Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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$ The 4> Princess Virginia By C. N. and A. M. WILLIAMSON. Authon of "The Lightning Con ductor." "Rosemtry In Search of a. Fa.:her." Etc Copyright. 1307. Uy McCluro. Phil lips & Co. , MF -1 f CHAPTI?. FOURTHNJ RON HEART was dress ed in the long double ?, breasted gray overcoat and the soft gray hat in which all snapshot photographs (no others had ever been taken; showed the chan cellor of -RJbaetla. ?At sight of the emperor off came the famous hat, baring the bald dome of the fine old head, fringed with hair of curiously mingled black and white. "Good day. your majesty," he said, with no sign of surprise in his voice or face. The train rocked going around a curve, and it was with difficulty that the chancellor kept his footing. But he stood rigidly erect, supporting him self In the doorway until the emperor, with more politeness than enthusiasm, invited him to enter and be seated. "I'm glad you're well enough to trav el, chancellor." said Leopold. "We had none too encouraging an account of you from Captain von Breitstein." "I travel because you travel, your majesty," replied the old man. "It is kind of you to tolerate me here, and I appreciate it." Now they sat facing each other, and the young man. fighting down a sense of guilt, familiar to him in boyish days when about to be taken to task by the chancellor, gazed fixedly at the hard, clever face on which the after noon sun scored the detail of each wrinkle. "Indeed!" was the emperor's only answer. "Your majesty. I have served you and your father before you well, I hope?faithfully, I know. I think you trust me." "No man more. But this sounds a portentous preface. Is it possible you mm "Good day, your mcjesty," he said. imagine it necessary to 'lead up' to a subject if 1 can please myself by doing you a favor?" "If I have seemed to lead up to what I wlshrto say. your majesty, it is only for the sake of explanation. You are wondering, no doubt, how I knew you would travel today and in tbis train; also why I have ventured to follow. Your intention I learned by accident." The chancellor did not explain by what diplomacy that "accident" had been brought about "Wishing much to talk over with you a pressing mat ter that should not be delayed. 1 took this liberty and seized this opportu nity. "Some men would in my place pre tend that business "ot their own had brought them and that the train had been chosen by chance. But your maj esty unows me as a blunt man when I serve him not as diplomat but as friend. Tin not one to work in the dark with those who trust me. and I want your majesty to know the truth." (Which perhaps he did, but not the whole truth.) "Your raise my curiosity," said Leo pold. "Then have I your indulgence to speak frankly not entirely as a humble subject to his emperor, but as an old man to a young mau." "I'd have you speak as a friend," said Leopold. But a slight constraint hardened his voice as he prepared him ylf for something disagreeable. i'Tve had a letter from the crown f. ince of Hungnria. It has come to his ears that there is a certain reason for your majesty's delay in following up .the first overtures for an alliance with his family. Malicious tongues have whispered that your majesty's atten tions are otherwise engaged, and the young Adalbert has addressed me in a friendly way, begging that the rumor may be contradicted or confirmed." "I'm not sure that negotiations had gone far enough to give him the right to be inquisitive." returned Leopold, flushing. The chancellor spread out his old veined hands in a gesture of appeal. "I fear," he said, "that in my anxieiy for your majesty's welfare and tin1 good of Rhnctia I may have exceed ":', my instructions. My one excuse Is that I believed your mind to be defi nitely made irp. I still believe It to be so. I would listen to no one who should try to persuade me of the con trary, and 1 will write Adalbert"? "You must get ycirself^and me out of the scrape as best you can. since you admit you got us into it" broke in the emneror, with an uneasy laugh. "If Princess Virginia of Baumenberg Drippe is as charming as she is said to be, her dil?cuiiy will be in choosing a husband, not In getting one. Forouce, my dear chancellor, gossip has told the truth, aud I wouldn't pay the princess so :>oor a compliment as to ask for her hand when I've no heart left to give her in exchange for it There's son: i one j'^e"? "It is of that some one else I would .venture to speak, your majesty. Gos sip has named her. Mai" 12" 'TU save you tne trouble, for I'm not ashamed that the common fate has overtaken me?common because evsry man loves once before be dies, an 1 yet uncommon because nq man ever loved a woman so worthy. Chan cellor, there's no woman in the world like Miss Helen .Mowbray. the lady to whom I ov.e my life." "It's natural you should be grate ful, your majesty, but"? "It's natural I should be in love." "Natural that a young man Inex perienced in affairs of the heart should mistake warm gratitude for love, im possible that the mistake should be al lowed to continue." Leopold's eyes grew dark. "In such a connection." he said, "it would be better not to mention the word 'mis lake.' I'm glad^you are here, for now "ou can learn from me my Intentions toward that lady." "Intentions, did you say. your majes ty? I fear I grow hard of hearing." "At least you will hp-er grow slow of understanding. I diu speak of my intentions toward Miss Mowbray." f'Tou would give the lady some mag nificent estate, some splendid acknowl edgment"? ' "Whether splendid or not would be a matter of opinion^' laughed the em peror. "I shall* offer her a present of myself." The old Dan had been sitting with his chin sunk into his short neck, peer ing out from under his brows in a way he bad. but he lifted his head sudden ly,, with a look in his eyes like that of an animal wuo scents danger from an unexpected quarter. "Your majesty." he exclaimed, "you are your father's son, you are Rhae tian, and your standard of honor"? "I. hope to marry Miss Mowbray," Leopold cut him short The chancellor's jaw dropped, and he grew pale. "I had dreamed of nothing as bad as this." he blurted out, with no thought or wish to sugar the truth. "I feared a young man's rashness. I dreaded scandal. But. forgive me, your majesty. For you a morganatic mar riage would-be madness"? "A morganatic marriage I did think of at first, but on second thoughts I s.tw it would be ungrateful." "Ah, yes. to the country which ex pects so much of you." "No, to the woman who has the right to all or nothing. I will make her empress of Rhaetia." With a cry the chancellor sprang up. His eyes glared like the eyes of a bull who receives the death stroke. His working lips and the hollow sound in his throat alarmed the emperor. "No. your majesty, no!" he panted. "But I say yes." Leopold answered, "and let no man give me nay. I've thought It all out. I will make her a countess first Then she shall be made my empress." "Your majesty. It is not possible." "Take care, chancellor." "She has been deceiving you. She has neither the birth, the position nor the name she claims to have, and I can prove It" j "You are mad. Von Breitstein," the emperor flung at him. "That can be your only excuse for such words." "I am not mad. but I am old and wise, your majesty. Today you bave made me feel that I am very old. Punish me as you will for my frank ness. My work for you and yours Is nearly done. Cheerfully will I sub mit to my dismissal If only this last effort in your service may save the ship of state from wreck. I would not make an accusation which I could not prove. And I can prove that the two English ladies who have been staying at Schloss Lyndalberg are not the persons they pretend to be." "Who has been lying to you?" cried Leopold, who held between clinched hands the temper he vowed not to lose with this old man. "To me. no one. To your majesty, to society in Kronbnrg, two adventuress is have lied." The emperor caught his breath. "If you were a young man I would kill you for that." he said. "I know you would. As It is, my life is yours. But before, you take it for God's sake, for your father's sake, hear me out!" Leopold did not speak for a moment, but stared at the vanishing landscape, which he saw- through a red haze. "Very well," he said at last; "1 will hear you, because I fear nothing you can say." . "Wnen I heard of your majesty's ad miratiou for a certain lady," the chan cellor began quickly lest the emperor should change his mind. "I looked for her name and her mother's in Burke's Peerage. There I found Lady Mow bray, widow of a dead baron of that Ilk, mother pf a son still a child and of one daughter, a young woman with many uames aud twenty-eight years. "This surprised me, as the Miss Mowbray I had seen at the birthday ball looked no more than eighteen and. I was told, confessed to twenty. The Mowbrays, 1 learned by a little further research in Burke, were dis tantly connected by marriage with the family of Baumenburg-Drippe. This seemed an odd coincidence In the cir cumstances. But acting as duty bade me act I wired to two persons?Baron von Sark, your majesty's ambassador to Great Britain, and the crown prince of Hungaria, the brother of Princess Virginia." "What did you telegraph?" asked the emperor icily. "Nothing compromising to your maj esty, you may well believe. I inquired of Adalbert if he bad English rela tions, a Lady Mowbray and daughter, Helen, traveling in Rhaetia, and I beg ged that if so he would describe their appearance by telegram. To Von Sark I said that particulars by wire concern ing the widow of Lord Mowbray and daughter, Helen, would put me under personal obligation. Both these mes sages 1 sent off night before last. Yes terday I received Adalbert's answer, this morning Von SarU's. They are here." And the chancellor tapped the breast of his gray coat "Will your majesty read them?" "If yon wish," replied Leopold at his haughtiest aud coldest The old man unbuttoned his coat and produced a coroneted pocketbook. a souvenir of friendship on his last birth day from the emperor. Leopold saw it and remembered, as the chancellor hoped he would. "Here are the telegrams, your maj esty," te said. "The first one is from the crown prince of if ugaria." "Have no idea where Lady Mowbray aud daughter are traveling; may be Rlinaria nr uorlh pole," Adalbert had "She has won." said Leopold, then quickly: "(Jod forgive me for chiming in with your hitter humor, as if she'd played a game. By simply being her self she has won me. such as I am. ?She's proved that if she cares at all it's for the man aud not the emperor, since she called the offer you think so magnificent an Insnlt Yes., chancel lor, that was the word she used, and it was almost the last she said to me. which is the reason ['m traveling to day. And none of your boasted 'proofs' can hold me back." "By heaven, your majesty must look upon yourself from the point of view you credit to the girl.' You forget the written, with cnaracrensuc flippancy. "JJaye seen neither for eight years and scarcely know them. But Lady M. tall., brown old party, with nose like hobbyhorse; Helen dark, nose like mother's, wears glasses." With no betrayal of feeling. Leopold laid the telegram on the red plu;:b seat aud unfolded the other. "Pardon delay," the Rhaetlan am bassador's ' message began. "Have been making inquiries. Lady Mow bray has been widow for ten years. Not rich. During son's minority has let her town and country houses. Lives much abroad. Very high church, intellectual, at present in Calcutta, where daughter Helen, twenty-eight, emperor in the man." not pretty, is lately engaged to marry "The two need not be separated." middle aged judge of some distinction." j "Love indeed makes men blind and "So"?and the emperor threw aside spares not the eyes of emperors." the second bit of paper?"it is on such I "I've pledged myself to bear with slight grounds as these that a man of you, chancellor." ' the world can label two ladies 'ad- j "And I know you'll keep your word, venturesses.'" I must :<peak for Rhaetia and your The chancellor was bitterly disap- better self. You are following this? pointed. He had counted on the ira- !adJ t0 g've her your empire for a pression which these telegrams must toy." make, and unless Leopold were act- "She must first accept the emperor ing it was now certain that love had as her husbaud." driven him out of his senses. | "A lady who has so poor a name of But if the emperor were mad he her own that she steals one which must be treated accordingly, and the doesn't belong to her?the nation won't old statesman condescended to "bluff." bear it" "There is still more to tell." he said, "You speak for yourself, not for "if your majesty has not heard enough, Rhaetia," said Leopold. "Though I'm but I think when you have reflected not so old as you by half your years, you will not wish for more. It is clear I believe I can judge my people better that the women calling themselves than you do. The law which bids an Mowbrays have had the audacity to emperor of Rhaetia match with royal present themselves here under false ty is an unwritten law. a law solely of colors. They have either deceived customs handed down through the gen Lady Lambert, who introduced them erations. I'll not spoil my life by sub to Rhaetian society, or. still more like- mitting to its yoke, since by breaking ly, they have cleverly forged their let-' it the nation gains, as I do. I could ters of introduction." "Why didn't you telegraph to Lady Lambert while your hand was in?" sneered Leopold. "I did. your majesty, or, rather, not knowing her present address, I wired a friend of mine, an acquaintance of hers, begging him to make inquiries without using my name, but I have not yet received an answer to that tele gram." "Until you do I should think that even a cynic like yourself might give two defenseless, inoffensive ladies the benefit of the doubt." "Inoffensive," echoed Von Breit go to the world's end and not Cud a woman as worthy to be my wife and empress of Rhaetia as Helen Mow bray." "Yon have never seen Trine-ess Vir ginia." " ? "I've no wish to see her. There's but one woman for me, and I swear to you if I lose her I'll go to my grave un married. Let' the crown fall to my uncle's son. I'll not perjure myself even for Rhaetia." The chancellor bowed his head and held up his hands, for by that gesture alone could he express his despair. "If my people love me they'll lo\ j stein?"inoffensive when they came to! my wife aud rejoice In my happiness," this country to ensnare your majesty through the girl's beauty! But great heaven, it i? true that I am growing old! I have forgotten to ask your maj esty whether you have gone so far as to mention the word marriage to Miss Mowbray ?" "I'll answer that question by another. Do you really believe that Miss Mow Leopold went on sharply. "If they complain, why, we shall see who's master?whether or not the emperor of Rhaetia is a mere figurehead. In some countries royalty Is but an ornamental survival of a picturesque past; a king or queen is a mere puppet which the nation loads with luxury to do itself honor. That's not true of Rhaetia, bray came to Rhaetia to 'entrap' me?" though, as I'm ready to prove, if prove "I do. though I scarcely think that [ it: 1 musL But 1 believe I shall be even her ambition flew as high as you J sPared the trouble. We Rhaetians love are encouraging it to soar." "In care you're right she would have been overjoyed with an offer of mor ganatic marriage." "Overjoyed is a poor word. Over whelmed might be nearer." "Yet I tell you she refused me last night and is leaving Rhaetia today rather than listen to further entrea ties." Leopold l-ent forward to launch this thunderbolt, his browu hands on his knees, his eyes eager. The memories, naif bitter, half sweet, called up by his own words caused Virginia to ap pear more beautiful, more desirable, ever than before. ne was delighted with the expres sion of the chancellor's face. "Now. what arguments have you left?" he broke out in the brief silence. "All I had before und many new ones, for what your majesty has said shows the lady more ambitious, more astute, therefore more dangerous, than I had guessed. She staked everything on the power of her charms, and she might have won had you not an old servant who wouldn't be. fooled by the witcheries of a fair Helen." romance?you are perhaps the one ex ception?while, hs for the story you've told nie. I would not give that for it!" And the emperor snapped his fingers. "You still believe the ladies have a right to the name of Mowbray?" "I believe that they are of stainless reputation and that any seeming mys tery can be explained. Miss Mowbray is herself. That's enough for me. Per haps, chancellor, theife are two Lady Mowbrays." "Only one is mentioned in Burke." "Burke isn't gospel." "Pardon me. It's the gospel of the British peerage. It can no more be guilty of error than Euclid." "Nor can Miss Mowbray be guilty of wrong. I should still stake my life on that even had your conclusions not been lame ones." The old mau accepted this rebuff in silence. But it was not the silence of absolute hopelessness; it was only such a pause as a prize fighter makes be tween rounds. "Your majesty will not *be in too great haste, at all events. I trust." he said at last?"at least a little reflec tion, a little patience, to cool the blood. I have not lai'i ?i^-n all mv cards yet" 1908 SEEDS 1908 CLARK'S SEED STORE, Just received my Spring Stock of .Field, Garden and Flower Seeds, from the best growers in the U. S. IRISH POTATOES. 7, of thefIeading varieties, grown by T. W. WOOD, & SONS. BIRDS?Hart's Mountain Canaries, (TRAINED SINGERS), South American Parots talkers, Bird supplies of all kinds. Cages for breeding and for song birds, Fish food, Aquariums etc. Prepare your ground and plant now. Yours Truly, S. H. CLARK. 55 RUSSELL STREET. ????????#???? DO YOU KNOW? Do you know why our store is growing more popular each day? It is because we make a special study of the wants of our customers and save them from 10 per cent to 20 per cent on every bill they buy from us. Wt: have a full stock of fresh and stylish Spring goods at prices that are sure to please. Give us a call and we will do you good. THE ORANGEBURG MILLINERY PARLOR is now located at our store and Mrs. George Faireyand Mrs. Angle Wilson can supply you inline Millinery at prices cheaper than the very cheapest. Seeing is believing. Come and let us sho-.? you. Foreman-Fwickenbaker Co. "It's often bad policy not to lead trumps," replied Leopold. "Often, but not always. Time and the end of the play will suow. Is your majesty's Indulgence for the old man ouite e.\!ialisted?" "Not quite, though rather strained. I confess." Leopold tempered his words with a faint smile. "Then I have oue more important question to ask, venturing to.remind you first that I have acted- solely In yo;:r interest. If such a step as you contemplate should be my deathblow it is because of my love for you and Rbaetia. Tell me. your majesty, this oue tiling. If it were proved to you that the lady you know as .Miss Mow bray was not only not the person she pretends to be. but In all other respects unworthy of your love, what would you do?" "You speak of Impossibilities." "But if they were not impossibili ties?" "In such a case I should do as other men do?spend the rest of my life in trying to forger a Jost Ideal." "I thauk your majesty. That Is all I ask. I suppose you will continue your Journey?" "Yes, as far as Felgarde, where I tope to find Lady Mowbray and her daughter." "Then, your majesty, when I've ex pressed my gratitude < for your for bearance, eveu though I've failed to be convincing. I'll trouble you no long er." The chancellor rose painfully, with a reminiscence of gout, and Leopold stared at him In surprise. "What do you mean?" be asked. "Only that, as I can do no further good here, with your permission I will get out at the station we are coming to and go back home again." The emperor realized what he had not noticed untikthis moment?that the tniiu was slackening speed as it ap proached the suburbs of a town. His conversation with the chancei't- had lasted for an hour, and he was far from regretting the prospect of being l<\"t in neace. More tlir.n once ho had come perilously near to losing his tem per, forgetting bis gratitude and the old man's years. How much longer be could have held out under a continued strain of provocation he did not know ,So he spoke no word of dissuasion when Count von Breitstein picked up his soft hat and buttoned his gray coat for de parture. "I've passed pleasanter hours iu your society. I admit," sr.i'.i Leopold when the train stopped. "But I can thank you for your motives, if Dot your max ims, and here's my hand." "It would be most kind of your maj esty to telephone me from Felgarde," the chancellor exclaimed, as If on a sudden thought, while they shook hands, "merely to say whether you re main there or whether yeu go farther or whether yon return at once. I am too fatigued to travel back Immediate ly to Schloss Breitstein and shall rest for some hours at least in my house at Kronburg, so a call will find me thei'e." "I will do as you ask," said the em peror. Again he pressed the chancel lor's hand, and It was very cold. (To Be Continued.) fi?0 S. HACKER & SON. rlhe Largest and Mast Complete. 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