The Daltons; Or, Three Roads In Life. Volume II. Lever Charles James

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СКАЧАТЬ if this be all a dream, and shall I wake beside the fire and see dearest Nelly bending over some little group, and Hans with wondering eyes staring over her shoulders. “The Prince only intends to spend one winter in Russia. Madame de Heidendorf says that he will be named Ambassador at Paris; but I hope and trust not: I feel too acutely my inferiority for such a position. This she laughs at, and merely says, ‘Nous verrons.’ Of course, wherever I am, you will both be with me; meanwhile, what would you wish to do? I told Monsieur Rubion, the Prince’s secretary, that I wanted money, and he gave me these bills, so he called them, on Baden and Carlsruhe, as easily negotiable in that neighborhood; pray, say if they be serviceable. The Prince intends to visit you at Baden; and I suppose you will like to see him. His manners are perfect, and except a degree of constraint in first acquaintance, he is generally thought very agreeable. Such preparations as they are making for my journey, you ‘d fancy I was a queen at the very least All my trousseau is to come from Paris direct; and up to this I have merely what Madame de H. calls the strictly ‘indispensable;’ which, shall I own? contrives to fill two large fourgons and a heavy travelling-carriage. Nina is in a perfect ecstasy at everything, and is eternally ‘draping’ me in Brussels lace and Chantilly; so that, even while I write, these flimsy tissues are floating around me; while caskets of jewels and precious gems dazzle my eyes wherever I turn them.

      “The whole is like a gorgeous vision; would that it might remain ever thus, for I almost tremble to take a step further. Are these unworthy fears? I hope they are.”

      Nelly paused, and laid down the letter on her knee. “Well, may I never see grace, if that letter isn’t enough to confuse a bench of bishops!” cried Dalton. “She’s marrying the first man in Europe, – be the other who he will, – and she has as many crotchets and misgivings about it as if it was little Hans, there, below! And he a Prince! a real Prince! – devil a doubt of it – that scatters the money about like chaff! Here’s an order at sight for nine hundred gulden; and here’s a bill at ten days – a nice date – for fourteen hundred and eighty-six Prussian dollars; and this is nearly as much more. Kate, my beauty, I knew you ‘d do it! I never looked at you in your old clogs and the worsted cloak that I did n’t think of the day I ‘d see you in satin and velvet! Faix, it’s the best bottle of claret in the Adler I ‘ll drink your health in this day! Nelly, who will we ask in to dinner?”

      “Don’t you think, papa, it were better we should not speak of this – ”

      “Why, better? Are we ashamed of it?”

      “I mean, more prudent as regards ourselves, and more respectful to the Prince.”

      “Respectful – to my son-in-law! – that’s ‘more of it.’ Upon my conscience, I’ll have to go to school again in my old days. I know nothing of life at all, at all! Respect, indeed!”

      “I would but suggest, papa, that for Kate’s sake – ”

      “There – there – don’t provoke me. I never set my heart on a thing yet – big or little – that I was n’t met with a caution about this, or a warning about that, till at last I got so tutored and corrected and trained that, as Billy Morris used to say at whist, ‘I dread a good hand more than a bad one.’”

      “Far be it from me, dearest father,” said Nelly, smiling, “to throw a shadow over a bright moment. If it will give you pleasure – ”

      “Sure I said it would, – sure I told you ‘t is what I ‘d like. A fine dinner at the ‘Schwan;’ four gulden a head, without wine; a dozen of champagne in ice, hock for them that can drink it, and port and Lafitte for Peter Dalton and men of his own sentiments. There’s the programme, Nelly, and you’ll see if I can’t fill up the details.”

      “Well, but we have yet much to do; here are several letters, – here is Frank’s. Let us learn how the dear fellow fares.”

      Dalton sat down without speaking; there was, indeed, more of resignation than curiosity in his features, as he crossed his arms and listened.

      “Dearest Nelly, – I only heard a few days ago that my last two letters had been stopped; they were not, as they should have been, submitted to my captain to read, and hence they were arrested and suppressed. This goes by a private hand – a friend of mine – a pedler from Donaueschingen – ”

      “A what? – a pedler is it?” broke in Dalton, angrily.

      “Yes, papa; remember that poor Frank is still in the ranks.”

      “Well, God give me patience with you all!” burst out the old man, in a torrent of passion. “Does he know that he’s a Dalton? – does he feel blood in his veins? Why the blazes must he seek out a thieving blaguard with a pack full of damaged cambric to make a friend of? Is this the way the family’s getting up in the world?”

      “Adolf Brawer, by name,” read on Nelly, in a low and subdued voice. “You will be surprised when I tell you that I owe all his kindness and good-nature to you, – yes, to your own dear self. On his way through the Tyrol he had bought two wooden statuettes, – one a young soldier asleep beside a well; the other a girl leaning from a window to hear the bugles of a departing regiment Can you guess whose they were? And when he came to know that I was the brother of the little N. D. that was sculptured, half hid in a corner, and that I was the original of the tired, wayworn recruit on the roadside, I thought he would have cried with enthusiasm.”

      “Didn’t I often say it?” broke in Dalton, as, wringing his hands in despair, he paced the room with hasty strides. “Did n’t I warn you a thousand times about them blasted images, and tell you that, sooner or later, it would get about who made them? Didn’t I caution you about the disgrace you ‘d bring on us? The fear of this was over me this many a day. I had it like a dream on my mind, and I used to say to myself, ‘It will all come out yet.’” #

      Nelly covered her face with her apron as these bitter words were spoken; but not a syllable, nor a sigh, did she reply to them; still, the frail garment shook with an emotion that showed how intensely she suffered.

      “A Virgin sold here, an Angel Gabriel there; now it was Hamlet; another time Gotz with the iron hand. All the balderdash that ever came into your head scattered over the world to bring shame on us! And then to think of Kate!”

      “Yes, dearest father, do think of her,” cried Nelly, passionately. “She is, indeed, an honor and a credit to you.”

      “And so might you have been, too, Nelly,” rejoined he, half sorry for his burst of anger. “I ‘m sure I never made any difference between you. I treated you all alike, God knows.” And truly, if an indiscriminating selfishness could plead for him, the apology was admirable.

      “Yes, papa, but Nature was less generous,” said Nelly, smiling through her tears; and she again turned to the letter before her. As if fearful to revive the unhappy discussion, she passed rapidly over Frank’s account of his friend’s ecstasy; nor did she read aloud till she came to the boy’s narrative of his own fortunes.

      “You ask me about Count Stephen, and the answer is a short one. I have seen him only once. Our battalion, which was stationed at Laybach, only arrived in Vienna about three weeks ago, but feeling it a duty to wait on our relative, I obtained leave one evening to go and pay my respects. Adolf, who knew of my connection with the Field-Marshal, had lent me two hundred florins; and this, too, I was anxious to pay off, – another reason for this visit. “Well, I dressed myself in my best cadet cloth, and silk sword-knot, Nelly, – none of your ‘commissaire’ toggery, but all fine and smart-looking, as a gentleman-cadet ought to be, – and then calling a fiacre, I ordered the man to drive to the ‘Koertnor Thor,’ to the Field-Marshal von Auersberg*s quarters. СКАЧАТЬ