“What is that—the people?”
CHAPTER XVI
THE SIELENBURG PARTY
Elderly ladies of the Austrian aristocracy have no great inclination for traveling. While for a hundred years it has been the fashion in England to make a tour on the Continent, and while in the days of mail-coaches, noblewomen, young and old, were accustomed to accompany their spouses to Switzerland and to Italy, to Paris and to the German baths, the ladies of the Austrian nobility have only reluctantly quitted their castles in order to journey to other countries. Since traveling has been made so easy and expeditious, especially since automobiles came into fashion, the younger feminine element of the higher Austrian circles have ventured to make trips into distant lands. But even at the time of the Rose-Week, there were among the elder aristocratic women some who had never before set foot outside the boundaries of the Empire. Among these was the Countess Adele Schollendorf. But, nevertheless, one fine June morning the old lady, accompanied by her cousin Albertine, started for Lucerne. Two cavaliers also made up the party: Cousin Coriolan and Baron Ludwig Malhof.
The motive of the expedition was curiosity. Count Sielen’s sister had become quite estranged from her grand-niece since the latter had begun to appear on the public platform. The affair was too distasteful to her—it cut entirely across all her prejudices. Franka had, indeed, lost nothing in reputation and respect by her action—on the contrary; but the old countess could not be reconciled to it. She did not go so far as to indulge in open reproach and rupture, being restrained by the fact that she was indebted to Franka’s generosity for her home at the Sielenburg and the considerable revenues accruing from this property; but she had renounced all personal intercourse, which was the easier, because Franka, on her part, took no pains to maintain it. For no money in the world would the Countess Adele have consented to attend the young girl’s lecture in Vienna. A connection—a person with the Sielen blood in her veins—on the platform, speaking in favor of the emancipation of women! Horrible! But when one day Baron Malhof brought the news that Franka Garlett had been invited to take her place with the greatest celebrities of the day at the Rose-Week celebration,—and he described the Toker Rose-Week with enthusiasm, having himself been present at one,—the old countess’s curiosity was awakened: “I should like to see it,” she exclaimed.
“Then let us go there,” proposed Malhof. And he argued so eloquently that the countess decided to take the journey—the first she had ever made out of her own country. There, so far away, she might, indeed, endure to see Franka on the platform; only at home, among all her relatives and acquaintances, it would have been too painful. But there—“there” being somewhat confused in her mind with the antipodes—one was, so to speak, incognito. Albertine consented to accompany her cousin, although the expedition seemed to her very portentous and adventurous; but, possibly, she might have the opportunity of telling this Franka, who had so unceremoniously slipped out from under her influence, a few verities which would redound to her advantage.
Cousin Coriolan joined the party from the purpose of studying into the “humbug.” ... Toker was a fool, and the whole affair was a piece of modern sham. Baron Malhof, widely experienced, offered his services as marshal for the journey: to engage lodgings, to see to the luggage, to act as cicerone, and in general to superintend all the details of the trip. But when he suggested making the journey to Lucerne in an airship, Countess Adele protested with horror.
They arrived the evening before the exercises were to begin; they had enjoyed a good night’s sleep, and were now sitting at their breakfast-coffee in the dining-room. They were glancing through the newspaper, to find what announcements were made about the coming performances: but all they found were the list of Toker’s guests, and the statement that the same motto should serve for all the addresses: “When thoughts will soar....”
“I am curious to know what that means,” muttered Coriolan; “probably a kind of preaching about all sorts of high-flying, so-called Ideals. It may be very edifying, but not very exciting.”
“As far as I can judge of you, my dear Coriolan,” said Malhof, “you would be neither excited nor edified by the things which are to be heard here. Just as the American and the operatic host which he has invited are the representatives of the latest and boldest ideas, so you....”
Countess Adele interrupted: “Well, if Franka’s emancipation absurdities are to be called soaring.... This honey is famous—taste it, Baron Malhof; and this crisp-toasted bread ... it seems to me the Swiss are used to an abundant breakfast.”