The King Of The Mountains Part 24

"I am charmed! Will you be good enough to accompany me, for a moment, into the card-room? It is still empty and we will be alone."

"At your orders, Monsieur."

M. Pericles, pale as a soldier who is leaving a hospital, smilingly followed us. Arrived, he faced John Harris and said to him: "Monsieur, I await your pleasure."

In reply Harris tore off his cross with its new ribbon, and put it in his pocket, saying: "There, Monsieur, that is all I have to say to you!"

"Monsieur!" cried the captain, stepping back.

"No noise, Monsieur, I pray you. If you care for this toy you can send two of your friends for it to Mr. John Harris, Commander of The Fancy."

"Monsieur," Pericles replied, "I do not know by what right you take from me a cross which is worth fifteen francs, and which I shall be obliged to replace at my own expense."

"Do not let that trouble you, Monsieur; here is an English sovereign, with the head of the Queen of England on it; fifteen francs for the cross, ten for the ribbon. If there is anything left, I beg of you to drink to my health."

"Monsieur," said the officer, pocketing the piece, "I have only to thank you." He saluted without another word, but his eyes promised nothing pleasant.

"My dear Hermann," Harris said to me, "it will be prudent for you to leave this country as soon as possible with your future bride. This gendarme has the air of a polished brigand. As for me, I shall remain here eight days in order to give him time to demand satisfaction. After that I shall obey the orders which I have received to go to the Sea of j.a.pan."

"I am sorry that your ardor has carried you so far. I do not wish to leave Greece without a specimen or two of the Boryana variabilis. I have an incomplete one without the roots in my tin box which I forgot when we left the camp."

"Leave a sketch of your plant with Lobster or Giacomo. They will make a pilgrimage into the mountains for your sake. But for G.o.d's sake! make haste to get to a place of safety!"

In the meantime my happiness had not arrived at the ball, and I tired my eyes staring at all the dancers. Toward midnight I lost all hope. I left the dancing hall and planted myself near a whist table, where four experienced players were displaying great skill. I had become interested in watching the game, when a silvery laugh made my heart bound. Mary-Ann was behind me. I could not see her, I dared not turn toward her, but I felt her presence, and my joy was overwhelming. What was the cause of her mirth I never knew. Perhaps some ridiculous uniform; one meets such in every country at official b.a.l.l.s. I remembered that there was a mirror in front of me. I raised my eyes and I saw her, without being seen, between her mother and her uncle; more beautiful, more radiant than on the day when she appeared to me for the first time. Three strands of pearls were around her neck and lay partly on her divine shoulders. Her eyes shone in the candlelight, her teeth glistened as she laughed, the light played in her hair. Her toilet was such as all young girls wear; she did not wear, like Mrs. Simons, a bird of paradise on her head; but she was not the less beautiful; her skirt was looped up with bouquets of natural flowers. She had flowers on her corsage, and in her hair, and what flowers, Monsieur? I give you a thousand guesses. I thought that I should die of joy when I recognized upon her the--Boryana variabilis.

Everything came to me from Heaven at the same moment! Is there anything sweeter than to find a coveted flower, for which one thought to search, in the hair of one whom one loves? I was the happiest of men and of naturalists. Excess of happiness made me cast to the winds all the proprieties. I turned quickly toward her, and holding out my hands, I cried:

"Mary-Ann! It is I!"

Will you believe it, Monsieur, she recoiled as if terrified, instead of falling into my arms. Mrs. Simons raised her head, so haughtily that it seemed to me as if her bird of paradise would fly away with it to the ceiling. The old gentleman took me by the hand, led me aside, examined me as if I was a curious beast, and said to me: "Monsieur, have you been presented to these ladies?"

"There is no question about that, my worthy Mr. Sharper! My dear uncle!

I am Hermann. Hermann Schultz! Their companion in captivity! their savior! Ah! I have had some wonderful experiences since their departure!

I will relate them to you at your house."

"Yes, yes," he replied. "But the English custom, Monsieur, exacts, absolutely, that one be presented to ladies before one relates stories to them."

"But since they know me, my good and excellent Mr. Sharper. We have dined more than ten times together. I have rendered them a service worth a hundred thousand francs! You know it well; at the camp of the King of the Mountains."

"Yes; yes; but you have not been presented."

"But do you not know that I have exposed myself to a thousand deaths for my dear Mary-Ann?"

"Very well! but you have not been presented."

"Present me, then, yourself."

"Yes, yes; but you must first be presented to me."

"Wait!"

I ran like a crazy man across the ballroom; I jostled several couples who were waltzing; my sword got entangled between my legs, I slipped on the waxed floor, and fell my full length. It was John Harris who helped me up.

"For whom are you searching?"

"They are here, I have seen them. I shall marry Mary-Ann; but I must be presented first. It is the English custom. Help me! Where are they? Have you not seen a large woman, with a bird of paradise head-dress?"

"Yes, she left the ball with a pretty girl."

"Left the ball! But, my friend, she is Mary-Ann's mother!"

"Be calm! we will find them again. I will have you presented by the American Minister."

"That is the very thing! I will show you my uncle, Edward Sharper. I left him here. Where in the devil has he hidden? He ought not to be far away!"

Uncle Edward had disappeared. I dragged poor Harris to the Place des Palais, before the Hotel des Etrangers. Mrs. Simons' apartments were lighted. At the end of a few moments the lights were extinguished.

Everyone had gone to bed.

"Let us do the same," Harris suggested. "Sleep will calm you. To-morrow between one and two, I will arrange your affairs."

I pa.s.sed a night much worse than those of my captivity. Harris slept with me, or rather, he did not sleep. We heard the carriages coming from the ball, descend Rue d'Hermes with their freight of uniforms and toilets. About five o'clock, weariness closed my eyes. Three hours afterwards, Dimitri entered my room and said:

"Great news! Your Englishwomen have gone!"

"Where?"

"To Trieste."

"Wretch! art thou sure of it?"

"It was I who accompanied them to the s.h.i.+p."

"My poor friend," Harris exclaimed, seizing my hands. "Grat.i.tude may be a.s.sumed, but love does not come at will."

"Alas!" sighed Dimitri. This sentiment had an echo in his heart.

Since that day, Monsieur, I have lived like the beasts; drank, ate, breathed. I sent my collection to Hamburg without one specimen of the Boryana variabilis. My friends accompanied me to the French steamer the day after the ball. They thought it wise to make the journey during the night, for fear of encountering M. Pericles' soldiers. We arrived without accident at Piraeus; but when a short distance from the sh.o.r.e, a half-dozen invisible muskets sent their bullets singing about our ears.

It was the pretty Captain sending his adieux.

I scoured the mountains of Malta, of Sicily, and of Italy, and my herbarium was much richer than I. My father, who had had the good sense to keep his inn, wrote to me, at Messina, that my efforts were appreciated. Perhaps I might find a place on arriving; but I determined to count on nothing.

Harris was en route for j.a.pan. In one or two years I hoped to have news of him. The little Lobster had written me from Rome that he was still exercising with the pistol. Giacomo continued to seal letters all day and crack nuts at night. M. Merinay found a new interpretation from the inscription on the monument, one more clever than mine. His great work upon Demosthenes ought to be printed some day or other. The King of the Mountains made peace with the authorities. He built a fine mansion on the road to Pentelicus, with a guard-house for lodging twenty-five devoted Palikars. In the meantime, he has rented a small hotel in the modern city, at the edge of the open sewer. He receives many people, and actively engages in public affairs, in order to be elected to the Ministry. Dimitri goes there occasionally, to supper, but sighs in the kitchen.

I have never heard of Mrs. Simons, of Mr. Sharper, nor of Mary-Ann. If this silence continues, I shall soon think of them no more. Sometimes, even in the middle of the night, I dream that I am before her and that my tall, thin figure is reflected in her eyes. Then I awake, I weep hot tears and I furiously bite my pillow. What I regret, believe me, is not the woman, it is the fortune and the position which escaped me. It is a good thing for me that I have not yielded up my heart, and each day I give thanks for my natural coldness. What I might complain of, my dear Monsieur, is, if unfortunately, I had fallen in love!

IX.