when they used their house as of old they had done manyan Arab encampment, a place to wander and dally in, to lie down and riseup, to drowse and wake, to smoke in, and to play bezique together whenthe heart told them to. A sort of terror seized them as they sawthemselves going off to bed at reasonable hours like mere untravelledburghers, each with a candle in hand, and nothing but the drum of therain on the roof or the gnawing of a mouse in the wainscot to help themover the dead hours till the sun should rise.
It was Keller who this time broke the silence.
"Of course," he said, speaking slowly, and poising each word carefully,"if Alida has set her heart upon it of her own free will, there isnothing to be said. Linn and I must obey, at whatever cost to ourselves.For all we have is hers, and has come to us because of her. On thatscore we need not fear. We have enough for ourselves, and enough toleave to Alida. We can go to Aramon, but the business will need to becarefully gone about, and not too soon after your return. Alida is agirl among ten thousand. You are well-looking young men, and doubtlessthere are as many evil tongues in Aramon as there are in all placeswhere human creatures herd together."
This was a great concession, and accordingly I plucked up heart andbegan to make plans and suggest ways and means, eager to get ahead ofall possible objections on the part of Linn.
"There is an empty house at the corner of my father's property ofGobelet--not one so large as this, but quite large enough and pleasantlysituated within the grounds. My father has never let it, but I know thathe would be glad of a brave soldier and his wife to take care of it andkeep it in order. The place is retired and he would feel protected. Thegate in the wall opens on to the road to the _lycee_ of St. Andre, sothat you would come and go without any overlooking. Besides, my fatheris a student and interferes with no one. He would talk as much Arabic toyou as you wish. So too would old Professor Renard up at the College. Hewas once Vicar Apostolic out in your parts. You would have the bestcompanions for Alida, in the sisters Deventer and their friends. If youlike I will write to my father to-day? Not that there is any need. Iknow that he will be delighted, nay, that he will offer you a wing ofGobelet itself, which is much too large for him. But do not accept, theGarden Cottage is ten times as amusing, and infinitely prettier."
I could see that I was making some way. Linn and her husband looked ateach other, and if they did not smile, at least there was a more hopefullook on their faces. Linn was touched by the thought of thecompanionship of the Deventer girls, for in this matter Autun had beengravely lacking.
Nor did the bribe of Arabic-speaking students to talk with appear to bewholly lost upon Keller Bey, even though he spoke still somewhatrestively.
"I have little acquaintance with book Arabic beyond the Koran, but it isa noble language in which to vent one's thoughts."
I reassured him that both the ex-Vicar Apostolic and my father found itso. They would sit smoking and talking Arabic all a long evening overtheir parchments.
"All this must I come and see for myself," said Keller Bey; "such aplant as Alida is not to be pulled up by the roots till we know where weshall find better ground and more fertile in which to reset her. Buttell me, is not this Aramon of yours an unsafe town? The mob hadpossession of it for some days lately, attacking the works and themanager's house--can we safely take Alida to such a place?"
Then in mighty haste I showed him the difference between the unceasingactivity of Aramon-of-the-Workshops and the scholastic calm of Aramon leVieux. I extended the width of the dividing river to a three-quarters ofa mile, a size to which it only reaches in times of flood when the tallladder of the painted scale by the bridge-end is wholly covered, andstill the flood creeps up inch by inch till the people of Vallabreguesand Saint Jacques are crying for succour from the roofs of theirdrowned-out houses, and the pigs and poultry go out to sea feet up on asix-knot current.
Keller and Linn sat and listened--Linn with a lost air of someone whosescheme of life has suddenly become impossible. I think Linn had expected
the quiet days, the morning promenades with Alida, the cheerful suppersof the house in the square in Autun to go on always. Alida would alwaysbe as content with them as she had been when a little girl. Had she notcome back from school to the warm love and unbounded spoiling whichawaited her there?
As they sat and pondered, Alida entered, her roll of music in her hand.
"What," she cried, "you are all sitting as gloomy as crows in acemetery. Where is Hugh? I want you both to come out and walk by theriver. The early violets are out, and yesterday Madame the Sous-Prefetfound a daffodil."
"Alida," said I, "at Aramon all the flowers are out, and the broom runsalong the river banks like a mile-wide flame of fire. Everywhere isyellow in spring, ranunculus, buttercups, celandine, and the yellowwallflowers sprouting among all the old walls of Gobelet. When will youcome and see them?"
Alida went prettily to Linn and kissed her. Then she put her arms aboutKeller without saying anything. The game was won. No more remained butto make the arrangements.
"As soon as these two dear people will let me!" she said.
Bless her! She might have started next morning if she had been set uponthe matter! That is, so far as Keller and Linn were concerned.
Afterwards while we were walking home Hugh looked edgeways at me.
"Angus," said he gravely, "I should not like to have yourresponsibility. Are you sure that she will take to the family at ChateauSchneider? Or they to her? We are rather a handful, you know, andshe--well, she is not exactly ordinary."
"As to that I don't know," I said sharply, for I did not like to hear mydarling project decried or even suspected, "and what is more, I don'tcare. The garden and the Garden Cottage at Gobelet are large enough andsafe enough."
"Pardon," he retorted, more unpleasantly than he had ever spoken to me."I was under the impression that Alida was going to Aramon for society."
"Well, and suppose she finds it without crossing the bridge--what then?"
"Oh, nothing," he said, "I was only considering what you meant to do foryourself in the way of a career!"