The Breaking of the Storm Volume I Part 28

"Prudence is the mother of wisdom--and the grandmother of poverty."

"Then I am her legitimate grandson."

Philip suddenly drew his arm out of Reinhold's, who thought he had annoyed him by his last remark; but it was only to stand erect and take off his hat to the Princess, who, with her suite, was pa.s.sing by.

Reinhold, who was pushed aside by people getting in front of him, could see the whole party perfectly without being seen himself--the Princess chatting sometimes with Elsa, who was walking on her left side, and sometimes with Count Golm, who was a little behind her on the right; then various ladies and gentlemen, and amongst the latter Ottomar, talking busily to a lady. The subject of their talk seemed to be amusing, as she laughed incessantly behind her eye-gla.s.ses, which never left her eyes.

A curious sensation came over Reinhold. His former flight had something absurd about it from the haste with which it had to be made, and he had himself laughed heartily about it afterwards. Now he could not laugh.

In the midst of this respectful, bowing crowd, as it made room for the Princess, he felt the difference of the social position between himself and the young lady who moved at her side to be quite another thing to what he had thought before. He belonged to the crowd, not, as she did, to that select circle--she and Count Golm! Had he made the journey back with them? Did he follow her? What did it matter?--a Count Golm had but to come!

He turned with a secret sigh, and close behind him saw Ferdinanda. She did not see him; her eyes, like every one else's, were turned on the Princess's party, with a fixedness which curiosity alone could not explain. Was it displeasure at being so long alone that he saw in the beautiful gloomy face?

"Ferdinanda!"

She started as if awaking from a dream. A deep glow spread over her cheeks. Reinhold excused himself as well as he could. Philip joined them.

"Did you see her? Beautiful woman! I am quite in love with her. The little Werben girl seems marvellously intimate with her. The man on the other side, I hear, was Count Golm, grand seigneur, but over head and ears in debt. Now is the time to save himself if he is clever. I hope soon we shall do some business together in grand style; don't know him personally--know his signature very well. And did you see young Werben, Ferdinanda, with Fraulein von Wallbach? It must be all right there--not a bad match; she is worth about a hundred thousand; and her brother, who manages her property, was there too--there, Reinhold--with rather a bald head, he is not half a bad fellow; and young Werben himself--well, just now he is rather shaky, but no doubt he will pick up again."

"Shall we go?" said Ferdinanda.

She stepped forward without waiting for any answer, and rather to Reinhold's horror, right in front of the Princess and her party. The Princess had, however, again stopped to accost some other important people who had just arrived. Her attendants had stepped back a little, and were conversing together in low tones, and so it was to be hoped that they might slip through unperceived, but just as he was crossing he caught Elsa's eye, and she nodded to him so cordially, and indeed heartily, that Count Golm, whose attention was attracted, half turned, and certainly recognised him, although his light eyes instead of greeting him, slightly fell, and immediately looked in another direction; but Reinhold had not observed that Ottomar, who had also turned, bowed to Ferdinanda, whose dress touched him, with polite indifference, and immediately continued his interrupted conversation with Fraulein von Wallbach with increased earnestness, while Ferdinanda returned his bow with a blank, fixed look.

But the scene had not escaped some one else's eyes, the dark, gleaming, fiery eyes of the handsome young man, who had already observed from afar the rendezvous in the gallery. He had been standing now in the very centre of the dark wall of the room leaning against one of the columns, and suddenly came forward and stood before the two as they were going.

"Thank heaven I have found you at last, signora," said he in his soft voice, which seemed to tremble a little from breathless haste. "I have looked for you everywhere, to tell you that Signor Anders has not been able to wait downstairs any longer. He was obliged to keep an appointment which was settled for two o'clock."

"So much the better," answered Ferdinanda; "I was just starting to go home."

"It is a pity!" said Philip. "I wanted to hear your opinion of a wonderful young Bacchus by Muller; Herr Anders has not yet sold his 'Satyr;' I am doubting between the two, perhaps I shall buy both, and your 'Shepherd Boy' too, Ferdinanda, if you will only put a decent price on it."

"Are you coming with us, Antonio?" asked Ferdinanda impatiently.

"I think I will stay a little longer," answered the Italian, hesitating.

"Very well. Come. Addio, Signer Antonio!"

"Addio, signora!"

The Italian remained in the door between the second room and the clock-room, his black eyes following the receding figures till they disappeared through the entrance; then they turned back upon the second room, and remained fixed upon Ottomar with a look of deadly hate.

"Now I know from whom the letters are which she so often reads! You shall pay for it, per Bacco!" he murmured between his white teeth.

CHAPTER XIV.

That same evening in the elegant salon of the Royal Hotel, Unter den Linden, sat Count Golm and Councillor Schieler at a table covered with maps and plans. The two gentlemen had conversed long and eagerly over a bottle of wine; the bright colour in the Count's cheeks was deeper, and a certain look of displeasure appeared in his face as he now leaned back in his rocking-chair, and began silently to rock himself backwards and forwards; the Councillor still continued to turn over the plans for a little while, sipped his wine, and then also leaned back, and said:

"I find you, take it all in all, Count Golm, less inclined to concur in our project than our correspondence had led me to believe."

"But is it our project?" cried the Count, rousing himself. "What does it signify to me if you want a harbour in the north instead of in the east? The railway will cut one of my properties in half, and come in contact with another. Voila tout! I don't see why I should excite myself about that."

"We only want the northern harbour because we cannot get the eastern one," answered the Councillor coolly. "A harbour to the north might be conceded by the Government. As to one to the east--well, Count Golm, I think that after such very interesting explanations as you heard at your own table from the lips of the General and the President, we must give up any hope of it. Get the concession for the harbour to the east for us, and the Sundin-Wissow Railway Company will be formed to-morrow."

"How can I do so if you cannot, who are at the very fountain-head?"

The Councillor shrugged his shoulders.

"You know, Count Golm, that I no longer hold any office, and have only now and then to give an opinion; that I have not failed to do so on this side you will believe without my trying to convince you."

"And you have not been able to get the concession?"

"It is not so easily to be had, and especially now when he is busy getting that bill through. People do not dare go to him with many questions which would seem to touch upon the great principle of self-government, which is the order of the day. However--I say it in the strictest confidence--as soon as this bill, which you know goes very much against the grain with him, has been brought through the House of Lords by means of a new creation of peers, and at the same time as I and all patriots feel the grave of Prussia has been dug, he will retire in displeasure from his uncomfortably prominent position in the ministry, and we shall have a better chance next year."

"But I do not want to wait so long," said the Count. He had sprung up and paced up and down the room with hasty steps; now he returned to the table where the Councillor, certain that the interview would not be terminated thus, remained quietly sitting. "And supposing that I wished to wait so long--the very important question arises of whether I could.

This is a confidential interview. Councillor Schieler. Well, I am in a bad way. The interest on my debts almost swallows up my income, and by the first of October there will be an additional sum of fifty thousand thalers."

"Have you spoken to Hugo Lubbener? I should have thought such a rich man, and your banker for so many years----"

"He has only been so for three years, since you recommended him to me so strongly, and besides now my account is very low; my banker's book has not been made up since last July. I cannot ask any more from Lubbener; I have not even once been to see him."

"Humph!" said the Councillor, with the air of a man who, thinking he knows something, now sees it in a new light. "I thought your affairs were--apart from temporary embarra.s.sments--quite in order. What you now tell me, with I hope some of the exaggeration of despondency, surprises me very much indeed--very much."

"I do not exaggerate," replied the Count; "indeed I have said rather too little than too much."

"But then still less do I understand why our project does not suit you.

The value of both your properties would be doubled, and a directors.h.i.+p is also certain. That is always something."

"It is nothing--nothing at all!" cried the Count vehemently. "A straw to a drowning man. What should I do with the paltry hundreds, which I can win in one evening at _ecarte_? No! if once I go in for speculating it shall not be for nothing; if I make a haul it shall be a good one which shall compensate for the p.r.i.c.k of conscience at going in direct opposition to all the traditions of my family and doing what Prince Prora would never condescend to, and which will make me secure in the future."

The Councillor scratched his long nose with a pencil to hide a smile, and suppressed the answer which was on the tip of his tongue.

"How can a gambler be safe in the future?" He said instead: "You should marry, Count Golm!"

"The three negro heads in my coat-of-arms would seem to indicate a dowry of a round million. Tell me of some fascinating young Jewess!"

"I could name several, but I had no lovely daughter of Israel in my mind; on the contrary, the daughter of a house which, even if the blood of the Wends flows in their veins, is nearly as old as yours: Fraulein Elsa von Werben."

"Are you joking?"

"I never was more in earnest; I have been turning the matter over in my mind for the last three days, that is to say since the luckiest of all accidents brought about a personal interview between you and the Werbens under circ.u.mstances which render further social intercourse a mere matter of duty on both sides. Think now, Count Golm; the chief opponent of the eastern line of railway is the General--upon strategical grounds perhaps, but I know the man well enough, certainly for personal motives also. The harbour can only be upon Warnow ground, so that the Warnow property must be bought by our company; but it cannot be bought, at least not at present, without his consent as co-trustee of the Warnow estates. Very well; marry the daughter, who must some day inherit half the property, and we shall soon see whether he will withhold from the son-in-law what he refuses to the Director of the Sundin-Wissow Railway and Harbour Company. It is not written in vain: 'Lead us not into temptation.'"

"I think I have learnt to know the General also," cried the Count, "and I bet a hundred to one he will resist the temptation."

"I never bet," answered the Councillor; "I always calculate, and I find that the calculation that drops will wear away a stone, though uncertain, is on the whole correct. But listen! Herr von Wallbach, as my colleague in the management of the Berlin-Sundin Railway, is as deeply concerned as I am that the Sundin-Wissow Railway, which would set us afloat again (you see, Count Golm, I am candour itself), should be carried out. But Herr von Wallbach, since the death of his father the minister, has taken his place as one of the trustees of the Warnow estate; and Ottomar von Werben, who is co-heir, is engaged--or as good as engaged--to Wallbach's clever sister. Wallbach is too good a man of business not to know that if half the property is sold, and sold to us, it will be worth double--double, did I say? it will be worth three or four times what the whole thing is now; but he is afraid--from some remnants of aristocratic prejudices (excuse the word) to push the General too hard. Make common cause with him! I mean marry the daughter, as his sister marries the son, and--why, I very nearly made a bet then!"

The Count, who, while the Councillor had been speaking, walked up and down softly over the carpet, and often stopped so as not to lose a word, now turned round sharply.