CHAPTER XXIV.
A slight noise at the entrance caused Hartmut to look up. It was the Ambassador who appeared on the threshold, casting a searching glance into the room. He came for his wife, whom he thought still there.
He started at sight of Hartmut, and for a moment seemed undecided. Then he said, half audibly: "Herr Rojanow."
"Your Excellency."
"I should like to speak to you privately."
"I am at your service."
Wallmoden entered, but took up his position so as to keep the entrance in view. It was hardly necessary, for the doors of the dining room had just been thrown open, and the whole assembly floated there. The salon adjoining the tower room was already empty.
"I am surprised to see you here," the Ambassador began in suppressed tones, but with the same insulting coldness which he had shown at the first meeting, and which brought the blood to the young man's brow. He drew himself up threateningly.
"Why, Your Excellency?"
"The question is superfluous. At any rate, I request you not to again force me into the position I was brought into a short while ago, when Prince Adelsberg introduced you to me."
"The forced position was mine," returned Hartmut, just as sharply. "I will not assert that you consider me an intruder here, for you, best of all, know that I have a right to this intercourse."
"Hartmut von Falkenried would have had a right, of course; but that has changed."
"Herr von Wallmoden!"
"Not so loud, if you please," interrupted the Ambassador. "We might be overheard, and it would surely not be desirable to you that the name I just now uttered should be heard by outsiders."
"It is true that at present I carry my mother's name, to which I surely have a right. If I laid aside the other, it happened out of consideration----"
"For your father," finished Wallmoden, with heavy emphasis.
Hartmut started. This was an allusion which he could not bear yet.
"Yes," he replied, curtly. "I confess that it would be painful to me if I were forced to break this consideration."
"And why? Your rôle here would be played out, anyway."
Rojanow stepped close to the Ambassador with a passionate gesture.
"You are the friend of my father, Herr von Wallmoden, and I have called you uncle in my boyhood; but you forget that I am no longer the boy whom you could lecture and master at that time. The grown man looks at it as an insult."
"I intend neither to offend you nor to renew old connections, which neither of us consider as existing," said Wallmoden, coldly. "If I desired this conversation, it was to declare to you that it will not be possible to me, in my official position, to see you in intercourse with the Court, and be silent when it would be my duty to enlighten the Duke."
"Enlighten the Duke! About what?"
"About several things which are not known here and which have probably remained unknown to Prince Adelsberg. Please do not fly into a passion, Herr Rojanow. I would do this only in an extreme case, for I have to spare a friend. I know how a certain incident hurt him ten years ago, which is now forgotten and buried in our country, and, if all this should come up again and be brought into publicity, Colonel Falkenried would die of it."
Hartmut blanched. The defiant reply did not cross his lips. "He would die of it." The awful word, the truth of which he felt only too well, forced aside for the moment even the insult of the remark.
"I owe my father alone an account of that occasion," he replied in a painfully suppressed voice; "only him and nobody else."
"He will hardly ask for it. His son is dead to him; but let that rest. I speak especially now of later years; of your stay at Rome and Paris, where you lived with your mother in lavish style, although the estates in Roumania had had to be sacrificed at a forced sale."
"You seem to be all-knowing, Your Excellency!" hissed Rojanow in great anger. "We had no idea that we were under such conscientious surveillance. We lived upon the balance of our fortune which had been rescued from the wreck."
"Nothing was rescued; the money was entirely lost--to the last penny."
"That is not true," interrupted Hartmut, stormily.
"It is true. Am I really better informed about it than you?" The voice of the Ambassador sounded cuttingly sharp. "It is possible that Frau Rojanow did not want her son informed of the source from which she derived her means, and left him in error about it intentionally. I know the circumstances. If they have remained unknown to you--so much the better for you."
"Take care not to insult my mother," the young man burst forth; "or I shall forget that your hair is gray, and demand satisfaction."
"For what? For a statement for which I can produce the proofs? Lay aside such foolishness, of which I shall take no notice. She was your mother, and is dead now; therefore we will go no deeper into this point. I should only like to put this question to you: Do you intend, even after this conversation, to remain here and appear in the circle into which Prince Adelsberg has introduced you?"
Hartmut had turned deathly pale at the hint of the muddy origin of his mother's means, and the numb terror with which he looked at the speaker betrayed that he indeed knew nothing about it. But at this last question he regained his composure.
His flashing eyes met those of his opponent, and a wild decision sounded in his voice as he replied: "Yes, Herr von Wallmoden, I remain."
The Ambassador did not seem to have expected this defiance; he probably thought to have accomplished the matter more easily, but he retained his composure.
"Really? Well, you are accustomed to playing a high hand, and you seem to wish here also--but hush! Some one is coming. Reconsider the matter, perhaps you will change your mind."
He quickly entered the adjoining room, in which the Chief Forester now appeared.
"Where have you hidden yourself, Herbert?" he asked, when he beheld the Ambassador. "I have looked everywhere for you."
"I wished to find my wife."
"She is already in the dining room, like everybody else, and where you are being missed. Come, it is high time that we get something to eat."
Herr von Schonan took possession of his brother-in-law in his ever jovial manner and went off with him.
Hartmut stood still in his place. He struggled for breath; the excitement threatened to choke him. Shame, hatred, anger, all floated wildly through his heart. That hint of Wallmoden's had hurt him terribly, although he but half understood it. It tore asunder the veil with which he had half unconsciously, half intentionally shrouded the truth. He had, indeed, believed that a remnant of their wealth, rescued from the wreck, had given him and his mother their income. But it was not the first time that he had shut his eyes to what he did not wish to see.
He had enjoyed life in deep draughts without calling himself to account for it when the hand of his mother had so suddenly torn him from the enforced paternal education into unlimited freedom; when he exchanged the routine of the strictest duties for a life full of intoxicating enjoyments. He had then been too young to judge, and later on--it was then too late; habit and example had woven too unyielding a net around him. Now, for the first time, it was being shown him clearly and unmistakably what the life was that he had led so long--the life of an adventurer; and as an adventurer he had been pointed out the exit from society.
But hotter than the shame of that burned the affront which had been given him, and hatred for the man who had forced this indisputable truth upon him. The unfortunate inheritance from his mother, the hot, wild blood which had once been fatal to the boy, welled up like a stream of fire, and every other thought went down in a sensation, wild and limitless, of thirst for revenge.
His handsome features were distorted beyond recognition when he finally left the room, with tightly closed teeth. He knew and felt but one thing--that he must have revenge--revenge at any price!