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Dash for a Throne

<h2>CHAPTER XXX</h2> <h3>THE END</h3> When I reached Minna's house, I had an experience that at first amused me. I could not, of course, any longer treat the house as my own, nor look on myself as having any right to enter, and I found the servants very reluctant to admit me at all, and it was only after some difficulty that I succeeded in getting shown into a room close to the door, while they said they would carry my message. I waited in some little fever of impatience, and when the delay had grown into minutes I began to wonder that Minna should take so coolly the fact of my return and the news she must know I should carry. I saw the explanation, however, when the door was opened and the Baroness Gratz sailed in, pompous and very angry. "What can be your business here now?" she asked, staring at me through her eyeglass. "I have come to see Minna," I replied, with an inclination to smile at her conduct. "I am astounded that you should have the assurance to come here after your egregious imposture. Of course you do not expect to see her?" "Indeed I do," said I quickly, "and as soon as possible." "And pray in what character now?" This with a contemptuous and insulting curl of the lip. I paused to give my reply the greater emphasis. "In a double character—a messenger from his Majesty the Emperor, and as her affianced husband." "You are not her affianced husband, and I will not suffer that tale to be told in my presence. As for the rest, it is more like a play-actor's story. You imposed upon us too long. You will not do it again." She said this very angrily indeed, and added, almost spitefully: "The countess does not wish to see you." "In this case I am afraid she cannot choose," I answered. "The Emperor's business cannot wait upon any prejudices for or against his messengers." There was a little stretch of authority insinuated in this. "Moreover, I am bound to say that I prefer to have her decision straight from herself." "You suggest that I lie, I suppose," she cried, her eyes flashing. "You are too brave a man not to seize a chance of insulting a defenceless woman. That is your stage chivalry. But you will find I am not so defenceless as you suppose." She rang the bell sharply twice, and then, somewhat to my surprise, and a good deal to my pleasure, the Baron Heckscher was shown in. "I am told you wish to see me, baroness," he said, ignoring my presence. "I wish you to tell this person what we have decided as to his prosecution." I swung round on him instantly. "I am glad there is a man to deal with. How dare you presume to meddle in my affairs, Baron Heckscher?" "Really—but how shall I call you? Not the Prince any longer, I presume? Then what?" and he regarded me with an insolent smile. "His Majesty the Emperor, within the last few minutes, has been good enough to call me by my own name—the Count von Rudloff. That may be a precedent good enough for even you to follow." He stared at me in blank astonishment. The fact that I had been closeted with the Emperor might mean everything to him, and at the thought all other considerations were dwarfed. I enjoyed his discomfiture. All his insolence disappeared. "You do not believe what he says, surely?" cried the vindictive old lady when he made no immediate answer, for he stood in great perplexity what course to take toward me. "You will see you cannot remain here in the face of the baroness's attitude," he said to me at length, with an air that was half truculent and half deprecatory. I laughed. "I see you are vastly disconcerted to hear that I have had an audience with his Majesty, and have left him under circumstances that augur ill for you; and well you may be," I added meaningly. "You dare to meddle in my matters at a time when you will need all your wits to save your own from shipwreck. But I have had enough of you, and of this folly. I now demand in the name of the Emperor to see the Countess Minna von Gramberg, and if you attempt to stop me," I said sternly to the Baroness Gratz, "the consequences may be far more grave than you think." Her anger and dislike of me gave her plenty of courage, however, and she still set me at defiance, abusing me for an impostor and a cheat; and when I declared that if they did not take my message to Minna I would myself go straight to her rooms, she planted herself in front of the door and dared me to attempt to leave it for that purpose, and vowed she would call the servants if I would not go away. The situation began to verge upon the ridiculous, despite the fact that it was in a measure embarrassing. I could not for the moment see what to do, and was debating this in my thoughts when a sudden turn was given to matters by the entrance of Minna herself, the door being opened from without. "Ah, Minna!" I cried, hastening to her. The Baroness Gratz stepped in between us, however, and lifted her hand as if to keep me away. "The countess is here in my charge," she cried to me; "and while that is so I forbid you to go near her." But love laughs at prohibitions. A moment later we were hand-locked, and she had read in my glad face that my news was good. Then she turned angrily upon the baroness, her face flushed and her eyes shining: "You have no right to interfere with me," she said, her words shortly and sharply spoken. "I have just heard, to my intense indignation, that you have even ventured to tell my servants who shall and who shall not enter my house. Is this true?" "So far as it relates to this person, of course it is true. You are in my charge, and it is my duty——" "You have mistaken your duty and overstepped your privileges. You have no right to give such orders, and to do it in my name. You must have known as well as I that the last man in the world against whom my door would ever be shut would be—my affianced husband;" and she raised her head, and stood very erect, looking rarely beautiful in her pride and happiness. "I did it to save you from the wiles of an adventurer who——" "Silence, aunt Gratz, and shame to you for those words," cried Minna hotly. "It was this 'adventurer,' as you dare to say, who saved me from the hands of the villain whose schemes you helped, and from the cowardly double plot of the Baron Heckscher there. As for you, sir, if you knew the character of your puppet and tool von Nauheim, as I firmly believe you did," she cried to Baron Heckscher, "there are no words bad enough to paint the infamous vileness of your treachery. While pretending to conspire in my interest, and while professing loyalty to me and mine, you plotted to ruin and dishonor me; and when I find you here to-day I can only believe you have some further abominable motive or plot against me, and that you are here to suborn some of those about me for your purposes. Be good enough to leave the house." "I have come to protest to you——" he began in reply. "I decline to listen to you, sir," she interrupted, with quiet dignity. He stood a moment, scowling viciously, and then, with an ugly glance at me, said: "Your nameless friend there——" "I have already told you," I broke in angrily, "that I am the Count von Rudloff, and that the Emperor himself has addressed me in my name." "I have known for some time all the facts as to this," added Minna, a swift flash from her eyes telling me her delight at the news, "and of the load of infinite obligation I owe to the Count von Rudloff; not the least part of it is for the defeat and exposure of your schemes against me. Be good enough to spare me the necessity of bidding my servants expel you from the house." "You had better go, baron," I put in. "You will probably find at your house by this time a summons to the Emperor's presence, for he has heard from me the whole story of your acts." This statement completed his disquiet, and without another word he hurried away. "You will be troubled by him no more, Minna," I said. "I bring you the best of news. The Emperor has given a personal pledge to answer for your safety and to uphold your interests." "The Emperor!" she cried in a tone of surprise. "More than that: I have told him all, and he has acknowledged my title," and I showed her the Imperial letter. Her face shone with pride and delight. "I can forgive every one now, for it has all ended so splendidly for you," she said. "For us," I corrected; and she acknowledged the correction with a blush and a smile of love which exasperated the Baroness Gratz, who had been listening to us in indignant silence. "Then I suppose you have no more use for me?" she declared, with an angry toss of the head, as she turned to leave us. "I am afraid you yourself have made it difficult for you to share in my happiness—in our happiness, I mean," said Minna gently. "I am so happy that I have no room for any thought on that score but regret that it should be so." "You were always an ungrateful girl, Minna," replied the old lady very ungraciously, bitter to the end against me. "And I have no wish to share with you, or deprive you of any part of, such happiness as you may expect to find in company with a man who is sometimes play-actor, sometimes Prince, and always an impostor," and with that parting taunt she flung away. "Poor aunt Gratz!" sighed Minna. Then she put her hands in mine, and, nestling close to me, asked with a winsome coquettishness: "Am I ungrateful, Karl?" My answer may be guessed, and it took long in telling. But we returned after a time to the ways of common sense, and then I told her what had passed during the audience with the Kaiser; that I was to travel for a year, and then return to Berlin to take up formally my old title and position. At first the news brought a cloud to her happy face. "A year is a long time, Karl," she murmured. "Shall you never be in either Munich or Gramberg all that time?" "I think not. I expect it means at least a year away from the Fatherland." She was silent and looked almost sad. "But a year will soon pass," I whispered. A gesture of pretty reproach answered me. "If you would make a little sacrifice, it would help, I think." "Sacrifice!" she echoed, not catching my meaning. And when I did not reply she lifted her head from my shoulder and peered into my eyes, her own full of curiosity. "You used to pride yourself on reading my secrets," said I. She thought a minute; then a look of wonderment shone in her eyes, followed almost directly by a great, glad blush that spread all over her face, dyeing her cheeks with crimson and driving her to hide them against my shoulder. "I don't guess this one," she said. But I was sure she had. "Don't?" "Won't, then," she murmured into my coat lapel. "It could not be yet, of course," said I. "But in three months——" "You said sacrifice," she interrupted, and glanced up with a quick darting of the eyes. "It would have to be very quiet—very, very quiet." "It is no sacrifice to travel—in company." And there we left it; but we knew well enough each other's hopes and desires. <hr style="width: 45%;" /> To accomplish our purpose called for some little tact and effort, because the Emperor was for having Minna taken to Berlin when the Munich troubles had been arranged. His prompt and drastic measures soon settled these, indeed. An official announcement was made that the King had been suffering from an indisposition, but had happily recovered completely; and a couple of days later saw him back at the palace—but with a change in the executive which was calculated to work vastly beneficial results for the country. The Heckscher party was broken up, their influence destroyed, and their leaders dealt with secretly, but in some cases none the less severely. The question of the succession to the throne was settled upon a sound basis—one of the points being the renunciation by Minna of all the Gramberg claims. And it was in settling this that the matter of her marriage was mooted and the Imperial consent gained to her becoming my wife. We succeeded, too, in getting the necessary interval fixed at three months. The time passed very pleasantly. It was the sweet preface to a life-long romance. As the outcome of the dash we had made for the throne I had one or two arrangements to complete, and in some respects the most difficult of these was in regard to the Corsican Praga. I could not retain him in my service, because of his association with the death of Minna's brother; while I hoped, too, that the time would never recur when I might have need of his clever, sharp, ready sword. I told him the case plainly, and he was too careless to make demur. He was going to marry and settle in Berlin, he assured me—his bride was to be the actress, Clara Weylin, who had made her peace with him in the score of her act of treachery—and he meant to be the greatest fencing master in Berlin, he declared. I gave him as a wedding present a considerable sum of money, and we parted with many assurances, characteristic and voluble, on his part that he would ever be devoted to me and my interests. Steinitz I kept with me as secretary, and von Krugen was to remain as guardian of our interests at Gramberg. There was one commission we gave to the two just before our marriage—to go to Charmes and endeavor to bring the real von Fromberg to Munich to be present at the marriage. Minna and I were together when they started, and she was looking more radiant and beautiful than ever in the anticipative joy of the marriage. I gave them full instructions, and then, with a smile, I turned to von Krugen. "Be more careful this time," I said, "and be sure you bring the right man." "I could not have brought a better man last time, count," he replied. And in the tone and earnestness spoke all the regard and esteem of a stanch and sincere friend. "What do you say to that, Minna?" I asked as they drove off. "A happier mistake was never made, but I don't want him to do it again. The only throne I care for is won now," and, reaching up on tiptoe, she put up her face to mine for a tribute of my loyalty, and I paid it willingly. <h3>THE END</h3> <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3>New Amsterdam Book Company</h3> <h3>Popular Books IN Paper Covers at a Popular Price</h3> During the Spring and Summer of 1899 the New Amsterdam Book Company will publish a New Edition of Clark Russell's greatest story, "The Copsford Mystery," Grant Allan's "Under Sealed Orders," and some other popular novels by well known authors, which have heretofore been obtainable only in an expensive cloth binding. The titles of these will be announced later. The paper and presswork will be up to the high standard maintained by the New Amsterdam Book Company, the covers attractive and unique, the price reasonable, and the selling qualities of the titles unquestioned. They will start the series with By Right of Sword BY ARTHUR W. 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