Читать книгу The Jingo - George Randolph Chester - Страница 9

Table of Contents

"I've come to take you home with me," announced Onalyon cheerily, as the princess led him into the red reception-room dating from Xantobah, where ferns, cunningly wrought in green metal, formed frieze and dado and panels, and supported every candle bracket, and embellished, in greater or lesser degree, every essential article of use or adornment.

"Is that the reason for all the red?" she laughed, sitting opposite to him and clasping her hands adorably about her knee.

"That's one of the reasons, and the greatest one," he assured her. "The other one is that I have determined to restore some of the gaiety which once made life worth living in Isola."

"That's glorious news," she told him, sincerely delighted. "Life has been so dull as to be almost unbearable of late, and in the last two or three days I have been nearly mad for something to interest me." It had been two days since she had presented Jimmy Smith with his pale blue trunks.

"You have an interesting guest," he suggested, awaiting her reply with well-concealed anxiety.

"He is a very valuable addition to Isola, I believe," she answered with a coldness that was most reassuring to the prince. "He and my brother expect to be absorbed so in business affairs that the rest of us are scarcely likely to see them for weeks to come."

"That in itself is interesting," admitted Onalyon with a smile. "Do you know what sort of business they have on hand?"

"Nearly everything, I think," she laughed. "They expect to use half the men in Isola in manufacturing glass, and steel, and soap, and sewing-machines, and telephones, and electricity, and, oh, everything!"

"Those are all American words," puzzled the prince.

"You bet they are," she told him in admiring American, whereupon she immediately apologized. "I am compelled to use American names for these things," she explained, "because we have no words in Isolian which would tell you what they are. They are all very wonderful, and my brother says that their introduction will bring such activity and luxury and prosperity to Isola as it has never known. Jimmy is a marvelous man!"

The prince did not like the manner in which her eyes sparkled when she said this.

"You seem to admire him tremendously," he jealously charged.

She had it on the tip of her tongue to suggest rather bitterly the difference between a man's attainments and his personality, for she had by no means forgiven Jimmy's rude failure to wear the pale blue, national costume, adorned with ribbons and embroidered with butterflies; nor his shutting himself up for two days; nor his making and wearing crude clothing of his own manufacture; nor, last and worst of all, his absurd appearance when he had it on. She reflected, however, that, while she thought these things, she did not care to say them to the prince, nor, in fact, to any enemy or friend of Jimmy's; moreover, there was no need to put the prince too much in conceit with himself.

"No one can help admiring Jimmy," she primly observed.

"I quite agree with you," lied the prince feebly, and hastened to change the uncomfortable subject. "I must look into these strange articles he is going to manufacture. Nothing would please me better than to have him bring activity and prosperity to Isola. It fits in exactly with my own plans. While the older and more sedate men are engaged in commercial enterprise, it should be the duty of the younger set to make their endeavors worth while, by restoring social life and activity."

"I'm for that!" impulsively announced Bezzanna, and then, remembering, translated the remark. "It sounds good to sister Betsy Ann."

The prince frowned at the foreign phrase, but thought best to ignore it.

"I'm glad you approve of it," he returned. "In the three weeks since I went home, I have been preparing to start the social revival, and to-morrow night will be the beginning. Every person in Isola who is entitled to attend such a function will be at the opening ball, which will start a two weeks' session of gaieties at my palace, and, following that, Birrquay will have the pleasure of entertaining."

"Why are we the last to hear about it?" she demanded, offended at the seeming slight.

"Because it was a surprise for you," glowed the prince, drawing closer. "You are the only motive I have, Bezzanna."

She paled a trifle, with the frightened uneasiness brought by her intuitive knowledge of what more he was about to say.

"I want to marry you. You have been told, since you were a child, of the political need of this marriage, until you are offended with the bare mention of it; and you are not to be blamed, for that is putting marriage on as sordid a basis as in one of our mountain mining villages. We, both you and I, know that there has been grave danger for two hundred years, that your family and mine, of equal royal descent, might engage in a war for the throne, which, if it were waged fiercely enough, might well-nigh sweep Isola out of existence; and we are both willing to admit, I believe, that our marriage would be the most commendable, the most wise, the most humane, and the most sensible thing which could occur."

"I realize that," she admitted, with a readiness and frankness which both surprised and pleased him.

"We are fortunate even to have such an opportunity," the prince went on, greatly encouraged. "Frankly, your brother's failure, through the death of the queen, to present heirs to Isola, has simplified the situation very much, since heirs for him would have meant war."

"The descendants of Xantobah have been threatening war for a hundred years," she coolly reminded him.

"Those threats are to cease in my generation," the prince replied with so little bombast that she viewed him with renewed interest. Perhaps he really meant it. "We do not need to discuss war, however. You are the next successor to your brother, and our marriage will place the line of Xantobah again on the throne, without bloodshed. You see that clearly, don't you?"

"Quite," she dryly acknowledged.

"Thank you," he gratefully returned. "Let us now set political considerations entirely aside, Bezzanna. I come to you to-day, not as a politician, but as a lover. The death of Aleesa and the king's refusal to take another wife have made the palace dull, and so have deadened the kingdom. He himself regrets this, and we can help him by infusing life and energy here. You know that your brother does not object to balls, and parties, and gaiety."

"Of course not," agreed Bezzanna, almost indignantly.

"And you like them," eagerly supplemented the prince. "That is why I have rejuvenated my palace from foundation to roof. I've brought out the sumptuous old trappings and liveries which were the personal property of my ancestor Xantobah. That is why I have prepared to entertain the nobles, with you and your brothers as our chief guests, an a scale of magnificence--I am not immodest to say it because it is so painfully true--unknown in Isola since many generations. That is why I coaxed your Aunt Gee-gee to visit us when I went over to my home on the south mountain three weeks ago. That is why everything, Bezzanna!" He took her warm hand. His own was hot and dry, and his dark eyes swept her with a sudden burning fury of desire. She shrank as she had always done, with an instinctive fear of some vague cruelty in him; and yet, something within him thrilled her, for the first time in their lives, and she was more afraid of him than ever. She could not understand him--nor herself. She did not know it, but in the last three weeks she had undergone a slight crystallization, and the time was hastening when she would be ripe for love; nor was it the prince who had wrought this great miracle!

"Bezzanna, I love you!" he went on. "Do you understand what that means? I love you so that my heart throbs when I look at you, or hear you, or think of you! I love you so that I never have a thought, by night or by day, which is not connected with you and your welfare; and I want to take you out of your uneventful life and give you the brightness which belongs to you. I want to surround you with life and light and color, with gaiety and laughter and happiness, all your days and mine! The start that I have made is but feeble to what I would do if you and I were to reign. Think of it, Bezzanna! We would fill this palace with servants and with guests, and with one gay gathering after another. We would make it a warm and bright and cheerful place, glowing with color and movement, instead of a succession of long dark corridors and tenantless rooms, and every moment should be one that would be filled to overflowing with delight!"

"It's a glorious picture you paint," she admitted with a sigh and with heightened color, as her active imagination carried her through all the brilliant scenes which he had suggested.

"Glorious?" he questioned. "It is dull and gray, Bezzanna, compared with the glory of you! It is only an attempt of what feeble art I have to set suitably the gem which nature has made of you!" He drew still nearer, clasping again the hand which still burned from his touch. "No scene of color and of life and of light can compare with the glow of your cheeks and the charm of your smile and the brilliance of your eyes!"

He was so close now that he put his hand upon the back of her chair, and his eyes seemed burning into hers. She felt oppressed, and yet she trembled with the dawning of a fancied knowledge that he had some acute physical influence upon her. She could not know that, aside from the ardor of his wooing and the actual material warmth which she became aware was emanating from him, this stirring was within herself, and had come into existence only since she had known Jimmy Smith.

"You frighten me," she faltered, and withdrew her hands.

"I did not mean to," he humbly assured her, drawing back. He was trembling, and held command of his voice with an effort. "I love you, Bezzanna! I can't seem to say that often enough, nor in striking enough ways to make you appreciate it. I do not wish to cause you any uneasiness, not even for a moment, but I want you!" His hands were half raised, as if, against his will and of their own great physical longing, they would clasp her in his arms, crush her to his breast, and hold and hold, and hold her there, despite her piteous struggles; but he forced them down. "Tell me," he halted; "tell me!" His tone was compelling and it impressed her. "Tell me that you love me!"

"I--I don't know," she hesitated. "You must let me alone, Onalyon! I want to think! No, don't talk to me any more just now."

He arose and went to the window, but he came back immediately.

"The king is coming!" he informed her, in a panic because he did not wish his agitation to be seen.

"Good!" she cried, with an abrupt transition into her usual self-possession which amazed him. She was amazed no less herself when she realized that the disquieting influence he had exerted upon her was so quickly gone.

"Jimmy and Tedoyah and myself are just starting for a trip to the mines," said the king, "but I ran in to bid you a welcome. I trust that we shall find you here when we return?"

"Indeed, no," Bezzanna gaily assured him. "We are all going over to Onalyon's to a tremendous session of gaiety, which is to begin to-morrow night, and I am to start immediately in the magnificent scream which the prince brought over to carry me away."

"I'm glad to hear it," responded the king, smiling at the use of her American word. "I have regretted that we have not been having enough gaiety for you. I'll be over to-morrow night, with pleasure, Onalyon. I can not promise to be with you much during the following two or three weeks, but you shall be officially my host during the entire time. Of course, your invitation includes our guest?"

"I submit that to you," answered Onalyon diplomatically. "I hesitated to decide in the matter since I understand that there is no nobility whatever in America."

"I should like to hear Jimmy's answer to that," mused the king with a laugh. "However, since you leave that matter to me, I will take care of it. I scarcely need to remind you that if he can be the guest of the king, he can be the guest of any one in Isola. Have a good time, dear," he urged his sister, and, walking over, he took her very, very tenderly in his arms and kissed her good-by. "Will you come out, Onalyon?"

"With pleasure," replied Onalyon wonderingly, and followed him on the terrace.

Outside, the king turned on him abruptly. He was taller than Onalyon, and, taking instinctive advantage of that fact, he came so close that he looked down into the eyes of the prince.

"I wish to thank you for the delicate compliment you have paid us," he observed, very quietly indeed. "Since you were to escort the Princess Bezzanna to your home, it was appropriate that you should carry banners so nearly approaching the insignia of the reigning family. If I were to criticize the graceful act at all, I would say that you were slightly in error in displaying them without the princess or myself or my brother actually in your coach, but I am sure that, having the matter once brought to your attention, you will be thoughtful enough to avoid that error in the future."

The prince tried hard not to blink as he comprehended the import of that masterfully clever speech; but he did not lose his head.

"I am glad that you are pleased," he replied, with every appearance of joy.

A neat little cart, with its queer solid wheels pierced by carved tracery, and drawn by two donkeys, came around one corner of the palace, and around the other corner came Tedoyah and Jimmy Smith. The latter gentleman shook hands with the prince, and looked longingly toward the door of the palace.

"All right!" yelled Teddy imperatively, springing into the cart.

The king, head erect, shoulders squared, blazing eyes softened by the dawning of lines of humor at the corners, and curling brown beard stuck out at an angle of forty-five degrees, already had his hand on the seat-arm of the cart. Jimmy Smith, with another longing look at the palace, turned and strode down the path.

The Princess Bezzanna, hidden in the darkness just beyond the window in the red room, giggled right out! She could not help it. His trousers bagged so funny in front, and pulled so queerly behind, and were in such a general condition of warp and sag and twist and pucker that a stone goat would have laughed; but Jimmy Smith, driving away with the echo of that bell-like giggle in his ears, had a heart that was as heavy and dull as a cold apple dumpling!