Laughing, the two grasped hands on their understanding. The Chancellor went out to his carriage, which had been kept at the door and a few minutes later he was conversing with Maximilian through the telephone.
CHAPTER XV
THE OLDNESS OF THE CHANCELLOR
MAXIMILIAN had not made an appointment with the Chancellor through the telephone, either for an hour or place of meeting. He had been in no mood at the time for the cool mapping out of details; and later, when there had been plenty of leisure for reflection, he had let himself hope that the Chancellor would already be willing to qualify his rash accusations. If this were so, the old man would be as eager to avoid a visit to the hunting-lodge as he had been a few hours ago to propose it. Maximilian did not mean to let Von Markstein escape the obligation of this visit, but he would have triumphed in the Chancellor's desire to evade it, which would have meant much.
"If he still persists in his abominable idea that she has gone to the hunting-lodge," thought the Emperor (with that vagueness of expression which lovers of high or low degree use in designating the one woman in 285 the world), "he will risk no chance of missing me, but will be waiting at the station. Should he, on the contrary, have had reason since our talk to doubt the accuracy of his own information, he will take advantage of the uncertainty I've left him in regarding my movements, to keep out of the way."
So arguing, Maximilian looked sharply from the window as his special train entered the Salzbrück station along the track that had been kept clear for its arrival. No other train was due from any direction at the moment, therefore few persons were on the platform, and a figure in a long gray coat, with its face shadowed by a slouch hat, was all the more conspicuous. Maximilian's heart sank. He believed in his love, but he would have preferred the Chancellor's absence.
"I hope that Your Majesty will forgive the liberty I have taken in being here, to place myself at your convenience and so avoid delay," were the old man's first words, as he took off his hat to the Emperor. "I drove down from my house some time ago, expecting that you might 286 arrive by special train; and I need hardly say that my carriage, which is waiting, is at your disposal for any use you may care to make of it."
"I wish to go instantly to the hunting-lodge near Bünden," said the Emperor, watching the other's face, and still hoping against hope for a visible sign of discomfiture. But he was not to be gratified.
"I was prepared for that wish, Your Majesty," promptly said the Chancellor. "The horses are fresh, and they will make the journey in an hour and a half."