CHAPTER XIX
THE MOUNTEBANK AND THE GOVERNOR
In his hand the Governor held a paper; his usually austere face wore aslightly propitiatory expression, while the eyes he turned upon her, asslowly he entered the room, suggested a respite of differences.Pausing, he toyed with the missive, turning it around and around in hisfingers, as if something in his thoughts were revolving with it. Hadhe been more watchful of her, less bent on some matter uppermost in hismind, he could not have failed to mark the pallor of her face, or theagitation written there. As it was, his glance swept without studying.
"I hoped to find you here," he began complacently; "hoped that you hadnot yet retired."
She made some faint response, but her voice, despite herself, wavered.Whereupon his look sharpened; then almost immediately relapsed;constraint on her part could easily be accounted for; not many hourshad elapsed since their last interview.
"Yes," he continued, "I have here to consider," indicating a paper heheld, "a rather important matter." He waited a moment before adding:"A matter that concerns--you!"
"That concerns me?" Her hands tightened.
"Yes."
"Since it is important," she said hastily, "would it not--shall we notleave it until to-morrow? I--I am rather tired to-night, and--"
"What?" he returned in the same unruffled tone. "Would you postponeconsidering the command of the King!"
"Command!" she repeated nervously. "Of the King?"
"Or request," he said, "which is the same."
"But--" she began, and stopped; held by a sound, as of some one moving,near the window.
"Shall I read it, or--"
She had started to look behind her; but abruptly caught herself, andseemed about to frame some irrelevant response, when his voice went on:"The King desires to change the date set for your marriage with hiskinsman, the Marquis de Beauvillers."
"Change?" she echoed.
"Yes; to hasten it." If the Governor had expected from her hostility,or perverseness, he was agreeably disappointed; the girl evincedneither pleasure nor disapproval; only stood in the same attitude ofexpectancy, with head half turned.
"His Majesty's reasons for this step--"
"Can't we--can't we, at least, postpone considering them?"
Again he regarded her more closely. "What better time than thepresent?"
"But I don't want--"
"Elise!" A slight frown appeared on his brow. "His Majesty," oncemore looking at the paper, "hints at an important political appointmenthe desires to confer on the Marquis de Beauvillers which would take himabroad; but whether as ambassador, or as governor in the colonies, hisMajesty does not disclose. Obviously, however, the bestowing of thehonor--a high one, no doubt!--depends on his early marriage, and a wifeto grace the position. The letter," weighing it, "is a tentative one;the courteous precursor of a fuller communication when he has learnedour--your--pleasure."
She did not at once express it; indeed, at the moment, seemed scarcelyto have comprehended; her glance, which had swept furtively behind whenhe was studying the document, returned more uneasily to his, but notbefore he had caught the backward look.
"Well?" he said with a touch of asperity. "Well?" he repeated, whenhis gaze, following the direction hers had taken, paused.
Although well lighted in the center by a great Venetian candelabrum,the far ends of the spacious hall lay somewhat in obscurity; notablythe space adorned with tropical plants and a life-size bronze beforethe entrance to the balcony. It was on this dim recess the Governorpermitted his eye to rest; at first casually; then with a suddenappearance of interest.
"Eh?" he muttered, and before my lady could prevent him, if she hadbeen mindful so to do, walked quickly forward; but as he advanced, awhite figure stepped boldly out from behind that partial screen. Witha sharp exclamation, which found a startled echo from the girl, theGovernor stopped; stepped back as far as the table.
"What mummery is this?" His lips shaped the words uncertainly; hishand, reaching out with that first startled instinct of danger, touchedthe bell.
"Your Ladyship rang?" On the opposite side of the room was the doorthrown suddenly open. The look of expectancy on the face of thecommandant, who had so promptly appeared, gave way to one of surprise;consternation. "His Excellency!" he muttered, and mechanically saluted.
Over the Governor's visage a faint trace of relief flitted; dryly helooked from the mountebank, now erect and motionless, to the girl; butthe face was averted and his Excellency could not see the suddenwhiteness of her cheek; again he regarded the officer.
"You answer our summons with alacrity," he observed to this lastsubject of his scrutiny.
The commandant reddened. "I--your Excellency--the truth is, I waswaiting without, at the door."
"What you have just stated," returned the Governor, "is patent; what Ishould like to know, however," with subtle change of tone, "is _why_you were stationed there."
"To take this mountebank player away, when it pleased her Ladyship to--"
"Yes; to take him away!" interrupted the lady in hurried tones, theagitation of which she strove to conceal. "And I was about to callhim, when--"
The Governor continued to address the commandant. "You brought himhere?" incisively.
"Yes; your Excellency; a stupid fellow we arrested below for makingtrouble with his dolls, and--but with her ladyship's permission--"awkwardly turning to the Governor's daughter, "I will explain."
To this appeal the girl, however, made no answer; as if fascinated,watched them, the commandant, her father, the still, white figure atone side--not far away!
"I think," the Governor spoke softly, "you will do that, anyway!"
"Exactly, your Excellency! It happened in this wise," and not withoutevidence of constraint and hesitation, the officer slowly related thestory of the disturbance on the platform; the taking into custody ofthe rogues and knaves, and my lady's interest in the vagabond clownwhose play had occasioned the riot.
"Because it was seditious, designed to set authority at naught?"interrupted the listener, grimly eying for an instant the motionlessform of the mountebank.
"On the contrary, your Excellency!" quickly. "Her ladyship assured meit was the loyal and faithful sentiments of the play that caused theunruly rascallions to make trouble, and that the clown deserved nopunishment, because he had intended no mischief."
"Her ladyship?" The Governor's brows went suddenly up. "How," heasked at length in a voice yet softer, "should her ladyship have knownabout the 'loyal and faithful sentiments' of a piece, given in thetown, before a crowd of brawlers?"
"Because I was a spectator!" said his daughter, a red spot now on hercheek; changing lights in her eyes.
"A spectator?" repeated, in mild surprise, the Governor.
"I will explain--after!" she added in tones, low, constrained.
"Hum!" His Excellency's glance swept to the commandant.
"Her ladyship was so good," murmured the latter in some embarrassmentand yet feeling obliged to speak, with that bright insistent gaze ofthe high official of the Mount fastened upon him, "as to inform methat, desiring to mingle with the people, and, knowing it might not beexpedient to do so--in her own proper character--her ladyship saw fitto assume a humbler costume--that of a Norman peasant maid--"
From the Governor's lips fell an ejaculation; he seemed about to speaksternly, but the words failed on his lips; instead, "Continue!" he saidcurtly.
"That, I believe, is all, your Excellency, except that her ladyshipexpressed the desire the stupid fellow be set at liberty on the morrow,as not worth the keeping--and--"
The mountebank started, as expecting now the Lady Elise to speak; todenounce him, perhaps; but it was his Excellency who interrupted.
"You were going to do so? To set him at liberty?"
"I, your Excellency? The _auberge des voleurs_ is so full of the scumof the sands, there is hardly room for them to squirm; but if yourExcellency wishes all these paltry raga
muffins and beggars broughtbefore you--"
"Well, well!" The Governor looked down; his hand crushed impatientlythe paper he held. "Here is much ado about nothing! Have you," to hisdaughter, "aught to add?"
She lifted her head. Standing in a careless pose, apparentlyregardless of what was taking place, the mountebank, at the Governor'squestion, shot a quick glance from him to her. Although but an instanthis look met my lady's, in that brief interval she read all that waslost on the other two; the sudden, desperate purpose, the indubitableintention, his warning glance conveyed. At the same time she noticed,or fancied she did, the hand thrust into his breast, as if graspingsome weapon concealed there, draw out a little, while simultaneously,lending emphasis to the fact, he moved a shade nearer the Governor, herfather!
"Nothing," said the girl hastily; "nothing!"
"Then," his Excellency waved a thin, aristocratic hand, "take him away!"
"And your--her ladyship's instructions?" murmured the commandant.
"Are to be obeyed, of course!" answered the Governor, complacentlyregarding his letter.
"You hear, fool?" said in a low voice the commandant, as he approachedthe clown. "Thank his Excellency! Don't you know enough? Clod!Dolt!"
But the man made at first no effort to obey; immovable as a statue,seemed not to see the speaker, and once more, the officer halfwhispered his injunction.
"Eh?" The Governor turned.
"I thank your Excellency! Your Excellency is most kind!" said themountebank in a loud, emphatic tone.
"And her ladyship?" prompted the officer.
The clown looked at the girl; her breath came fast through her partedlips.
"Speak, fool! To her ladyship you also owe much."
"Much!" repeated the clown, a spark in the dull gaze still fastenedupon her.
"Is that all you can say?"
"Take him away!" My lady spoke almost wildly.
"Yes; take him away!" With a querulous gesture his Excellency put anend to the matter. "Am I to be interrupted in important affairs byevery miserable _farceur_, or buffoon, you pick up on the beach? Tothe devil with the fellow!"
When the door had closed on the mountebank and the commandant, heturned to his daughter. "A madcap trick!" Frowningly his Excellencyregarded her. "To have gone into the town and mingled with the rabble!But," shaking his head and then suffering that expression ofdisapproval to relax into severity, "say no more about it! Here,"indicating the letter, "is something of greater moment, to be attendedto and answered!"