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Boston Public Library I
Do not wr.-ee i„ this book or mark it with pen or
penC. Penalties for ,o doing are in,posed lyZ
Rev,.ed Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
B.P.L. FORM NO. 609 : 5.2.4. : SOOM.
THE SCARLET CAR
THE PRINCESS ALINE
The Scarlet Car
The Princess Aline
BY
RICHARD HARDING DAVIS
ILLUSTRATED
" > ' 3 ** ' » » '
I » »'»J»)». • 10,1 3
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
NEW YORK:::::::::::::::::::::::::i9i2
5'd 3.
XwV. r»VA,' J. ' D , 1 A a -^
THE SCARLET CAR 1 ' '*~-
Copyright, 1906, by
RICHARD HARDING DAVIS
Copyright, 1907, 1910, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
THE PRINCESS ALINE
Copyright, 1895, by
HARPER & BROTHERS
Copyright, 1910, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
I f.
• 1 < . . , t
. ' I c . ' '
w «• t
CONTENTS
THE SCARLET CAR
PAGE
The Jail-Breakers i
The Trespassers 39
The Kn)NAPPERS 70
THE PRINCESS ALINE
ILLUSTRATIONS
Miss Forbes ........... Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
In the two circles of light the men surveyed each other 56
"You've broken the bone," he said 66
"Next to her stood the Princess Aline of Hohenwald" 142
"A man was talking in EngHsh, with an accent" . . 152
"This is she. Do you wonder I travelled four thou-
sand miles to see her?" 164
THE SCARLET CAR
TO
NED STONE
THE SCARLET CAR
I
THE JAIL-BREAKERS
FOR a long time it had been arranged they
all should go to the Harvard and Yale
game in Winthrop's car. It was perfectly well
understood. Even Peabody, who pictured him-
self and Miss Forbes in the back of the car, with
her brother and Winthrop in front, condescended
to approve. It was necessary to invite Peabody
because it was his great good fortune to be en-
gaged to Miss Forbes. Her brother Sam had
been invited, not only because he could act as
chaperon for his sister, but because since they
were at St. Paul's, Winthrop and he, either as par-
ticipants or spectators, had never missed going
together to the Yale-Harvard game. And Bea-
trice Forbes herself had been invited because
she was herself.
When at nine o'clock on the morning of the
game, Winthrop stopped the car in front of her
3
The Scarlet Car
door, he was in love with all the world. In the
November air there was a sting like frost-bitten
cider, in the sky there was a brilliant, beautiful
sun, in the wind was the tingling touch of three
ice-chilled rivers. And in the big house facing
Central Park, outside of which his prancing steed
of brass and scarlet chugged and protested and
trembled with impatience, was the most wonder-
ful girl in all the world. It was true she was en-
gaged to be married, and not to him. But she
was not yet married. And to-day it would be his
privilege to carry her through the State of New
York and the State of Connecticut, and he would
snatch glimpses of her profile rising from the
rough fur collar, of her wind-blown hair, of the
long, lovely lashes under the gray veil.
" 'Shall be together, breathe and ride, so, one
day more am I deified; ' " whispered the young
man in the Scarlet Car; " *who knows but the
world may end to-night.?'
As he waited at the curb, other great touring-
cars, of every speed and shape, in the mad race
for the Boston Post Road, and the town of New
Haven, swept up Fifth Avenue. Some rolled
and puffed like tugboats in a heavy seaway, others
glided by noiseless and proud as private yachts.
But each flew the colors of blue or crimson.
4
The Scarlet Car
Winthrop's car, because her brother had gone
to one college, and he had played right end for
the other, was draped impartially. And so every
other car mocked or cheered it, and in one a bare-
headed youth stood up, and shouted to his fel-
lows: "Look! there's Billy Winthrop! Three
times three for old Billy Winthrop!" And they
lashed the air with flags, and sent his name
echoing over Central Park.
Winthrop grinned in embarrassment, and waved
his hand. A bicycle cop, and Fred, the chauffeur,
were equally impressed.
Was they the Harvoids, sir.f"' asked Fred.
They was," said Winthrop.
Her brother Sam camx down the steps carrying
sweaters and steamer-rugs. But he wore no holi-
day countenance.
"What do you think .^" he demanded indig-
nantly. "Ernest Peabody's inside making trouble.
His sister has a Pullman on one of the special
trains, and he wants Beatrice to go with her."
In spite of his furs, the young man in the car
turned quite cold. "Not with us.?" he gasped.
Miss Forbes appeared at the house door, fol-
lowed by Ernest Peabody. He wore an expres-
sion of disturbed dignity; she one of distressed
amusement. That she also wore her automo-
5
The Scarlet Car
bile coat caused the heart of Winthrop to leap
hopefully.
"Winthrop," said Peabody, "I am in rather an
embarrassing position. My sister, Mrs. Taylor
Holbrooke" — he spoke the name as though he
were announcing it at the door of a drawing-
room — "desires Miss Forbes to go with her. She
feels accidents are apt to occur with motor cars
— and there are no other ladies in your party —
and the crowds "
Winthrop carefully avoided looking at Miss
Forbes.
I should be very sorry," he murmured.
Ernest!" said Miss Forbes, "I explained it
was impossible for me to go with your sister. We
would be extremely rude to Mr. Winthrop. How
do you wish us to sit?" she asked.
She mounted to the rear seat, and made room
opposite her for Peabody.
"Do I understand, Beatrice," began Peabody,
in a tone that instantly made every one extremely
uncomfortable, "that I am to tell my sister you
are not coming ?"
"Ernest!" begged Miss Forbes.
Winthrop bent hastily over the oil valves. He
read the speedometer, which was, as usual, out
of order, with fascinated interest.
6
te
<(
The Scarlet Car
"Ernest," pleaded Miss Forbes, "Mr. Winthrop
and Sam planned this trip for us a long time ago — '
to give us a little pleasure "
"Then," said Peabody in a hollow voice, "you
have decided ?"
"Ernest," cried Miss Forbes, "don't look at me
as though you meant to hurl the curse of Rome.
I have. Jump in. Please!"
"I will bid you good-by," said Peabody; "I
have only just time to catch our train."
Miss Forbes rose and moved to the door of the car.
" I had better not go with any one," she said in
a low voice.
"You will go with me," commanded her brother.
"Come on, Ernest."
"Thank you, no," replied Peabody. "I have
promised my sister."
"All right, then," exclaimed Sam briskly, "see
you at the game. Section H. Don't forget.
Let her out, Billy."
With a troubled countenance Winthrop bent
forward and clasped the clutch.
Better come, Peabody," he said.
I thank you, no," repeated Peabody. "I must
go with my sister."
As the car glided forward Brother Sam sighed
heavily.
7
The Scarlet Car
"My! but he's got a mean disposition," he said.
"He has quite spoiled my day."
He chuckled wickedly, but Winthrop pretended
not to hear, and his sister maintained an expres-
sion of utter dejection.
But to maintain an expression of utter dejec-
tion is very difficult when the sun is shining, when
you are flying at the rate of forty miles an hour,
and when in the cars you pass foolish youths
wave Yale flags at you, and take advantage of
the day to cry: "Three cheers for the girl in the
blue hat!"
And to entirely remove the last trace of the
gloom that Peabody had forced upon them, it
was necessary only for a tire to burst. Of course,
for this efi^ort, the tire chose the coldest and most
fiercely wind-swept portion of the Pelham Road,
where from the broad waters of the Sound pneu-
monia and the grip raced rampant, and where to
the touch a steel wrench was not to be distin-
guished from a piece of ice. But before the
wheels had ceased to complain, Winthrop and
Fred were out of their fur coats, down on their
knees, and jacking up the axle.
"On an expedition of this sort," said Brother
Sam, "whatever happens, take it as a joke. Fort-
unately," he explained, "I don't understand fix-
8
The Scarlet Car
ing inner tubes, so I will get out and smoke. I
have noticed that when a car breaks down there
is always one man who paces up and down the
road and smokes. His hope is to fool passing
cars into thinking that the people in his car
stopped to admire the view."
Recognizing the annual foot-ball match as in-
tended solely to replenish the town coffers, the
thrifty townsfolk of Rye, with bicycles and red
flags, were, as usual, and regardless of the speed
at which it moved, levying tribute on every sec-
ond car that entered their hospitable boundaries.
But before the Scarlet Car reached Rye, small
boys of the town, possessed of a sporting spirit, or
of an inherited instinct for graft, were waiting to
give a noisy notice of the ambush. And so, fore-
warned, the Scarlet Car crawled up the main
street of Rye as demurely as a baby-carriage, and
then, having safely reached a point directly in
front of the police station, with a loud and osten-
tatious report, blew up another tire.
''Well," said Sam crossly, "they can't arrest
us for speeding."
"Whatever happens," said his sister, "take it
as a joke."
Two miles outside of Stamford, Brother Sam
burst into open mutiny.
9
The Scarlet Car
"Every car in the United States has passed
us/' he declared. "We won't get there, at this
rate, till the end of the first half. Hit her up,
can't you, Billy.?"
"She seems to have an illness," said Winthrop
unhappily. "I think I'd save time if I stopped
now and fixed her."
Shamefacedly Fred and he hid themselves un-
der the body of the car, and a sound of hammer-
ing and stentorian breathing followed. Of them
all that was visible was four feet beating a tattoo
on the road. Miss Forbes got out Winthrop's
camera, and took a snapshot of the scene.
"I will call it," she said, "The Idle Rich."
Brother Sam gazed morosely in the direction of
New Haven. They had halted within fifty yards
of the railroad tracks, and as each special train,
loaded with happy enthusiasts, raced past them
he groaned.
"The only one of us that showed any common-
sense was Ernest," he declared, "and you turned
him down. I am going to take a trolley to Stam-
ford, and the first train to New Haven."
"You are not," said his sister; "I will not
desert Mr. Winthrop, and you cannot desert me."
Brother Sam sighed, and seated himself on a
rock.
lO
The Scarlet Car
"Do you think, Billy," he asked, "you can get
us to Cambridge in time for next year's game?"
The car limped into Stamford, and while it
went into dry-dock at the garage, Brother Sam
fled to the railroad station, where he learned that
for the next two hours no train that recognized
New Haven spoke to Stamford.
"That being so," said Winthrop, "while we
are waiting for the car, we had better get a quick
lunch now, and then push on."
"Push," exclaimed Brother Sam darkly, "is
what we are likely to do."
After behaving v/ith perfect propriety for half
an hour, just outside of Bridgeport the Scarlet
Car came to a slow and sullen stop, and once
more the owner and the chauffeur hid their shame
beneath it, and attacked its vitals. Twenty min-
utes later, while they still were at work, there
approached from Bridgeport a young man in a
buggy. When he saw the mass of college colors
on the Scarlet Car, he pulled his horse down to a
walk, and as he passed raised his hat.
At the end of the first half," he said, "the
"/\t tne ena
score was a tie."
t(
Don't mention it," said Brother Sam.
Now," he cried, "we've got to turn back, and
make for New York. If we start quick, we may
II
}9
99
The Scarlet Car
get there ahead of the last car to leave New
Haven."
"I am going to New Haven, and in this car,
declared his sister. "I must go — to meet Ernest.
"If Ernest has as much sense as he showed
this morning," returned her affectionate brother,
*' Ernest will go to his Pullman and stay there.
As I told you, the only sure way to get anywhere
is by railroad train."
When they passed through Bridgeport it was
so late that the electric lights of Fairview Avenue
were just beginning to sputter and glow in the
twilight, and as they came along the shore road
into New Haven, the first car out of New Haven
in the race back to New York leaped at them
with siren shrieks of warning, and dancing, daz-
zling eyes. It passed like a thing driven by the
Furies; and before the Scarlet Car could swing
back into what had been an empty road, in swift
pursuit of the first came many more cars, with
blinding searchlights, with a roar of throbbing,
thrashing engines, flying pebbles, and whirling
wheels, and behind these, stretching for a twisted
mile, came hundreds of others; until the road was
aflame with flashing will-o'-the-wisps, dancing fire-
balls, and long, shifting shafts of light.
Miss Forbes sat in front, beside Winthrop, and
12
The Scarlet Car
it pleased her to imagine, as they bent forward,
peering into the night, that together they were fac-
ing so many fiery dragons, speeding to give them
battle, to grind them under their wheels. She
felt the elation of great speed, of imminent danger.
Her blood tingled with the air from the wind-
swept harbor, with the rush of the great engines,
as by a hand-breadth they plunged past her. She
knew they were driven by men and half-grown
boys, joyous with victory, piqued by defeat, reck-
less by one touch too much of liquor, and that the
young man at her side was driving, not only for
himself, but for them.
Each fraction of a second a dazzling light
blinded him, and he swerved to let the monster,
with a hoarse, bellowing roar, pass by, and then
again swept his car into the road. And each
time for greater confidence she glanced up into
his face.
Throughout the mishaps of the day he had
been deeply concerned for her comfort, sorry for
her disappointment, under Brother Sam's indig-
nant ironies patient, and at all times gentle and
considerate. Now, in the light from the onrush-
ing cars, she noted his alert, laughing eyes, the
broad shoulders bent across the wheel, the lips
smiling with excitement and in the joy of control-
13
The Scarlet Car
ling, with a turn of the wrist, a power equal to
sixty galloping horses. She found in his face
much comfort. And in the fact that for the mo-
ment her safety lay in his hands, a sense of pleas-
ure. That this was her feeling puzzled and dis-
turbed her, for to Ernest Peabody it seemed, in
some way, disloyal. And yet there it was. Of a
certainty, there was the secret pleasure in the
thought that if they escaped unhurt from the trap
in which they found themselves, it would be due
to him. To herself she argued that if the chauf-
feur were driving, her feeling would be the same,
that it was the nerve, the skill, and the coolness,
not the man, that moved her admiration. But
in her heart she knew it would not be the same.
At West Haven Green Winthrop turned out of
the track of the racing monsters into a quiet
street leading to the railroad station, and with a
half-sigh, half-laugh, leaned back comfortably.
"Those lights coming up suddenly make it hard
to see," he said.
**Hard to breathe," snorted Sam; "since that
first car missed us, I haven't drawn an honest
breath. I held on so tight that I squeezed the
hair out of the cushions."
When they reached the railroad station, and
Sam had finally fought his way to the station-
14.
The Scarlet Car
master, that half-crazed official informed him he
had missed the departure of Mrs. Taylor Hol-
brooke's car by just ten minutes.
Brother Sam reported this state of affairs to
his companions.
**God knows we asked for the fish first/' he
said; *'so now we've done our duty by Ernest,
who has shamefully deserted us, and we can get
something to eat, and go home at our leisure.
As I have always told you, the only way to travel
independently is in a touring-car."
At the New Haven House they bought three wait-
ers, body and soul, and, in spite of the fact that in
the very next room the team was breaking training,
obtained an excellent but chaotic dinner; and by
eight they were on their way back to the big city.
The night was grandly beautiful. The waters
of the Sound flashed in the Hght of a cold, clear
moon, which showed them, like pictures in silver
print, the sleeping villages through which they
passed, the ancient elms, the low-roofed cottages,
the town-hall facing the common. The post road
was again empty, and the car moved as steadily
as a watch.
"Just because it knows we don't care now
when we get there," said Brother Sam, "you
couldn't make it break down with an axe."
15
The Scarlet Car
From the rear, where he sat with Fred, he
announced he was going to sleep, and asked that
he be not awakened until the car had crossed the
State line between Connecticut and New York.
' Winthrop doubted if he knew the State line of
New York.
"It is where the advertisements for Besse
Baker's twenty-seven stores cease," said Sam
drowsily, "and the bill-posters of Ethel Barrymore
egm.
In the front of the car the two young people
spoke only at intervals, but Winthrop had never
been so widely alert, so keenly happy, never before
so conscious of her presence.
And it seemed as they glided through the mys-
terious moonlit world of silent villages, shadowy
woods, and wind-swept bays and inlets, from
which, as the car rattled over the planks of the
bridges, the wild duck rose in noisy circles, they
alone were awake and living.
The silence had lasted so long that it was
as eloquent as words. The young man turned
his eyes timorously, and sought those of the girl.
What he felt was so strong in him that it seemed
incredible she should be ignorant of it. His
eyes searched the gray veil. In his voice there
was both challenge and pleading.
i6
The Scarlet Car
t( i
Shall be together/" he quoted, "'breathe
and ride. So, one day more am I deified; who
knows but the world may end to-night?'"
The moonlight shovv^ed the girl's eyes shining
through the veil, and regarding him steadily.
"If you don't stop this car quick," she said,
"the world will end for all of us."
He shot a look ahead, and so suddenly threw
on the brake that Sam and the chauffeur tumbled
awake. Across the road stretched the great bulk
of a touring-car, its lamps burning dully in the
brilliance of the moon. Around it, for greater
warmth, a half-dozen figures stamped upon the
frozen ground, and beat themselves with their
arms. Sam and the chauffeur vaulted into the
road, and went toward them.
"It's what you say, and the way you say it,"
the girl explained. She seemed to be continuing
an argument. "It makes it so very difiicult for
us to play together."
The young man clasped the wheel as though
the force he were holding in check were much
greater than sixty horse-power.
"You are not married yet, are you.?" he de-
manded.
The girl moved her head.
*'And when you are married, there will prob-
. 17
The Scarlet Car
ably be an altar from which you will turn to walk
back up the aisle ?"
**Well?" said the girl.
''Well," he answered explosively, ** until you
turn away from that altar, I do not recognize the
right of any man to keep me quiet, or your right
ei'^er. Why should I be held by your engage-
ment ? I was not consulted about it. I did not
give my consent, did I ? I tell you, you are the
only woman in the world I will ever marry, and
if you think I am going to keep silent and watch
some one else carry you off without making a
fight for you, you don't know me."
"If you go on," said the girl, "it will mean that
I shall not see you again."
"Then I will write letters to you.**
"I will not read them," said the giri.
The young man laughed defiantly.
"Oh, yes, you will read them!" He pounded
his gauntleted fist on the rim of the wheel. "You
mayn't answer them, but if I can write the way I
feel, I will bet you'll read them."
His voice changed suddenly, and he began to
plead. It was as though she were some mascu-
line giant bullying a small boy.
"You are not fair to me," he protested. "I
do not ask you to be kind, I ask you to be fair.
i8
The Scarlet Car
I am fighting for what means more to me than
anything in this world, and you won't even listen.
Why should I recognize any other men ? All I
recognize is that / am the man who loves you,
that *I am the man at your feet/ That is all I
know, that I love you."
The girl moved as though with the cold, aiid
turned her head from him.
'^1 love you," repeated the young man.
The girl breathed like one who has been swim-
ming under water, but, when she spoke, her
voice was calm and contained.
*' Please!" she begged, "don't you see how
unfair it is ? I can't go away; I have to listen."
The young man pulled himself upright, and
pressed his lips together.
'*I beg your pardon," he whispered.
There was for some time an unhappy silence,
and then Winthrop added bitterly: "'Methinks the
punishment exceeds the offence.' "
"Do you think you make it easy for me?'*
returned the girl.
She considered it most ungenerous of him to
sit staring into the moonlight, looking so miser-
able that it made her heart ache to comfort him,
and so extremely handsome that to do so was
quite impossible. She would have liked to reach
19
The Scarlet Car
out her hand and lay it on his arm, and tell him
she was sorry, but she could not. He should not
have looked so unnecessarily handsome.
Sam came running toward them with five griz-
zly bears, who balanced themselves apparently^
with some slight effort upon their hind legs.
The grizzly bears were properly presented as:
"Tommy Todd, of my class, and some more like
him. And," continued Sam, "I am going to
quit you two and go with them. Tom's car
broke down, but Fred fixed it, and both our cars
can travel together. Sort of convoy," he explained.
His sister signalled eagerly, but with equal
eagerness he retreated from her.
"Believe me," he assured her soothingly, "I
am just as good a chaperon fifty yards behind
you, and wide awake, as I am in the same car and
fast asleep. And, besides, I want to hear about
the game. And, what's more, two cars are much
safer than one. Suppose you two break dov/n in
a lonely place ? We'll be right behind you to
pick you up. You will keep Winthrop's car in
sight, won't you. Tommy?" he said.
The grizzly bear called Tommy, who had been
examining the Scarlet Car, answered doubtfully
that the only way he could keep it in sight was by
tying a rope to it.
20
The Scarlet Car
"That's all right, then/' said Sam briskly,
"Winthrop will go slow."
So the Scariet Car shot forward with sometimes
the second car so far in the rear that they could
only faintly distinguish the horn begging them to
wait, and again it would follow so close upon their
wheels that they heard the five grizzly bears chant-
ing beseechingly:
"Oh, bring this wagon home, John,
It will not hold us a-all."
For some time there was silence in the Scarlet
Car, and then Winthrop broke it by laugh-
ing.
"First, I lose Peabody," he explained, "then
I lose Sam, and now, after I throw Fred over-
board, I am going to drive you into Stamford,
where they do not ask runaway couples for a
license, and marry you."
The girl smiled comfortably. In that mood
she was not afraid of him.
She lifted her face, and stretched out her arms
as though she were drinking in the moonlight.
"It has been such a good day," she said sim-
ply, "and I am really so very happy."
"I shall be equally frank," said Winthropc
bo am 1.
21
The Scarlet Car
For two hours they had been on the road, and
were just entering Fairport. For some long time
the voices of the pursuing grizzlies had been lost
in the far distance.
"The road's up/' said Miss Forbes.
She pointed ahead to two red lanterns.
" It was all right this morning/* exclaimed Win-
throp.
The car was pulled down to eight miles an
hour, and, trembling and snorting at the indig-
nity, nosed up to the red lanterns.
They showed in a ruddy glow the legs of two
men.
*^You gotta stop!" commanded a voice.
"Why?" asked Winthrop.
The voice became embodied in the person of a
tall man with a long overcoat and a drooping
mustache.
"'Cause I tell you to!" snapped the tall man.
Winthrop threw a quick glance to the rear. In
that direction for a mile the road lay straight
away. He could see its entire length, and it was
empty. In thinking of nothing but Miss Forbes,
he had forgotten the chaperon. He was im-
pressed with the fact that the immediate presence
of a chaperon was desirable. Directly in front
of the car, blocking its advance, were two bar-
22
The Scarlet Car
rels with a two-inch plank sagging heavily be-
tween them. Beyond that the main street of
Fairport lay steeped in slumber and moonlight.
*'I am a selectman/' said the one with the lan-
tern. "You been exceedin' our speed limit."
The chauffeur gave a gasp that might have
been construed to mean that the charge amazed
and shocked him.
"That is not possible/' Winthrop answered,
**I have been going very slow — on purpose — ^to
allow a disabled car to keep up with me/'
The selectman looked down the road.
"It ain't kep' up with you," he said pointedly.
"It has until the last few minutes."
"It's the last few minutes we're talking about,"
returned the man who had not spoken. He put
his foot on the step of the car.
"What are you doing?" asked Winthrop.
"I am going to take you to Judge Allen's. I
am chief of police. You are under arrest."
Before Winthrop rose moving pictures of Miss
Forbes appearing in a dirty police station before
an officious Dogberry, and, as he and his car were
well known along the post road, appearing the
next morning in the New York papers. "Will-
iam Winthrop," he saw the printed words, "son
of Endicott Winthrop, was arrested here this
23
The Scarlet Car
evening, with a young woman who refused to
give her name, but who was recognized as Miss
Beatrice Forbes, whose engagement to Ernest
Peabody, the Reform candidate on the Inde»
pendent ticket "
And, of course, Peabody would blame hen
"If I have exceeded your speed limit," he said
politely, "I shall be delighted to pay the fine.
How much is it ? "
'* Judge Allen '11 tell you what the fine is," said
the selectman gruffly. "And he may want bail/*
"Bail ?" demanded Winthrop. "Do you mean
to tell me he will detain us here V
"He will, if he wants to," answered the chief
of police combatively.
For an instant Winthrop sat gazing gloomily
ahead, overcome apparently by the enormity of
his offence. He was calculating whether, if he
rammed the two-inch plank, it would hit the car
or Miss Forbes. He decided swiftly it would hit
his new two-hundred-dollar lamps. As swiftly he
decided the new lamps must go. But he had
read of guardians of the public safety so regard-
less of private safety as to try to puncture run-
away tires with pistol bullets. He had no inten-
tion of subjecting Miss Forbes to a fusillade.
So he whirled upon the chief of police:
24
The Scarlet Car
''Take your hand off that gun!'* he growled.
*'How dare you threaten me?"
Amazed, the chief of police dropped from the
step and advanced indignantly.
"Me?" he demanded. "I ain't got a gun.
What you mean by "
With sudden intelligence, the chauffeur pre-
cipitated himself upon the scene.
"It's the other one," he shouted. He shook
an accusing finger at the selectman. "He pointed
it at the lady."
To Miss Forbes the realism of Fred's acting was
too convincing. To learn that one is covered with
a loaded revolver is disconcerting. Miss Forbes
gave a startled squeak, and ducked her head.
Winthrop roared aloud at the selectman.
How dare you frighten the lady!" he cried.
Take your hand off that gun."
"What you talkin' about?" shouted the select-
man. "The idea of my havin' a gun! I haven't
got a -"
"All right, Fred!" cried Winthrop. "Low
bridge."
There was a crash of shattered glass and brass,
of scattered barrel staves, the smell of escaping
gas, and the Scarlet Car was flying drunkenly
down the main street.
25
The Scarlet Car
"What are they doing now, Fred?" called the
owner. Fred peered over the stern of the flying car.
"The constable's jumping around the road/*
he replied, "and the long one's leaning against a
tree. No, he's climbing the tree. I can't make
out what he's doing."
"/ know!" cried Miss Forbes; her voice vibrated
with excitement. Defiance of the law had thrilled
her with unsuspected satisfaction; her eyes were
dancing. "There was a telephone fastened to the
tree, a hand telephone. They are sending word to
some one. They're trying to head us off."
Winthrop brought the car to a quick halt.
"We're in a police trap!" he said. Fred leaned
forward and whispered to his employer. His
voice also vibrated with the joy of the chase.
"This '11 be our third arrest," he said. "That
means "
"I know what it means,*' snapped Winthrop.
"Tell me how we can get out of here."
"We can't get out of here, sir, unless we go
back. Going south, the bridge is the only way
out."
The bridge!" Winthrop struck the wheel
savagely with his knuckles. "I forgot their con-
founded bridge!" He turned to Miss Forbes.
" Fairport is a sort of island," he explained.
26
The Scarlet Car
*'But after we're across the bridge/* urged the
chauffeur, **we needn't keep to the post road no
more. We can turn into Stone Ridge, and strike
south to White Plains. Then —
11 lu vviiite naiiis. men "
We haven't crossed the bridge yet," growled
Winthrop. His voice had none of the joy of the
others; he was greatly perturbed. "Look back,"
he commanded, "and see if there is any sign of
those boys."
He was now quite willing to share responsibil-
ity. But there was no sign of the Yale men, and,
unattended, the Scarlet Car crept warily forward.
Ahead of it, across the little reed-grown inlet,
stretched their road of escape, a long wooden
bridge, lying white in the moonlight.
I don't see a soul," whispered Miss Forbes.
"Anybody at that draw?" asked Winthrop.
Unconsciously his voice also had sunk to a whisper.
"No," returned Fred. "I think the man that
tends die draw goes home at night; there is no
light there."
"Well, then," said Winthrop, with an anxious
sigh, "we've got to make a dash for it."
The car shot forward, and, as it leaped lightly
upon the bridge, there was a rapid rumWe of
creaking boards.
Between it and the highway to New York lay
27
The Scarlet Car
only two hundred yards of track, straight and
empty.
In his excitement, the chauffeur rose from the
rear seat.
"They'll never catch us now," he muttered.
** They'll never catch us!"
But even as he spoke there grated harshly the
creak of rusty chains on a cogged vv^heel, the rattle
of a brake. The black figure of a man with wav-
ing arms ran out upon the draw, and the draw
gaped slowly open.
When the car halted there was between it and
the broken edge of the bridge twenty feet of run-
ning water.
At the same moment from behind it came a
patter of feet, and Winthrop turned to see racing
toward them some dozen young men of Fairport.
They surrounded him with noisy, raucous, bel-
ligerent cries. They were, as they proudly in-
formed him, members of the Fairport "Volunteer
Fire Department." That they might purchase
new uniforms, they had arranged a trap for the
automobiles returning in illegal haste from New
Haven. In fines they had collected ;?300, and it
was evident that already some of that money had
been expended in bad whiskey. As many as
could do so crowded into the car, others hung to
23
The Scarlet Car
the running boards and step, others ran beside
it. They rejoiced over Winthrop's unsuccessful
flight and capture with violent and humiliating
laughter.
For the day, Judge Allen had made a tempo-
rary court in the club-room of the fire department,
v^hich was over the engine-house; and the pro-
ceedings were brief and decisive. The selectman
told how Winthrop, after first breaking the speed
law, had broken arrest, and Judge Allen, refusing
to fine him and let him go, held him and his com-
panions for a hearing the following morning. He
fixed the amount of bail at ^500 each; failing to
pay this, they would for the night be locked up in
different parts of the engine-house, which, it de-
veloped, contained on the ground-floor the home
of the fire-engine, on the second floor the club-
room, on alternate nights, of the firemen, the local
G. A. R., and the Knights of Pythias, and in its
cellar the town jail.
Winthrop and the chauffeur the learned judge
condemned to the cells in the basement. As a
concession, he granted Miss Forbes the freedom
of the entire club-room to herself.
The objections raised by Winthrop to this ar-
rangement were of a nature so violent, so vigor-
ous, at one moment so specious and conciliatory,
29
The Scarlet Car
and the next so abusive, that his listeners were
moved by av^e, but not to pity.
In his indignation, Judge Allen rose to reply,
and as, the better to hear him, the crowd pushed
forward, Fred gave way before it, until he was
left standing in sullen gloom upon its outer edge.
In imitation of the real firemen of the great cities,
the vamps of Fairport had cut a circular hole in
the floor of their club-room, and from the engine-
room below had reared a sliding pole of shining
brass. When leaving their club-room, it was al-
ways their pleasure to scorn the stairs and, like
real firemen, slide down this pole. It had not
escaped the notice of Fred, and since his entrance
he had been gravitating toward it.
As the voice of the judge rose in violent ob-
jurgation, and all eyes were fixed upon him, the
chauffeur crooked his leg tightly about the brass
pole, and, like the devil in the pantomime, sank
softly and swiftly through the floor.
The irate judge was shaking his finger in Win-
throp's face.
" Don't you try to teach me no law," he shouted;
" I know what I can do. Ef my darter went gal-
livantin' around nights in one of them automo'
biles, it would serve her right to get locked up.
Maybe this young woman will learn to stay at
30
The Scarlet Car
home nights with her folks. She ain't goin* to
take no harm here. The constable sits up all
night downstairs in the fire-engine-room, and that
sofa's as good a place to sleep as the hotel. If
you want me to let her go to the hotel, why don't
you send to your folks and bail her out?"
"You know damn well why I don't," returned
Winthrop. "I don't intend to give the news-
papers and you and these other idiots the chance
to annoy her further. This young lady's brother
has been with us all day; he left us only by acci-
dent, and by forcing her to remain here alone you
are acting outrageously. If you knew anything
of decency, or law, you'd "
**I know this much!" roared the justice tri-
umphantly, pointing his spectacle-case at Miss
Forbes. "I know her name ain't Lizzie Borden,
and yours ain't Charley Ross."
Winthrop crossed to where Miss Forbes stood
in a comer. She still wore her veil, but through
it, though her face was pale, she smiled at him.
His own distress was undisguised.
"I can never forgive myself," he said.
"Nonsense!" replied Miss Forbes briskly.
"You were perfectly right. If we had sent for
any one, it would have had to come out. Now,
we'll pay the fine in the morning and get home,
31
The Scarlet Car
and no one will know anything of it excepting the
family and Mr. Peabody, and they'll understand.
But if I ever lay hands on my brother Sam!" —
she clasped her fingers together helplessly. "To
think of his leaving you to spend the night in a
cell "
Winthrop interrupted her.
" I will get one of these men to send his wife or
sister over to stay with you," he said.
But Miss Forbes protested that she did not
want a companion. The constable would pro-
tect her, she said, and she would sit up all night
and read. She nodded at the periodicals on the
club table.
"This is the only chance I may ever have,"
she said, "to read the Police Gazette!"
"You ready there.?" called the constable.
"Good-night," said Winthrop.
Under the eyes of the grinning yokels, they
shook hands.
"Good-night," said the girl.
"Where's your young man.?" demanded the
chief of police.
My what?" inquired Winthrop.
The young fellow that was with you when we
held you up that first time."
The constable, or the chief of police as he called
32
(C
((
The Scarlet Car
himself, on the principle that if there were only
one policeman he must necessarily be the chief,
glanced hastily over the heads of the crowd.
"Any of you holding that shoffer?" he called.
No one was holding the chauffeur.
The chauffeur had vanished.
The cell to which the constable led Winthrop
was in a corner of the cellar in which formerly
coal had been stored. This corner was now
fenced off with boards, and a wooden door with
chain and padlock.
High in the wall, on a level with the ground,
was the opening, or window, through which the
coal had been dumped. This window now was
barricaded with iron bars. Winthrop tested the
door by shaking it, and landed a heavy kick on
one of the hinges. It gave slightly, and emitted
a feeble groan.
"What you tryin' to do.?" demanded the con-
stable. "That's town property."
In the light of the constable's lantern, Win-
throp surveyed his cell with extreme dissatisfac-
tion.
I call this a cheap cell," he said.
It's good enough for a cheap sport," returned
the constable. It was so overwhelming a retort
that after the constable had turned the key in the
33
The Scarlet Car
padlock, and taken himself and his lantern to the
floor above, Winthrop could hear him repeating
it to the volunteer firemen. They received it v^ith
delighted howls.
For an hour, on the three empty boxes that
formed his bed, Winthrop sat, with his chin on
his fist, planning the nameless atrocities he would
inflict upon the village of Fairport. Compared to
his tortures, those of Neuremberg were merely
reprimands. Also he considered the particular
punishment he would mete out to Sam Forbes for
his desertion of his sister, and to Fred. He could
not understand Fred. It was not like the chauf-
feur to think only of himself. Nevertheless, for
abandoning Miss Forbes in the hour of need,
Fred must be discharged. He had, with some
regret, determined upon this discipline, when from
directly over his head the voice of Fred hailed
him cautiously.
**Mr. Winthrop," the voice called, *'are you
there.?''
To Winthrop the question seemed superfluous.
He jumped to his feet, and peered up into the
darkness.
"Where are youP" he demanded.
"At the window," came the answer. "We're in
the back yard. Mr. Sam wants to speak to you."
34
The Scarlet Car
On Miss Forbes's account, Winthrop gave a
gasp of relief. On his own, one of savage satis-
faction.
"And / want to speak to him f he whispered.
The moonhght, which had been faintly shining
through the iron bars of the coal chute, was
eclipsed by a head and shoulders. The comfort-
able voice of Sam Forbes greeted him in a playful
whisper.
"Hullo, Billy! You down there .?^'
"Where the devil did you think I was.?" Win-
throp answered at white heat. "Let me tell you
if I was not down here I'd be punching your
head."
"That's all right, Billy," Sam answered sooth-
ingly. "But I'll save you just the same. It
shall never be said of Sam Forbes he deserted a
comrade "
"Stop that! Do you know," Winthrop de-
manded fiercely, "that your sister is a prisoner
upstairs .?"
"I do," replied the unfeeling brother, "but
she won't be long. All the low-comedy parts are
out now arranging a rescue."
"Who are .? Todd and those boys ?" demanded
Winthrop. "They mustn't think of it! They'll
only make it worse. It is impossible to get your
35
The Scarlet Car
sister out of here with those drunken firemen in
the building. You must wait till they've gone
home. Do you hear me .?"
''Pardon me!^^ returned Sam stiffly, "but this
is my relief expedition. I have sent two of the
boys to hold the bridge, like Horatius, and two to
guard the motors, and the others are going to
entice the firemen away from the engine-house.'*
"Entice them .^ How.^" demanded Winthrop.
"They're drunk, and they won't leave here till
morning."
Outside the engine-house, suspended from a
heavy cross-bar, was a steel rail borrowed from a
railroad track, and bent into a hoop. When hit
with a sledge-hammer it proclaimed to Fairport
that the "consuming element" was at large.
At the moment Winthrop asked his question,
over the village of Fairport and over the bay and
marshes, and far out across the Sound, the great
steel bar sent forth a shuddering boom of warn-
ing.
From the room above came a wild tumult of
joyous yells.
"Fire!" shrieked the vamps, "fire!"
The two men crouching by the cellar window
heard the rush of feet, the engine banging and
bumping across the sidewalk, its brass bell clank-
36
The Scarlet Car
ing crazily» the happy vamps shouting hoarse,
incoherent orders.
Through the window Sam lowered a bag of
tools he had taken from Winthrop's car.
"Can you open the lock with any of these?*'
he asked.
"I can kick it open!" yelled Winthrop joy-
fully. **Get to your sister, quick!"
He threw his shoulder against the door, and the
staples flying before him sent him sprawling in
the coal-dust. When he reached the head of the
stairs, Beatrice Forbes was descending from the
club-room, and in front of the door the two cars,
with their lamps unlit and numbers hidden, were
panting to be free.
And in the north, reaching to the sky, rose a
roaring column of flame, shameless in the pale
moonlight, dragging into naked day the sleeping
village, the shingled houses, the clock-face in the
church steeple.
"What the devil have you done ?" gasped Win-
throp.
Before he answered, Sam waited until the cars
were rattling to safety across the bridge.
"We have been protecting the face of nature,"
he shouted. "The only way to get that gang out
of the engine-house was to set fire to something.
37
The Scarlet Car
Tommy wanted to burn up the railroad station,
because he doesn't Hke the New York and New
Haven, and Fred was for setting fire to Judge
Allen's house, because he was rude to Beatrice.
But we finally formed the Village Improvement
Society, organized to burn all advertising signs.
You know those that stood in the marshes, and
hid the view from the trains, so that you could
not see the Sound. We chopped them down and
put them in a pile, and poured gasolene on them,
and that fire is all that is left of the pickles, fly-
screens, and pills."
It was midnight when the cars drew up at the
door of the house of Forbes. Anxiously waiting
in the library were Mrs. Forbes and Ernest Pea-
body.
"At last!" cried Mrs. Forbes, smiling her relief;
"we thought maybe Sam and you had decided to
spend the night in New Haven."
"No," said Miss Forbes, "there was some talk
about spending the night at Fairport, but we
pushed right on."
38
THE TRESPASSERS
WITH a long, nervous shudder, the Scarlet
Car came to a stop, and the lamps bored
a round hole in the night, leaving the rest of the
encircling world in a chill and silent darkness.
The lamps showed a flickering picture of a
country road between high banks covered with
loose stones, and overhead, a fringe of pine boughs.
It looked like a colored photograph thrown from
a stereopdcon in a darkened theatre.
From the back of the car the voice of the owner
said briskly: **We will now sing that beautiful
ballad entitled 'He Is Sleeping in the Yukon Vale
To-night.' What are you stopping for, Fred ? "
he asked.
The tone of the chauffeur suggested he was
again upon the defensive.
"For water, sir," he mumbled.
Miss Forbes in the front seat laughed, and her
brother in the rear seat groaned in dismay.
39
The Scarlet Car
" Oh, for water ? " said the owner cordially.
'* I thought maybe it was for coal/'
Save a dignified silence, there was no answer to
this, until there came a rolling of loose stones and
the sound of a heavy body suddenly precipitated
dowTi the bank, and landing with a thump in the
road.
"He didn't get the water," said the owner
sadly.
**Art^ you hurt, Fred ?" asked the girl.
The chauffeur limped in front of the lamps,
appeanng suddenly, like an actor stepping into
the lime-light.
"No, ma'am," he said. In the rays of the
lamp, he unfolded a road map and scowled at it.
He shook his head aggrievedly.
"There ought to be a house just about here,**
he explained.
"There ought to be a hotel and a garage, and
a cold supper, just about here," said the girl
cheerfully.
"That's the way with those houses," com-
plained the owner. "They never stay where
they're put. At night they go around and visit
each other. Where do you think you are, Fred .?"
"I think we're in that long woods, between
Loon Lake and Stoughton on the Boston Pike,"
<( 1*.
The Scarlet Car
said the chauffeur, "and," he reiterated, "there
ought to be a house somewhere about here — ^where
we get water/'
"Well, get there, then, and get the water,"
commanded the owner.
" But I can't get there, sir, till I get the water,"
returned the chauffeur.
He shook out two collapsible buckets, and
started down the shaft of light.
I won't be more nor five minutes," he called.
I'm going with him," said the girl. " I'm cold."
She stepped down from the front seat, and the
owner with sudden alacrity vaulted the door and
started after her.
"You coming?" he inquired of Ernest Pea-
body. But Ernest Peabody being soundly asleep
made no reply. Winthrop turned to Sam. "Are
you coming.?" he repeated.
The tone of the invitation seemed to suggest that
a refusal would not necessarily lead to a quarrel.
"I am notr' said the brother. "You've kept
Peabody and me twelve hours in the open air, and
it's past two, and we're going to sleep. You can
take it from me that we are going to spend the rest
of this night here in this road."
He moved his cramped joints cautiously, and
stretched his legs the full width of the car.
4.1
The Scarlet Car
"If you can't get plain water," he called, "get
club soda."
He buried his nose in the collar of his fur coat,
and the odors of camphor and raccoon skins in-
stantly assailed him, but he only yawned luxuri-
ously and disappeared into the coat as a turtle
draws into its shell. From the woods about him
the smell of the pine needles pressed upon him
like a drug, and before the footsteps of his com-
panions were lost in the silence he was asleep.
But his sleep was only a review of his waking
hours. Still on either hand rose flying dust clouds
and twirling leaves; still on either side raced gray
stone walls, telegraph poles, hills rich in autumn
colors; and before him a long white road, unend-
ing, interminable, stretching out finally into a
darkness lit by flashing shop-windows, like open
fireplaces, by street lamps, by swinging electric
globes, by the blinding searchlights of hundreds
of darting trolley cars with terrifying gongs, and
then a cold white mist, and again on every side,
darkness, except where the four great lamps
blazed a path through stretches of ghostly woods.
As the two young men slumbered, the lamps
spluttered and sizzled like bacon in a frying-pan,
a stone rolled noisily down the bank, a white
owl, both appalled and fascinated by the daz-
42
The Scarlet Car
zling eyes of the monster blocking the road,
hooted, and flapped itself away. But the men in
the car only shivered slightly, deep in the sleep of
utter weariness.
In silence the girl and Winthrop followed the
chauffeur. They had passed out of the light of
the lamps, and in the autumn mist the electric
torch of the owner was as ineffective as a glow-
worm. The mystery of the forest fell heavily
upon them. From their feet the dead leaves sent
up a clean, damp odor, and on either side and
overhead the giant pine-trees whispered and rus-
tled in the night wind.
Take my coat, too," said the young man.
You'll catch cold." He spoke with authority
and began to slip the loops from the big horn
buttons. It was not the habit of the girl to con-
sider her health. Nor did she permit the mem-
bers of her family to show solicitude concerning
it. But the anxiety of the young man did not
seem to offend her. She thanked him gener-
ously. *'No; these coats are hard to walk in, and
I want to walk," she exclaimed. ''I like to hear
the leaves rustle when you kick them, don't you ?
When I was so high, I used to pretend it was
wading in the surf."
The young man moved over to the gutter of
43
The Scarlet Car
the road where the leaves were deepest and kicked
violently. *^ And the more noise you make," he said,
*'the more you frighten away the wild animals."
The girl shuddered in a most helpless and fas-
cinating fashion.
"Don't!" she whispered. "I didn't mention
it, but already I have seen several lions crouching
behind the trees/*
** Indeed ?" said the young man. His tone was
preoccupied. He had just kicked a rock, hidden
by the leaves, and was standing on one leg.
"Do you mean you don't believe me?" asked
the girl, "or is it that you are merely brave ?"
Merely brave!" exclaimed the young man.
Massachusetts is so far north for lions," he con-
tinued, "that I fancy what you saw was a grizzly
bear. But I have my trusty electric torch with
me, and if there is anything a bear cannot abide,
it is to be pointed at by an electric torch."
"Let us pretend," cried the girl, "that we are
the babes in the wood, and that we are lost."
"We don't have to pretend we're lost," said
the man ; "and as I remember it, the babes came
to a sad end. Didn't they die, and didn't the
birds bury them with leaves?"
"Sam and Mr. Peabody can be the birds,"
suggested the girl.
44
ii
bl
If
The Scarlet Car
"Sam and Peabody hopping around with leaves
in their teeth would look silly," objected the man.
I doubt if I could keep from laughing."
Then," said the girl, "they can be the wicked
robbers who came to kill the babes."
Very well," said the man with suspicious alac-
rity, "let us be babes. If I have to die," he went
on heartily, "I would rather die with you than
live with any one else."
When he had spoken, although they were en-
tirely alone in the world and quite near to each
other, it was as though the girl could not hear
him, even as though he had not spoken at all.
After a silence, the girl said: "Perhaps it would
be better for us to go back to the car."
I won't do it again," begged the man.
We will pretend," cried the girl, "that the
car is a van and that we are gypsies, and we'll
build a camp-fire, and I will tell your fortune."
"You are the only woman who can," muttered
the young man.
The girl still stood in her tracks.
You said — '* she began.
I know," interrupted the man, "but you
won't let me talk seriously, so I joke. But some
day— '*
"Oh, look!'* cried the girl. "There's Fred."
45
Ci-
te
(6
The Scarlet Car
She ran from him down the road. The young
man followed her slowly, his fists deep in the
pockets of the great-coat, and kicking at the un-
offending leaves.
The chauffeur was peering through a double
iron gate hung between squar.e brick posts. The
lower hinge of one gate was broken, and that gate
lurched forward, leaving an opening. By the
light of the electric torch they could see the begin-
ning of a driveway, rough and weed-grown, lined
with trees of great age and bulk, and an unkempt
lawn, strewn with bushes, and beyond, in an open
place bare of trees and illuminated faintly by the
stars, the shadow of a house, black, silent, and
forbidding.
"That's it," whispered the chauffeur. "I was
here before. The well is over there.*'
The young man gave a gasp of astonishment.
"Why," he protested, "this is the Carey place!
I should say we were lost. We must have left
the road an hour ago. There's not another house
within miles." But he made no movement to
enter. "Of all places!" he muttered.
"Well, then," urged the girl briskly, "if there's
no other house, let's tap Mr. Carey's well and
get on."
"Do you know who he is .?" asked the man.
46
J>
99
The Scarlet Car
The girl laughed. "You don't need a letter of
introduction to take a bucket of water, do you ?
she said. i
"It's Philip Carey's house. He lives here.
He spoke in a whisper, and insistently, as though
the information must carry some special signifi-
cance. But the girl showed no sign of enlighten-
ment. "You remember the Carey boys.^"' he
urged. "They left Harvard the year I entered.
They had to leave. They were quite mad. All
the Careys have been mad. The boys were queer
even then, and awfully rich. Henry ran away
with a girl from a shoe factory in Brockton and
lives in Paris, and Philip was sent here."
''Sent here .?" repeated the girl. Unconsciously
her voice also had sunk to a whisper.
"He has a doctor and a nurse and keepers, and
they live here all the year round. When Fred
said there were people hereabouts, I thought we
might strike them for something to eat, or even
to put up for the night, but, Philip Carey! I
shouldn't fancy "
"I should think not!" exclaimed the girl.
For a minute the three stood silent, peering
through the iron bars.
"And the worst of it is," went on the young man
irritably, "he could give us such good things to eat."
47
The Scarlet Car
''It doesn't look it/' said the girl.
"I know," continued the man in the same
?
eager whisper. **But — who was it telling me?
Some doctor I know who came down to see him.
He said Carey does himself awfully well, has the
house full of bully pictures, and the family plate,
and wonderful collections — things he picked up in
the East — gold ornaments, and jewels, and jade.'*
"I shouldn't think," said the girl in the same
hushed voice, *'they would let him live so far
from any neighbors with such things in the house.
Suppose burglars — — "
"Burglars! Burglars would never hear of this
place. How could they ? Even his friends think
it's just a private mad-house."
The girl shivered and drew back from the gate.
Fred coughed apologetically.
^^ Fve heard of it," he volunteered. "There was
a piece in the Sunday Post. It said he eats his
dinner in a diamond crown, and all the walls
is gold, and two monkeys wait on table with
gold "
"Nonsense!" said the man sharply. "He eats
like any one else and dresses like any one else.
How far is the well from the house ?"
"It's purty near," said the chauffeur.
"Pretty near the house, or pretty near here?'*
48
The Scarlet Car
"Just outside the kitchen; and it makes a
creaky noise/*
"You mean you don't want to go?**
Fred's answer was unintelligible.
"You wait here with Miss Forbes/* said the
young man. "And I'll get the water."
"Yes, sir!" said Fred, quite distinctly.
"No, sir!" said Miss Forbes, with equal dis-
tinctness. "I'm not going to be left here alone — •
with all these trees. I'm going with you."
"There may be a dog," suggested the young
man, "or, I was thinking if they heard me prowl-
ing about, they might take a shot — ^just for luck.
Why don't you go back to the car with Fred ?"
"Down that long road in the dark ?" exclaimed
the girl. "Do you think I have no imagination ?"
The man in front, the girl close on his heels,
and the boy with the buckets following, crawled
through the broken gate, and moved cautiously
up the gravel driveway.
Within fifty feet of the house the courage of the
chauffeur returned.
"You wait here," he whispered, "and if I wake
'em up, you shout to 'em that it's all right, that
It's only me."
"Your idea being," said the young man, "that
they will then fire at me. Clever lad. Run along."
49
The Scarlet Car
There was a rustling of the dead weeds, and
instantly the chauffeur was swallowed in the en-
compassing shadows.
Miss Forbes leaned toward the young man.
*'Do you see a light in that lower story?" she
whispered.
"No," said the man. "Where?"
After a pause the girl answered: "I can't see
it now, either. Maybe I didn't see it. It was
very faint — just a glow — it might have been phos-
phorescence."
*'It might," said the man. He gave a shrug
of distaste. "The whole place is certainly old
enough and decayed enough."
For a brief space they stood quite still, and at
once, accentuated by their own silence, the noises
of the night grew in number and distinctness. A
slight wind had risen and the boughs of the pines
rocked restlessly, making mournful complaint;
and at their feet the needles dropping in a gentle
desultory shower had the sound of rain in spring-
time. From every side they were startled by
noises they could not place. Strange movements
and rustlings caused them to peer sharply into
the shadows; footsteps, that seemed to approach,
and then, having marked them, skulk away;
branches of bushes that suddenly swept together,
50
The Scarlet Car
as though closing behind some one in stealthy
retreat. Although they knew that in the deserted
garden they were alone, they felt that from the
shadows they were being spied upon, that the
darkness of the place was peopled by malign pres-
ences.
The young man drew a cigar from his case and
put it unlit between his teeth.
^'Cheerful, isn't it ?" he growled. *^ These dead
leaves make it damp as a tomb. If I've seen one
ghost, I've seen a dozen. I believe we're stand-
ing in the Carey family's graveyard."
"I thought you were brave," said the girl.
''I am," returned the young man, *Very brave.
But if you had the most wonderful girl on earth
to take care of in the grounds of a mad-house at
two in the morning, you'd be scared too."
He was abruptly surprised by Miss Forbes lay-
ing her hand firmly upon his shoulder and turn-
ing him in the direction of the house. Her face
was so near his that he felt the uneven fluttering
of her breath upon his cheek.
** There is a man," she said, "standing behind
that tree.''
By the faint light of the stars he saw, in black
silhouette, a shoulder and head projecting from
beyond the trunk of a huge oak, and then quickly
51
The Scarlet Car
withdrawn. The owner of the head and shoulder
was on the side of the tree nearest to themselves,
his back turned to them, and so deeply was his
attention engaged that he was unconscious of
their presence.
"He is watching the house," said the girl.
**Why is he doing that?"
"I think it's Fred," whispered the man. "He's
afraid to go for the water. That's as far as he's
gone." He was about to move forward when
from the oak-tree there came a low whistle. The
girl and the man stood silent and motionless.
But they knew it was useless; that they had been
overheard. A voice spoke cautiously.
"That you .?" it asked.
With the idea only of gaining time, the young
man responded promptly and truthfully. "Yes,'*
he whispered.
" Keep to the right of the house," commanded
the voice.
The young man seized Miss Forbes by the wrist
and moving to the right drew her quickly with
him. He did not stop until they had turned the
corner of the building and were once more hid-
den by the darkness.
"The plot thickens," he said. "I take it that
that fellow is a keeper, or watchman. He spoke
52
The Scarlet Car
as though it were natural there should be another
man in the grounds, so there's probably two of
them, either to keep Carey in or to keep tres-
passers out. Now, I think Fll go back and tell
him that Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a
pail of water, and that all they want is to be al-
lowed to get the water, and go."
*'Why should a watchman hide behind a tree V
asked the girl. "And why "
She ceased abruptly with a sharp cry of fright.
"What's that.?" she whispered.
"What's what V asked the young man startled.
"What did you hear.?"
"Over there," stammered the girl. "Some-
thing — that — groaned."
"Pretty soon this will get on my nerves," said
the man. He ripped open his great-coat and
reached under it. "I've been stoned twice, when
there were women in the car," he said, apologeti-
cally, "and so now at night I carry a gun." He
shifted the darkened torch to his left hand, and,
moving a few yards, halted to listen. The girl,
reluctant to be left alone, followed slowly. As he
stood immovable there came from the leaves just
beyond him the sound of a feeble struggle, and a
strangled groan. The man bent forward and
flashed the torch. He saw stretched rigid on the
53
The Scarlet Car
ground a huge wolf-hound. Its legs were twisted
horribly, the lips drawn away from the teeth, the
eyes glazed in an agony of pain. The man
snapped off the light. **Keep back!" he whis-
pered to the girl. He took her by the arm and
ran with her toward the gate.
"Who was hr' she begged.
"It was a dog," he answered. "I think '*
He did not tell her what he thought.
"I've got to find out what the devil has hap-
pened to Fred!" he said. "You go back to the
car. Send your brother here on the run. Tell
him there's going to be a rough-house. You're
not afraid to go ? "
"No," said the girl.
A shadow blacker than the night rose suddenly
before them, and a voice asked sternly but quietly:
"What are you doing here V
The young man lifted his arm clear of the girl,
and shoved her quickly from him. In his hand
she felt the pressure of the revolver.
"Well," he repHed truculently, "and what are
you doing here ?"
" I am the night watchman," answered the voice.
"Who are you.?"
It struck Miss Forbes if the watchman knew
that one of the trespassers was a woman he
54
The Scarlet Car
would be at once reassured, and she broke in
quickly:
**We have lost our way/' she said pleasantly.
"We came here "
She found herself staring blindly down a
shaft of light. For an instant the torch held
her, and then from her swept over the young
man.
"Drop that gun!" cried the voice. It was no
longer the same voice; it was now savage and
snarling. For answer the young man pressed
the torch in his left hand, and, held in the two
circles of light, the men surveyed each other.
The new-comer was one of unusual bulk and
height. The collar of his overcoat hid his mouth,
and his derby hat was drawn down over his fore-
head, but what they saw showed an intelligent,
strong face, although for the moment it wore a
menacing scowl. The young man dropped his
revolver into his pocket.
"My automobile ran dry," he said; "we came
In here to get some water. My chauffeur is back
there somewhere with a couple of buckets. This
is Mr. Carey's place, isn't it?'*
"Take that light out of my eyes!" said the
watchman.
Take your light out of my eyes," returned the
55
<<
The Scarlet Car
job IS to protect this place, and I am going to
take you both to Mr. Carey."
Until this moment the young man could see
nothing save the shaft of light and the tiny glow-
ing bulb at its base; now into the light there pro-
truded a black revolver.
"Keep your hands up, and walk ahead of me
to the house," commanded the watchman. "The
woman will go in front."
The young man did not move. Under his
breath he muttered impotently, and bit at his
lower lip.
" See here," he said, " Til go with you, but you
sha'n't take this lady in front of that madman.
Let her go to her car. It's only a hundred yards
from here; you know perfectly well she "
"I know where your car is, all right," said the
watchman steadily, "and Tm not going to let
you get away in it till Mr. Carey's seen you."
The revolver motioned forward. Miss Forbes
stepped in front of it and appealed eagerly to the
young man.
"Do what he says," she urged. "It's only
his duty. Please! Indeed, I don't mind." She
turned to the watchman. "Which way do you
want us to go.?" she asked.
"Keep in the light," he ordered.
57
The Scarlet Car
The light showed the broad steps leading to the
front entrance of the house, and in its shaft they
climbed them, pushed open the unlocked door,
and stood in a small hallway. It led into a greater
hall beyond. By the electric lights still burning
they noted that the interior of the house was as
rich and well cared for as the outside was miser-
able. With a gesture for silence the watchman
motioned them into a small room on the right of
the hallway. It had the look of an office, and was
apparently the place in which were conducted
the affairs of the estate.
In an open grate was a dying fire; in front of it
a flat desk covered with papers and japanned tin
boxes.
*'You stay here till I fetch Mr. Carey and the
servants," commanded the watchman. "Don't
try to get out, and," he added menacingly, "don't
make no noise." With his revolver he pointed
at the two windows. They were heavily barred.
"Those bars keep Mr. Carey in," he said, "and
I guess they can keep you in, too. The other
watchman," he added, "will be just outside this
door." But still he hesitated, glowering with
suspicion; unwilling to trust them alone. His
face lit with an ugly smile.
"Mr. Carey's very bad to-night," he said; "he
S8
The Scarlet Car
won't keep his bed and he's wandering about
the house. If he found you by yourselves, he
might "
The young man, who had been staring at the
fire, swung sharply on his heel.
**Get-to-heil-out-of-here!" he said.
The watchman stepped into the hall and was
cautiously closing the door when a man sprang
lightly up the front steps. Through the inch crack
left by the open door the trespassers heard the
new-comer's eager greeting.
"I can't get him right!" he panted. "He's
snoring like a hog."
The watchman exclaimed savagely:
"He's fooling you." He gasped. "I didn't
mor' nor slap him. Did you throw water on him .^"
"I drowned him!" returned the other. "He
never winked. I tell you we gotta walk, and
damn quick!"
Walk!" The watchman cursed him foully.
How far could we walk I Fll bring him to,"
he swore. "He's scared of us, and he's sham-
ming." He gave a sudden start of alarm.
"That's it, he's shamming. You fool! You
shouldn't have left him."
There was the swift patter of retreating foot-
steps, and then a sudden halt, and they heard the
59
The Scarlet Car
watchman command: ''Go back, ana keep the
other two till I come/'
The next instant from the outside the door was
softly closed upon them.
It had no more than shut when to the surprise
of Miss Forbes the young man, with a delighted
and vindictive chuckle, sprang to the desk and
began to drum upon it with his fingers. It was
as though he were practising upon a type-writer.
"He missed these,^ he muttered jubilantly.
The girl leaned forward. Beneath his fingers she
saw, flush with the table, a roll of little ivory but-
tons. She read the words "Stables," "Servants'
hall." She raised a pair of very beautiful and
very bewildered eyes.
" But if he wanted the servants, why didn't the
watchman do that.^*" she asked.
"Because he isn't a watchman," answered the
young man. "Because he's robbing this house."
He took the revolver from his encumbering
great-coat, slipped it in his pocket, and threw the
coat from him. He motioned the girl into a cor-
ner. " Keep out of the line of the door," he
ordered.
I don't understand," begged the girl.
They came in a car," whispered the young
man. "It's broken down, and they can't gtt
60
The Scarlet Car
away. When the big fellow stopped us and I
flashed my torch, I saw their car behind him in
the road with the front off and the Hghts out.
He'd seen the lamps of our car, and now they
want it to escape in. That's why he brought us
here — to keep us away from our car."
"And Fred!" gasped the girl. "Fred's hurt!"
"I guess Fred stumbled into the big fellow,"
assented the young man, "and the big fellow put
him out; then he saw Fred was a chauffeur, and
now they are trying to bring him to, so that he
can run the car for them. You needn't worry
about Fred. He's been in four smash-ups."
The young man bent forward to listen, but
from no part of the great house came any sign.
He exclaimed angrily.
"They must be drugged," he growled. He ran
to the desk and made vicious jabs at the ivory
buttons.
"Suppose they're out of order!" he whispered.
There was the sound of leaping feet. The
young man laughed nervously. "No, it's all
right," he cried. "They're coming!"
The door flung open and the big burglar and a
small, rat-like figure of a man burst upon them;
the big one pointing a revolver.
"Come with me to your car!" he commanded.
6i #
The Scarlet Car
'* You've got to take us to Boston. Quick, or Fll
blow your face off/'
Although the young man glared bravely at the
steel barrel and the lifted trigger, poised a few
inches from his eyes, his body, as though weak
with fright, shifted slightly and his £eet made a
shuffling noise upon the floor. When the weight
of his body was balanced on the ball of his right
foot, the shuffling ceased. Had the burglar low-
ered his eyes, the manoeuvre to him would have
been significant, but his eyes were following the
barrel of the revolver.
In the mind of the young man the one thought
uppermost was that he must gain time, but, with
a revolver in his face, he found his desire to gain
time swiftly diminishing. Still, when he spoke, it
was with deliberation.
"My chauffeur — " he began slowly.
The burglar snapped at him like a dog. "To
hell with your chauffeur!" he cried. "Your
chauffeur has run away. You'll drive that car
yourself, or I'll leave you here with the top of
your head off."
The face of the young man suddenly flashed
with pleasure. His eyes, looking past the burglar
to the door, lit with relief.
"There's the chauffeur now!" he cried.
62
The Scarlet Car
The big burglar for one instant glanced over
his right shoulder.
For months at a time, on Soldiers' Field, the
young man had thrown himself at human targets,
that ran and dodged and evaded him, and the
hulking burglar, motionless before him, was easily
his victim.
He leaped at him, his left arm swinging like a
scythe, and, with the impact of a club, the blow
caught the burglar in the throat.
The pistol went ofFimpotently; the burglar with
a choking cough sank in a heap on the floor.
The young man tramped over him and upon
him, and beat the second burglar with savage,
whirlwind blows. The second burglar, shrieking
with pain, turned to fly, and a fist, that fell upon
him where his bump of honesty should have been,
drove his head against the lintel of the door.
At the same instant from the belfry on the roof
there rang out on the night the sudden tumult of
a bell; a bell that told as plainly as though it
clamored with a human tongue, that the hand
that rang it was driven with fear; fear of fire, fear
of thieves, fear of a madman with a knife in his
hand running amuck; perhaps at that moment
creeping up the belfry stairs.
From all over the house there was the rush of
63
The Scarlet Car
feet and men's voices, and from the garden the
Hght of dancing lanterns. And while the smoke
of the revolver still hung motionless, the open
door was crowded with half-clad figures. At their
head were two young men. One who had drawn
over his night-clothes a serge suit, and who, in
even that garb, carried an air of authority; and
one, tall, stooping, weak of face and light-haired,
with eyes that blinked and trembled behind great
spectacles, and who, for comfort, hugged about
him a gorgeous kimono. For an instant the
new-comers stared stupidly through the smoke at
the bodies on the floor breathing stertorously, at
the young man with the lust of battle still in his
face, at the girl shrinking against the wall. It
was the young man in the serge suit who was the
first to move.
"Who are you V he demanded.
'* These are burglars," said the owner of the
car. "We happened to be passing in my auto-
mobile, and "
The young man was no longer listening. With
an alert, professional manner he had stooped over
the big burglar. With his thumb he pushed back
the man's eyelids, and ran his fingers over his
throat and chin. He felt carefully of the point of
the chin, and glanced up.
64
The Scarlet Car
'You've broken the bone," he said.
I just swung on him," said the young man.
He turned his eyes, and suggested the presence
of the girl.
At the same moment the man in the kimono
cried nervously: "Ladies present, ladies present.
Go put your clothes on, everybody; put your
clothes on."
For orders the men in the doorway looked to
the young man with the stern face.
He scowled at the figure in the kimono.
"You will please go to your room, sir," he said.
He stood up, and bowed to Miss Forbes. "I beg
your pardon," he asked, "you must want to get
out of this. Will you please go into the library .?"
He turned to the robust youths in the door, and
pointed at the second burglar.
"Move him out of the way," he ordered.
The man in the kimono smirked and bowed.
"Allow me," he said; "allow me to show you
to the library. This is no place for ladies."
The young man with the stern face frowned
impatiently.
"You will please return to your room, sir," he
repeated.
With an attempt at dignity the figure in the
kimono gathered the silk robe closer about him.
65
The Scarlet Car
"Certainly," he said. "If you think you can
get on without me — I will retire," and lifting his
bare feet mincingly, he tiptoed away. Miss
Forbes looked after him with an expression of
rehef, of repulsion, of great pity.
The owner of the car glanced at the young
man with the stern face, and raised his eyebrows
interrogatively.
The young man had taken the revolver from
the limp fingers of the burglar and was holding
it in his hand. Winthrop gave what was half a
laugh and half a sigh of compassion.
"So, that's Carey .^'* he said.
There was a sudden silence. The young man
with the stern face made no answer. His head
was bent over the revolver. He broke it open,
and spilled the cartridges into his palm. Still he
made no answer. When he raised his head, his
eyes were no longer stern, but wistful, and filled
with an inexpressible loneliness.
"No, / am Carey," he said.
The one who had blundered stood helpless,
tongue-tied, with no presence of mind beyond
knowing that to explain would offend further.
The other seemed to feel for him more than for
himself. In a voice low and peculiarly appealing,
he continued hurriedly.
66
"You've broken the bone," he said
The Scarlet Car
"He is my doctor," he said. "He is a young
man, and he has not had many advantages — his
manner is not — I find we do not get on together.
I have asked them to send me some one else."
He stopped suddenly, and stood unhappily silent.
The knowledge that the strangers were acquainted
with his story seemed to rob him of his earlier
confidence. He made an uncertain movement as
though to relieve them of his presence.
Miss Forbes stepped toward him eagerly.
"You told me I might wait in the library," she
said. "Will you take me there .f*"
For a moment the man did not move, but stood
looking at the young and beautiful girl, who, with
a smile, hid the compassion in her eyes.
Will you go.f*" he asked wistfully.
Why not.f*'' said the girl.
The young man laughed with pleasure.
"I am unpardonable," he said. "I live so
much alone — that I forget." Like one who, issu-
ing from a close room, encounters the morning air,
he drew a deep, happy breath. "It has been three
years since a woman has been in this house," he
said simply. "And I have not even thanked
you," he went on, "nor asked you if you are cold,"
he cried remorsefully, "or hungry. How nice it
would be if you would say you are hungry."
67
6(
The Scarlet Car
The girl walked beside him, laughing lightly,
and, as they disappeared into the greater hall
beyond, Winthrop heard her cry: *'You never
robbed your own ice-chest ? How have you kept
from starving ? Show me it, and we'll rob it
together."
The voice of their host rang through the empty
house with a laugh like that of an eager, happy
child.
*' Heavens!" said the owner of the car, "isn't
she wonderful!" But neither the prostrate bur-
glars, nor the servants, intent on strapping their
wrists together, gave him any answer.
As they were finishing the supper filched from
the ice-chest, Fred was brought before them from
the kitchen. The blow the burglar had given
him was covered with a piece of cold beefsteak,
and the water thrown on him to revive him was
thawing from his leather breeches. Mr. Carey
expressed his gratitude, and rewarded him beyond
the avaricious dreams even of a chauffeur.
As the three trespassers left the house, accom-
panied by many pails of water, the girl turned to
the lonely figure in the doorway and waved her
hand.
''May we come again?" she called.
But young Mr. Carey did not trust his voice to
68
The Scarlet Car
answer. Standing erect, with folded arms, in
dark silhouette in the light of the hall, he bowed
his head.
Deaf to alarm bells, to pistol shots, to cries for
help, they found her brother and Ernest Peabody
sleeping soundly.
"Sam is a charming chaperon," said the owner
of the car.
With the girl beside him, with Fred crouched,
shivering, on the step, he threw in the clutch; the
servants from the house waved the emptied buck-
ets in salute, and the great car sprang forward
into the awakening day toward the golden dome
over the Boston Common. In the rear seat Pea-
body shivered and yawned, and then sat erect.
"Did you get the water?" he demanded,
anxiously.
There was a grim silence.
"Yes," said the owner of the car patiently.
"You needn't worry any longer. We got the
water."
69
Ill
THE KIDNAPPERS
DURING the last two weeks of the "whirl-
wind '' campaign, automobiles had carried
the rival candidates to every election district in
Greater New York.
During these two weeks, at the disposal of
Ernest Peabody — on the Reform Ticket **the
people's choice for Lieutenant-Governor" — Win-
throp had placed his Scarlet Car, and, as its
chauffeur, himself.
Not that Winthrop greatly cared for Reform or
Ernest Peabody. The "whirlwind" part of the
campaign was what attracted him; the crowds,
the bands, the fireworks, the rush by night from
hall to hall, from Fordham to Tompkinsville.
And while, inside the different Lyceums, Pea-
body lashed the Tammany Tiger, outside, in his
car, Winthrop was making friends with Tam-
many policemen, and his natural enemies, the
bicycle cops. To Winthrop, the day in which he
70
The Scarlet Car
did not increase his acquaintance with the traffic
squad was a day lost.
But the real reason for his efforts in the cause
of Reform was one he could not declare. And it
was a reason that was guessed perhaps by only
one person. On some nights Beatrice Forbes and
her brother Sam accompanied Peabody. And
while Peabody sat in the rear of the car, mum-
bling the speech he would next deliver, Winthrop
was given the chance to talk with her. These
chances were growing cruelly few. In one month
after election day Miss Forbes and Peabody
would be man and wife. Once before the day of
their marriage had been fixed, but, when the
Reform Party offered Peabody a high place on
its ticket, he asked, in order that he might bear
his part in the cause of reform, that the wedding
be postponed. To the postponement Miss Forbes
made no objection. To one less self-centred than
Peabody, it might have appeared that she almost
too readily consented.
'*I knew I could count upon your seeing my
duty as I saw it," said Peabody, much pleased;
**it always will be a satisfaction to both of us to
remember you never stood between me and my
work for reform."
**What do you think my brother-in-law-to-be
71
The Scarlet Car
has done now?" demanded Sam of Winthrop,
as the Scarlet Car swept into Jerome Avenue.
**He's postponed his marriage with Trix just
because he has a chance to be Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor. What is a Lieutenant-Governor anyway,
do you know ^ I don't Hke to ask Peabody."
'^It's not his ov^m election he's working for,"
said Winthrop. He was conscious of an effort to
assume a point of view both noble and magnani-
mous. "He probably feels the 'cause' calls him.
But, good Heavens!"
*'Look out!" shrieked Sam; "where are you
gomg f
Winthrop swung the car back into the avenue.
"To think," he cried, "that a man who could
marry — a girl, and then would ask her to wait
two months. Or two days! Two months lost
out of his life, and she might die; he might lose
her; she might change her mind. Any number of
men can be Lieutenant-Governors; only one man
can be "
He broke off suddenly, coughed, and fixed his
eyes miserably on the road. After a brief pause.
Brother Sam covertly looked at him. Could it
be that "Billie" Winthrop, the man liked of all
men, should love his sister, and that she should
prefer Ernest Pea body .? He was deeply, loyally
72
The Scarlet Car
indignant. He determined to demand of his sis-
ter an immediate and abject apology.
At eight o'clock on the morning of election day,
Peabody, in the Scarlet Car, was on his way to
vote. He lived at Riverside Drive, and the poll-
ing-booth was only a few blocks distant. Dur-
ing the rest of the day he intended to use the car
to visit other election districts, and to keep him
in touch with the Reformers at the Gilsey House.
Winthrop was acting as his chauffeur, and in the
rear seat was Miss Forbes. Peabody had asked
her to accompany him to the polling-booth, be-
c:;ase he thought women who believed in reform
should show their interest in it in public, before
all men. Miss Forbes disagreed with him, chiefly
because whenever she sat in a box at any of the
public meetings the artists from the newspapers,
instead of immortalizing the candidate, made pict-
ures of her and her hat. After she had seen her
future lord and master cast his vote for reform
and himself, she was to depart by train to Tarry-
town. The Forbes's country place was there,
and for election day her brother Sam had invited
out some of his friends to play tennis.
As the car darted and dodged up Eighth Ave-
nue, a man who had been hidden by the stairs
to the Elevated, stepped in front of it. It caught
73
The Scarlet Car
him, and hurled him, Hke a mail-bag tossed from
a train, against one of the pillars that support the
overhead tracks. Winthrop gave a cry and fell
upon the brakes. The cry was as full of pain
as though he himself had been mangled. Miss
Forbes saw only the man appear, and then dis-
appear, but Winthrop's shout of warning, and
the wrench as the brakes locked, told her what
had happened. She shut her eyes, and for an
instant covered them with her hands. On the
front seat Peabody clutched helplessly at the
cushions. In horror his eyes were fastened on
the motionless mass jammed against the pillar.
Winthrop scrambled over him, and ran to where
the man lay. So, apparently, did every other
inhabitant of Eighth Avenue; but Winthrop was
the first to reach him, and kneeling in the car
tracks, he tried to place the head and shoulders of
the body against the iron pillar. He had seen
very few dead men; and to him, this weight in his
arms, this bundle of limp flesh and muddy clothes,
and the purple-bloated face with blood trickling
down it, looked like a dead man.
Once or twice when in his car Death had
reached for Winthrop, and only by the scantiest
grace had he escaped. Then the nearness of it
h^d only sobered him. Now that he believed he
74
The Scarlet Car
had brought it to a fellow man, even though he
knew he was in no degree to blame, the thought
sickened and shocked him. His brain trembled
with remorse and horror.
But voices assailing him on every side brought
him to the necessity of the moment. Men were
pressing close upon him, jostling, abusing him, shak-
ing fists in his face. Another crowd of men, as
though fearing the car woufd escape of its own voli-
tion, were clinging to the steps and running boards.
Winthrop saw Miss Forbes standing above them,
talking eagerly to Peabody, and pointing at him.
He heard children's shrill voices calling: to new ar-
rivals that an automobile had killed a man; that
it had killed him on purpose. On the outer edge
of the crowd men shouted: "Ah, soak him!"
'^Kill him!" "Lynch him!"
A soiled giant without a collar stooped over the
purple, blood-stained face, and then leaped up-
right, and shouted: "It's Jerry Gaylor, he's killed
old man Gaylor."
The response was instant. Every one seemed
to know Jerry Gaylor.
Winthrop took the soiled person by the arm.
You help me lift him into my car," he ordered.
Take him by the shoulders. We must get him
to a hospital."
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The Scarlet Car
*" To a hospital ? To the Morgue!" roared the
man. ''And the poHce station for yours. You
don't do no get-away."
Winthrop answered him by turning to the
crowd. ** If this man has any friends here, they'll
please help me put him in my car, and we'll take
him to Roosevelt Hospital."
The soiled person shoved a fist and a bad cigar
under Winthrop's nose.
"Has he got any friends ?" he mocked. "Sure,
he's got friends, and they'll fix you, all right."
"Sure!" echoed the crowd.
The man was encouraged.
"Don't you go away thinking you can come up
here with your buzz wagon and murder better
men nor you'll ever be and "
"Oh, shut up!" said Winthrop.
He turned his back on the soiled man, and
again appealed to the crowd.
"Don't stand there doing nothing," he com-
manded. "Do you want this man to die ? Some
of you ring for an ambulance and get a policeman,
or tell me where is the nearest drug store."
No one moved, but every one shouted to every
one else to do as Winthrop suggested.
Winthrop felt something pulling at his sleeve,
and turning, found Peabody at his shoulder, peer^
76
The Scarlet Car
ing fearfully at the figure in the street. He had
drawn his cap over his eyes and hidden the lower
part of his face in the high collar of his motor
coat.
"I can't do anything, can I .?" he asked.
'Tm afraid not/' whispered Winthrop. *'Go
back to the car and don't leave Beatrice. I'll
attend to this."
*^ That's what I thought," whispered Peabody
eagerly. "I thought she and I had better keep
out of it."
"Right!" exclaimed Winthrop. ''Go back and
get Beatrice away."
Peabody looked his relief, but still hesitated.
"I can't do anything, as you say," he stam-
mered, "and it's sure to get in the * extras,' and
they'll be out in time to lose us thousands of
votes, and though no one is to blame, they're
sure to blame me. I don't care about myself,"
he added eagerly, "but the very morning of elec-
tion — half the city has not voted yet — the
Ticket —
s.et "
Damn the Ticket!'* exclaimed Winthrop.
''The man's dead!"
Peabody, burying his face still deeper in his
collar, backed into the crowd. In the present
and past campaigns, from carts and automobiles
77
The Scarlet Car
he had made many speeches in Harlem, and on
the West Side lithographs of his stern, resolute
features hung in every deHcatessen shop, and
that he might be recognized was extremely likely.
He whispered to Miss Forbes what he had said,
and what Winthrop had said.
"But you dont mean to leave him," remarked
Miss Forbes.
"I must," returned Peabody. "I can do noth-
ing for the man, and you know how Tammany
will use this. They'll have it on the street by
ten. They'll say I was driving recklessly; with-
out regard for human life. And, besides, they're
waiting for me at head-quarters. Please hurry.
I am late now."
Miss Forbes gave an exclamation of surprise,
"Why, I'm not going," she said.
"You must go! / must go. You can't re-
main here alone."
Peabody spoke in the quick, assured tone that
at the first had convinced Miss Forbes his was a
most masterful manner.
"Winthrop, too," he added, "wants you to go
away."
Miss Forbes made no reply. But she looked
at Peabody inquiringly, steadily, as though she
were puzzled as to his identity, as though he had
78
<(
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The Scarlet Car
just been introduced to her. It made him un-
comfortable.
''Are you coming.?" he asked.
Her answer was a question.
Are you going .? "
I am!" returned Peabody. He added sharply:
i must.
"Good-by," said Miss Forbes.
As he ran up the steps to the station of the
Elevated, it seemed to Peabody that the tone of
her "good-by" had been most unpleasant. It
was severe, disapproving. It had a final, fateful
sound. He was conscious of a feelingr of self-
dissatisfaction. In not seeing the political im-
portance of his not being mixed up with this acci-
dent, Winthrop had been pecuHarly obtuse, and
Beatrice, unsympathetic.
Until he had cast his vote for Reform, he felt
distinctly ill-used.
For a moment Beatrice Forbes sat in the car
motionless, staring unseeingly at the iron steps by
which Peabody had disappeared. For a few
moments her brows were tightly drawn. Then,
having apparently quickly arrived at some con-
clusion, she opened the door of the car and pushed
into the crowd.
Winthrop received her most rudely.
79
The Scarlet Car
"You mustn't come here!" he cried.
"I thought/' she stammered, ''you might want
some one ? "
*'I told — " began Winthrop, and then stopped,
and added — *'to take you away. Where is he?"
Miss Forbes flushed sHghtly.
''He's gone," she said.
In trying not to look at Winthrop, she saw the
fallen figure, motionless against the pillar, and
with an exclamation, bent fearfully toward it.
"Can I do anything?" she asked.
The crowd gave way for her, and with curious
pleased faces, closed in again eagerly. She af-
forded them a new interest.
A young man in the uniform of an ambulance
surgeon was kneeling beside the mud-stained
figure, and a police ofl&cer was standing over both.
The ambulance surgeon touched lightly the mat-
ted hair from which the blood escaped, stuck his
finger in the eye of the prostrate man, and then
with his open hand slapped him across the face.
"Oh!" gasped Miss Forbes.
The young doctor heard her, and looking up,
scowled reprovingly. Seeing she was a rarely
beautiful young woman, he scowled less severely;
and then deliberately and expertly, again slapped
Mr. Jerry Gaylor on the cheek. He watched the
80
The Scarlet Car
white mark made by his hand upon the purpte
skin, until the blood struggled slowly back to it,
and then rose.
He ignored every one but the police officer.
"There's nothing the matter with htm/^ he
said. *^He's dead drunk.''
The words came to Winthrop with such abrupt
relief, bearing so tremendous a burden of grati-
tude, that his heart seemed to fail him. In his
suddenly regained happiness, he unconsciously
laughed.
"Are you sure ?" he asked eagerly. "I thought
I'd killed him."
The surgeon looked at Winthrop coldly.
"When they're like that," he explained with
authority, "you can't hurt 'em if you throw them
off The Times Building."
He condescended to recognize the crowd.
"You know where this man lives?"
Voices answered that Mr. Gaylor lived at the
corner, over the saloon. The voices showed a
lack of sympathy. Old man Gaylor dead was a
novelty; old man Gaylor drunk was not.
The doctor's prescription was simple and direct.
" Put him to bed till he sleeps it off," he ordered;
he swung himself to the step of the ambulance.
"Let him out, Steve," he called. There was
8i
The Scarlet Car
the clang of a gong and the rattle of galloping
hoofs.
The police officer approached Winthrop.
''They tell me Jerry stepped in front of your car;
that you wasn't to blame. Til get their names
and where they live. Jerry might try to hold you
up for damages."
"Thank you very much/' said Winthrop.
With several of Jerry's friends, and the soiled
person, who now seem.ed dissatisfied that Jerry
was alive, Winthrop helped to carry him up one
flight of stairs and drop him upon a bed.
"In case he needs anything," said Winthrop,
and gave several bills to the soiled person, upon
whom immediately Gaylor's other friends closed
in. "And I'll send my own doctor at once to
attend to him."
"You'd better," said the soiled person mo-
rosely, "or he'll try to shake you down."
The opinions as to what might be Mr. Gaylor's
next move seemicd unanimous.
From the saloon below, Winthrop telephoned
to the family doctor, and then rejoined Miss
Forbes and the police officer. The officer gave
him the names of those citizens who had witnessed
the accident, and in return received Winthrop's
card.
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The Scarlet Car
''Not that it will go any further," said the
officer reassuringly. '* They're all saying you
acted all right and wanted to take him to Roose-
velt. There's many," he added with sententious
indignation, "that knock a man down, and then
run away without waiting to find out if they've
hurted 'em or killed 'em."
The speech for both Winthrop and Miss Forbes
was equally embarrassing.
"You don't say.f*" exclaimed Winthrop ner-
vously. He shook the policeman's hand. The
handclasp was apparently satisfactory to that
official, for he murmured "Thank you," and
stuck something in the lining of his helmet.
"Now, then!" Winthrop said briskly to Miss
Forbes, "I think we have done all we can. And
we'll get away from this place a little faster than
the law allows."
Miss Forbes had seated herself in the car, and
Winthrop was cranking up, when the same police-
man, wearing an anxious countenance, touched
him on the arm. "There is a gentleman here,"
he said, "wants to speak to you." He placed
himself between the gentleman and Winthrop and
whispered: "He's *Izzy' Schwab, he's a Harlem
police-court lawyer and a Tammany man. He's
after something, look out for him."
83
The Scarlet Car
Winthrop saw, smiling at him ingratiatingly, a
slight, slim youth, with beady, rat-like eyes, a
low forehead, and a Hebraic nose. He won-
dered how it had been possible for Jerry Gaylor
to so quickly secure counsel. But Mr. Schwab
at once undeceived him.
"Fm from The Journal,^' he began, ''not regu-
lar on the staff, but I send 'em Harlem items,
and the court reporter treats me nice, see! Now
about this accident; could you give me the name
of the young lady : "
He smiled encouragingly at Miss Forbes.
"I could not!" growled Winthrop. "The man
wasn't hurt, the policeman will tell you so. It is
not of the least public interest."
With a deprecatory shrug, the young man
smiled knowingly.
''Well, mebbe not the lady's name," he granted,
"but the name of the other gentleman who was
with you, when the accident occurred." His
black, rat-like eyes snapped. "I think his name
would be of public interest."
To gain time Winthrop stepped into the driver's
seat. He looked at Mr. Schwab steadily.
"There was no other gentleman," he said.
"Do you mean my chauffeur?" Mr. Schwab
gave an appreciative chuckle.
84
The Scarlet Car
"No, I don't mean your chauffeur," he mim-
icked. *^I mean/' he declared theatrically in
his best police-court manner, "the man who
to-day is hoping to beat Tammany, Ernest Pea-
body ! "
Winthrop stared at the youth insolently.
"I don't understand you," he said.
"Oh, of course not!" jeered "Izzy" Schwab.
He moved excitedly from foot to foot. "Then
who was the other man," he demanded, "the
man who ran away.^"
Winthrop felt the blood rise to his face. That
Miss Forbes should hear this rat of a man sneer-
ing at the one she was to marry, made him hate
Peabody. But he answered easily:
"No one ran away. I told my chauffeur to go
and call up an ambulance. That was the man
you saw."
As when "leading on" a witness to commit
himself, Mr. Schwab smiled sympathetically.
"And he hasn't got back yet," he purred, "has
he.?"
"No, and I'm not going to wait for him," re-
turned Winthrop. He reached for the clutch, but
Mr. Schwab jumped directly in front of the car.
"Was he looking for a telephone when he ran
up the Elevated steps.?" he cried.
85
The Scarlet Car
He shook his fists vehemently.
"Oh, no, Mr. Winthrop, it won't do — you
make a good witness. I wouldn't ask for no bet-
ter, but, you don't fool ^Izzy' Schwab."
"You're mistaken, I tell you," cried Winthrop
desperately. "He may look like — like this man
you speak of, but no Peabody was in this
car.
Izzy" Schwab wrung his hands hysterically.
No, he wasn't!" he cried, "because he run
away! And left an old man in the street — dead,
for all he knowed — ^nor cared neither. Yah!"
shrieked the Tammany heeler. **Htm a Re-
former, yah!"
"Stand away from my car," shouted Winthrop,
"or you'll get hurt."
"Yah, you'd like to, wouldn't you .f*" returned
Mr. Schwab, leaping nimbly to one side. "What
do you think The Journal '11 give me for that
story, hey .? 'Ernest Peabody, the Reformer, Kills
an Old Man, AND RUNS AWAY.' And hiding
his face, too! I seen him. What do you think
that story's worth to Tammany, hey ? It's worth
twenty thousand votes!" The young man danced
in front of the car triumphantly, mockingly, in a
frenzy of malice. "Read the extras, that's all,"
he taunted. "Read 'em in an hour from now!'*
86
The Scarlet Car
Winthrop glared at the shrieking figure with
fierce, impotent rage; then, with a look of disgust,
he flung the robe off his knees and rose. Mr.
Schwab, fearing bodily injury, backed precipi-
tately behind the policeman.
"Come here," commanded Winthrop softly.
Mr. Schwab warily approached. "That story,**
said Winthrop, dropping his voice to a low whis-
per, "is worth a damn sight more to you than
twenty thousand votes. You take a spin with me
up Riverside Drive where we can talk. Maybe
you and I can 'make a little business.' ''
At the words, the face of Mr. Schwab first
darkened angrily, and then lit with such exulta-
tion that it appeared as though Winthrop's efforts
had only placed Peabody deeper in Mr. Schwab's
power. But the rat-like eyes wavered, there was
doubt in them, and greed, and, when they turned
to observe if any one could have heard the offer,
Winthrop felt the trick was his. It was apparent
that Mr. Schwab was willing to arbitrate.
He stepped gingerly into the front seat, and as
Winthrop leaned over him and tucked and buck-
led the fur robe around his knees, he could not
resist a glance at his friends on the sidewalk.
They were grinning with wonder and envy, and
as the great car shook itself, and ran easily for-
87
The Scarlet Car
ward, Mr. Schwab leaned back and carelessly-
waved his hand. But his mind did not waver
from the purpose of his ride. He was not one to
be cajoled with fur rugs and glittering brass.
*'Well, Mr. Winthrop/' he began briskly.
*^You want to say something? You must be
quick — every minute's money."
*'Wait till we're out of the traffic," begged Win-
throp anxiously, '*I don't want to run down any
more old men, and I wouldn't for the world have
anything happen to you, Mr.- — " He paused
politely.
"Schwab — Isadore Schwab."
*^How did you know my name?" asked Win-
throp.
The card you gave the police officer."
I see," said Winthrop. They were silent
while the car swept swiftly west, and Mr. Schwab
kept thinking that for a young man who was
afraid of the traffic, Winthrop was dodging the
motor cars, beer vans, and iron pillars, with a
dexterity that was criminally reckless.
At that hour Riverside Drive was empty, and
after a gasp of relief, Mr. Schwab resumed the
attack.
*'Now, then," he said sharply, '* don't go any
further. What is this you want to talk about?"
88
ti
The Scarlet Car
'^How much will The Journal give you for this
story of yours?" asked Winthrop.
Mr. Schwab smiled mysteriously.
"Why?" he asked.
''Because/' said Winthrop, ''I think I could
offer you something better.''
''You mean," said the police-court lawyer
cautiously, "you will make it worth my while not
to tell the truth about what I saw?"
"Exactly," said Winthrop.
"That's all! Stop the car," cried Mr. Schwab.
His manner was commanding. It vibrated with
triumph. His eyes glistened with wicked satis-
faction.
"Stop the car?'* demanded Winthrop, "what
do you mean ? "
I mean," said Mr. Schwab dramatically,
that I've got you w^here I want you, thank you.
You have killed Peabody dead as a cigar butt!
Now I can tell them how his friends tried to bribe
me. Why do you think I came in your car ? For
what money you got ? Do you think you can
stack up your roll against the New York JournaVsy
or against Tammany's?" His shrill voice rose
exultantly. "Why, Tammany ought to make me
judge for this! Now, let me down here," he
commanded, "and next time, don't think you
89
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The Scarlet Car
can take on 'Izzy' Schwab and get away with
It.
They were passing Grant's Tomb, and the car
was moving at a speed that Mr. Schwab recog-
nized was in excess of the speed Hmit.
*'Do you hear me?" he demanded, "let me
down ! "
To his dismay Winthrop's answer was in some
fashion to so juggle with the shining brass rods
that the car flew into greater speed. To **Izzy''
Schwab it seemed to scorn the earth, to proceed
by leaps and jumps. But, what added even
more to his mental discomfiture was, that Win-
throp should turn, and slowly and familiarly wink
at him.
As through the window of an express train, Mr.
Schwab saw the white front of Claremont, and
beyond it the broad sweep of the Hudson. And
then, without decreasing its speed, the car like a
great bird swept down a hill, shot under a bridge,
and into a partly paved street. Mr. Schwab
already was two miles from his own bailiwick.
His surroundings were unfamiliar. On the one
hand were newly erected, untenanted flat houses
with the paint still on the window panes, and on
the other side, detached villas, a roadhouse, an
orphan asylum, a glimpse of the Hudson.
90
The Scarlet Car
"Let me out," yelled Mr. Schwab, "what you
trying to do ? Do you think a few blocks'!! make
any difference to a telephone ? You think you're
damned smart, don't you ? But you won't feel so
fresh when I get on the long distance. You let
me down," he threatened, "or, I'll- "
With a sickening skidding of wheels, Winthrop
whirled the car round a corner and into the
Lafayette Boulevard, that for miles runs along
the cliff of the Hudson.
"Yes," asked Winthrop, ''what will you do.?"
On one side was a high steep bank, on the
other many trees, and through them below, the
river. But there were no houses, and at half-
past eight in the morning those who later drive
upon the boulevard were still in bed.
''What will you do.?" repeated Winthrop.
Miss Forbes, apparently as much interested in
Mr. Schwab's answer as Winthrop, leaned for-
ward. Winthrop raised his voice above the whir
of flying wheels, the rushing wind, and scattering
pebbles.
"I asked you into this car," he shouted, "be-
cause I meant to keep you in it until I had you
where you couldn't do any mischief. I told you
I'd give you something better than The Journal
would give you, and I am going to give you a
91
The Scarlet Car
happy day in the country. We're now on our
way to this lady's house. You are my guest^ and
you can play golf, and bridge, and the piano, and
eat and drink until the polls close, and after that
you can go to the devil. If you jump out at this
speed, you will break your neck. And if I have
to slow up for anything, and you try to get away,
ril go after you — it doesn't matter where it is —
and break every bone in your body."
Yah! you can't!" shrieked Mr. Schwab.
You can't do it!" The madness of the flying
engines had got upon his nerves. Their poison
was surging in his veins. He knew he had only
to touch his elbow against the elbow of Winthrop,
and he could throw the three of them into eternity.
He was travelling on air, uplifted, defiant, carried
beyond himself.
"I can't do what.^" asked Winthrop.
The words reached Schwab from an immeasur-
able distance, as from another planet, a calm,
humdrum planet on which events moved in com-
monplace, orderly array. Without a jar, with no
transition stage, instead of hurtling through space,
Mr. Schwab found himself luxuriously seated in
a cushioned chair, motionless, at the side of a
steep bank. For a mile before him stretched an
empty road. And beside him in the car, with
92
The Scarlet Car
arms folded calmly on the wheel, there glared at
him a grim, alert young man.
"I can't do what?" growled the young man.
A feeling of great loneliness fell upon "Izzy"
Schwab. Where were now those officers, who in
the police courts were at his beck and call ?
Where the numbered houses, the passing sur-
face cars, the sweating multitudes of Eighth Ave-
nue ^ In all the world he was alone, alone on
an empty country road, with a grim, alert young
man.
**W"hen I asked you how you knew my name,"
said the young man, "I thought you knew me as
having won some races in Florida last winter.
This is the car that won. I thought maybe you
might have heard of me when I was captain of a
football team at — a university. If you have any
idea that you can jump from this car and not be
killed, or that I cannot pound you into a pulp,
let me prove to you you're wrong — now. We're
quite alone. Do you wish to get down .? "
"No," shrieked Schwab, "I won't!" He
turned appealingly to the young lady. "You're a
witness," he cried. "If he assaults me, he's
liable. I haven't done nothing."
"We're near Yonkers," said the young man,
*'and if you try to take advantage of my having to
93
The Scarlet Car
go slow through the town, you know now what
will happen to you."
Mr. Schwab having instantly planned, on reach-
ing Yonkers, to leap from the car into the arms
of the village constable, with suspicious alacrity
assented. The young man regarded him doubt-
fully.
"I'm afraid I'll have to show you," said the
young man. He laid two fingers on Mr. Schwab's
wrist; looking at him, as he did so, steadily and
thoughtfully, like a physician feeling a pulse.
Mr. Schwab screamed. When he had seen
policemen twist steel nippers on the wrists of
prisoners, he had thought, when the prisoners
shrieked and writhed, they were acting. He
now knew they were not.
**Now, will you promise?" demanded the grim
young man.
"Yes," gasped Mr. Schwab. "I'll sit still. I
won't do nothing."
"Good," muttered Winthrop.
A troubled voice that carried to the heart of
Schwab a promise of protection, said: "Mr.
Schwab, would you be more comfortable back
here with me .? "
Mr. Schwab turned two terrified eyes in the
direction of the voice. He saw the beautiful
94
The Scarlet Car
young lady regarding him kindly, compassion-
ately; with just a suspicion of a smile. Mr.
Schwab instantly scrambled to safety over the
front seat into the body of the car. Miss Forbes
made way for the prisoner beside her and he
sank back with a nervous, apologetic sigh. The
alert young man was quick to follow the lead of
the lady.
"You'll find caps and goggles in the boot,
Schwab," he said hospitably. "You had better
put them on. We are going rather fast now."
He extended a magnificent case of pigskin, that
bloomed with fat black cigars. "Try one of
these," said the hospitable young man. The
emotions that swept Mr. Schwab he found diffi-
cult to pursue, but he raised his hat to the lady.
May I, Miss.?" he said.
Certainly," said the lady.
There was a moment of delay while with fingers
that slightly trembled, Mr. Schwab selected an
amazing green cap and lit his cigar; and then the
car swept forward, singing and humming happily,
and scattering the autumn leaves. The young
lady leaned toward him with a book in a leather
cover. She placed her finger on a twisting red
line that trickled through a page of type.
"We're just here," said the young lady, "and
95
The Scarlet Car
we ought to reach home, which is just about
there, in an hour."
*'I see," said Schwab. But all he saw was a
finger in a white glove, and long eyelashes tangled
in a gray veil.
For many minutes or, for all Schwab knew, for
many miles, the young lady pointed out to him
the places along the Hudson, of which he had
read in the public school history, and quaint old
manor houses set in glorious lawns; and told him
who lived in them. Schwab knew the names as
belonging to down-town streets, and up-town
clubs. He became nervously humble, intensely
polite, he felt he was being carried as an honored
guest into the very heart of the Four Hundred,
and when the car jogged slowly down the main
street of Yonkers, although a policeman stood
idly within a yard of him, instead of shrieking to
him for help, **Izzy" Schwab looked at him scorn-
fully across the social gulf that separated them,
with all the intolerance he believed becoming in
the upper classes.
"Those bicycle cops," he said confidentially to
Miss Forbes, *'are too chesty."
The car turned in between stone pillars, and
under an arch of red and golden leaves, and swept
up a long avenue to a house of innumerable roofs.
96
The Scarlet Car
It was the grandest house Mr. Schwab had ever
entered, and when two young men in striped
waistcoats and many brass buttons ran down
the stone steps and threw open the door of the
car, his heart fluttered between fear and pleas-
ure.
Lounging before an open fire in the hall were a
number of young men, who welcomed Winthrop
delightedly, and to all of whom Mr. Schwab was
formally presented. As he was introduced he
held each by the hand and elbow and said im-
pressively, and much to the other's embarrass-
ment, ^^ What name, please.?"
Then one of the servants conducted him to a
room opening on the hall, from whence he heard
stifled exclamations and laughter, and some one
saying ''Hush." But ''Izzy" Schwab did not
care. The slave in brass buttons was proffering
him ivory-backed hair-brushes, and obsequiously
removing the dust from his coat collar. Mr.
Schwab explained to him that he was not dressed
for automobiling, as Mr. Winthrop had invited
him quite informally. The man was most charm-
ingly sympathetic. And when he returned to the
hall every one received him with the most genial,
friendly interest. Would he play golf, or tennis,
or pool, or walk over the farm, or just look on o^*
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It seemed the wish of each to be his escort. Never
had he been so popular.
He said he would "just look on." And so,
during the last and decisive day of the "whirl-
wind" campaign, while in Eighth Avenue voters
were being challenged, beaten, and bribed, bon-
fires were burning, and "extras" were appearing
every half hour, "Izzy" Schwab, the Tammany
henchman, with a secret worth twenty thousand
votes, sat a prisoner, in a wicker chair, with a
drink and a cigar, guarded by four young men in
flannels, who played tennis violently at live dol-
lars a corner.
It was aKvays a great day in the life of ^*Izzy"
Schwab. After a luncheon, which, as he later
informed his friends, could not have cost less than
"two dollars a plate and drink all you like," Sam
Forbes took him on at pool. Mr. Schwab had
learned the game in the cellars of Eighth Avenue
at two and a half cents a cue, and now, even in
Columbus Circle he was a star. So, before the
sun had set Mr. Forbes, who at pool rather fan-
cied himself, was seventy-five dollars poorer, and
Mr. Schwab just that much to the good. Then
there followed a strange ceremony called tea, or,
if you preferred it, whiskey and soda; and the
tall footman bent before him with huge silver sal-
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vers- laden down with flickering silver lamps, and
bubbling soda bottles, and cigars, and cigarettes.
"You could have filled your pockets with
twenty-five cent Havanas, and nobody would
have said nothing!" declared Mr. Schwab, and
his friends, who never had enjoyed his chance to
study at such close quarters the truly rich, nodded
enviously.
At six o'clock Mr. Schwab led Winthrop into
the big library and asked for his ticket of leave.
"They'll be counting the votes soon," he
begged. "I can't do no harm now, and I don't
mean to. I didn't see nothing, and I won't say
nothing. But it's election night, and — and I just
got to be on Broadway."
"Right," said Winthrop, "I'll have a car take
you in, and if you will accept this small check "
"No!" roared "Izzy" Schwab. Afterward he
wondered how he came to do it. "You've give
me a good time, Mr. Winthrop. You've treated
me fine, all the gentlemen have treated me nice.
I'm not a blackmailer, Mr. Winthrop." Mr.
Schwab's voice shook slightly.
"Nonsense, Schwab, you didn't let me finish,"
said Winthrop, "I'm likely to need a lawyer any
time; this is a retaining fee. Suppose I exceed
the speed limit — I'm liable to do that "
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The Scarlet Car
"You bet you are!" exclaimed Mr. Schwab
violently.
"Well, then, I'll send for you, and there isn't a
police magistrate, nor any of the traflnc squad,
you can't handle, is there .f*"
Mr. Schwab flushed with pleasure.
"You can count on me," he vowed, "and your
friends, too, and the ladies," he added gallantly.
"If ever the ladies want to get bail, tell 'em to
telephone for 'Izzy' Schwab. Of course," he
said reluctantly, "if it's a retaining fee "
But when he read the face of the check he ex-
claimed in protest: "But, Mr. Winthrop, this is
more than The Journal would have give me!"
They put him in a car belonging to one of the
other men, and all came out on the steps to wave
him "good-by," and he drove magnificently into
his own district, where there were over a dozen
men who swore he tipped the French chauffeur a
five-dollar bill **just like it was a cigarette."
All of election day since her arrival in Win-
throp's car Miss Forbes had kept to herself. In
the morniiig, when the other young people were
out of doors, she remained in her room, and after
luncheon, when they gathered round the billiard
table, she sent for her cart and drove off alone.
The others thought she w^as concerned over the
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possible result of the election, and did not want to
disturb them by her anxiety. Winthrop, thinking
the presence of Schwab embarrassed her, recalling
as it did Peabody's unfortunate conduct of the
morning, blamed himself for bringing Schwab to
the house. But he need not have distressed him-
self. Miss Forbes was thinking neither of
Schwab nor Peabody, nor was she worried or
embarrassed. On the contrary, she was com-
pletely happy.
When that morning she had seen Peabody run-
ning up the steps of the Elevated, all the doubts,
the troubles, questions, and misgivings that night
and day for the last three months had upset her,
fell from her shoulders like the pilgrim's heavy
pack. For months she had been telling herself
that the unrest she felt when with Peabody was
due to her not being able to appreciate the impor-
tance of those big affairs in which he was so inter-
ested; in which he was so admirable a figure.
She had, as she supposed, loved him, because he
was earnest, masterful. Intent of purpose. His
had seemed a fine character. When she had
compared him with the amusing boys of her own
age, the easy-going joking youths to whom the
betterment of New York was of no concern, she
had been proud in her choice. She was glad
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Peabody was ambitious. She was ambitious for
him. She was glad to have him consult her on
those questions of local government, to listen to
his fierce, contemptuous abuse of Tammany.
And yet early in their engagement she had missed
something, something she had never known, but
which she felt sure should exist. Whether she
had seen it in the lives of others, or read of it in
romances, or whether it was there because it was
nature to desire to be loved, she did not know.
But long before Winthrop returned from his trip
round the world, in her meetings with the man
she was to marry, she had begun to find that there
was something lacking. And Winthrop had
shown her that this something lacking was the
one thing needful. When Winthrop had gone
abroad he was only one of her brother's several
charming friends. One of the amusing merry
youths who came and went in the house as freely
as Sam himself. Now, after two years' absence,
he refused to be placed in that category.
He rebelled on the first night of his return. As
she came down to the dinner of welcome her
brother was giving Winthrop, he stared at her as
though she were a ghost, and said, so solemnly
that every one in the room, even Peabody, smiled:
*'Now I know why I came home." That he
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refused to recognize her engagement to Peabody,
that on every occasion he told her, or by some
act showed her, he loved her; that he swore she
should never marry any one but himself, and that
he would never marry any one but her, did not
at first, except to annoy, in any way impress her.
But he showed her what in her intercourse with
Peabody was lacking. At first she wished Pea-
body could find time to be as fond of her, as fool-
ishly fond of her, as was Winthrop. But she
realized that this was unreasonable. Winthrop
was just a hot-headed impressionable boy, Pea-
body was a man doing a man's work. And then
she found that week after week she became more
difficult to please. Other things in which she
wished Peabody might be more like Winthrop,
obtruded themselves. Little things which she
was ashamed to notice, but which rankled; and
big things, such as consideration for others, and
a sense of humor, and not talking of himself.
Since this campaign began, at times she had felt
that if Peabody said "I" once again, she must
scream. She assured herself she was as yet un-
worthy of him, that her intelligence was weak,
that as she grew older and so better able to under-
stand serious affairs, such as the importance of
having an honest man at Albany as Lieutenant-
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Governor, they would become more in sympathy.
And now, at a stroke, the whole fabric of self-
deception fell from her. It was not that she saw
Peabody so differently, but that she saw her-
self and her own heart, and where it lay. And
she knew that ** Billy" Winthrop, gentle, joking,
selfish only in his love for her, held it in his two
strong hands.
For the moment, when as she sat in the car
deserted by Peabody this truth flashed upon her,
she forgot the man lying injured in the street, the
unscrubbed mob crowding about her. She was
conscious only that a great weight had been lifted.
That her blood was flowing again, leaping, beat-
ing, dancing through her body. It seemed as
though she could not too quickly tell Winthrop.
For both of them she had lost out of their lives
many days. She had risked losing him for al-
ways. Her only thought was to make up to him
and to herself the wasted time. But throughout
the day the one-time welcome, but now intruding,
friends and the innumerable conventions of hos-
pitality required her to smile and show an inter-
est, when her heart and mind were crying out the
one great fact.
It was after dinner, and the members of the
house party were scattered between the billiard-
104
The Scarlet Car
room and the piano. Sam Forbes returned from
the telephone.
'* Tammany/' he announced^ '^concedes the
election of Jerome by forty thousand votes, and
that he carries his ticket with him. Ernest Pea-
body is elected his Lieutenant-Governor by a
thousand votes. Ernest/' he added, '* seems to
have had a close call." There was a tremendous
chorus of congratulations in the cause of Reform.
They drank the health of Peabody. Peabody
himself, on the telephone, informed Sam Forbes
that a conference of the leaders would prevent
his being present with them that evening. The
enthusiasm for Reform perceptibly increased.
An hour later Winthrop came over to Beatrice
and held out his hand. ^^Pm going to slip away/'
he said. '* Good-night."
"Going away!" exclaimed Beatrice.
Her voice showed such apparently acute con-
cern that Winthrop wondered how the best of
women could be so deceitful, even to be polite.
"I promised some men/' he stammered, **to
drive them down-town to see the crowds."
Beatrice shook her head.
"It's far too late for that/' she said. "TelL
me the real reason."
Winthrop turned away his eyes.
105
((
((
The Scarlet Car
*'Oh! the real reason," he said gravely, "is the
same old reason, the one I'm not allowed to talk
about. It's cruelly hard when I don't see you,"
he went on, slowly dragging out the words, "but
it's harder when I do; so I'm going to say * good-
night' and run into town."
He stood for a moment staring moodily at the
floor, and then dropped into a chair beside
her.
And, I believe, I've not told you," he went on,
that on Wednesday I'm running away for good,
that is, for a year or two. I've made all the
fight I can and I lose, and there is no use in my
staying on here to — ^well — to suffer, that is the
plain English of it. So," he continued briskly,
*'I won't be here for the ceremony, and this is
'good-by' as well as 'good-night.' "
"Where are you going for a year .?" asked Miss
Forbes.
Her voice now showed no concern. It even
sounded as though she did not take his news seri-
ously, as though as to his movements she was
possessed of a knowledge superior to his own.
He tried to speak in matter-of-fact tones.
"To Uganda!" he said.
"To Uganda .f"' repeated Miss Forbes. "Where
is Uganda V
io6
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"It is in East Africa; I had bad luck there last
trip, but now I know the country better, and I
ought to get some good shooting."
Miss Forbes appeared indifferently incredulous.
In her eyes there was a look of radiant happiness.
It rendered them bewilderingly beautiful.
"On Wednesday," she said. "Won't you come
and see us again before you sail for Uganda V
Winthrop hesitated.
(( 1)1
ril stop in and say *good-by' to your mother
if she's in town, and to thank her. She's been
awfully good to me. But you — I really would
rather not see you again. You understand, or
rather, you don't understand, and," he added
vehemently, "you never will understand." He
stood looking down at her miserably.
On the driveway outside there was a crunch-
ing on the gravel of heavy wheels and an aurora-
borealis of lights.
"There's your car," said Miss Forbes. "I'll
go out and see you off."
"You're very good," muttered Winthrop. He
could not understand. This parting from her
was the great moment in his life, and although
she must know that, she seemed to be making it
unnecessarily hard for him. He had told her he
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The Scarlet Car
was going to a place very far away, to be gone a
long time, and she spoke of saying "good-by'*
to him as pleasantly as though it was his inten-
tion to return from Uganda for breakfast.
Instead of walking through the hall where the
others were gathered, she led him out through one
of the French windows upon the terrace, and
a'ong it to the steps. When she saw the chauf-
feur standing by the car, she stopped.
^'I thought you were going alone," she said.
"I am," answered Winthrop. '^'It's not Fred;
that's Sam's chauffeur; he only brought the car
around."
The man handed Winthrop his coat and cap,
and left them, and Winthrop seated himself at
the wheel. She stood above him on the top step.
In the evening gown of lace and silver she looked
a part of the moonlight night. For each of
them the moment had arrived. Like a swimmer
standing on the bank gathering courage for the
plunge. Miss Forbes gave a trembling, shivering
sigh.
"You're cold," said Winthrop, gently. **You
must go in. Good-by."
**It isn't that," said the girl. '*Have you an
extra coat ? "
**It isn't cold enough for "
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"I meant for me," stammered the giri In a
frightened voice. "I thought perhaps you would
take me a little way, and bring me back."
At first the young man did not answer, but sat
staring in front of him, then, he said simply:
"It's awfully good of you, Beatrice. I won't
forget it."
It was a wonderful autumn night, moonlight,
cold, clear and brilliant. She stepped in beside
him and wrapped herself in one of his great-
coats. They started swiftly down the avenue of
trees.
"No, not fast," begged the girl, "I want to
talk to you."
The car checked and rolled forward smoothly,
sometimes in deep shadow, sometimes in the soft
silver glamour of the moon; beneath them the
fallen leaves crackled and rustled under the slow
moving wheels. At the highway Winthrop hesi-
tated. It lay before them arched with great and
ancient elms; below, the Hudson glittered and
rippled in the moonlight.
"Which way do you want to go?" said Win-
throp.
His voice was very grateful, very humble.
The girl did not answer.
There was a long, long pause.
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The Scarlet Car
Then he turned and looked at her and saw her
smiHng at him with that Hght in her eyes that
never was on land or sea.
"To Uganda/' said the girl.
IfO
THE PRINCESS ALINE
THE PRINCESS ALINE
H
I
R. H. the Princess Aline of Hohenwald
• came into the life of Morton Carlton — or
*'Morney" Carlton, as men called him — of New
York City, when that young gentleman's affairs
and affections were best suited to receive her. Had
she made her appearance three years sooner or
three years later, it is quite probable that she would
have passed on out of his life with no more recog-
nition from him than would have been expressed
in a look of admiring curiosity.
But coming when she did, when his time and
heart were both unoccupied, she had an influence
upon young Mr. Carlton which leil him into doing
several wise and many foolish things, and which
remained with him always. Carlton had reached
a point in his life, and very early in his life, when
he could afford to sit at ease and look back with
modest satisfaction to what he had forced him-
self to do, and forward with pleasurable anticipa-
tions to whatsoever he might choose to do in the
113
The Princess Aline
future. The world had appreciated what he had
done, and had put much to his credit, and he was
prepared to draw upon this grandly.
At the age of twenty he had found himself his
own master, with excellent family connections, but
with no family, his only relative being a bachelor
uncle, who looked at life from the point of view of
the Union Club's windows, and who objected to
his nephew's leaving Harvard to take up the study
of art in Paris. In that city (where at Julian's he
was nicknamed the Junior Carlton, for the ob-
vious reason that he was the older of the two
Carltons in the class, and because he was well-
dressed) he had shown himself a harder worker
than others who were less careful of their appear-
ance and of their manners. His work, of which
he did not talk, and his ambitions, of which he
also did not talk, bore fruit early, and at twenty-
six he had become a portrait-painter of interna-
tional reputation. Then the French government
purchased one of his paintings at an absurdly
small figure, and placed it in the Luxembourg,
from whence it would in time depart to be buried
in the hall of some provincial city; and American
millionaires, and English Lord Mayors, members
of Parliament, and members of the Institute, mas-
ters of hounds in pink coats, and ambassadors in
114
The Princess Aline
gold lace, and beautiful women of all narionalities
and conditions sat before his easel. And so when
he returned to New York he was welcomed with
an enthusiasm which showed that his country-
men had feared that the artistic atmosphere of
the Old World had stolen him from them forever.
He was particularly silent, even at this date, about
his work, and listened to what others had to say
of it with much awe, not unmixed with some
amusement, that it should be he who was capable
of producing anything worthy of such praise.
We have been told what the mother duck felt when
her ugly duckling turned into a swan, but we have
never considered how much the ugly duckling must
have marvelled also.
'* Carlton is probably the only living artist," a
brother artist had said of him, "who fails to ap-
preciate how great his work is." And on this
being repeated to Carlton by a good-natured
friend, he had replied cheerfully, "Well, I'm
sorry, but it is certainly better to be the only one
who doesn't appreciate it than to be the only one
who does."
He had never understood why such a responsi-
bility had been intrusted to him. It was, as he
expressed it, not at all in his line, and young girls
who sought to sit at the feet of the master found
115
The Princess Aline
him making love to them in the most charming
manner in the world, as though he were not en-
titled to all the rapturous admiration of their very
young hearts, but had to sue for it like any ordi-
nary mortal. Carlton always felt as though some
day some one would surely come along and say:
*'Look here, young man, this talent doesn't be-
long to you; it's mine. What do you mean by
pretending that such an idle good-natured youth
as yourself is entitled to such a gift of genius.?"
He felt that he was keeping it in trust, as it were;
that it had been changed at birth, and that the
proper guardian would eventually relieve him of
his treasure.
Personally Carlton was of the opinion that he
should have been born in the active days of knights-
errant — to have had nothing more serious to do
than to ride abroad with a blue ribbon fastened to
the point of his lance, and with the spirit to unhorse
any one who objected to its color, or to the claims
of superiority of the noble lady who had tied it
there. There was not, in his opinion, at the present
day any sufficiently pronounced method of de-
claring admiration for the many lovely women this
world contained. A proposal of marriage he con-
sidered to be a mean and clumsy substitute for
the older way, and was uncomplimentary to the
ii6
The Princess Aline
many other women left unasked, and marriage
itself required much more constancy than he could
give. He had a most romantic and old-fashioned
ideal of women as a class, and from the age of
fourteen had been a devotee of hundreds of them
as individuals; and though in that time his ideal
had received several severe shocks, he still be-
lieved that the "not impossible she" existed some-
where, and his conscientious efforts to find out
whether every woman he met might not be that
one had led him not unnaturally into many diffi-
culties.
**The trouble with me is," he said, "that I care
too much to make Platonic friendship possible,
and don't care enough to marry any particular
woman — that is, of course, supposing that any
particular one would be so little particular as to
be willing to marry me. How embarrassing it
would be, now," he argued, "if when you v/ere
turning away from the chancel after the ceremony
you should look at one of the bridemaids and
see the woman whom you really should have
married! How distressing that would be! You
couldn't very well stop and say: *I am very sorry,
my dear, but it seems I have made a mistake.
That young woman on the right has a most in-
teresting and beautiful face. I am very much
117
The Princess Aline
afraid that she is the one.' It would be too late
then; while now, in my free state, I can continue
my search without any sense of responsibihty."
"Why" — he would exclaim — "I have walked
miles to get a glimpse of a beautiful woman in a
suburban window, and time and time again when
I have seen a face in a passing brougham I have
pursued it in a hansom, and learned where the
owner of the face lived, and spent weeks in finding
some one to present me, only to discover that she
was self-conscious or uninteresting or engaged.
Still I had assured myself that she was not the one.
I am very conscientious, and I consider that it is
my duty to go so far with every woman I meet
as to be able to learn whether she is or is not
the one, and the sad result is that I am like a man
who follows the hounds but is never in at the
death.'*
"Well," some married woman would say,
grimly, "I hope you will get your deserts some
day; and you will, too. Some day some girl will
make you suffer for this."
"Oh, that's all right," Carlton would answer,
meekly. "Lots of women have made me suffer,
if that's what you think I need."
"Some day," the married woman would proph
esy, "you will care for a woman so much that
ii8
The Princess Aline
you will have no eyes for any one else. That's
the way it is when one is married."
*^Well, when that's the way it is with m^/'
Carlton would reply, "I certainly hope to get
married; but until it is, I think it is safer for all
concerned that I should not."
Then Carlton would go to the club and com-
plain bitterly to one of his friends.
"How unfair married women are!" he would
say. **The idea of thinking a man could have no
eyes but for one woman! Suppose I had never
heard a note of music until I was twenty-five years
of age, and was then given my hearing. Do you
suppose my pleasure in music would make me
lose my pleasure in everything else ^ Suppose I
met and married a girl at twenty-five. Is that
going to make me forget all the women I knew
before I met her ^ I think not. As a matter of
fact, I really deserve a great deal of credit for
remaining single, for I am naturally very ajffec-
tionate; but when I see what poor husbands my
friends make, I prefer to stay as I am until I am
sure that I will make a better one. It is only
fair to the woman."
Carlton was sitting in the club alone. He had
that sense of superiority over his fellows and of
irresponsibility to the world about him that comes
119
The Princess Aline
to a man when he knows that his trunks are being
packed and that his state-room is engaged. He
was leaving New York long before most of his
friends could get away. He did not know just
where he was going, and preferred not to know.
He wished to have a complete holiday, and to see
Europe as an idle tourist, and not as an artist
with an eye to his own improvement. He had
plenty of time and money; he was sure to run
across friends in the big cities, and acquaintances
he could make or not, as he pleased, en route.
He was not sorry to go. His going would serve
to put an end to what gossip there might be of
his engagement to numerous young women whose
admiration for him as an artist, he was beginning
to fear, had taken on a more personal tinge. "I
wish," he said, gloomily, *^I didn't like people so
well. It seems to cause them and me such a lot
of trouble."
He sighed, and stretched out his hand for a
copy of one of the English illustrated papers. It
had a fresher interest to him because the next
number of it that he would see would be in the
city in which it was printed. The paper in his
hands was the ^S"^. James Budget, and it contained
much fashionable intelligence concerning the
preparations for a royal wedding which was soon
I20
The Princess Aline
to take place between members of two of the
reigning families of Europe. There was on one
page a half-tone reproduction of a photograph,
which showed a group of young people belonging
to several of these reigning families, with their
names and titles printed above and below the
picture. They were princesses, archdukes, or
grand dukes, and they were dressed like young
English men and women, and with no sign
about them of their possible military or social
rank.
One of the young princesses in the photograph
was looking out of it and smiling in a tolerant,
amused way, as though she had thought of scne-
thing which she could not wait to enjoy until
after the picture was taken. She was not posing
consciously, as were some cf the others, but was
sitting in a natural attitude, with one arm over
the back of her chair, and with her hands clasped
before her. Her face was full of a fine intelli-
gence and humor, and though one of the other
princesses in the group was far more beautiful,
this particular one had a much more high-bred
air, and there was something of a challenge in
her smile that made any one v/ho looked at the
picture smile also. Carlton studied the face for
some time, and mentally approved of its beauty;
121
The Princess Aline
the others seemed in comparison wooden and
unindividual, but this one looked Hke a person
he might have known, and whom he would cer-
tainly have liked. He turned the page and sur-
veyed the features of the Oxford crew with lesser
interest, and then turned the page again and
gazed critically and severely at the face of the
princess with the high-bred smile. He had hoped
that he would find it less interesting at a second
glance, but it did not prove to be so.
" 'The Princess Aline of Hohenwald,' " he
read. "She's probably engaged to one of those
Johnnies beside her, and the Grand-Duke of
Hohenwald behind her must be her brother."
He put the paper down and went in to luncheon,
and diverted himself by mixing a salad dressing;
but after a few moments he stopped in the midst
of this employment, and told the waiter, with
some unnecessary sharpness, to bring him the
last copy of the St. James Budget,
"Confound it!" he added, to himself.
He opened the paper with a touch of impatience
and gazed long and earnestly at the face of the
Princess Aline, who continued to return his look
with the same smile of amused tolerance. Carl-
ton noted every detail of her tailor-made gown,
of her high mannish collar, of her tie, and even
122
The Princess Aline
the rings on her hand. There was nothing about
her of which he could fairly disapprove. He
wondered why it was that she could not have
been born an approachable New York girl instead
of a princess of a little German duchy, hedged in
throughout her single life, and to be traded olF
eventually in marriap-e with as much considera-
J o
tion as though she were a princess of a real king-
dom.
"She looks jolly too," he mused, in an injured
tone; **and so very clever; and of course she has
a beautiful complexion. All those German girls
have. Your Royal Highness is more than pretty,"
he said, bowing his head gravely. '^You look as
a princess should look. I am sure it was one of
your ancestors who discovered the dried pea
under a dozen mattresses." He closed the paper,
and sat for a moment with a perplexed smile of
consideration. "Waiter," he exclaimed, sud-
denly, "send a messenger-boy to Brentano's for
a copy of the St. James Budget, and bring me the
Almanach de Gotha from the library. It is a
little fat red book on the table near the windov/."
Then Carlton opened the paper again and propped
it up against a carafe, and continued his critical
survey of the Princess Aline. He seized the Al-
manach, when it came, w4th some eagerness.
123
The Princess Aline
"Hohenwald (Maison de Grasse)," he read,
and in small type below it:
"i. Ligne cadette (regnante) grand-ducale: Hohen-
wald et de Grasse.
"Guillaume - Albert - Frederick - Charles - Louis,
Grand-Due de Hohenwald et de Grasse, etc., etc., etc."
"That's the brother, right enough," muttered
Carlton.
And under the heading **Soeurs'' he read:
"4. Psse Aline. — Victoria-Beatrix-Louise-Helene, Alt.
Gr.-Duc. Nee a Grasse, Juin, 1872.'*
** Twenty-two years old," exclaimed Carlton.
'*What a perfect age! I could not have invented
a better one." He looked from the book to the
face before him. **Now, my dear young lady/'
he said, "I know all about you. You live at
Grasse, and you are connected, to judge by your
names, with all the English royalties; and very
pretty names they are, too — Aline, Helene, Vic-
toria, Beatrix. You must be much more English
than you are German; and I suppose you live in
a little old castle, and your brother has a standing
army of twelve men, and some day you are to
rharry a Russian Grand-Duke, or whoever your
brother's Prime Minister — if he has a Prime
124
The Princess Aline
Minister — decides is best for the politics of your
little toy kingdom. Ah! to think," exclaimed
Carlton, softly, "that such a lovely and glorious
creature as that should be sacrificed for so insig-
nificant a thing as the peace of Europe when she
might make some young man happy?"
He carried a copy of the paper to his room, and
cut the picture of the group out of the page and
pasted it carefully on a stiff piece of card-board.
Then he placed it on his dressing-table, in front
of a photograph of a young woman in a large
silver frame — which was a sign, had the young
woman but known it, that her reign for the time
being was over.
Nolan, the young Irishman who "did for"
Carlton, knew better than to move it when he
found it there. He had learned to study his mas-
ter since he had joined him in London, and un-
derstood that one photograph in the silver frame
was entitled to more consideration than three
others on the writing-desk or half a dozen on the
mantel-piece. Nolan had seen them come and
go; he had w^atched them rise and fall; he had
carried notes to them, and books and flowers;
and had helped to depose them from the silver
frame and move them on by degrees down the
line, until they went ingloriously into the big
125
The Princess Aline
brass bowl on the side table. Nolan approved
highly of this last choice. He did not know which
one of the three in the group it might be; but they
were all pretty, and their social standing was cer-
tainly distinguished.
Guido, the Italian model who ruled over the
studio, and Nolan were busily packing when
Carlton entered. He always said that Guido
represented him in his professional and Nolan in
his social capacity. Guido cleaned the brushes
and purchased the artists' materials; Nolan
cleaned his riding-boots and bought his theatre
and railroad tickets.
"Guido," said Carlton, "there are two sketches
I made in Germany last year, one of the Prime
Minister, and one of Ludwig the actor; get them
out for me, will you, and pack them for shipping.
Nolan,'* he went on, "here is a telegram to send."
Nolan would not have read a letter, but he
looked upon telegrams as public documents, the
reading of them as part of his perquisites. This
one was addressed to Oscar Von Holtz, First
Secretary, German Embassy, Washington, D. C,
and the message read:
"Please telegraph me full title and address Princess
Aline of Hohenwald. Where would a letter reach her ?
"Morton Carlton.'*
126
The Princess Aline
The next morning Nolan carried to the express
office a box containing two oil-paintings on small
canvases. They were addressed to the man in
London who attended to the shipping and for-
warding of Carlton's pictures in that town.
There was a tremendous crowd on the New
York. She sailed at the obliging hour of eleven
in the morning, and many people, in consequence,
whose affection would not have stood in the way
of their breakfast, made it a point to appear and
to say good-by. Carlton, for his part, did not
notice them; he knew by experience that the at-
tractive-looking people always leave a steamer
when the whistle blows, and that the next most
attractive-looking, who remain on board, are ill
all the way over. A man that he knew seized
him by the arm as he was entering his cabin, and
asked if he were crossing or just seeing people
off.
"Well, then, I want to introduce you to Miss
Morris and her aunt, Mrs. Downs; they are going
over, and I should be glad if you would be nice
to them. But you know her, I guess .^" he asked,
over his shoulder, as Carlton pushed his way
after him down the deck.
"I know who she is," he said.
12)
The Princess Aline
Miss Edith Morris was surrounded by a treble
circle of admiring friends, and seemed to be hold-
ing her own. They all stopped when Carlton
came up, and looked at him rather closely, and
those whom he knew seemed to mark the fact by
a particularly hearty greeting. The man who
had brought him up acted as though he had suc-
cessfully accomplished a somewhat difficult and
creditable feat. Carlton bowed himself away,
leaving Miss Morris to her friends, and saying
that she would probably have to see him later,
whether she wished it or not. He then went to
meet the aunt, v/ho received him kindly, for there
were very few people on the passenger list, and
she was glad they were to have his company.
Before he left she introduced him to a young man
named Abbey, who was hovering around her
most anxiously, and whose interest, she seemed to
think it necessary to explain, was due to the fact
that he was engaged to Miss Morris. Mr. Abbey
left the steamer when the whistle blew, and Carl-
ton looked after him gratefully. He always en-
joyed meeting attractive girls v/ho were engaged,
as it left him no choice in the matter, and excused
him from finding out whether or not that particu-
lar young woman was the one.
Mrs. Downs and her niece proved to be experi-
128
The Princess Aline
enced sailors, and faced the heavy sea that met
the New York outside of Sandy Hook with uncon-
cern. Carlton joined them, and they stood to-
gether leaning with their backs to the rail, and
trying to fit the people who flitted past them to
the names on the passenger list.
"The young lady in the sailor suit," said Miss
Morris, gazing at the top of the smoke-stack, '*is
Miss Kitty Flood, of Grand Rapids. This is her
first voyage, and she thinks a steamer is something
like a yacht, and dresses for the part accordingly.
She does not know that it is merely a moving
hotel."
"I am afraid," said Carlton, "to judge from
her agitation, that hers is going to be what the
professionals call a * dressing-room' part. Why
is it," he asked, "that the girls on a steamer who
wear gold anchors and the men in yachting-caps
are always the first to disappear ? That man
with the sombrero," he went on, "is James M.
Pollock, United States Consul to Mauritius; he
is going out to his post. I know he is the consul,
because he comes from Fort Worth, Texas, and
is therefore admirably fitted to speak either
French or the native language of the island."
"Oh, we don't send consuls to Mauritius,"
laughed Miss Morris. "Mauritius is one of those
129
The Princess Aline
places from which you buy stamps, but no one
really lives or goes there."
"Where are you going, may I ask?^' inquired
Carlton.
Miss Morris said that they were making their
way to Constantinople and Athens, and then to
Rome; that as they had not had the time to take
the southern route, they purposed to journey
across the Continent direct from Paris to the
Turkish capital by the Orient Express.
"We shall be a few days in London, and in
Paris only long enough for some clothes," she
replied.
"The trousseau," thought Carlton. "Weeks
is what she should have said."
The three sat together at the captain's table,
and as the sea continued rough, saw little of
either the captain or his other guests, and were
thrown much upon the society of each other.
They had innumerable friends and interests in
common; and Mrs. Downs, who had been every-
where, and for long seasons at a time, proved as
alive as her niece, and Carlton conceived a great
liking for her. She seemed to be just and kindly
minded, and, owing to her age, to combine the
wider judgment of a man with the sympathetic
interest of a woman. Sometimes they sat to-
130
The Princess Aline
gether in a row and read, and gossiped over
what they read, or struggled up the deck as it
rose and fell and buffeted with the wind; and
later they gathered in a corner of the saloon and
ate late suppers of Carlton's devising, or drank
tea in the captain's cabin, which he had thrown
open to them. They had started knowing much
about one another, and this and the necessary
proximity of the ship hastened their acquaint-
ance.
The sea grew calmer the third day out, and the
sun came forth and showed the decks as clean as
bread-boards. Miss Morris and Carlton seated
themselves on the huge iron riding-bits in the
bow, and with their elbows on the rail looked
down at the whirling blue water, and rejoiced
silently in the steady rush of the great vessel, and
in the uncertain warmth of the March sun. Carl-
ton was sitting to leeward of Miss Morris, with a
pipe between his teeth. He was warm, and at
peace with the world. He had found his new
acquaintance more than entertaining. She was
even friendly, and treated him as though he were
much her junior, as is the habit of young women
lately married or who are about to be married.
Carlton did not resent it; on the contrary, it m.ade
him more at his ease with her, and as she herself
131
The Princess Aline
chose to treat him as a youth, he permitted him-
self to be as fooKsh as he pleased.
"I don't know why it is," he complained, peer-
ing over the rail, "but whenever I look over the
side to watch the waves a man in a greasy cap
always sticks his head out of a hole below me and
scatters a barrelful of ashes or potato peelings all
over the ocean. It spoils the effect for one.
Next time he does it I am going to knock out the
ashes of my pipe on the back of his neck.'' Miss
Morris did not consider this worthy of comment,
and there was a long lazy pause.
"You haven't told us where you go after Lon-
don," she said; and then, without waiting for him
to reply, she asked, "Is it your professional or
your social side that you are treating to a trip
this time .? "
"Who told you that.?" asked Carlton, smiling.
"Oh, I don't know. Some man. He said
you were a Jekyll and Hyde. Which is Jekyll ?
You see, I only know your professional side."
"You must try to find out for yourself by de-
duction," he said, "as you picked out the other
passengers. I am going to Grasse," he con-
tinued. "It's the capital of Hohenwald. Do
you know it ^ "
"Yes," she said ; "we were there once for a few
132
The Princess Aline
days. We went to see the pictures. I suppose
you know that the old Duke, the father of the
present one, ruined himself almost by buying
pictures for the Grasse gallery. We were there
at a bad time, though, when the palace was closed
to visitors, and the gallery too. I suppose that is
what is taking you there .r"'
"No," Carlton said, shaking his head. "No,
it is not the pictures. I am going to Grasse," he
said, gravely, "to see the young woman with
whom I am in love."
Miss Morris looked up in some surprise, and
smiled consciously, with a natural feminine inter-
est in an affair of love, and one which was a
secret as well.
"Oh," she said, "I beg your pardon; we — I
had not heard of it."
"No, it is not a thing one could announce
exactly," said Carlton; "it is rather in an embyro
state as yet — in fact, I have not met the young
lady so far, but I mean to meet her. That's why
I am going abroad."
Miss Morris looked at him sharply to see if he
were smiling, but he was, on the contrary, gazing
sentimentally at the horizon-line, and puffing med-
itatively on his pipe. He was apparently in earnest,
and waiting for her to make some comment.
133
The Princess Aline
''How very interesting!" was all she could
think to say.
"Yes, when you know the details, it is, — very
interesting," he answered. "She is the Princess
Aline of Hohenwald," he explained, bowing his
head as though he were making the two young
ladies known to one another. "She has several
other names, six in all, and her age is twenty-tvvo.
That is all I know about her. I saw her picture
in an illustrated paper just before I sailed, and I
made up my mind I would meet her, and here I
am. If she is not in Grasse, I intend to follow
her to wherever she may be." He v/aved his pipe
at the ocean before him, and recited, with mock
seriousness:
(( <
Across the hills and far away,
Beyond their utmost purple rim,
And deep into the dying day,
The happy Princess followed him.'
"Only in this case, you see," said Carlton, "I
am following the happy Princess."
"No; but seriously, though," said Miss Morris,
"what is it you mean ? Are you going to paint
her portrait ? "
"I never thought of that," exclaimed Carlton.
"I don't know but what your idea is a good one.
134
The Princess Aline
Miss Morris, that's a great idea." He shook his
head approvingly. "I did not do wrong to con-
fide in you/' he said. *'It was perhaps taking a
Hberty; but as you have not considered it as such,
I am glad I spoke."
*'But you don't really mean to tell me," ex-
claimed the girl, facing about, and nodding her
head at him, "that you are going abroad after a
woman whom you have never seen, and because
you like a picture of her in a paper?"
"I do," said Carlton. "Because I like her
picture, and because she is a Princess."
"Well, upon my word," said Miss Morris,
gazing at him with evident admiration, "that's
what my younger brother would call a distinctly
sporting proposition. Only I don't see," she
added, "what her being a Princess has to do with
It.
"You don't .^" laughed Carlton easily. "That's
the best part of it — that's the plot. The beauty
of being in love with a Princess, Miss Morris," he
said, "lies in the fact that you can't marry her;
that you can love her deeply and forever, and
nobody will ever come to you and ask your in-
tentions, or hint that after such a display of
affection you ought to do something. Now, with
a girl v/ho is not a Princess, even if she under-
135
The Princess Aline
stands the situation herself, and wouldn't marry
you to save her life, still there is always some one
— a father, or a mother, or one of your friends —
who makes it his business to interfere, and talks
about it, and bothers you both. But with a Prin-
cess, you see, that is all eliminated. You can't
marry a Princess, because they won't let you. A
Princess has got to marry a real royal chap, and
so you are perfectly ineligible and free to sigh for
her, and make pretty speeches to her, and see her
as often as you can, and revel in your devotion
and unrequited affection."
Miss Morris regarded him doubtfully. She did
not wish to prove herself too credulous. "And
you honestly ^^ mt me, Mr. Carlton, to elieve
that you are gc ig abroad just for this ?'*
**You see," C rlton answered her, "if you only
knew me better you would have no doubt on the
subject at all. It isn't the thing some men would
do, I admit, but it is exactly what any one v/ho
knows me would expect of me. I should describe
it, having had acquaintance with the young man
for some time, as being eminently characteristic.
And besides, think what a good story it makes!
Every other man who goes abroad this summer
will try to tell about his travels when he gets back
to New York, and, as usual, no one will listen to
136
The Princess Aline
him. But they will A <3^'^ to listen to me. 'You've
been across since I saw you last. What did you
do.?' they'll ask, politely. And then, instead of
simply telling them that I have been in Paris or
London, I can say, *0h, I've been chasing around
the globe after the Princess Aline of Hohenwald.'
That sounds interesting, doesn't it .? When you
come to think of it," Carlton continued, medita-
tively, "it is not so very remarkable. Men go all
the way to Cuba and Mexico, and even to India,
after orchids, after a nasty flower that grows in an
absurd way on the top of a tree. Why shouldn't
a young man go as far as Germany after a beauti-
ful Princess, who walks on the ground, and who
can talk and think and feel .? She is much more
worth while than an orchid."
Miss Morris laughed indulgently. "Well, I
didn't know such devotion existed at this end of
the century," she said; "it's quite nice and en-
couraging. I hope you will succeed, I am sure.
I only wish we were going to be near enough to
see how you get on. I have never been a confi-
dante when there was a real Princess concerned,"
she said; "it makes it so much more amusing.
May one ask what your plans are .?"
Carlton doubted if he had any plans as yet.
"I have to reach the ground first," he said, "and
137
The Princess Aline
after that I must reconnoitre. I may possibly
adopt your idea, and ask to paint her portrait,
only I dislike confusing my social and profes-
sional sides. As a matter of fact, though," he
said, after a pause, laughing guiltily, " I have done
a little of that already. I prepared her, as it
were, for my coming. I sent her studies of two
pictures I made last winter in Berlin. One of
the Prime Minister, and one of Ludwig, the
tragedian at the Court Theatre. I sent them to
her through my London agent, so that she would
think they had come from some one of her Eng-
lish friends, and I told the dealer not to let any
one know who had forwarded them. My idea
was that it might help me, perhaps, if she knew
something about me before I appeared in person.
It was a sort of letter of introduction written by
myself."
"Well, really," expostulated Miss Morris, "you
certainly woo in a royal way. Are you in the
habit of giving away your pictures to any one
whose photograph you happen to like ^ That
seems to me to be giving new lamps for old to a
degree. I must see if I haven't some of my sis-
ter's photographs in my trunk. She is consid-
ered very beautiful."
"Well, you wait until you see this particular
138
The Princess Aline
portrait, and you will understand it better," said
Carlton.
The steamer reached Southampton early in the
afternoon, and Carlton secured a special com-
partment on the express to London for Mrs.
Downs and her niece and himself, with one ad-
joining for their maid and Nolan. It was a beau-
tiful day, and Carlton sat with his eyes fixed upon
the passing fields and villages, exclaiming with
pleasure from time to time at the white roads and
the feathery trees and hedges, and the red roofs
of the inns and square towers of the village
churches.
"Hedges are better than barbed-wire fences,
aren't they?" he said. "You see that girl pick-
ing wild flowers from one of them ? She looks
just as though she were posing for a picture for
an illustrated paper. She couldn't pick flowers
from a barbed-wire fence, could she ? And there
would probably be a tramp along the road some-
where to frighten her; and see — the chap in
knickerbockers farther down the road leaning on
the stile. I am sure he is waiting for her; and
here comes a coach," he ran on. "Don't the red
wheels look well against the hedges ? It's a
pretty little country, England, isn't it ? — like a
private park or a model village. I am glad to
139
The Princess Aline
get back to it — I am glad to see the three-and-six
signs with the little slanting dash between the
shillings and pennies. Yes, even the steam-roll-
ers and the man with the red flag in front are
welcome/'
"I suppose/' said Mrs. Downs, "it's because
one has been so long on the ocean that the ride to
London seems so interesting. It always pays me
for the entire trip. Yes," she said, with a sigh,
"in spite of the patent-medicine signs they have
taken to putting up ail along the road. It seems
a pity they should adopt our bad habits instead
of our good ones."
"They are a bit slow at adopting anything,"
commented Carlton. "Did you know, Mrs.
Downs, that electric lights are still as scarce in
London as they are in Timbuctoo .? Why, I saw
an electric-light plant put up in a Western town
in three days once; there were over a hundred
burners in one saloon, and the engineer who put
them up told me in confidence that "
What the chief engineer told him in confidence
was never disclosed, for at that moment Miss
Morris interrupted him with a sudden sharp
exclamation.
"Oh, Mr. Carlton," she exclaimed, breath-
lessly, "hsten to this!" She had been reading
140
The Princess Aline
one of the dozen papers which Carlton bad pur-
chased at the station, and was now shaking one
of them at him, with her eyes fixed on the open
page.
"My dear Edith," remonstrated her aunt,
**Mr. Carlton was telling us "
"Yes, I know," exclaimed Miss Morris, laugh-
ing, "but this interests him much more than elec-
tric lights. Who do you think is in London ? " she
cried, raising her eyes to his, and pausing for
proper dramatic effect. "The Princess Aline of
Hohenwald ! "
"No.?" shouted Carlton.
"Yes," Miss Morris answered, mocking his
tone. "Listen. *The Queen's Drawing-room' —
em — e — m — 'on her right was the Princess of
Wales' — em — m. Oh, I can't find it — no — ^yes,
here it is. 'Next to her stood the Princess Aline
of Hohenwald. She wore a dress of white silk,
with train of silver brocade trimmed with fur.
Ornaments — emeralds and diamonds; orders —
Victoria and Albert, Jubilee Commemoration
Medal, Coburg and Gotha, and Hohenwald and
G9 99
rasse.
"By Jove!" cried Carlton, excitedly. "I say,
is that really there .? Let me see it, please, for
myself."
141
The Princess Aline
Miss Morris handed him the paper, with her
finger on the paragraph, and picking up another,
began a search down its columns.
**You are right," exclaimed Carlton, solemnly;
**it's she, sure enough. And here I've been within
two hours of her and didn't know it.^"
Miss Morris gave another triumphant cry, as
though she had discovered a vein of gold.
**Yes, and here she is again," she said, "in the
Gentlewoman: *The Queen's dress was of black,
as usual, but relieved by a few violet ribbons in
the bonnet; and Princess Beatrice, who sat by her
mother's side, showed but little trace of the anx-
iety caused by Princess Ena's accident. Princess
Aline, on the front seat, in a light-brown jacket
and a becoming bonnet, gave the necessary touch
to a picture which Londoners would be glad to
look upon more often.' "
Carlton sat staring forward, with his hands on
his knees, and with his eyes open wide from ex-
citement. He presented so unusual an appear-
ance of bewilderment and delight that Mrs.
Downs looked at him and at her niece for some
explanation. "The young lady seems to ^interest
you," said she, tentatively.
"She is the most charming creature in the
world, Mrs. Downs," cried Carlton, "and I was
142
''Next to her stood the Princess Ahne of
Hohenwald"
The Princess Aline
going all the way to Grasse to see her, and now it
turns out that she is here in England, within a
few miles of us/' He turned and waved his
hands at the passing landscape. "Every minute
brings us nearer together."
''And you didn't feel it in the air!" mocked
Miss Morris, laughing. "You are a pretty poor
sort of a man to let a girl tell you where to find the
woman you love."
Carlton did not answer, but stared at her very
seriously and frcwned intently. "Now I have got
to begin all over ag? in and readjust things," he
said. "We might have guessed she would be in
London, on account of this royal wedding. It is
a great pity it isn't later in the season, when there
would be more things going on and more chances
of meeting her. Now they will all be interested
in themselves, and, being extremely exclusive, no
one who isn't a cousin to the bridegroom or an
Emperor would have any chance at all. Still, I
can see her! I can look at her, and that's some-
thing."
"It is better than a photograph, anyway," said
Miss Morris.
"They will be either at Buckingham Palace or
at Windsor, or they will stop at Brown's," said
Carlton. "All royalties go to Brown's. I don't
143
The Princess Aline
know why, unless it is because it is so expensive;
or maybe it is expensive because royalties go
there; but, in any event, if they are not at the
palace, that is where they will be, and that is
1 where I shall have to go too."
When the train drew up at Victoria Station,
Carlton directed Nolan to take his things to
Brown'^ Hotel, but not to unload them until he
had arrived. Then he drove with the ladies to
Cox's, and saw them settled there. He prom-
ised to return at once to dine, cind to tell them
what he had discovered in nis absence. "You've
got to help me in this, Miss Morris," he said,
nervously. **I am beginning to feel that I am
not worthy of her."
*'Oh yes, you are!" she said, laughing; "but
don't forget that 'it's not the lover who comes to
woo, but the lover's way of wooing,' and that
* faint heart' — and the rest of it."
"Yes, I know," said Carlton, doubtfully; "but
it's a bit sudden, isn't it?"
"Oh, I am ashamed of you! You are fright-
ened."
"No, not frightened, exactly," said the painter.
"I think it's just natural emotion."
As Carlton turned into Albemarle Street he
noticed a red carpet stretching from the doorway
144
The Princess Aline
of Brown's Hotel out across the sidewalk to a
carriage, and a bareheaded man bustling about
apparently assisting several gentlemen to get into
it. This and another carriage and Nolan's four-
wheeler blocked the way; but without waiting for
them to move up, Carlton leaned out of his han-
som and called the bareheaded man to its side.
**Is the Duke of Hohenwald stopping at your
hotel .^" he asked. The bareheaded man an-
swered that he was.
''All right, Nolan," cried Carlton. ''They can
take in the trunks."
Hearing this, the bareheaded man hastened to
help Carlton to alight. "That was the Duke
who just drove off, sir; and those," he said, point-
ing to three muffled figures who were stepping
into a second carriage, "are his sisters, the Prin-
cesses."
Carlton stopped midway, with one foot on the
step and the other in the air.
"The deuce they are!" he exclaimed; "and
which is — " he began, eagerly, and then remem-
bering himself, dropped back on the cushions of
the hansom.
He broke into the little dining-room at Cox's
in so excited a state that two dignified old gentle-
men who were eating there sat open-mouthed in
145
The Princess Aline
astonished disapproval. Mrs. Downs and Miss
Morris had just come down stairs.
"I have seen her!" Carlton cried, ecstatically;
"only half an hour in the town, and Fve seen her
already!"
"No, really.?" exclaimed Miss Morris. "And
how did she look ? Is she as beautiful as you
expected ?"
"Well, I can't tell yet," Carlton answered.
"There were three of them, and they were all
muffled up, and which one of the three she was I
don't know. She wasn't labelled, as in the pic-
ture, but she was there, and I saw her. The
woman I love was one of that three, and I have
engaged rooms at the hotel, and this very night
the same roof shelters us both."
146
II
THE course of true love certainly runs
smoothly with you," said Miss Morris, as
they seated themselves at the table. "What is
your next move ? What do you mean to do
now r
**The rest is very simple," said Carlton. "To-
morrow morning I will go to the Row; I will be
sure to find some one there who knows all about
them — where they are going, and who they are
seeing, and what engagements they may have.
Then it will only be a matter of looking up some
friend in the Household or in one of the embassies
who can present me."
"Oh," said Miss Morris, in the tone of keenest
disappointment, "but that is such a common-
place ending! You started out so romantically.
Couldn't you manage to meet her in a less con-
ventional way .?"
"I am afraid not," said Carlton. "You see, I
want to meet her very much, and to meet her
very soon, and the quickest way of meeting her,
147
The Princess Aline
whether it's romantic or not, isn't a bit too quick
for me. There will be romance enough after I
am presented, if I have my way."
But Carlton was not to have his way; for he
had overlooked the fact that it requires as many
to make an introduction as a bargain, and he had
left the Duke of Hohenwald out of his considera-
tions. He met many people he knew in the Row
the next morning; they asked him to lunch, and
brought their horses up to the rail, and he patted
the horses' heads, and led the conversation around
to the royal wedding, and through it to the Ho-
henwalds. He learned that they had attended a
reception at the German Embassy on the pre-
vious night, and it was one of the secretaries of
that embassy who informed him of their intended
departure that morning on the eleven o'clock
train to Paris.
"To Paris!" cried Carlton, in consternation.
What! all of them.?"
Yes, all of them, of course. Why.?" asked
the young German. But Carlton was already
dodging across the tan-bark to Piccadilly and
waving his stick at a hansom.
Nolan met him at the door of Brown's Hotel
with an anxious countenance.
** Their Royal Highnesses have gone, sir," he
148
The Princess Aline
said. **But I've packed your trunks and sent
them to the station. Shall I follow them, sir?"
"Yes," said Carlton. "Follow the trunks and
follow the Hohenwalds. I will come over on the
Club train at four. Meet me at the station, and
tell me to what hotel they have gone. Wait; if
I miss you, you can find me at the Hotel Conti-
nental; but if they go straight on through Paris,
you go with them, and telegraph me here and
to the Continental. Telegraph at every station,
so I can keep track of you. Have you enough
money ? "
"I have, sir — enough for a long trip, sir."
Well, you'll need it," said Carlton, grimly.
This is going to be a long trip. It is twenty
minutes to eleven now; you will have to hurry.
Have you paid my bill here.?"
"I have, sir," said Nolan.
"Then get off, and don't lose sight of those
people again."
Carlton attended to several matters of business,
and then lunched with Mrs. Downs and her niece.
He had grown to like them very much, and was
sorry to lose sight of them, but consoled himself
by thinking he would see them a few days at least
in Paris. He judged that he would be there for
some time, as he did not think the Princess Aline
149
The Princess Aline
and her sisters would pass through that city without
stopping to visit the shops on the Rue de la Paix.
"All women are not princesses," he argued,
*'but all princesses are women."
"We will be in Paris on Wednesday," Mrs.
Downs told him. "The Orient Express leaves
there twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays,
and we have taken an apartment for next Thurs-
day, and will go right on to Constantinople."
"But I thought you said you had to buy a lot
of clothes there.?" Carlton expostulated.
Mrs. Downs said that they would do that on
their way home.
Nolan met Carlton at the station, and told him
that he had followed the Hohenwalds to the Hotel
Meurice. "There is the Duke, sir, and the three
Princesses," Nolan said, "and there are two
German gentlemen acting as equerries, and an
English captain, a sort of A.D.C. to the Duke,
and two elderly ladies, and eight servants. They
travel very simple, sir, and their people are in
undress livery. Brown and red, sir."
Carlton pretended not to listen to this. He
had begun to doubt but that Nolan's zeal would
lead him into some indiscretion, and would end
disastrously to himself. He spent the evening
alone in front of the Cafe de la Paix, pleasantli'
150
The Princess Aline
occupied in watching the Kfe and movement of
that great meeting of the highways. It did not
seem possible that he had ever been away. It
was as though he had picked up a book and
opened it at the page and place at which he had
left off reading it a moment before. There was
the same type, the same plot, and the same char-
acters, who were doing the same characteristic
things. Even the waiter who tipped out his coffee
knew him; and he knew, or felt as though he
knew, half of those who passed, or who shared
with him the half of the sidewalk. The women
at the next table considered the slim, good-looking
young American with friendly curiosity, and the
men with them discussed him in French, until a
well-known Parisian recognized Carlton in pass-
ing, and hailed him joyously in the same language,
at which the women laughed and the men looked
sheepishly conscious.
On the following morning Carlton took up his
post in the open court of the Meurice, with his
coffee and the Figaro to excuse his loitering there.
He had not been occupied with these over-long
before Nolan approached him, in some excite-
ment, with the information that their Royal High-
nesses — as he delighted to call them — were at that
moment "coming down the lift."
151
The Princess Aline
Carlton could hear their voices, and wished to
step around the corner and see them; it was for
this chance he had been waiting; but he could
not afford to act in so undignified a manner be-
fore Nolan, so he merely crossed his legs ner-
vously, and told the servant to go back to the
rooms.
"Confound him!*' he said; "I wish he would
let me conduct my own affairs in my own way.
If I don't stop him, he'll carry the Princess Aline
off by force and send me word where he has
hidden her."
The Hohenwalds had evidently departed for a
day's outing, as up to five o'clock they had not
returned; and Carlton, after loitering all the after-
noon, gave up waiting for them, and vv^ent out to
dine at Laurent's, in the Champs Elysees. He
had finished his dinner, and was leaning luxuri-
ously forward, with his elbows on the table, and
knocking the cigar ashes into his coffee-cup. He
was pleasantly content. The trees hung heavy
with leaves over his head, a fountain played and
overflowed at his elbow, and the lamps of the
fiacres passing and repassing on the Avenue of
the Champs Elysees shone like giant fire-flies
through the foliage. The touch of the gravel
beneath his feet emphasized the free, out-of-door
152
i
u
o
3
<:
The Princess Aline
charm of the place, and the faces of the others
around him looked more than usually cheerful in
the light of the candles flickering under the
clouded shades. His mind had gone back to his
earlier student days in Paris, when life always
looked as it did now in the brief half-hour of
satisfaction which followed a cold bath or a good
dinner, and he had forgotten himself and his sur-
roundings. It was the voices of the people at
the table behind him that brought him back to
the present moment. A man was talking; he
spoke in English, with an accent.
"I should like to go again through the Luxem-
bourg," he said; '^but you need not be bound by
what I do."
"I think it would be pleasanter if we all keep
together," said a girl's voice, quietly. She also
spoke in English, and with the same accent.
The people whose voices had interrupted him
were sitting and standing around a long table,
which the w^aiters had made large enough for their
party by placing three of the smaller ones side by
side; they had finished their dinner, and the
women, who sat with their backs toward Carlton,
were pulling on their gloves.
''Which is it to be, then V said the gentleman,
smiling. ''The pictures or the dressmakers?"
153
The Princess Aline
The girl who had first spoken turned to the
one, next to her.
"Which would you rather do, Aline ?" she asked.
Carlton moved so suddenly that the men be-
hind him looked at him curiously; but he turned,
nevertheless, in his chair and faced them, and in
order to excuse his doing so beckoned to one of
the waiters. He was within two feet of the girl
who had been called "Aline." She raised her
head to speak, and saw Carlton staring open-
eyed at her. She glanced at him for an instant,
as if to assure herself that she did not know him,
and then, turning to her brother, smiled in the
same tolerant, amused way in which she had so
often smiled upon Carlton from the picture.
"I am afraid I had rather go to the Bon Mar-
che," she said.
One of the waiters stepped in between them,
and Carlton asked him for his bill; but when it
came he left it lying on the plate, and sat staring
out into the night between the candles, puffing
sharply on his cigar, and recalling to his memory
his first sight of the Princess Aline of Hohenwald.
That night, as he turned into bed, he gave a
comfortable sigh of content. "I am glad she
chose the dressmakers instead of the pictures,"
he said.
154
The Princess Aline
Mrs. Downs and Miss Morris arrived in Paris
on Wednesday, and expressed their anxiety to
have Carlton lunch with them, and to hear him
tell of the progress of his love-affair. There was
not much to tell; the Hohenwalds had come and
gone from the hotel as freely as any other tourists
in Paris, but the very lack of ceremony about their
movements was in itself a difficulty. The man-
ner of acquaintance he could make in the court of
the Hotel Meurice with one of the men over a cup
of coffee or a glass of bock would be as readily
discontinued as begun, and for his purpose it
would have been much better if the Hohenwalds
had been living in state with a visitors' book and
a chamberlain.
On Wednesday evening Carlton took the ladies
to the opera, where the Hohenwalds occupied a
box immediately opposite them. Carlton pre-
tended to be surprised at this fact, but Mrs.
Downs doubted his sincerity.
"I saw Nolan talking to their courier to-day,"
she said, **and I fancy he asked a few leading
questions."
"Well, he didn't learn much if he did," he said.
''The fellow only talks German."
"Ah, then he has been asking questions!" said
Miss Morris.
155
The Princess Aline
"Well, he does it on his own responsibility,"
said Carlton, "for I told him to have nothing to
do with servants. He has too much zeal, has
Nolan; I'm afraid of him."
"If you were only half as interested as he is,"
said Miss Morris, "you would have known her
long ago."
"Long ago.^" exclaimed Carlton. "I only saw
her four days since."
"She is certainly very beautiful," said Miss
Morris, looking across the auditorium.
"But she isn't there," said Carlton. "That's
the eldest sister; the two other sisters went out
on the coach this morning to Versailles, and were
too tired to come to-night. At least, so Nolan
says. He seems to have established a friendship
for their English maid, but whether it's on my
account or his own I don't know. I doubt his
unselfishness."
"How disappointing of her!" said Miss Morris.
"And after you had selected a box just across the
way, too. It is such a pity to waste it on us."
Carlton smiled, and looked up at her impudently,
as though he meant to say something; but re-
membering that she was engaged to be married,
changed his mind, and lowered his eyes to his
programme.
156
The Princess Aline
"Why didn't you say it?" asked Miss Morris,
calmly, turning her glass to the stage. ** Wasn't
it pretty?"
*'No/' said Carlton — "not pretty enough."
The ladies left the hotel the next day to take
the Orient Express, which left Paris at six o'clock.
They had bidden Carlton good-by at four the
same afternoon, and as he had come to their
rooms for that purpose, they were in consequence
a little surprised to see him at the station, running
wildly along the platform, followed by Nolan and
a porter. He came into their compartment after
the train had started, and shook his head sadly at
them from the door.
"Well, what do you think of this?" he said.
"You can't get rid of me, you see. I'm going
with you."
"Going with us?" asked Mrs. Downs. "How
far?"
Carlton laughed, and, coming inside, dropped
onto the cushions with a sigh. "I don't know,"
he said, dejectedly. "All the way, I'm afraid.
That is, I mean, I'm very glad I am to have your
society for a few days more; but really I didn't
bargain for this."
"You don't mean to tell me that they are on
this train?" said Miss Morris.
157
The Princess Aline
"They are," said Carlton. "They have a car
to themselves at the rear. They only made up
their minds to go this morning, and they nearly
succeeded in giving me the slip again; but it seems
that their English maid stopped Nolan in the hall
to bid him good-by, and so he found out their
plans. They are going direct to Constantinople,
and then to Athens. They had meant to stay in
Paris two weeks longer, it seems, but they changed
their minds last night. It was a very close shave
for me. I only got back to the hotel in time to
hear from the concierge that Nolan had flown
with all of my things, and left word for me to
follow. Just fancy! Suppose I had missed the
train, and had had to chase him clear across the
continent of Europe with not even a razor "
"I am glad," said Miss Morris, "that Nolan
has not taken a fancy to me. I doubt if I could
resist such impetuosity."
The Orient Express, in which Carlton and the
mistress of his heart and fancy were speeding
toward the horizon's utmost purple rim, was
made up of six cars, one dining-car with a smok-
ing-apartment attached, and five sleeping-cars, in-
cluding the one reserved for the Duke of Hohen-
wald and his suite. These cars were lightly built,
and rocked in consequence, and the dust raised
158
The Princess Aline
by the rapid movement of the train swept through
cracks and open windows, and sprinkled the pas-
sengers with a fine and irritating coating of soot
and earth. There was one servant to the en-
tire twenty-two passengers. He spoke eight lan-
guages, and never slept; but as his services were
in demand by several people in as many different
cars at the same moment he satisfied no one, and
the complaint-box in the smoking-car was stuffed
full to the slot in consequence before they had
crossed the borders of France.
Carlton and Miss Morris went out upon one of
the platforms and sat down upon a tool-box. "It
isn't as comfortable here as in an observation-car
at home,'' said Carlton, "but it's just as noisy."
He pointed out to her from time to time the
peasants gathering twigs, and the blue-bloused
gendarmes guarding the woods and the fences
skirting them. "Nothing is allowed to go to
waste in this country," he said. "It looks as
though they went over it once a month with a
lawn-mower and a pruning-knife. I believe they
number the trees as we number the houses."
"And did you notice the great fortifications
covered with grass .^" she said. "We have passed
such a lot of them."
Carlton nodded.
159
The Princess Aline
And did you notice that they all faced only
■^ne way ? '*
Carlton laughed, and nodded again. "Tow-
ard Germany," he said.
By the next day they had left the tall poplars
^nd white roads behind them, and were crossing
the land of low shiny black helmets and brass
spikes. They had come into a country of low
mountains and black forests, with old fortified
castles topping the hills, and with red-roofed vil-
lages scattered around the base.
"How very military it all is!" Mrs. Downs said.
"Even the men at the lonely little stations in the
forests wear uniforms; and do you notice how
each of them rolls up his red flag and holds it
like a sword, and salutes the train as it passes .?"
They spent the hour during which the train
shifted from one station in Vienna to the other
driving about in an open carriage, and stopped
for a few moments in front of a cafe to drink beer
and to feel solid earth under them again, return-
ing to the train with a feeling which was almost
that of getting back to their own rooms. Then
they came to great steppes covered with long
thick grass, and flooded in places with little lakes
of broken ice; great horned cattle stood knee-deep
in this grass, and at the villages and way-stations
1 60
The Princess Aline
were people wearing sheepskin jackets and waist-
coats covered with silver buttons. In one place
there was a wedding procession waiting for the
train to pass, with the friends of the bride and
groom in their best clothes, the women with silver
breastplates, and boots to their knees. It seemed
hardly possible that only two days before they
had seen another wedding party in the Champs
Elysees, where the men wore evening dress, and
the women were bareheaded and with long trains.
In forty-eight hours they had passed through
republics, principalities, empires, and kingdoms,
and from spring to winter. It was like walking
rapidly over a painted panorama of Europe.
On the second evening Carlton went off into
the smoking-car alone. The Duke of Hohen-
wald and two of his friends had finished a late
supper, and were seated in the apartment adjoin-
ing it. The Duke was a young man with a heavy
beard and eye-glasses. He was looking over an
illustrated catalogue of the Salon, and as Carlton
dropped on the sofa opposite the Duke raised his
head and looked at him curiously, and then
turned over several pages of the catalogue and
studied one of them, and then back at Carlton, as
though he were comparing him with something
on the page before him. Carlton was looking
i6i
The Princess Aline
out at the night, but he could follow what was
going forward, as it was reflected in the glass of
the car window. He saw the Duke hand the
catalogue to one of the equerries, who raised his
eyebrows and nodded his head in assent. Carl-
ton w^ondered what this might mean; until he
remembered that there was a portrait of himself
by a French artist in the Salon, and concluded it
had been reproduced in the catalogue. He could
think of nothing else which would explain the
interest the two men showed in him. On the
morning following he sent Nolan out to pur-
chase a catalogue at the first station at which they
stopped, and found that his guess was a correct
one. A portrait of himself had been reproduced
in black and white, with his name below it.
"Well, they know who I am now," he said to
Miss Morris, "even if they don't know me. That
honor is still in store for them."
"I wish they did not lock themselves up so
tightly," said Miss Morris. "I want to see her
very much. Cannot we walk up and down the
platform at the next station .? She may be at
the window."
"Of course," said Carlton. "You could have
seen her at Buda-Pesth if you had spoken of it.
She was walking up and down then. The next
162
The Princess Aline
time the train stops we will prowl up and down
and feast our eyes upon her/'
But Miss Morris had her wish gratified without
that exertion. The Hohenwalds were served in
the dining-car after the other passengers had
finished, and were in consequence only to be
seen when they passed by the doors of the other
compartments. But this same morning, after
luncheon, the three Princesses, instead of return-
ing to their own car, seated themselves in the
compartment adjoining the dining-car, while the
men of their party lit their cigars and sat in a
circle around them.
''I was wondering how long they could stand
three men smoking in one of the boxes they call
cars,'' said Mrs. Downs. She was seated be-
tween Miss Morris and Carlton, directly opposite
the Hohenwalds, and so near them that she had
to speak in a whisper. To avoid doing this Miss
Morris asked Carlton for a pencil, and scribbled
with it in the novel she held on her lap. Then
she passed them both back to him, and said,
aloud: "Have you read this .^ It has such a
pretty dedication." The dedication read, ** Which
is Aline.?" And Carlton, taking the pencil in
his turn, made a rapid sketch of her on the fly-
leaf, and wrote beneath it: *'This is she. Do you
163
The Princess Aline
wonder I travelled four thousand miles to see
her?"
Miss Morris took the book again, and glanced
at the sketch, and then at the three Princesses,
and nodded her head. "It is very beautiful," she
said, gravely, looking out at the passing landscape.
"Well, not beautiful exactly," answered Carl-
ton, surveying the hills critically, *'but certainly
very attractive. It is worth travelling a long way
to see, and I should think one would grow very
fond of it."
Miss Morris tore the fly-leaf out of the book,
and slipped it between the pages. "May I keep
it.?" she said. Carlton nodded. "And will you
sign it.?" she asked, smiling. Carlton shrugged
his shoulders, and laughed. "If you wish it,"
he answered.
The Princess wore a gray cheviot travelling
dress, as did her sisters, and a gray Alpine hat.
She was leaning back, talking to the English
captain who accompanied them, and laughing.
Carlton thought he had never seen a woman
who appealed so strongly to every taste of which
he was possessed. She seemed so sure of herself,
so alert, and yet so gracious, so easily entertained,
and yet, when she turned her eyes toward the
strange, dismal landscape, so seriously intent upon
164
y/
.#.
^i
v^k
^r^^u ^
,, iAJt^
1
''This is she. Do you wonder I trav-
elled four thousand miles
to see her?"
Tne Princess Aline
Its sad beauty. The English captain dropped his
head, and with the pretence of pulHng at his
mustache, covered his mouth as he spoke to her.
When he had finished he gazed consciously at
the roof of the car, and she kept her eyes fixed
steadily at the object toward which they had
turned when he had ceased speaking, and then,
after a decent pause, turned her eyes, as Carlton
knew she would, toward him.
"He was telling her who I am," he thought,
"and about the picture in the catalogue."
In a few moments she turned to her sister and
spoke to her, pointing out at something in the
scenery, and the same pantomime was repeated,
and again with the third sister.
"Did you see those girls talking about you, Mr.
Carlton.?" Miss Morris asked, after they had
left the car.
Carlton said it looked as though they were.
"Of course they were," said Miss Morris.
■'That Englishman told the Princess Aline some-
thing about you, and then she told her sister,
and she told the eldest one. It would be nice if
they inherit their father's interest in painting,
wouldn't it .?"
"I would rather have it degenerate into an
interest in painters myself," said Carlton.
165
The Princess Aline
Miss Morris discovered, after she had returned
to her own car, that she had left the novel where
she had been sitting, and Carlton sent Nolan back
for it. It had slipped to the floor, and the fly-leaf
upon which Carlton had sketched the Princess
Aline was lying face down beside it. Nolan picked
up the leaf, and saw the picture, and read the in-
scription below: **This is she. Do you wonder
I travelled four thousand miles to see her?"
He handed the book to Miss Morris, and
was backing out of the compartment, when she
stopped him.
"There was a loose page in this, Nolan," she
said. "It's gone; did you see it?"
"A loose page, miss?" said Nolan, with some
concern. "Oh, yes, miss; I was going to tell
you; there was a scrap of paper blew away when
I was passing between the carriages. Was it
something you wanted, miss ?"
"Something I wanted!" exclaimed Miss Morris,
in dismay.
Carlton laughed easily. "It is just as well I
didn't sign it, after all," he said. "I don't want
to proclaim my devotion to any Hungarian gypsy
who happens to read English."
"You must draw me another, as a souvenir/*
Miss Morris said.
i66
The Princess Aline
Nolan continued on through the length of the
car until he had reached the one occupied by the
Hohenwalds, where he waited on the platform
until the English maid-servant saw him and came
to the door of the carriage.
"What hotel are your people going to stop at
in Constantinople?" Nolan asked.
"The Grande-Bretagne, I think," she answered.
"That's right/' said Nolan, approvingly.
"That's the one we are going to. I thought I
would come and tell you about it. And, by the
way," he said, "here's a picture somebody's
made of your Princess Aline. She dropped it,
and I picked it up. You had better give it back
to her. Well," he added, politely, "I'm glad you
are coming to our hotel in Constantinople; it's
pleasant having some one to talk to who can
speak your ow^n tongue."
The girl returned to the car, and left Nolan
alone upon the platform. He exhaled a long
breath of suppressed excitement, and then gazed
around nervously upon the empty landscape.
"I fancy that's going to hurry things up a
bit," he murmured, with an anxious smile; "he'd
never get along at all if it wasn't for me."
For reasons possibly best understood by the
German ambassador, the state of the Hohenwalds
167
The Princess Aline
at Constantinople differed greatly from that which
had obtained at the French capital. They no
longer came and went as they wished, or wan-
dered through the show-places of the city like
ordinary tourists. There was, on the contrary,
not only a change in their manner toward others,
but there was an insistence on their part of a dif-
ference in the attitude of others toward them-
selves. This showed itself in the reserving of
the half of the hotel for their use, and in the
haughty bearing of the equerries, who appeared
unexpectedly in magnificent uniforms. The visi-
tors' book was covered with the autographs of all
of the important people in the Turkish capital,
and the Sultan's carriages stood constantly before
the door of the hotel, awaiting their pleasure,
until they became as familiar a sight as the street
dogs, or as cabs in a hansom-cab rank.
And in following out the programme which
had been laid down for her, the Princess Aline
became even less accessible to Carlton than be-
fore, and he grew desperate and despondent.
"If the worst comes," he said to Miss Morris,
"I shall tell Nolan to give an alarm of fire some
night, and then I will run in and rescue her
before they find out there is no fire. Or he might
frighten the horses some d^y, and give me a
i68
The Princess Aline
chance to stop them. We might even wait until
we reach Greece, and have her carried off by
brigands, who would only give her up to me."
'* There are no more brigands in Greece," said
Miss Morris; "and besides, why do you suppose
they would only give her up to you .^"
'* Because they would be imitation brigands,"
said Carlton, "and would be paid to give her up
to no one else."
"Oh, you plan very well," scoffed Miss Morris,
"but you don't do anything."
Carlton was saved the necessity of doing any-
thing that same morning, when the English cap-
tain in attendance on the Duke sent his card to
Carlton's room. He came, he explained, to pre-
sent the Prince's compliments, and would it be
convenient for Mr. Carlton to meet the Duke
that afternoon .^ Mr. Carlton suppressed an un-
seemly desire to shout, and said, after a mo-
ment's consideration, that it would. He then took
the English captain downstairs to the smoking-
room, and rewarded him for his agreeable mes-
sage.
The Duke received Carlton in the afternoon,
and greeted him most cordially, and with as
much ease of manner as it is possible for a man
to possess who has never enjoyed the benefits of
i6q
The Princess Aline
meeting other men on an equal footing. He
expressed his pleasure in knowing an artist with
whose work he was so familiar, and congratulated
himself on the happy accident which had brought
them both to the same hotel.
*^I have more than a natural interest in meet-
ing you," said the Prince, "and for a reason
which you may or may not know. I thought
possibly you could help me somewhat. I have
within the past few days come into the possession
of two of your paintings; they are studies, rather,
but to me they are even more desirable than the
finished work; and I am not correct in saying
that they have come to me exactly, but to my
sister, the Princess Aline."
Carlton could not withhold a certain start of
surprise. He had not expected that his gift
would so soon have arrived, but his face showed
only polite attention.
"The studies were delivered to us in London,"
continued the Duke. "They are of Ludwig the
tragedian, and of the German Prime Minister,
two most valuable works, and especially interest-
ing to us. They came without any note or mes-
sage which would inform us who had sent them,
and when my people made inquiries, the dealer
refused to tell them from whom they had come.
170
The Princess Aline
He had been ordered to forward them to Grasse,
but, on learning of our presence in London, sent
them direct to our hotel there. Of course it is
embarrassing to have so valuable a present from
an anonymous friend, especially so for my sister,
to whom they were addressed, and I thought that,
besides the pleasure of meeting one of whose
genius I am so warm an admirer, I might also
learn something which would enable me to dis-
cover who our friend may be." He paused, but
as Carlton said nothing, continued: **As it is
now, I do not feel that I can accept the pictures;
and yet I know no one to whom they can be re-
turned, unless I send them to the dealer."
"It sounds very mysterious," said Carlton,
smiling; "and I am afraid I cannot help you.
What work I did in Germany was sold in Berlin
before I left, and in a year may have changed
hands several times. The studies of which you
speak are unimportant, and merely studies, and
could pass from hand to hand without much
record having been kept of them; but personally
I am not able to give you any information which
would assist you in tracing them."
"Yes," said the Duke. "Well, then, I shall
keep them until I can learn more; and if we can
learn nothing, I shall return them to the dealer."
171
The Princess Aline
Carhon met Miss Morris that afternoon in a
state of great excitement. "It's come!" he cried
— "it's come! I am to meet her this week. I
have met her brother, and he has asked me to
dine with them on Thursday night; that's the
day before they leave for Athens; and he particu-
larly mentioned that his sisters would be at the
dinner, and that it would be a pleasure to present
me. It seems that the eldest paints, and all of
them love art for art's sake, as their father taught
them to do; and, for all we know, he may make
me court painter, and I shall spend the rest of
my life at Grasse painting portraits of the Prin-
cess Aline, at the age of twenty-two, and at all
future ages. And if he does give me a commis-
sion to paint her, I can tell you now in confidence
that that picture will require more sittings than
any other picture ever painted by man. Her
hair will have turned white by the time it is fin-
ished, and the gown she started to pose in will
have become forty years behind the fashion!"
On the morning following, Carlton and Mrs.
Downs and her niece, with all the tourists in
Constantinople, were placed in open carriages by
their dragomans, and driven in a long procession to
the Seraglio to see the Sultan's treasures. Those
of them who had waited two weeks for this chance
172
The Princess Aline
looked aggrieved at the more fortunate who had
come at the eleventh hour on the last night's
steamer, and seemed to think these latter had
attained the privilege without sufficient effort.
The ministers of the different legations — as is the
harmless custom of such gentlemen — had im-
pressed every one for whom they had obtained
permission to see the treasures with the great
importance of the service rendered, and had suc-
ceeded in making every one feel either especially
honored or especially uncomfortable at having
given them so much trouble. This sense of obli-
gation, and the fact that the dragomans had
assured the tourists that they were for the time
being the guests of the Sultan, awed and de-
pressed most of the visitors to such an extent that
their manner in the long procession of carriages
suggested a funeral cortege, with the Hohenwalds
in front, escorted by Beys and Pashas, as chief
mourners. The procession halted at the palace,
and the guests of the Sultan were received by
numerous effendis in single-button frock-coats
and freshly ironed fezzes, who served them with
glasses of water, and a huge bowl of some
sweet stuff, of which every one was supposed to
take a spoonful. There was at first a general
fear among the Cook's tourists that there would
173
The Princess Aline
not be enough of this to go round, which was
succeeded by a greater anxiety lest they should
be served twice. Some of the tourists put the
sweet stuff in their mouths direct and licked the
spoon, and others dropped it off the spoon into
the glass of water, and stirred it about and sipped
at it, and no one knew who had done the right
thing, not even those who happened to have done
it. Carlton and Miss Morris went out on to the
terrace while this ceremony was going forward,
and looked out over the great panorama of
waters, with the Sea of Marmora on one side,
the Golden Horn on the other, and the Bosporus
at their feet. The sun was shining mildly, and
the waters were stirred by great and little vessels;
before them on the opposite bank rose the dark
green cypresses which marked the grim cemetery
of England's dead, and behind them were the
great turtle-backed mosques and pencil-like mina-
rets of the two cities, and close at hand the mosaic
walls and beautiful gardens of Constantine.
*'Your friends the Hohenwalds don't seem to
know you this morning," she said.
"Oh, yes; he spoke to me as we left the hotel,"
Carlton answered. "But they are on parade at
present. There are a lot of their countrymen
among the tourists."
174
The Princess Aline
*'I feel rather sorry for them," Miss Morris
said, looking at the group with an amused smile.
"Etiquette cuts them off from so much innocent
amusement. Now, you are a gentleman, and the
Duke presumably is, and why should you not go
over and say, ^Your Highness, I wish you would
present me to your sister, whom I am to meet
at dinner to-morrow night. I admire her very
much,' and then you could point out the histori-
cal features to her, and show her where they
have finished off a blue and green tiled wall
with a rusty tin roof, and make pretty speeches to
her. It wouldn't hurt her, and it would do you a
lot of good. The simplest way is always the best
way, it seems to me."
'^Oh yes, of course," said Carlton. "Suppose
he came over here and said: 'Carlton, I wish you
would present me to your young American friend.
I admire her very much.' I would probably say:
* Do you .? Well, you will have to wait until she
expresses some desire to meet you.' No; eti-
quette is all right in itself, only some people don't
know its laws, and that is the one instance to my
mind where ignorance of the law is no excuse."
Carlton left Miss Morris talking with the Secre-
tary of the American Legation, and went to look
for Mrs. Downs. When he returned he found
175
The Princess Aline
that the young Secretary had apparently affcd
and obtained permission to present the Duke's
equerries and some of his diplomatic confreres,
who were standing now about her in an attentive
semicircle, and pointing out the different palaces
and points of interest. Carlton was somewhat
disturbed at the sight, and reproached himself
with not having presented any one to her before.
He was sure now that she must have had a dull
time of it; but he wished, nevertheless, that if she
was to meet other men, the Secretary had allowed
him to act as master of ceremonies.
"I suppose you know," that gentleman was
saying as Carlton came up, "that when you pass
by Abydos, on the way to Athens, you will see
where Leander swam the Hellespont to meet
Hero. That little white light-house is called
Leander in honor of him. It makes rather an
interesting contrast — does it not ^ — to think of
that chap swimming along in the dark, and then
to find that his monument to-day is a light-house,
with revolving lamps and electric appliances, and
with ocean tramps and bridges and men-of-war
around it. We have improved in our mechanism
since then," he said, with an air, "but I am afraid
the men of to-day don't do that sort of thing for
the women of to-day."
176
The Princess Aline
"Then it is the men who have deteriorated,"
said one of the equerries, bowing to Miss Morris;
"it is certainly not the women."
The two Americans looked at Miss Morris to
see how she received this, but she smiled good-
naturedly.
"I know a man who did more than that for a
woman," said Carlton, innocently. "He crossed
an ocean and several countries to meet her, and
he hasn't met her yet."
Miss Morris looked at him and laughed, in
the safety that no one understood him but herself.
But he ran no danger," she answered.
He didn't, didn't he?" said Carlton, looking
at her closely and laughing. "I think he was in
very great danger all the time."
Shocking!" said Miss Morris, reprovingly;
and in her very presence, too." She knitted
her brows and frowned at him. "I really believe
if you were in prison you would make pretty
speeches to the jailer's daughter."
"Yes," said Carlton, boldly, "or even to a
woman who was a prisoner herself."
"I don't know what you mean," she said, turn-
ing away from him to the others. "How far
was it that Leander swam.?" she asked.
The English captain pointed out two spots on
177
if
(I
The Princess Aline
either bank, and said that the shores of Abydos
were a httle over that distance apart.
'*As far as that?" said Miss Morris. "How
much he must have cared for her!" She turned
to Carlton for an answer.
"I beg your pardon," he said. He was meas-
uring the distance between the two points with
his eyes.
"I said how much he must have cared for her!
You wouldn't swim that far for a girl."
**For a girl!" laughed Carlton, quickly. "I
was just thinking I would do it for fifty dollars."
The English captain gave a hasty glance at the
distance he had pointed out, and then turned to
Carlton. "I'll take you," he said, seriously.
"I'll bet you twenty pounds you can't do it."
There was an easy laugh at Carlton's expense,
but he only shook his head and smiled.
"Leave him alone, captain," said the American
Secretary. "It seems to me I remember a story
of Mr. Carlton's swimming out from Navesink to
meet an ocean liner. It was about three miles,
and the ocean was rather rough, and when they
slowed up he asked them if it was raining in
London when they left. They thought he was
mad."
"Is that true, Carlton .?" asked the Englishman.
178
The Princess Aline
"Something like it/' said the American, "ex-
cept that I didn't ask them if it was raining in
London. I asked them for a drink, and it was
they who were mad. They thought I was drown-
ing, and slowed up to lower a boat, and when
they found out I was just swimming around they
were naturally angry."
"Well, I'm glad you didn't bet with me," said
the captain, with a relieved laugh.
That evening, as the Englishman was leaving
the smoking-room, and after he had bidden Carl-
ton good-night, he turned back and said: "I did-
n't like to ask you before those men this morning,
but there was something about your swimming
adventure I wanted to know: Did you get that
drink .f*"
"I did," said Carlton — "in a bottle. They
nearly broke my shoulder."
As Carlton came into the breakfast-room on
the morning of the day he was to meet the Prin-
cess Aline at dinner. Miss Morris was there alone,
and he sat down at the same table, opposite to
her. She looked at him critically, and smiled
with evident amusement.
" 'To-day,' " she quoted, solemnly, " *the
birthday of my life has come.' "
Carlton poured out his coffee, with a shake of
179
The Princess Aline
his head, and frowned. "Oh, you can laugh,'*
he said, **but I didn't sleep at all last night. I
lay awake making speeches to her. I know they
are going to put me between the wrong sisters,"
he complained, "or next to one of those old
ladies-in-waiting, or whatever they are."
"How are you going to begin ?'' said Miss Mor-
ris. "Will you tell her you have followed her
from London — or from New York, rather — that
you are young Lochinvar, who came out of the
West, and "
"I don't know," said Carlton, meditatively,
"just how I shall begin; but I know the curtain
is going to rise promptly at eight o'clock — about
the time the soup comes on, I think. I don't
see bow she can help but be impressed a little bit.
It isn't every day a man hurries around the globe
on account of a girl's photograph; and she is
beautiful, isn't she.?"
Miss Morris nodded her head encouragingly.
"Do you know, sometimes/' said Carlton,
glancing over his shoulders to see if the waiters
were out of hearing, "I fancy she has noticed me.
Once or twice I have turned my head in her direc-
tion without meaning to, and found her looking —
well, looking my way, at least. Don't you think
that is a good sign } " he asked, eagerly.
1 80
The Princess Aline
"It depends on what you call a 'good sign/ "
said Miss Morris, judicially. *'It is a sign you're
good to look at, if that's what you want. But
you probably know that already, and it's nothing
to your credit. It certainly isn't a sign that a
person cares for you because she prefers to look
at your profile rather than at what the dragomans
are trying to show her."
Carlton drew himself up stiffly. *'If you knew
your Alice better," he said, with severity, "you
would understand that it is not polite to make
personal remarks. I ask you, as my confidante,
if you think she has noticed me, and you make
fun of my looks! That's not the part of a con-
fidante."
"Noticed you!" laughed Miss Morris, scorn-
fully. " How could she help it ? You are al-
ways in the way. You are at the door whenever
they go out or come in, and when we are visiting
mosques and palaces you are invariably looking
at her instead of the tombs and things, with a
wistful far-away look, as though you saw a vision.
The first time you did it, after you had turned
away I saw her feel to see if her hair was all right.
You quite embarrassed her."
"I didn't — I don't!" stammered Carlton, indig-
nantly. "I wouldn't be so rude. Oh, I see I'll
i8i
The Princess Aline
have to get another confidante; you are mosf
unsympathetic and unkind."
But Miss Morris showed her sympathy later in
the day, when Carlton needed it sorely; for the
dinner toward which he had looked with such
pleasurable anticipations and loverlike misgivings
did not take place. The Sultan, so the equerry
informed him, had, with Oriental unexpectedness,
invited the Duke to dine that night at the Palace,
and the Duke, much to his expressed regret, had
been forced to accept what was in the nature of
a command. He sent word by his equerry, how-
ever, that the dinner to Mr. Carlton v/as only a
pleasure deferred, and that at Athens, where he
understood Carlton was also going, he hoped to
have the pleasure of entertaining him and mak-
ing him known to his sisters.
''He is a selfish young egoist," said Carlton to
Mrs. Downs. "As if I cared whether he was at
the dinner or not! Why couldn't he have fixed
it so I might have dined with his sisters alone }
We would never have missed him. I'll never
meet her now. I know it; I feel it. Fate is
against me. Now I will have to follow them on
to Athens, and something will turn up there to
keep me away from her. You'll see; you'll see,
I wonder where they go from Athens .?"
182
The Princess Aline
The Hohenwalds departed the next morning,
and as their party had engaged all the state-
rooms in the Httle ItaHan steamer, Carlton was
forced to wait over for the next. He was very
gloomy over his disappointment, and Miss Morris
did her best to amuse him. She and her aunt
were never idle now, and spent the last few days
of their stay in Constantinople in the bazaars or
in excursions up and down the river.
"These are my last days of freedom," Miss
Morris said to him once, "and I mean to make
the most of them. After this there will be no
more travelling for me. And I love it so!" she
added, wistfully.
Carlton made no comment, but he felt a cer-
tain contemptuous pity for the young man in
America who had required such a sacrifice.
"She is too nice a girl to let him know she is mak-
ing a sacrifice," he thought, "or giving up any-
thing for him, but she won't forget it." And
Carlton again commended himself for not having
asked any woman to make any sacrifices for him.
They left Constantinople for Athens one moon-
light night, three days after the Hohenwalds had
taken their departure, and as the evening and
the air were warm, they remained upon the
upper deck until the boat had entered the Darda-
183
The Princess Aline
nelles. There were few passengers, and Mrs.
Downs went below early, leaving Miss Morris
and Carlton hanging over the rail, and looking
down upon a band of Hungarian gypsies, who
were playing the weird music of their country on
the deck beneath them. The low receding hills
lay close on either hand, and ran back so sharply
from the narrow waterway that they seemed to
shut in the boat from the world beyond. The
moonlight showed a little mud fort or a thatched
cottage on the bank fantastically, as through a
mist, and from time to time as they sped forward
they saw the camp-fire of a sentry, and his shadow
as he passed between it and them, or stopped to
cover it with wood. The night was so still that
they could hear the waves in the steamer's wake
washing up over the stones on either shore, and
the muffled beat of the engines echoed back from
either side of the valley through which they
passed. There was a great lantern hanging mid-
way from the mast, and shining down upon the
lower deck. It showed a group of Greeks, Turks,
and Armenians, in strange costumes, sleeping,
huddled together in picturesque confusion over
the bare boards, or wide-awake and voluble,
smoking and chatting together in happy com-
pany. The music of the tizanes rose in notes of
184
The Princess Aline
passionate ecstasy and sharp, unexpected bursts
of melody. It ceased and began again, as though
the musicians were feeHng their way, and then
burst out once more into shrill defiance. It
stirred Carlton with a strange turbulent unrest.
From the banks the night wind brought soft
odors of fresh earth and of heavy foliage.
''The music of different countries," Carlton
said at last, "means many different things.
But it seems to me that the music of Hungary is
the music of love."
Miss Morris crossed her arms comfortably on
the rail, and he heard her laugh softly. ''Oh no,
it is not," she said, undisturbed. "It is a pas-
sionate, gusty, heady sort of love, if you like, but
it's no more like the real thing than burgundy is
like clear, cold, good water. It's not the real
thing at all."
"I beg your pardon," said Carlton, meekly.
"Of course I don't know anything about it."
He had been waked out of the spell which the
night and the tizanes had placed upon him as
completely as though some one had shaken him
sharply by the shoulder. "I bow," he said, "to
your superior knowledge. I know nothing about
It.
No; you are quite right. I don't believe you
185
The Princess Aline
do know anything about it/' said the girl, "or
you wouldn't have made such a comparison."
"Do you know, Miss Morris," said Carlton,
seriously, **that I believe Fm not able to care for
a woman as other men do — at least as some men do;
it's just lacking in me, and always will be lacking.
It's like an ear for music; if you haven't got it, if it
isn't born in you, you'll never have it. It's not
a thing you can cultivate, and I feel that it's not
only a misfortune, but a fault. Now I honestly
believe that I care more for the Princess Aline,
whom I have never met, than many other men
could care for her if they knew her well; but what
they feel would last, and I have doubts from past
experience that what I feel would. I don't doubt
it while it exists, but it never does exist long, and
so I am afraid it is going to be with me to the end
of the chapter." He paused for a moment, but
the girl did not answer. **I am speaking in
earnest now," he added, with a rueful laugh.
"I see you are," she replied, briefly. She
seemed to be considering his condition as he had
described it to her, and he did not interrupt her.
From below them came the notes of the waltz
the gypsies played. It was full of the undercur-
rent of sadness that a waltz should have, and
filled out what Carlton said as the music from
i86
The Princess Aline
the orchestra in a theatre heightens the effect
without interrupting the words of the actor on
the stage.
"It is strange," said Miss Morris. **I should
have thought you were a man who would care
very much and in just the right way. But I
don't believe really — Fm sorry, but I don't be-
lieve you do know what love means at all."
"Oh, it isn't as bad as that," said Carlton.
"I think I know what it is, and what it means to
other people, but I can't feel it myself. The best
idea I ever got of it — the thing that made it clear
to me — was a line in a play. It seemed to ex-
press it better than any of the love-poems I ever
read. It was in * Shenandoah.'"
Miss Morris laughed.
"I beg your pardon," said Carlton.
"I beg yours," she said. "It was only the in-
congruity that struck me. It seemed so odd to
be quoting * Shenandoah' here in the Dardanelles,
with these queer people below us and ancient
Troy on one hand — it took me by surprise, that's
all. Please go on. What was it impressed you ?"
"Well, the hero in the play," said Carlton, "is
an officer in the Northern army, and he is lying
wounded in a house near the Shenandoah Valley.
The girl he loves lives in this house, and is nurs-
187
The Princess Aline
ing him; but she doesn't love him, because she
sympathizes with the South. At least she says
she doesn't love him. Both armies are forming
in the valley below to begin the battle, and he
sees his own regiment hurrying past to join
them. So he gets up and staggers out on the
stage, which is set to show the yard in front of
the farm-house, and he calls for his horse to fol-
low his men. Then the girl runs out and begs
him not to go; and he asks why, what does it
matter to her whether he goes or not ? And she
says, *But I cannot let you go; you may be killed.'
And he says again, *What is that to you .f" And
she says: 'It is everything to me. I love you.'
And he makes a grab at her v/ith his wounded
arm, and at that instant both armies open fire in
the valley below, and the whole earth and sky
seem to open and shut, and the house rocks.
The girl rushes at him and crowds up against his
breast, and cries: *What is that.? Oh, what is
that.?' and he holds her tight to him and laughs,
and says: 'That? That's only a battle — ^you love
me.
Miss Morris looked steadfastly over the side of
the boat at the waters rushing by beneath, smil-
ing to herself. Then she turned her face toward
Carlton, and nodded her head at him. "I think,"
1 88
The Princess Aline
she said, dryly, "that you have a fair idea of what
it means; a rough working-plan at least — enough
to begin on."
"I said that I knew what it meant to others. I
am complaining that I cannot feel it myself."
"That will come in time, no doubt," she said,
encouragingly, with the air of a connoisseur;
"and let me tell you," she added, "that it will be
all the better for the woman that you have doubted
yourself so long."
"You think so.?" said Carlton, eagerly.
Miss Morris laughed at his earnestness, and
left him to go below to ask her aunt to join them,
but Mrs. Downs preferred to read in the saloon,
and Miss Morris returned alone. She had taken
off her Eton jacket and pulled on a heavy blue
football sweater, and over this a reefer. The
jersey clung to her and showed the lines of her
figure, and emphasized the freedom and grace
with which she made every movemient. She
looked, as she walked at his side with her hands
in the pockets of her coat and with a flat sailor hat
on her head, like a tall, handsome bo}^; but when
they stopped and stood where the light fell full
on her hair and the exquisite coloring of her skin,
Carlton thought her face had never seemed so
delicate or fair as it did then, rising from the col-
189
The Princess Aline
lar of the rough jersey, and contrasted with the
hat and coat of a man's attire. They paced the
deck for an hour later, until every one else had
left it, and at midnight were still loath to give up
the beautiful night and the charm of their strange
surroundings. There were long silent places in
their talk, during which Carlton tramped beside
her with his head half turned, looking at her and
noting with an artist's eye the free light step, the
erect carriage, and the unconscious beauty of her
face. The captain of the steamer joined them
after midnight, and falling into step, pointed out
to Miss Morris where great cities had stood, where
others lay buried, and where beyond the hills
were the almost inaccessible monasteries of the
Greek Church. The moonlight turned the banks
into shadowy substances, in which the ghosts of
former days seemed to make a part; and spurred
by the young girl's interest, the Italian, to enter-
tain her, called up all the legends of mythology
and the stories of Roman explorers and Turkish
conquerors.
"I turn in now," he said, after Miss Morris
had left them. *'A most charming young lady.
Is it not so ?" he added, waving his cigarette in a
gesture which expressed the ineffectiveness of the
adjective.
190
The Princess Aline
"Yes, very," said Carlton. *' Good-night, sir/*
He turned, and leaned with both elbows on the
rail, and looked out at the misty banks, puffing
at his cigar. Then he dropped it hissing into
the water, and, stifling a yawn, looked up and
down the length of the deserted deck. It seemed
particularly bare and empty.
**What a pity she's engaged!" Carlton said.
"She loses so much by it."
They steamed slowly into the harbor of the
Piraeus at an early hour the next morning, with a
flotilla of small boats filled with shrieking porters
and hotel-runners at the sides. These men tossed
their painters to the crew, and crawled up them
like a boarding crew of pirates, running wildly
about the deck, and laying violent hands on any
piece of baggage they saw unclaimed. The pas-
sengers' trunks had been thrown out in a heap on
the deck, and Nolan and Carlton were clamber-
ing over them, looking for their own effects, while
Miss Morris stood below, as far out of the con-
fusion as she could place herself, and pointed out
the different pieces that belonged to her. As she
stood there one of the hotel-runners, a burly,
greasy Levantine in pursuit of a possible victim,
shouldered her intentionally and roughly out of
the way. He shoved her so sharply that she lost
191
The Princess Aline
her balance and fell back against the rail. Carl-
ton saw what had happened, and made a flying
leap from the top of the pile of trunks, landing
beside her, and in time to seize the escaping
offender by the collar. He jerked him back off
his feet.
"How dare you — " he began.
But he did not finish. He felt the tips of Miss
Morris's fingers laid upon his shoulder, and her
voice saying, in an annoyed tone: *' Don't; please
don't." And, to his surprise, his fingers lost their
grip on the man's shirt, his arms dropped at his
side, and his blood began to flow calmly again
through his veins. Carlton was aware that he
had a very quick temper. He was always engag-
ing in street rows, as he called them, with men
who he thought had imposed on him or on some
one else, and though he was always ashamed of
himself later, his temper had never been satisfied
without a blow or an apology. Women had also
touched him before, and possibly with a greater
familiarity; but these had stirred him, not quieted
him; and men who had laid detaining hands on
him had had them beaten down for their pains.
But this girl had merely touched him gently, and
he had been made helpless. It was most per-
plexing; and while the custom-house oflScials were
192
The Princess Aline
passing his luggage, he found himself rubbing
his arm curiously, as though it were numb, and
looking down at it with an amused smile. He
did not comment on the incident, although he
smiled at the recollection of his prompt obedience
several times during the day. But as he was
stepping into the cab to drive to Athens, he saw
the offending ruffian pass, dripping with water,
and muttering bitter curses. When he saw Carl-
ton he disappeared instantly in the crowd. Carl-
ton stepped over to where Nolan sat beside the
driver on the box. "Nolan," he said, in a low
voice, "isn't that the fellow who "
"Yes, sir," said Nolan, touching his hat gravely.
^'He was pulling a valise one way, and the gentle-
man that owned it, sir, was pulling it the other,
and the gentleman let go sudden, and the Italian
went over backwards off the pier."
Carlton smiled grimly with secret satisfaction.
"Nolan," he said, "you're not telling the truth.
You did it yourself." Nolan touched his cap and
coughed consciously. There had been no de-
taining fingers on Nolan's arm.
193
Ill
"'\7'OU are coming now, Miss Morris," ex-
A claimed Carlton from the front of the car-
riage in which they were moving along the sunny
road to Athens, "into a land where one restores his
lost illusions. Anybody who wishes to get back
his belief in beautiful things should come here to
do it, just as he would go to a German sanitarium
to build up his nerves or his appetite. You have
only to drink in the atmosphere and you are cured.
I know no better antidote than Athens for a siege
of cable-cars and muddy asphalt pavements and
a course of 'Robert Elsmeres' and the 'Heavenly
Twins/ Wait until you see the statues of the
young athletes in the Museum," he cried, enthu-
siastically, **and get a glimpse of the blue sky
back of Mount Hymettus, and the moonlight
some evening on the Acropolis, and you'll be con-
vinced that nothing counts for much in this world
but health and straight Hmbs, and tall marble pil-
lars, and eyes trained to see only what is beautiful.
Give people a love for beauty and a respect for
194
The Princess Aline
health, Miss Morris, and the result is going to be,
what they once had here, the best art and the
greatest writers and satirists and poets. The
same audience that applauded Euripides and
Sophocles in the open theatre used to cross the
road the same day to applaud the athletes who
ran naked in the Olympian games, and gave them
as great honor. I came here once on a walking
tour with a chap who wasn't making as much of
himself as he should have done, and he went
away a changed man, and became a personage
in the world, and you would never guess what it
was that did it. He saw a statue of one of the
Greek gods in the Museum which showed cer-
tain muscles that he couldn't find in his own
body, and he told me he was going to train down
until they did show; and he stopped drinking and
loafing to do it, and took to exercising and work-
ing; and by the time the muscles showed out
clear and strong he was so keen over life that he
wanted to make the most of it, and, as I said, he
has done it. That's what a respect for his own
body did for him."
The carriage stopped at the hotel on one side
of the public square of Athens, with the palace
and its gardens blocking one end, and yellow
houses with red roofs, and gay awnings over the
^95
The Princess Aline
cafes, surrounding it. It was a bright sunny day,
and the city was clean and cool and pretty.
'^ Breakfast ?" exclaimed Miss Morris, in an-
swer to Carlton's inquiry; "yes, I suppose so, but
I won't feel safe until I have my feet on that
rock." She was standing on the steps of the
hotel, looking up with expectant, eager eyes at
the great Acropolis above the city.
"It has been there for a long time now," sug-
gested Carlton, "and I think you can risk its
being there for a half-hour longer."
"Well," she said, reluctantly, "but I don't
wish to lose this chance. There might be an
earthquake, for instance."
"We are likely to see them this morning/' said
Carlton, as he left the hotel with the ladies and
drove toward the Acropolis. "Nolan has been
interview^ing the English maid, and she tells him
they spend the greater part of their time up there
on the rock. They are living very simply here,
as they did in Paris; that is, for the present. On
Wednesday the King gives a dinner and a recep-
tion in their honor."
"When does your dinner come off?" asked
Miss Morris.
"Never," said Carlton, grimly.
196
The Princess Aline
"One of the reasons why I like to come back
to Athens so much," said Mrs. Downs, "is be-
cause there are so few other tourists here to spoil
the local color for you, and there are almost as
few guides as tourists, so that you can wander
around undisturbed and discover things for your-
self. They don't label every fallen column, and
place fences around the temples. They seem to
put you on your good behavior. Then I always
like to go to a place where you are as much of a
curiosity to the people as they are to you. It
seems to excuse your staring about you."
*'A curiosity!" exclaimed Carlton; ''I should
say so! The last time I was here I tried to wear
a pair of knickerbockers around the city, and the
people stared so that I had to go back to the
hotel and change them. I shouldn't have minded
it so much in any other country, but I thought
men who wore Jaeger underclothing and women's
petticoats for a national costume might have ex-
cused so slight an eccentricity as knickerbockers.
They had no right to throw the first stone."
The rock upon which the temples of the Acrop-
olis are built is more of a hill than a rock. It is
much steeper upon one side than the other, with a
sheer fall a hundred yards broad; on the opposite
side there are the rooms of the Hospital of ^scu-
197
The Princess Aline
lapius and the theatres of Dionysus and Herodes
Atticus. The top of the rock holds the Parthenon
and the other smaller temples, or what yet re-
mains of them, and its surface is littered with
broken marble and stones and pieces of rock.
The top is so closely built over that the few tour-
ists who visit it can imagine themselves its sole
occupants for a half-hour at a time. When Carl-
ton and his friends arrived, the place appeared
quite deserted. They left the carriage at the base
of the rock, and climbed up to the entrance on
foot.
"Now, before I go on to the Parthenon," said
Miss Morris, "I want to walk around the sides,
and see what is there. I shall begin with that
theatre to the left, and I warn you that I mean to
take my time about it. So you people who have
been here before can run along by yourselves, but
I mean to enjoy it leisurely. I am safe by myself
here, am I not.^" she asked.
"As safe as though you were in the Metropoli-
tan Museum," said Carlton, as he and Mrs.
Downs followed Miss Morris along the side of
the hill toward the ruined theatre of Herodes, and
stood at its top, looking down into the basin
below. From their feet ran a great semicircle of
marble seats, descending tier below tier to a mar-
198
The Princess Aline
ble pavement, and facing a great ruined wall of
pillars and arches which in the past had formed
the background for the actors. From the height
on which they stood above the city they could see
the green country stretching out for miles on
every side and swimming in the warm sunlight,
the dark groves of myrtle on the hills, the silver
ribbon of the inland water, and the dark blue
iEgean Sea. The bleating of sheep and the tink-
ling of the bells came up to them from the pas-
tures below, and they imagined they could hear
the shepherds piping to their flocks from one little
hill-top to another.
**The country is not much changed," said Carl-
ton. "And when you stand where we are now,
you can imagine that you see the procession wind-
ing its way over the road to the Eleusinian Mys-
teries, with the gilded chariots, and the children
carrying garlands, and the priestesses leading the
bulls for the sacrifice."
"What can we imagine is going on here .?" said
Miss Morris, pointing with her parasol to the
theatre below.
"Oh, this is much later," said Carlton. "This
was built by the Romans. They used to act and
to hold their public meetings here. This cor-
responds to the top row of our gallery, and you
199
The Princess Aline
can imagine that you are looking down on the
bent backs of hundreds of bald-headed men in
white robes, listening to the speakers strutting
about below there."
"I wonder how much they could hear from this
height?'* said Mrs. Downs.
"Well, they had that big wall for a sounding-
board, and the air is so soft here that their voices
should have carried easily, and I believe they
w^ore masks with mouth-pieces, that conveyed
the sound like a fireman's trumpet. If you like,
I will run down there and call up to you, and you
can hear how it sounded. I will speak in my
natural voice first, and if that doesn't reach
you, wave your parasol, and I will try it a little
louder."
"Oh, do!" said Miss Morris. "It will be
very good of you. I should like to hear a real
speech in the theatre of Herodes," she said, as
she seated herself on the edge of the marble
crater.
"I'll have to speak in English," said Carlton,
as he disappeared; "my Greek isn't good enough
to carry that far."
Mrs. Downs seated herself beside her niece,
and Carlton began scrambling down the side of
the amphitheatre. The marble benches were
200
The Princess Aline
broken in parts, and where they were perfect were
covered with a fine layer of moss as smooth and
soft as green velvet, so that Carlton, when he was
not laboriously feeling for his next foothold with
the toe of his boot, was engaged in picking spring
flowers from the beds of moss and sticking them,
for safe-keeping, in his button-hole. He was sev-
eral minutes in making the descent, and so busily
occupied in doing it that he did not look up until
he had reached the level of the ground, and
jumped lightly from the first row of seats to the
stage, covered with moss, which lay like a heavy
rug over the marble pavement. When he did
look up he saw a tableau that made his heart,
which was beating quickly from the exertion of
the descent, stand still with consternation. The
Hohenwalds had, in his short absence, descended
from the entrance of the Acropolis, and had
stopped on their way to the road below to look
into the cool green and white basin of the theatre.
At the moment Carlton looked up the Duke was
standing in front of Mrs. Downs and Miss Morris,
and all of the men had their hats off. Then, in
pantomime, and silhouetted against the blue sky
behind them, Carlton saw the Princesses ad-
vance beside their brother, and Mrs. Downs and
her niece courtesied three times, and then the
20I
The Princess Aline
whole party faced about in a line and looked
down at him. The meaning of the tableau was
only too plain.
"Good heavens!" gasped Carlton. "Every-
body's getting introduced to everybody else, and
I've missed the whole thing! If they think I'm
going to stay down here and amuse them, and
miss all the fun myself, they are greatly mis-
taken." He made a mad rush for the front first
row of seats; but there was a cry of remonstrance
from above, and, looking up, he saw all of the
men waving him back.
"Speech!" cried the young English Captain,
applauding loudly, as though welcoming an actor
on his first entrance. "Hats off!" he cried.
"Down in front! Speech!"
"Confound that ass!" said Carlton, dropping
back to the marble pavement again, and gazing
impotently up at the row of figures outlined
against the sky. "I must look like a bear in the
bear-pit at the Zoo," he growled. "They'll be
throwing buns to me next." He could see the
two elder sisters talking to Mrs. Downs, who was
evidently explaining his purpose in going down
to the stage of the theatre, and he could see the
Princess Aline bending forward, with both hands
on her parasol, and smiling. The captain made
202
The Princess Aline
a trumpet of his hands, and asked why he didn^'t
begin.
"Hello! how are you?" Carlton called back,
waving his hat at him in some embarrassment,
**I wonder if I look as much like a fool as I feel ?"
he muttered.
"What did you say? We can't hear you,"
answered the captain.
"Louder! louder!" called the equerries. Carl-
ton swore at them under his breath, and turned
and gazed round the hole in which he was penned
in order to make them believe that he had given
up the idea of making a speech, or had ever
intended doing so. He tried to think of some-
thing clever to shout back at them, and rejected
"Ye men of Athens" as being too flippant, and
"Friends, Countrymen, Romans," as requiring
too much effort. When he looked up again the
Hohenwalds were moving on their way, and as
he started once more to scale the side of the thea-
tre the Duke waved his hand at him in farewell,
and gave another hand to his sisters, who dis-
appeared with him behind the edge of the upper
row of seats. Carlton turned at once and dropped
into one of the marble chairs and bowed his
head. When he did reach the top Miss Morris
held out a sympathetic hand to him and shook
203
The Princess Aline
hex head sadly, but he could see that she was
pressing her lips tightly together to keep from
smiling.
*'Oh, it's all very funny for you," he said, refus-
ing her hand. "I don't believe you are in love
with anybody. You don't know what it means."
They revisited the rock on the next day and on
the day after, and then left Athens for an inland
excursion to stay overnight. Miss Morris re-
turned from it with the sense of having done her
duty once, and by so doing having earned the
right to act as she pleased in the future. What
she best pleased to do was to wander about over
the broad top of the Acropolis, with no serious
intent of studying its historical values, but rather,
as she explained it, for the simple satisfaction of
feelins: that she was there. She liked to stand
on the edge of the low wall along its top and look
out over the picture of sea and plain and moun-
tains that lay below her. The sun shone brightly,
and the wind swept by them as though they were
on the bridge of an ocean steamer, and there was
the added invigorating sense of pleasure that
comes to us when we stand on a great height.
Carlton was sitting at her feet, shielded from the
wind by a fallen column, and gazing up at her
with critical approval.
204
The Princess Aline
"You look like a sort of a 'Winged Victory'
up there," he said, "with the wind blowing your
skirts about and your hair coming down."
"I don't remember that the * Winged Victory'
has any hair to blow about," suggested Miss
Morris.
"I'd like to paint you," continued Carlton,
"just as you are standing now, only I would put
you in a Greek dress; and you could stand a
Greek dress better than almost any one I know.
I would paint you with your head up and one
hand shielding your eyes, and the other pressed
against your breast. It would be stunning." He
spoke enthusiastically, but in quite an impersonal
tone, as though he were discussing the posing of
a model.
Miss Morris jumped down from the low wall
on which she had been standing, and said, sim-
ply, "Of course I should like to have you paint
me very much."
Mrs. Downs looked up with interest to see if
Mr. Carlton was serious.
"When .?" said Carlton, vaguely. "Oh, I don't
know. Of course this is entirely too nice to last,
and you will be going home soon, and then when
I do get back to the States you will — ^you will have
other things to do."
205
The Princess Aline
"Yes," repeated Miss Morris, "I shall have
something else to do besides gazing out at the
iEgean Sea." She raised her head and looked
across the rock for a moment with some interest.
Her eyes, which had grown wistful, lighted again
with amusement. "Here are your friends," she
said, smiling.
"No!'' exclaimed Carlton, scrambling to his
feet.
"Yes," said Miss Morris. "The Duke has
seen us, and is coming over here."
When Carlton had gained his feet and turned
to look, his friends had separated in different
directions, and were strolling about alone or in
pairs among the great columns of the Parthenon.
But the Duke came directly toward them, and
seated himself on a low block of marble in front
of the two ladies. After a word or two about
the beauties of the place, he asked if they would
go to the reception which the King gave to him
on the day following. They answered that they
should like to come very much, and the Prince
expressed his satisfaction, and said that he would
see that the chamberlain sent them invitations.
"And you, Mr. Carlton, you will come also, I
hope. I wish you to be presented to my sisters.
They are only amateurs in art, but they are great
206
The Princess Aline
admirers of your work, and they have rebuked
me for not having already presented you. We
were all disappointed," he continued, courteously,
"at not having you to dine with us that night in
Constantinople, but now I trust I shall see some-
thing of you here. You must tell us what we are
to admire."
"That is very easy," said Carlton. "Every-
thing."
"You are quite right," said the Prince, bowing
to the ladies as he moved away. "It is all very
beautiful."
"Well, now you certainly will meet her," said
Miss Morris.
"Oh no, I won't," said Carlton, with resigna-
tion. "I have had two chances and lost them,
and ril miss this one too."
"Well, there is a chance you shouldn't miss,"
said Miss Morris, pointing and nodding her head.
"There she is now, and all alone. She's sketching,
isn't she, or taking notes .^ What is she doing .f*"
Carlton looked eagerly in the direction Miss
Morris had signified, and saw the Princess Aline
sitting at some distance from them, with a book
on her lap. She glanced up from this now and
again to look at something ahead of her, and was
apparently deeply absorbed in her occupation.
207
The Princess Aline
'* There is your opportunity," said Mrs. Downs;
*'and we are going back to the hotel. Shall we
see you at luncheon ?"
'*Yes," said Carlton, "unless I get a position
I as drawing-master; in that case I shall be here
teaching the three amateurs in art. Do you
think I can do it.?" he asked Miss Morris.
"Decidedly," she answered. "I have found
you a most educational young person."
They went away together, and Carlton moved
cautiously toward the spot where the Princess
was sitting. He made a long and roundabout
detour as he did so, in order to keep himself
behind her. He did not mean to come so near
that she would see him, but he took a certain
satisfaction in looking at her when she was alone,
though her loneliness was only a matter of the
moment, and though he knew that her people
were within a hundred yards of her. He was in
consequence somewhat annoyed and surprised to
see another young man dodging in and out among
the pillars of the Parthenon immediately ahead of
him, and to find that this young man also had
his attention centred on the young girl, who sat
unconsciously sketching in the foreground.
"Now what the devil can he want.?" muttered
Carlton, his imagination taking alarm at once.
208
The Princess Aline
" If it would only prove to be some one who meant
harm to her," he thought — **a brigand, or a beg-
gar, who might be obligingly insolent, or even a
tipsy man, what a chance it would afford for
heroic action!"
With this hope he moved forward quickly but
silently, hoping that the stranger might prove
even to be an anarchist with a grudge against
royalty. And as he advanced he had the satis-
faction of seeing the Princess glance over her
shoulder, and, observing the man, rise and walk
quickly away toward the edge of the rock. There
she seated herself with her face toward the city,
and with her back firmly set against her pursuer.
**He is annoying her!" exclaimed Carlton, de-
lightedly, as he hurried forward. "It looks as
though my chance had come at last." But as he
approached the stranger he saw, to his great dis-
appointm.ent, that he had nothing more serious
to deal with than one of the international army of
amateur photographers, who had been stalking
the Princess as a hunter follows an elk, or as he
would have stalked a race-horse or a prominent
politician or a Lord Mayor's show, everything
being fish that came within the focus of his cam-
era. A helpless statue and an equally helpless
young girl were both good subjects and at his
209
The Princess Aline
mercy. He was bending over, with an anxious
expression of countenance, and focussing his cam-
era on the back of the Princess AHne, when Carl-
ton approached from the rear. As the young
man put his finger on the button of the camera,
Carlton jogged his arm with his elbow, and
pushed the enthusiastic tourist to one side.
"I say," exclaimed that individual, "look
where you're going, will you ? You spoiled that
plate."
"Fll spoil your camera if you annoy that young
lady any longer," said Carlton, in a low voice.
The photographer was rapidly rewinding his
roll, and the fire of pursuit was still in his eye.
"She's a Princess," he explained, in an excited
whisper.
"Well," said Carlton, "even a Princess is en-
titled to some consideration. Besides," he said,
in a more amicable tone, "you haven't a permit
to photograph on the Acropolis. You know you
haven't." Carlton was quite sure of this, be-
cause there were no such permits.
The amateur looked up in some dismay. "I
didn't know you had to have them," he said.
"Where can I get one.?'*
"The King may give you one," said Carlton.
*'He lives at the palace. If they catch you up
2IO
The Princess Aline
here without a Hcense, they will confiscate your
camera and lock you up. You had better vanish
before they see you."
"Thank you. I will/' said the tourist, anx-
iously.
"Now/' thought Carlton, smiling pleasantly,
"when he goes to the palace with that box and
asks for a permit, they'll think he is either a dy-
namiter or a crank, and before they are through
with him his interest in photography will have
sustained a severe shock.''
As Carlton turned from watching the rapid
flight of the photographer, he observed that the
Princess had remarked it also, as she had no
doubt been a witness of what had passed, even if
she had not overheard all that had been said.
She rose from her enforced position of refuge with
a look of relief, and came directly toward Carlton
along the rough path that led through the debris
on the top of the Acropolis. Carlton had thought,
as he watched her sitting on the wall, with her
chin resting on her hand, that she would make a
beautiful companion picture to the one he had
wished to paint of Miss Morris — the one girl
standing upright, looking fearlessly out to sea, on
the top of the low wall, with the wind blowing her
skirts about her, and her hair tumbled in the
211
The Princess Aline
breeze, and the other seated, bending intently
forward, as though watching for the return of a
long-delayed vessel; a beautifully sad face, fine
and delicate and noble, the face of a girl on the
figure of a woman. And when she rose he made
no effort to move away, or, indeed, to pretend not
to have seen her, but stood looking at her as
though he had the right to do so, and as though
she must know he had that right. As she came
toward him the Princess Aline did not stop, nor
even shorten her steps; but as she passed oppo-
site to him she bowed her thanks with a sweet
impersonal smile and a dropping of the eyes, and
continued steadily on her way.
Carlton stood for some short time looking after
her, with his hat still at his side. She seemed
farther from him at that moment than she had
ever been before, although she had for the first
time recognized him. But he knew that it was
only as a human being that she had recognized
him. He put on his hat, and sat down on a
rock with his elbows on his knees, and filled his
pipe.
**If that had been any other girl," he thought,
*'I would have gone up to her and said, *Was that
man annoying you .f" and she would have said,
'Yes; thank you,' or something; and I would have
212
The Princess Aline
walked along with her until we had come up to
her friends, and she would have told them I had
been of some slight service to her, and they would
have introduced us, and all would have gone well.
But because she is a Princess she cannot be ap-
proached in that way. At least she does not
think so, and I have to act as she has been told I
should act, and not as I think I should After
all, she is only a very beautiful girl, and she must
be very tired of her cousins and grandmothers,
and of not being allow^ed to see any one else.
These royalties make a very picturesque show for
the rest of us, but indeed it seems rather hard on
them. A hundred years from now there will be
no more kings and queens, and the writers of that
day will envy us, just as the writers of this day
envy the men who wrote of chivalry and tourna-
ments, and they will have to choose their heroes
from bank presidents, and their heroines from
lady lawyers and girl politicians and type-writers.
What a stupid world it will be then!"
The next day brought the reception to the
Hohenwalds; and Carlton, entering the reading-
room of the hotel on the same afternoon, found
Miss Morris and her aunt there together taking
tea. They both looked at him with expressions
of such genuine commiseration that he stopped
213
The Princess Aline
just as he was going to seat himself and eyed
them defiantly.
'* Don't tell me,'* he exclaimed, "that this has
fallen through too!"
Miss Morris nodded her head silently.
Carlton dropped into the chair beside them,
and folded his arms with a frown of grim resig-
nation. "What is it?" he asked. "Have they
postponed the reception.?"
"No," Miss Morris said; "but the Princess
Aline will not be there."
"Of course not," said Carlton, calmly, "of
course not. May I ask why t I knew that she
wouldn't be there, but I may possibly be allowed
to express some curiosity."
"She turned her ankle on one of the loose
stones on the Acropolis this afternoon," said Miss
Morris, "and sprained it so badly that they had
to carry her "
"Who carried her ?" Carlton demanded, fiercely.
"Some of her servants.'*
" Of course, of course ! " cried Carlton. " That's
the way it always will be. I was there the whole
afternoon, and I didn't see her. I wasn't there
to help her. It's Fate, that's what it is — Fate!
There's no use in my trying to fight against
Fate. Still," he added anxiously, with a sud-
214
The Princess Aline
den access of hope, "she may be well by this
evening."
"I hardly think she will," said Miss Morris,
"but we will trust so."
The King's palace and gardens stretch along
one end of the public park, and are but just
across the street from the hotel where the Ho-
henwalds and the Americans were staying. As
the hotel was the first building on the left of the
square, Carlton could see from his windows the
illuminations, and the guards of honor, and the
carriages arriving and departing, and the citi-
zens of Athens crowding the parks and peering
through the iron rails into the King's garden. It
was a warm night, and lighted grandly by a full
moon that showed the Acropolis in silhouette
against the sky, and gave a strangely theatrical
look to the yellow house fronts and red roofs of
the town. Every window in the broad front
of the palace was illuminated, and through the
open doors came the sound of music, and one
without could see rows of tall servants in the
King's blue and white livery, and the men of his
guard in their white petticoats and black and
white jackets and red caps. Carlton pulled a
light coat over his evening dress, and, with an
agitation he could hardly explain, walked across
215
The Princess Aline
the street and entered the palace. The line of
royalties had broken by the time he reached the
ball-room, and the not over-severe etiquette of
the Greek court left him free, after a bow to those
who still waited to receive it, to move about as
he pleased. His most earnest desire was to learn
whether or not the Princess Aline was present,
and with that end he clutched the English adju-
tant as that gentleman was hurrying past him,
and asked eagerly if the Princess had recovered
from her accident.
"No," said the officer; "she's able to walk
about, but not to stand, and sit out a dinner, and
dance, and all this sort of thing. Too bad,
wasn't it?"
"Yes," said Carlton, "very bad." He re-
leased his hand from the other's arm, and dropped
back among the men grouped about the doorway.
His disappointment was very keen. Indeed, he
had not known how much this meeting with the
Princess had meant to him until he experienced
this disappointment, which was succeeded by a
wish to find Miss Morris, and have her sympa-
thize and laugh with him. He became con-
scious, as he searched with growing impatience
the faces of those passing and repassing before
him, of how much the habit of going to Miss
216
The Princess Aline
Morris for sympathy in his unlucky love-afFair
had grown of late upon him. He wondered what
he would have done in his travels without her,
and whether he should have had the interest to
carry on his pursuit had she not been there to
urge him on, and to mock at him when he grew
faint-hearted.
But when he finally did discover her he stood
quite still, and for an instant doubted if it were
she. The girl he saw seemed to be a more beau-
tiful sister of the Miss Morris he knew — a taller,
fairer, and more radiant personage; and he feared
that it was not she, until he remembered that this
was the first time he had ever seen her with her
hair dressed high upon her head, and in the more
distinguished accessories of a decollete gown and
train. Miss Morris had her hand on the arm
of one of the equerries, who was battling good-
naturedly with the crowd, and trying to draw her
away from two persistent youths in diplomatic
uniform who were laughing and pressing forward
in close pursuit on the other side. Carlton ap-
proached her with a certain feeling of diffidence,
which was most unusual to him, and asked if she
were dancing.
*'Mr. Carlton shall decide for me," Miss Mor-
ris said, dropping the equerry's arm and standing
217
The Princess Aline
beside the American. "I have promised all of these
gentlemen/' she explained, "to dance with them,
and now they won't agree as to which is to dance
first. They've wasted half this waltz already in
discussing it, and they make it much more diffi-
cult by saying that no matter how I decide, they
will fight duels with the one I choose, which is
most unpleasant for me."
"Most unpleasant for the gentleman you choose,
too," suggested Carlton.
"So," continued Miss Morris, "I have decided
to leave it to you."
"Well, if I am to arbitrate between the powers,"
said Carlton, with a glance at the three uniforms,
"my decision is that as they insist on fighting
duels in any event, you had better dance with me
until they have settled it between them, and then
the survivor can have the next dance."
"That's a very good idea," said Miss Morris;
and taking Carlton's arm, she bowed to the three
men and drew away.
Mr. Carlton," said the equerry, with a bow,
has added another argument in favor of main-
taining standing armies, and of not submitting
questions to arbitration."
"Let's get out of this," said Carlton. "You don't
want to dance, do you .? Let us go where it's cool.'*
218
The Princess Aline
He led her down the stairs, and out on to the
terrace. They did not speak again until they had
left it, and were walking under the trees in the
Queen's garden. He had noticed as they made
their way through the crowd how the men and
women turned to look at her and made way for
her, and how utterly unconscious she was of their
doing so, with that unconsciousness which comes
from familiarity with such discrimination, and
Carlton himself held his head a little higher with
the pride and pleasure the thought gave him that
he was in such friendly sympathy with so beauti-
ful a creature. He stopped before a low stone
bench that stood on the edge of the path, sur-
rounded by a screen of tropical trees, and guarded
by a marble statue. They were in deep shadow
themselves, but the moonlight fell on the path at
their feet, and through the trees on the other side
of the path they could see the open terrace of the
palace, with the dancers moving in and out of
the lighted windows. The splash of a fountain
came from some short distance behind them, and
from time to time they heard the strains of a regi-
mental band alternating with the softer strains of
a waltz played by a group of Hungarian musi-
cians. For a moment neither of them spoke, but
sat watching the white dresses of the women and
219
(I
The Princess Aline
the uniforms of the men moving in and out among
the trees, lighted by the lanterns hanging from
the branches, and the white mist of the moon.
^'Do you know," said Carlton, '^Fm rather
afraid of you to-night!" He paused, and watched
her for a little time as she sat upright, with her
hands folded on her lap. "You are so very re-
splendent and queenly and altogether different,"
he added. The girl moved her bare shoulders
slightly and leaned back against the bench.
The Princess did not come," she said.
No," Carlton answered, with a sudden twinge
of conscience at having forgotten that fact.
"That's one of the reasons I took you away from
those men," he explained. "I wanted you to
sympathize with me."
Miss Morris did not answer him at once. She
did not seem to be in a sympathetic mood. Her
manner suggested rather that she was tired and
troubled.
"I need sympathy myself to-night," she said.
'*We received a letter after dinner that brought
bad news for us. We must go home at once."
"Bad news!" exclaimed Carlton, with much
concern. "From home.^"
"Yes, from home," she replied; "but there is
nothing wrong there; it is only bad news for us.
220
The Princess Aline
My sister has decided to be married in June in-
stead of July, and that cuts us out of a month on
the Continent. That's all. We shall have to
leave immediately — to-morrow. It seems that
Mr. Abbey is able to go away sooner than he
had hoped, and they are to be married on the
first."
"Mr. Abbey!" exclaimed Carlton, catching at
the name. " But your sister isn't going to marry
him, is she .^"
Miss Morris turned her head in some surprise.
Yes — why not.^'' she said.
But I say!" cried Carlton, "I thought — your
aunt told me that you were going to marry Abbey;
she told me so that day on the steamer when he
came to see you off."
"I m.arry him — my aunt told you — impossible!"
said Miss Morris, smiling. "She probably said
that *her niece' was going to marry him; she
meant my sister. They had been engaged some
time.
Then who are you going to marry } " stam-
mered Carlton.
"I am not going to marry any one," said Miss
Morris.
Carlton stared at her blankly in amazement.
'*Well, that's most absurd!" he exclaimed.
221
The Princess Aline
He recognized instantly that the expression
was hardly adequate, but he could not readjust
his mind so suddenly to the new idea, and he
remained looking at her with many confused
memories rushing through his brain. A dozen
questions were on his tongue. He remembered
afterward how he had noticed a servant trimming
the candle in one of the orange-colored lanterns,
and that he had watchea him as he disappeared
among the palms.
The silence lasted for so long a time that it had
taken on a significance in itself which Carlton
recognized. He pulled himself up with a short
laugh. "Well," he remonstrated, mirthlessly, "I
don't think you've treated me very well."
" How, not treated you very well 1 " Miss Mor-
ris asked, settling herself more easily. She had
been sitting during the pause which followed
Carlton's discovery with a certain rigidity, as if
she was on a strain of attention. But her tone
was now as friendly as always, and held its cus-
tomary suggestion of amusement. Carlton took
his tone from it, although his mind was still busily
occupied with incidents and words of hers that
she had spoken in their past intercourse.
"Not fair in letting me think you were en-
gaged," he said. "I've wasted so much time;
222
The Princess Aline
rm not half civil enough to engaged girls," he
explained.
"You've been quite civil enough to us/' said
Miss Morris, "as a courier, philosopher, and
friend. I'm very sorry we have to part company."
"Part company!" exclaimed Carlton, in sudden
alarm. "But, I say, we mustn't do that."
"But we must, you see," said Miss Morris.
"We must go back for the wedding, and you will
have to follow the Princess Aline."
"Yes, of course," Carlton heard his own voice
say. "I had forgotten the Princess Aline." But
he was not thinking of what he was saying, nor
of the Princess Aline. He was thinking of the
many hours Miss Morris and he had been to-
gether, of the way she had looked at certain times,
and of how he had caught himself watching her
at others; how he had pictured the absent Mr.
Abbey travelHng with her later over the same
route, and without a chaperon, sitting close at her
side or holding her hand, and telling her just how
pretty she was whenever he wished to do so, and
without any fear of the consequences. He re-
membered how ready she had been to understand
what he was going to say before he had finished
saying it, and how she had always made him
show the best of himself, and had caused him to
The Princess Aline
leave unsaid many things that became common
and unworthy when considered in the hght of her
judgment. He recalled how impatient he had
been when she was late at dinner, and how cross
he was throughout one whole day when she had
kept her room. He felt with a sudden shock of
delightful fear that he had grown to depend upon
her, that she was the best companion he had ever
known; and he remembered moments when they
had been alone together at the table, or in some
old palace, or during a long walk, when they had
seemed to have the whole world entirely to them-
selves, and how he had consoled himself at such
times with the thought that no matter how long
she might be Abbey's wife, there had been these
moments in her life which were his, with which
Abbey had had nothing to do.
Carlton turned and looked at her with strange
wide-open eyes, as though he saw her for the first
time. He felt so sure of himself and of his love
for her that the happiness of it made him tremble,
and the thought that if he spoke she might answer
him in the old, friendly, mocking tone of good-
fellowship filled him with alarm. At that moment
it seemed to Carlton that the most natural thing in
the world for them to do would be to go back
again together over the road they had come, see-
224
The Princess Aline
ing everything in the new Hght of his love for her,
and so travel on and on forever over the world,
learning to love each other more and more each
succeeding day, and leaving the rest of the uni-
verse to move along without them.
He leaned forward with his arm along the back
of the bench, and bent his face toward hers.
Her hand lay at her side, and his own closed over
it, but the shock that the touch of her fingers gave
him stopped and confused the words upon his
tongue. He looked strangely at her, and could
not find the speech he needed.
Miss Morris gave his hand a firm, friendly lit-
tle pressure and drew her own away, as if he had
taken hers only in an exuberance of good feeling.
"You have been very nice to us," she said, with
an effort to make her tone sound kindly and
approving. "And we "
"You mustn't go; I can't let you go," said Carl-
ton, hoarsely. There was no mistaking his tone
or his earnestness now. "If you go," he went on,
breathlessly, "I must go with you."
The girl moved restlessly; she leaned fonvard,
and drew in her breath with a slight, nervous
tremor. Then she turned and faced him, almost
as though she were afraid of him or of herself,
and they sat so for an instant in silence. The air
225
The Princess Aline
seemed to have grown close and heavy, and Carl-
ton saw her dimly. In the silence he heard the
splash of the fountain behind them, and the rus-
tling of the leaves in the night wind, and the low,
sighing murmur of a waltz.
He raised his head to listen, and she saw in the
moonlight that he was smiling. It was as though
he wished to delay any answer she might make
to his last words.
"That is the waltz," he said, still speaking in a
whisper, "that the gypsies played that night — "
He stopped, and Miss Morris answered him by
bending her head slowly in assent. It seemed to
be an effort for her to even make that slight
gesture.
^'You don't remember it," said Carlton. "It
meant nothing to you. I mean that night on the
steamer when I told you what love meant to other
people. What a fool I was!" he said, with an
uncertain laugh.
"Yes, I remember it," she said — "last Thurs-
day night, on the steamer."
"Thursday night!" exclaimed Carlton, indig-
nantly. "Wednesday night, Tuesday night, how
should I know what night of the week it was ?
It was the night of my life to me. That night I
knew that I loved you as I had never hoped to
226
The Princess Aline
care for any one in this world. When I told you
that I did not know what love meant I felt all the
time that I was lying. I knew that I loved you,
and that I could never love any one else, and that
I had never loved any one before; and if I had
thought then you could care for me, your engage-
ment or your promises would never have stopped
my telling you so. You said that night that I
would learn to love all the better, and more truly,
for having doubted myself so long, and, oh,
Edith," he cried, taking both her hands and hold-
ing them close in his own, **I cannot let you go
now! I love you so! Don't laugh at me; don't
mock at me. All the rest of my life depends on
you.
And then Miss Morris laughed softly, just as
he had begged her not to do, but her laughter was
so full of happiness, and came so gently and
sweetly, and spoke so truly of content, that though
he let go of her hands with one of his, it was only
that he might draw her to him, until her face
touched his, and she felt the strength of his arm
as he held her against his breast.
The Hohenwalds occupied the suite of rooms
on the first floor of the hotel, with the privilege of
using the broad balcony that reached out from it
227
The Princess Aline
over the front entrance. And at the time when
Mrs. Downs and Edith Morris and Carlton drove
up to the hotel from the ball, the Princess Aline
was leaning over the balcony and watching the
lights go out in the upper part of the house, and
the moonlight as it fell on the trees and statues in
the public park below. Her foot was still in
bandages, and she was wrapped in a long cloak
to keep her from the cold. Inside of the open
windows that led out on to the balcony her sisters
were taking off their ornaments, and discussing
the incidents of the night just over.
The Princess Aline, unnoticed by those below,
saw Carlton help Mrs. Downs to alight from the
carriage, and then give his hand to another muf-
fled figure that followed her; and while Mrs.
Downs was ascending the steps, and before the
second muffled figure had left the shadow of
the carriage and stepped into the moonlight, the
Princess Aline saw Carlton draw her suddenly
back and kiss her lightly on the cheek, and heard
a protesting gasp, and saw Miss Morris pull her
cloak over her head and run up the steps. Then
she saw Carlton shake hands with them, and
stand for a moment after they had disappeared,
gazing up at the moon and fumbling in the pockets
of his coat. He drew out a cigar-case and lei-
228
The Princess Aline
surely selected a cigar, and with much apparent
content lighted it, and then, with his head thrown
back and his chest expanded, as though he were
challenging the world, he strolled across the street
and disappeared among the shadows of the de-
serted park.
The Princess walked back to one of the open
windows, and stood there leaning against the side.
"That young Mr. Carlton, the artist," she said
to her sisters, "is engaged to that beautiful Amer-
ican girl we met the other day."
"Really!" said the elder sister. "I thought it
was probable. Who told you.^"'
"I saw him kiss her good-night," said the
Princess, stepping into the window, "as they got
out of their carriage just now."
The Princess Aline stood for a moment looking
thoughtfully at the floor, and then walked across
the room to a little writing-desk. She unlocked a
drawer in this and took from it two slips of paper,
which she folded in her hand. Then she returned
slowly across the room, and stepped out again on
to the balcony.
One of the pieces of paper held the picture
Carlton had drawn of her, and under which he
had written: "This is she. Do you wonder I
travelled four thousand miles to see her .? " And
229
The Princess Aline
the other was the picture of Carlton himself,
which she had cut out of the catalogue of the
Salon.
From the edge of the balcony where the Prin-
cess stood she could see the glimmer of Carlton's
white linen and the red glow of his cigar as he
strode proudly up and down the path of the pub-
lic park, like a sentry keeping watch. She folded
the pieces of paper together and tore them slowly
into tiny fragments, and let them fall through her
fingers into the street below. Then she returned
again to the room, and stood looking at her
sisters.
"Do you know," she said, "I think I am a
little tired of travelling so much. I want to go
back to Grasse." She put her hand to her fore-
head and held it there for a moment. "I think
I am a little homesick," said the Princess AlinCo
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