“Why, it isn’t advisable yet. They can’t treat you as a princess before you are one, and they’d think you wouldn’t just choose to be treated as a no-account person. Say, Fay! she’s betrothed—that little plain girl.” Maimie was still glancing over the paper. “Do you remember the evil-looking Scythian that was riding in the Grand-Duchess’s carriage yesterday—the dark man with the beard? That’s the happy man. ‘A marriage has been arranged, and will take place at Molzau shortly after Easter, between the Grand-Duke Ivan Petrovitch of Scythia and the Princess Helene, youngest and only unmarried daughter of the Grand-Duke and Duchess of Schwarzwald-Molzau.’”
“Shortly after Easter? Then we won’t see it!” cried Félicia. “I do think these folks might hustle things a little. To keep me waiting months this way, and not even let me stay here, is just horrid!”
“But the yacht!” Maimie reminded her. “We’ll have a lovely time these weeks, and it’ll be real elegant to appear among your new relations in your own ship.”
“Well, I don’t know,” said Félicia doubtfully. As delicately as he could, the Grand-Duke had suggested that pending the decision of the Emperor and the Prince of Arragon on her claim, it would be well for her to withdraw herself to a certain extent from the public eye. A sojourn in some quiet mountain village, whither her fame as an American heiress would not precede her, and where her footsteps would not be dogged by reporters, would best suit the views of her father’s august relations. Maimie, reading between the lines of his speech, saw that some rumour of the Carnival proceedings and other doings of the kind had reached him, and forestalled Félicia’s indignant refusal by suggesting that she should send for the Bluebird, the beautiful steam-yacht which Mr Steinherz had designed and constructed for himself, and sailed in all the Western seas, so as to take a short cruise in the Mediterranean. The idea did not displease Félicia, and to the Grand-Duke it came as such an evident relief that she could not refuse to adopt it, especially when she found the yacht could not reach Nice before Mid-Lent, which would enable her to take part in the Battle of Flowers and other festivities of the occasion. But there were details in connection with the proposed cruise which still rankled in her mind, and again she turned angrily upon Maimie. “And I do think, Maimie Logan, you might have stood by me, so’s we wouldn’t have an old school-ma’am trail us along everywhere. It makes me real mad to be shepherded around that way.”
This referred to a proposal of the Grand-Duke’s that the chaperon on board the Bluebird should not be Mrs van Zyl, but a lady of the Pannonian Court, who might give the two girls various useful hints in case of a change in their position. Félicia, who had delightful dreams of fluttering the Imperial dovecotes by appearing among her august relations as a frank and unashamed American, had been horrified to hear Maimie acquiesce in the suggestion. In ordinary society anywhere Maimie felt that she could hold her own and guide Félicia, but on these lofty heights she was at fault, and she had the good sense to see it. Félicia was more difficult to manage than she had expected, but at last she succeeded in making her see that any faux pas on her first introduction would produce a bad impression and alienate King Michael, and she yielded with a poor enough grace.
“But you save so much time getting at things on the voyage,” Maimie urged now.
“How does that make up, when I wanted to take a real nice party on board, and have a good time? It’s nothing but a snub to poor Sadie, I say.”
“She won’t have you see that she feels it so, any way. She’ll conclude to keep track of you, with an eye to the future, I know. And I thought the Grand-Duke fixed it real nicely to have this Baroness Radnika come and stay at the hotel, so’s you could just fall in love with her, and invite her to make the cruise with you.”
“Oh, it’s all awfully smart, of course, and I guess Count Mortimer was somewhere around when it was fixed. But for you and the Grand-Duke both to insist that I must have this old dowd of a Baroness tag after me, just because she knew pappa, and can teach me their tricks—why, it’s the meanest thing out! I’m real thankful there’s the chance of a frolic or two first. I’ll even up my accounts with you, you bet!”
To Maimie this was sufficiently alarming, and yet, although Félicia kept her word, and enjoyed herself thoroughly at the Mid-Lent gaieties, the great and most disagreeable shock which the Battle of Flowers brought with it was not due to her. As a reward for her complaisance in withdrawing from the pleasures of society for the present, she had promised herself the delight of outshining all possible rivals before she disappeared from view. Her carriage was a bower of irises in all the delicate shades which the flower presents, and the occupants were dressed to correspond. Mrs van Zyl’s gown was a soft harmony in yellow and lavender, Maimie wore white and dark purple, and Félicia was in the colour she loved best, a clear pale lilac, emphasised, but not unduly so, by the touches of black velvet demanded by fashion. The scheme of decoration had been kept a profound secret, and the “iris carriage” was greeted with shouts of admiration from end to end of the course. Close at hand rode King Michael, duly masked, but quite recognisable to the spectators, in a rich gold-embroidered Thracian dress of two shades of purple. The understanding which was implied by the correspondence between his costume and those of the ladies suggested a hint of romance which the populace were not slow to take, and he shared in the plaudits which accompanied the carriage in its progress. Maimie felt a little uneasy, wondering whether his action would be considered premature by his relations, but before long she was conscious of quite a different cause for anxiety. Among the mounted men by whom the line of carriages was every now and then broken was one who seemed to be manœuvring to place himself near Félicia, endeavouring also to attract her attention by making his horse prance and curvet. He seemed to be short of stature, but the close-fitting Mephistopheles dress which he wore, carried out not in red but in black, set off a peculiarly graceful figure, and he displayed a complete mastery over his restless steed. His hair was black, and his eyes, when they could be distinguished through the holes in his mask, dark and glittering. His mysterious appearance was well calculated to rouse the curiosity of any one not absolutely engrossed, as was Félicia, by her carriage, her clothes, and her prize, and Maimie saw that King Michael was obviously uneasy. Again and again, when the procession paused for a moment before one of the tribunes, or when the carriage turned at the end of the course, he interposed his horse so that the unknown cavalier should not approach Félicia. His first idea had been that the stranger was his vanquished rival, Usk, but it was obvious that the Englishman’s broad shoulders could not possibly be hidden under the black doublet, and he scented a deeper mystery. Presently another stoppage occurred before one of the stands, in which sat the Grand-Duke and Duchess of Schwarzwald-Molzau and the Grand-Duke Ivan Petrovitch. Bouquets were flying fast and furiously, the air was full of roses, jonquils, violets, mimosa; shrieks of laughter arose, now from the carriages and now from the tribune, but King Michael took no part in the fray. In thrusting his horse between Félicia’s carriage and the unknown rider, he had forced the latter close to the Scythian Prince, who was staring at him in astonishment, and presently addressed him in his own language. The reply which reached King Michael’s ear, “An affair of the heart; you won’t give me away?” only deepened his suspicions. Presently he was able to leave Félicia in the safe keeping of his uncle, who asked to be allowed to occupy the fourth seat in the carriage as it moved on again, and he leaned over the railing to the Grand-Duke Ivan.