CHAPTER XXXII. NIKKY AND HEDWIG
Nikky had gone back to his lodging, where his servant was packing histhings. For Nikky was now of His Majesty's household, and must exchangehis shabby old rooms for the cold magnificence of the Palace.
Toto had climbed to the chair beside him, and was inspecting hispockets, one by one. Toto was rather a problem, in the morning. Butthen everything was a problem now. He decided to leave the dog with thelandlady, and to hope for a chance to talk the authorities over. Nikkyhimself considered that a small boy without a dog was as incomplete as,for instance, a buttonhole without a button.
He was very downhearted. To the Crown Prince, each day, he gave the bestthat was in him, played and rode, invented delightful nonsense to bringthe boy's quick laughter, carried pocketfuls of bones, to the secretrevolt of his soldierly soul, was boyish and tender, frivolous orthoughtful, as the occasion seemed to warrant.
And always he was watchful, his revolver always ready and in touch, hiseyes keen, his body, even when it seemed most relaxed, always tense tospring. For Nikky knew the temper of the people, knew it as did Mathildegossiping in the market, and even better; knew that a crisis wasapproaching, and that on this small boy in his charge hung that crisis.
The guard at the Palace had been trebled, but even in that lay weakness.
"Too many strange faces," the Chancellor had said to him, shaking hishead. "Too many servants in livery, and flunkies whom no one knows. Howcan we prevent men, in such livery, from impersonating our own agents?One, two, a half-dozen, they could gain access to the Palace, couldcommit a mischief under our very eyes."
So Nikky trusted in his own right arm and in nothing else. At night thePalace guard was smaller, and could be watched. There were no servantsabout to complicate the situation. But in the daytime, and especiallynow with the procession of milliners and dressmakers, messengers anddealers, it was more difficult. Nikky watched these people, as hehappened on them, with suspicion and hatred. Hatred not only of whatthey might be, but hatred of what they were, of the thing they typified,Hedwig's approaching marriage.
The very size of the Palace, its unused rooms, its long and ramblingcorridors, its rambling wings and ancient turrets, was against itssafety.
Since the demonstration against Karl, the riding-school hour had beengiven up. There were no drives in the park. The illness of the Kingfurnished sufficient excuse, but the truth was that the royal family waspractically besieged; by it knew not what. Two police agents had beenfound dead the morning after Karl's departure, on the outskirts of thecity, lying together in a freshly ploughed field. They bore marks ofstruggle, and each had been stabbed through the veins of the neck, asthough they had been first subdued and then scientifically destroyed.
Nikky, summoned to the Chancellor's house that morning, had beentold the facts, and had stood, rather still and tense, while Mettlichrecounted them.
"Our very precautions are our danger," said the Chancellor. "And theKing--" He stopped and sat, tapping his fingers on the arm of his chair.
"And the King, sir?"
"Almost at the end. A day or two."
On that day came fresh news, alarming enough. More copies of theseditious paper were in circulation in the city and the surroundingcountry, passing from hand to hand. The town was searched for thepress which had printed them, but it was not located. Which was notsurprising, since it had been lowered through a trap into a sub-cellarof the house on the Road of the Good Children, and the trapdoor coveredwith rubbish.
Karl, with Hedwig in his thoughts, had returned to mobilize his army notfar from the border for the spring maneuvers, and at a meeting of theKing's Council the matter of a mobilization in Livonia was seriouslyconsidered.
Fat Friese favored it, and made an impassioned speech, with sweat thickon his heavy face.
"I am not cowardly," he finished. "I fear nothing for myself or forthose belonging to me. But the duty of this Council is to preserve thethrone for the Crown Prince, at any cost. And, if we cannot trust thearmy, in what can we trust?"
"In God," said the Chancellor grimly.
In the end nothing was done. Mobilization might precipitate the crisis,and there was always the fear that the army, in parts, was itselfdisloyal.
It was Marschall, always nervous and now pallid with terror, whosuggested abandoning the marriage between Hedwig and Karl.
"Until this matter came up," he said, avoiding Mettlich's eyes, "therewas danger, but of a small party only, the revolutionary one. One which,by increased effort on the part of the secret police, might have beensuppressed. It is this new measure which is fatal. The people detest it.They cannot forget, if we can, the many scores of hatred we still owe toKarnia. We have, by our own act, alienated the better class of citizens.Why not abandon this marriage, which, gentlemen, I believe will befatal. It has not yet been announced. We may still withdraw with honor."
He looked around the table with anxious, haunted eyes, opened wideso that the pupils appeared small and staring in their setting ofblood-shot white. The Chancellor glanced around, also.
"It is not always easy to let the people of a country know what is goodfor them and for it. To retreat now is to show our weakness, to make anenemy again of King Karl, and to gain us nothing, not even safety. Aswell abdicate, and turn the country over to the Terrorists! And, in thiscrisis, let me remind you of something you persistently forget. Whateverthe views of the solid citizens may be as to this marriage,--and once itis effected, they will accept it without doubt,--the Crown Prince is nowand will remain the idol of the country. It is on his popularity wemust depend. We must capitalize it. Mobs are sentimental. Whatever theTerrorists may think, this I know: that when the bell announces HisMajesty's death, when Ferdinand William Otto steps out on the balcony,a small and lonely child, they will rally to him. That figure, on thebalcony, will be more potent than a thousand demagogues, haranguing inthe public streets."
The Council broke up in confusion. Nothing had been done, or would bedone. Mettlich of the Iron Hand had held them, would continue to holdthem. The King, meanwhile, lay dying, Doctor Wiederman in constantattendance, other physicians coming and going. His apartments weresilent. Rugs covered the corridors, that no footfall disturb his quiethours. The nursing Sisters attended him, one by his bedside, one alwayson her knees at the Prie-dieu in the small room beyond. He wantedlittle--now and then a sip of water, the cooled juice of fruit.
Injections of stimulants, given by Doctor Wiederman himself, had scarredhis old arms with purplish marks, and were absorbed more and more slowlyas the hours went on.
He rarely slept, but lay inert and not unhappy. Now and then one of hisgentlemen, given permission, tiptoed into the room, and stood lookingdown at his royal master. Annunciata came, and was at last stricken byconscience to a prayer at his bedside. On one of her last visits thatwas. She got up to find his eyes fixed on her.
"Father," she began.
He made no motion.
"Father, can you hear me?"
"Yes."
"I--I have been a bad daughter to you. I am sorry. It is late now totell you, but I am sorry. Can I do anything?"
"Otto," he said, with difficulty.
"You want to see him?
"No."
She knew what he meant by that. He would have the boy remember him as hehad seen him last.
"You are anxious about him?"
"Very--anxious."
"Listen, father," she said, stooping over him. "I have been hard andcold. Perhaps you will grant that I have had two reasons for it. But Iam going to do better. I will take care of him and I will do all I canto make him happy. I promise."
Perhaps it was relief. Perhaps even then the thought of Annunciata'stardy and certain-to-be bungling efforts to make Ferdinand William Ottohappy amused him. He smiled faintly.
Nikky, watching his rooms being dismantled, rescuing an old pipe now andthen, or a pair of shabby but beloved boots,--Nikky, whistling to keepup his courage, received a note from Hedwig late
that afternoon. It wasvery brief:
To-night at nine o'clock I shall go to the roof beyond Hubert's old rooms, for air. HEDWIG.
Nikky, who in all his incurious young life had never thought of the roofof the Palace, save as a necessary shelter from the weather, a thing oftiles and gutters, vastly large, looked rather astounded.
"The roof!" he said, surveying the note. And fell to thinking, such amixture of rapture and despair as only twenty-three, and hopeless, canknow.
Somehow or other he got through the intervening hours, and before ninehe was on his way. He had the run of the Palace, of course. No onenoticed him as he made his way toward the empty suite which so recentlyhad housed its royal visitor. Annunciata's anxiety had kept the doors ofthe suite unlocked. Knowing nothing, but fearing everything, she sleptwith the key to the turret door under her pillow, and an ear opened foruntoward sounds.
In the faint moonlight poor Hubert's rooms, with their refurbishedfurnishings covered with white linen, looked cold and almost terrifying.A long window was open, and the velvet curtain swayed as though itshielded some dismal figure. But, when he had crossed the room and drawnthe curtain aside, it was to see a bit of fairyland, the roof moonlitand transformed by growing things into a garden. There was, too, thefairy.
Hedwig, in a soft white wrap over her dinner dress, was at thebalustrade. The moon, which had robbed the flowers of their colors andmade them ghosts of blossoms, had turned Hedwig into a pale, white fairywith extremely frightened eyes. A very dignified fairy, too, althoughher heart thumped disgracefully. Having taken a most brazen stepforward, she was now for taking two panicky ones back.
Therefore she pretended not to hear Nikky behind her, and was completelyengrossed in the city lights.
So Hedwig intended to be remote, and Nikky meant to be firm and very,very loyal. Which shows how young and inexperienced they were. Becauseany one who knows even the beginnings of love knows that its victimssuffer from an atrophy of both reason and conscience, and a hypertrophyof the heart.
Whatever Nikky had intended--of obeying his promise to the letter, ofputting his country before love, and love out of his life--failed himinstantly. The Nikky, ardent-eyed and tender-armed, who crossed theroof and took her almost fiercely in his arms, was all lover--andtwenty-three.
"Sweetheart!" he said. "Sweetest heart!"
When, having kissed her, he drew back a trifle for the sheer joy ofagain catching her to him, it was Hedwig who held out her arms to him.
"I couldn't bear it," she said simply. "I love you. I had to see youagain. Just once."
If he had not entirely lost his head before, he lost it then. He stoppedthinking, was content for a time that her arms were about his neck, andhis arms about her, holding her close. They were tense, those arms ofhis, as though he would defy the world to take her away.
But, although he had stopped thinking, Hedwig had not. It is, at suchtimes, always the woman who thinks. Hedwig, plotting against his honorand for his happiness and hers, was already, with her head on hisbreast, planning the attack. And, having a strategic position, she firedher first gun from there.
"Never let me go, Nikky," she whispered. "Hold me, always."
"Always!" said Nikky, valiantly and absurdly.
"Like this?"
"Like this," said Nikky, who was, like most lovers, not particularlyoriginal. He tightened his strong arms about her.
"They are planning such terrible things." Shell number two, and highexplosive. "You won't let them take me from you, will you?"
"God!" said poor Nikky, and kissed her hair. "If we could only be likethis always! Your arms, Hedwig,--your sweet arms!" He kissed her arms.
Gun number three now: "Tell me how much you love me."
"I--there are no words, darling. And I couldn't live long enough to tellyou, if there were." Not bad that, for inarticulate Nikky.
"More than anybody else?"
He shook her a trifle, in his arms. "How can you?" he demanded huskily."More than anything in the world. More than life, or anything life canbring. More, God help me, than my country."
But his own words brought him up short. He released her, very gently,and drew back a step.
"You heard that?" he demanded. "And I mean it. It's incredible, Hedwig,but it is true."
"I want you to mean it," Hedwig replied, moving close to him, so thather soft draperies brushed him; the very scent of the faint perfume sheused was in the air he breathed. "I want you to, because Nikky, you aregoing to take me away, aren't you?"
Then, because she dared not give him time to think, she made herplea,--rapid, girlish, rather incoherent, but understandable enough.They would go away together and be married. She had it all plannedand some of it arranged. And then they would hide somewhere, and--"Andalways be together," she finished, tremulous with anxiety.
And Nikky? His pulses still beating at her nearness, his eyes on herupturned, despairing young face, turned to him for hope and comfort,what could he do? He took her in his arms again and soothed her, whileshe cried her heart out against his tunic. He said he would do anythingto keep her from unhappiness, and that he would die before he let her goto Karl's arms. But if he had stopped thinking before, he was thinkinghard enough then.
"To-night?" said Hedwig, raising a tear-stained face. "It is early. Ifwe wait something will happen. I know it. They are so powerful, they cando anything."
After all, Nikky is poor stuff to try to make a hero of. He was sohuman, and so loving. And he was very, very young, which may perhapsbe his excuse. As well confess his weakness and his temptation. He wastempted. Almost he felt he could not let her go, could not loosen hishold of her. Almost--not quite.
He put her away from him at last, after he had kissed her eyelids andher forehead, which was by way of renunciation. And then he foldedhis arms, which were treacherous and might betray him. After that, notdaring to look at her, but with his eyes fixed on the irregular sky-lineof the city roofs, he told her many things, of his promise to the King,of the danger, imminent now and very real, of his word of honor not tomake love to her, which he had broken.
Hedwig listened, growing cold and still, and drawing away a little. Shewas suffering too much to be just. All she could see was that, for amatter of honor, and that debatable, she was to be sacrificed. Thisdanger that all talked of--she had heard that for a dozen years, andnothing had come of it. Nothing, that is, but her own sacrifice.
She listened, even assented, as he pleaded against his own heart,treacherous arms still folded. And if she saw his arms and not his eyes,it was because she did not look up.
Halfway through his eager speech, however, she drew her light wrap abouther and turned away. Nikky could not believe that she was going likethat, without a word. But when she had disappeared through the window,he knew, and followed her. He caught her in Hubert's room, and drew hersavagely into his arms.
But it was a passive, quiescent, and trembling Hedwig who submitted, andthen, freeing herself, went out through the door into the lights of thecorridor. Nikky flung himself, face down, on a shrouded couch and laythere, his face buried in his arms.
Olga Loschek's last hope was gone.