“I believe her Highness is walking in the gardens with Mlle. Delacroix, madame,” replied the Countess, with a perceptible sniff. The elderly Frenchwoman who had been Princess Lida’s governess, and was now her chosen confidant, played the part of Mordecai to Countess Birnsdorf’s Haman.
“Beg her to come to me when she returns to the house. I have something important to say to her.” The lady-in-waiting departed, and the Princess, finding herself alone, threw aside the mask for a moment. Her right hand clenched itself involuntarily, the left was pressed upon her heart as she rose and paced the room.
“Yes,” she said to herself, “I will be prudent. I cannot afford to fail again. Lida must be safely married, or I shall lose my only chance of returning to power. I must have some standing-ground from which to move my world—a recognised position in some country or other. But as soon as I am sure of my footing—then, Count, look to yourself! You shall not return to Ernestine. You may scorn me if you like, but she shall not have you. I will track you step by step when you try to slink back to her, and, when you think you have won her, I will come between you. I can tell her a few little truths that will place you in a new light, my dear Count!”
She laughed mirthlessly, and returned with a swift step to her seat at the table as she heard her daughter crossing the anteroom. There was a pretty mixture of triumph and girlish timidity in Princess Lida’s manner as she came into the room, and her shining eyes and rose-flushed cheeks were eloquent of shy happiness. At any other time her mother’s eagle glance would have perceived the change immediately, but now the Princess was too much engrossed with her own thoughts to observe it.
“Ah, Lida!” she said. “I wanted to tell you that I think it advisable to hasten on your wedding a little. It will be a year next month since your father died, and there is no reason why you should not be married the month after.”
“Oh, mamma!” faltered Princess Lida, in dire dismay. “Michael is such a boy,” she explained, recovering herself.
“He will be nineteen then. Many kings have been younger when they married.”
“But he is so—so disagreeable. You know, when I have complained to you of his behaviour, you have always said he would undergo a change and become quite different before we were married; but he hasn’t done anything of the kind yet. Lately he has been worse than ever.”
“Well, you will have the pleasure of superintending his reformation yourself. You are not the girl I think you if you can’t make him treat you with proper respect.”
“Oh, I am not afraid of that.” Princess Lida raised her dark head proudly. “But, mamma, I don’t see any reason for being in such a hurry. I don’t care to be married just yet.”