NOT AT HOME
It was a jaeger clad in green who
opened the door of the hunting lodge, and gazed, apparently
without recognition, at the two men standing in the
dark embrasure of the porch.
“We wish to see his Royal Highness,
your master,” said the Chancellor, taking the
initiative, as he knew the Emperor would wish him to
do.
“His Royal Highness is not at
home, sir,” replied the jaeger.
Leopold’s eyes lightened as
he threw a glance of sarcastic meaning at his companion.
But Iron Heart was undaunted. He knew very well
now, that this was only a prelude to the drama which
would follow; and though he had suffered a sharp pang
of anxiety at first, he saw that his Royal friend
was playing with commendable realism. Naturally,
when beautiful young actresses ventured into the forest
unchaperoned, to dine with fascinating princes, the
least that such favored gentlemen could do was to
be “not at home” to an intrusive public.
“You are mistaken,” insisted
the Chancellor, “his Royal Highness is at home,
and will receive us. It will be better for you
to admit us without further delay.”
Under the domination of those eyes
which could quell a turbulent Reichstag, the jaeger
weakened, as his master had doubtless expected him
to do after the first resistance.
“It may be I have made a mistake,
sir,” he stammered, “though I do not think
so. If you will have the kindness to walk in and
wait for a few minutes until I can inquire whether
his Royal Highness has come home, or will come home ”
“That is not necessary,”
said the Chancellor. “His Royal Highness
dines here this evening. We will go with you to
the door of the dining-room, which you will open for
us, and announce that two gentlemen wish to see him.”
With this, all uncertainty in the
mind of the jaeger was swept away. He knew his
duty and determined to stand by it; and the Chancellor
saw that, if the master had given instructions meaning
them to be over-ridden, at least the servant was sincere.
He put himself in the doorway, and looked an obstacle
difficult to dislodge.
“That is impossible, sir!”
he exclaimed. “I have had my orders, which
are that his Royal Highness is not at home to-night,
and until I know whether or not these orders are to
stand, nobody, not if it were the Emperor, should
force his way.”
“Fool, those orders are not
for us; and it is the Emperor who will go in.”
With a step aside, the Chancellor let the light from
the hanging lamp in the hall shine full upon Leopold’s
face, hitherto masked in shadow.
His boast forgotten, the jaeger uttered
a cry of dismay, and with a sudden failing of the
knees, he moved, and left the doorway free.
“Your Majesty!” he faltered.
“I did not see I could not know.
Most humbly I beg your Majesty’s gracious pardon.
If your Majesty will but hold me blameless with my
master ”
“Never mind yourself, and never
mind your master,” broke in the Chancellor.
“Open that door at the end of the hall, and announce
the Emperor and Count von Breitstein.”
The unfortunate jaeger, approaching
a state of collapse, obeyed. The door of the
dining-room, which Leopold knew of old, was thrown
open, and a quavering voice heralded “His Imperial
Majesty the Emperor, and the Herr Chancellor Count
von Breitstein.”
The scene disclosed was as unreal
to Leopold’s eyes as a painted picture; the
walls of Pompeian red; the gold candelabra; the polished
floor, spread with the glimmering fur of Polar bears;
and in the center a flower-decked table lit with pink-shaded
lights, and sparkling with gold and crystal; springing
up from a chair which faced the door, a young man
in evening dress; sitting motionless, her back half
turned, a slender girl in bridal white.
At sight of her the Emperor stopped
on the threshold. All the blood in his body seemed
rushing to his head, then surging back upon his heart.
The impossible had happened.