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ij ? The ? Princess f Virginia J ; By C. N. ?nd A. M. WILLIAMSON. \ J ' | Authors ol "Tho Li|hlnln| Cos 'Hotrmwj InSccrch ?i ?. r*ih?." Etc ; ; ' ? Copyright. 1907. by MeClurs, Phil- ' > J; ?p? * Co. ;; CHAPTER 6EVINTfi^i I W EOPOLD thought it rather more than possible that by 'jJL. the time of hla return to Kronburg the chan sffssSjft^ cellor would tie as ani ious to wriggle out of tils proposal to visit the prince's hunt ing lodge as he had been to have it accepted a few hours before. "He shan't escape ills humiliation, though," the emperor told himself. "He shall go, and he shall beg forgive ness for big suspicions in sackcloth and ashes. Nothing else can satisfy me now." Thinking thus, Leopold looked sharp ly from the window as his special slowed into tho central station at Kronhurg along the track which hud been kept clear for its arrival. No other train was due at the moment; therefore few persons were on tho platform, and a figure In a long gray coat, with its face shadowed by a slouch bat, was conspicuous. The emperor had exacted to see that figure, hut vaguely he wished there were not so much briskness and self confidence In the set of the massive head and shoulders. The young man believed absolutely In his love, hut he would have l>een gratified to detect a something of depression In the ene my's air which he might translate as a foreknowledge of failure. "I hope your majesty will forgive the liberty I have taken In coming to the station without u distinct Invita tion to do so," were the chancellor's firet words as he met the emperor. "'Knowing tlint you would almost cer tainly arrive hy special train, I came down from my house some time ago that I might !>e on hand without fall when you arrived to plnce my electric carriage at your service. I thought It probable that you would not have sent to the palace and therefore It might save you some slight inconvenience If 3 were on the spot. If you will honor my poor conveyance"? "Don't let us delay our business for ?explanations or compliments, If you please. chancellor." The emperor cut him short brusquely. "I counted on your being here with your carriage. Now for the hunting lodge In the woods." As he spoke his eyes were on the old man's face, which he hoped to see fall or change, but there was no visible sign of discomfiture, and Von ltreit steln made no attempt to excuse him self from making the proposed visit. Evidently nothing had happened dur ing the hours since the message by tele phone to change tho chancellor's mind. "Tes, your majesty," came tho prompt response. "Now for the hunt ing lodge In the woods. I am ready to go with you there, as 1 always have been and always shall lie ready to serve you when I am needed." It was on Leopold's tongue to say that It would l>e well If his chancellor's readiness could be confined to those occasions when It was needed, but he ?hut his lips upon the words and walk ed by the old man's side in frozen si lence. The carriage was waiting just out aide the station, und the moment the two men were seated the chauffeur started noiselessly and swiftly. Both windows were closed to keep out the chill of the night air, hut soon Leopold impatiently lowered one, for getting the chancellor's old fashioned hatred of drafts, and Rtared into the night Already they were approach ing the outskirts of the groat town, and, flying past the dark warehouses and factories of the neighborhood, they aped toward the open country. The weather, still warm the evening before?that evening of moonlight not to be forgotten?had turned cold with morning, and tonight there was a pungent scent of dying leaves in the air. It smote Leopold in the face with the wind of motion, and it seemed to him the essential perfume of sadness. Never again would he Inhale that fra grance of the fulling year without re calling this hour. He was half mad with impatience to reach the end of the journey and con found the chancellor once for all, yet as the swift electric carriage spun smoothly along the white road and landmark after landmark vanished be hind tree branches laced with stars something within him would at last have stayed the flying moments had that been possible. He burned to ask questions of Von Breitsteln, yet would have died rather than utter them. It was a relief to the emperor when after a long silence his companion spoke, though a relief which carried with it a prick of resentment Even the chancellor had no right to speak first without permission from his sov ereign. "Forgive me. your majesty," the old man said. "Your anger is hard to bear, yet I bear it uncomplainingly because of my confidence that the reward is not far off. I look for it no further in the future than tonight" "I, too, believe that you won't mias your reward," returned the emperor ?fcarply. y "I shall hsve JVI am eure. not onlr Ill your majesty's forgiveness, but In yourthnnks." "I'll forgive .vou when you've asked my pardon for your suspicious and ivtlen you've found Miss Mowbray for me." "1 have already found her and am taking you to her now." "Then you actually believe In your own story? You l>elleve that this sweet and beautiful young girl Is a fast nc tress, a schemer, a friend of your no torlously gallant friend and willing to risk her reputation by paying a lute visit unchaperoned to him at his hunt Ing lodge In the woods? You are, after all, a very poor judge of character If you dream that we shall see tier there " "I shall see her, your majesty, and you will see her unless the madness you call lore has blinded the eyes of your laxly as well as th^eyes of your mind. That she Is now At the lodge I know, for the prince assured me with his own lips that she had promised to motor out alone with him and dine." "You mean he told you that bis frleud the actress had promised. I'll stake my life even he dbln't dare to say Miss Mowbray." "He sulil Miss Ilrett, the actress. It's Irue, bnt when he called upon her ut her hotel, where he and I met to dls cuss a matter which Is no secret to your majesty, be asked for Miss Mow bray. Aud the message that came down I heard. It was that Miss Mow bray would lie delighted to sec his royal highness. This left no doubt In my mind that after giving out that she would leave today the lady had re mained in Kronburg for the express purpose of meeting her dear friend the prince, the handsomest and best dress ed young man In Europe?after your majesty, of course. And It was quite natural for her to hope that, as she was supposed to be gone and you were fol lowing her, this evening's escapade would never bo discovered." "Please spare mo your deductions, chancellor," said the emperor curtly, "and pray understand now, If you hnvo not understood before, that I am with yon In this expedition not to prove you right, bnt wrong, and noth Ing you can say will convince me that the prince's actress und Miss Mowbray are one. If we find a woman at the hunting lodge It will not be the lady we seek unless she has been kldnaiied, and as you will presently lie obliged to est every word you've spoken the fewer such bitter pills you provide for yourself to swallow the bettor." Thus, snubbed by the young man whom he hud held In Ills arms, an Im perious as well as an Imperial infant, the old statesman sought sanctuary In silence. But he had said that which had been In his mind to say, and he was satisfied. Meekness was not his metier, yet he could play the part of the faithful servant, humbly loyal through Injustice und inlsunderstuud Ing, and he played It now, because he knew It to lie the one effective role, lie sat beside the emperor with bowed head and stooping shoulders which suggested the weakness of old age, his hands clas|ied liefore hlin, and from time to time he sighed putlently. As they glided under the dark arch of the Buchenwald Leopold spoke again. "You have led me to suppose that our call at the hunting lodge will be a surprise visit to the prince. That Is the case, Isn't It?" Count von Breltsteln would have pre ferred that the question had uot been asked, lie had Intended to convey the Impression which the emperor had re ceived, but he had not clothed It In actual statement. I.ucklly the prince was as clever as he was good looking, and he could lie trusted as an actor; otherwise the old man would have been still more reluctant to commit himself. "Were our visit exacted wo should not be likely to find the lady," said he. "The prince and I are on such friendly terms, your majesty, that he didn't mind confessing he was to have a prct ty actress as Ills guest. He also an swered a few questions 1 asked con cernlng her freely and frankly, for to do so he had to tell me only what the world knows. How could he dream that the flirtations or the visits of a Miss Jenny Brett could be of the slightest Importance to the emperor of Rhaetla? Had he guessed, however, that the entertainment he meant to offer her might tie Interrupted natural ly he would have taken some means to protect her from annoyance." "This night's work will give him cause to pick n private quarrel with me If he likes," said the emperor, con vlnced of the chancellor's good faith. "I don't think he will choose, your majesty. You are In a mood to be glad If he did, I fear. But, no; I need not fear. You will alwnys remember Rhae tla and put her Interests before your own wishes." "You weren't as confident of that a few hours ago." "Even then I knew that when the real test should be applied your maj esty's cool head would triumph over the hot Impulse of youth. But, see; we're passing through the village of Inseleden, fast asleep already, every window dark. In six or seven minutes at this speed we shall be at the lodge." The emperor laughed shortly. "Add another seven minutes to your first seven and we shall be out of the lodge again, with Chancellor von Breltsteln a sadder and a wiser man than be went In." Meekness was once more the part for the old man to play, and, raising his bands, palm upward. In a gesture of generous Indulgence for bis young sovereign, he dented himself the pleas ure of retort. The hunting lodge In the wood, now the property of the chancellor's ac commodating young friend, had until recently belonged to a Rhaetlan eeml royal prince who had been compelled by lack of sympathy among bis cred I tors to sell something and had oromnt ly sold tile thing lie cflrcd for least The present owner was n keen sports man and. though I e ram* seldom to the place, had spent a good deal of mouey In repairing the quaint rustic bouse. Years bail passed since the emperor had done more than pass the lodge Kates, and now the outlines of the low raioblliiK structure looked strange to him silhouetted against a spangled sky He was glad of this, for he Had ?pent some Joyous duys here as a boy. and he wished to separate the old lra presslona and the new. Two tall chimneys stood tip like the pricked ears of some alert crouching animal The path to the lodge gleaoie^ eblte and straight In the darkness as i psrtlng In the rough black hair of a giant. The trees whispered gossip to each other In the wind, and It seemed to Leopold that they were evil things telling lies and slandering his love. He hated them and their ruatllng, which once he had loved; be hated the yellow eyes of the animal with the pricked ears, glittering eyes which were lighted windows; he hated the young prince who owned the place, and he would have hated the chan rellor more tbuu all had not the old man limped us he walked up the path, showing how heavy was the tAirden of his years as he had never shown It to Ills emperor liefore. The path led to a hooded entrance, and. ascending the two stone steps, the chancellor lifted the mailed glove which did duty as a knocker. Twice he brought It down on the oak panel underneath, and the sound of metal smiting against wood went echoing through the house with an effect of emptiness and desolation. Nobody came to answer the sum mons, and Leopold smiled In the dark ness. He thought It likely that even the prince was not at home. A prac tical Joke had been played on the chancellor. Again (he mailed flat struck the pan el. An echo alone replied. Count von Ilreltsteln began to be alarmed for the success of bis plan. He thanked the night which hid from the keen eyes of the emperor-cynical now, no doubt? the telltale vein beating hard in his forehead. "Don't you think, chancellor, that, after all, you'd better try to take me to some more probable as well as more suitable place to look for Miss Mow bray?" he suggested, with a drawl In tended to be as aggravating as It actu ally was. "There doesn't nppear to be any one about. Even the caretakers ure out courting perhaps." "But listen, your majesty," said Von Breitsteln when he knocked again. Leopold did llsteu and heard the rine 3t a heel on a floor of stone or marble. [fcmPTf.Cl UGUTEE.Nl 1 . " T was a Jager clad In ? green who opened the ly I door of the hunting | f I lodge and gazed appar LL ^ | ently without reeogni tlon at the two men standing In the dark embrasure of the poreh. "We wish to see his royul highness, your master," said the chancellor, tak ing the Initiative, as he knew the em peror would wish him to do. "His royal highness is not at home, sir," replied the jager. Leopold's eyes lightened as he threw a glance of sarcastic meaning at his compnntou, but Iron Heart was un % I ? 1 SLY* "His imperial majeety the emperor." daunted. 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 real Ism. Naturally when beautiful young actresses ventured into the forest un chaperoned to dine with fascinating princes the least that such favored gentlemen could do was to be "not at borne" to an intrusive public. "You are mistaken," insisted the chancellor. "His royal highness is at home and will receive us. It will be bettor for you to admit us without fur ther delay." Under the domination of those eyes, which could quell a turbulent relchstag, the Jager 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 kind ness to walk in and wait for a few minutes until 1 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 rou will open for its and as nounc? that two gentlemen wish to we him." With this nil uncertainty In the mtml of the Jager was swept a way. Me knew his duty and determined to stand by tt. and the chancellor saw that If the master had given Instructions meaning them to Is* overridden at least the servant was sincere. lie put himself to the doorway and looked an obstacle difficult to dislodge "That Is lm|K>sslt)le. sir!" he exclaim ed. "I have had my orders, which are that his royal highness Is not ut boms tonight, and until I know whether or not these orders are to stand nobody, not If It were the emjieror, should force his way." c:... "Fool, thoee orders are not for us, ?nd It is the emperor who will go In." With u step aside the chancellor let the light from the hanging lamp In the hall shine full npon Leopold's face, hitherto masked In shadow. His boast forgotten, the Jager utter ed a cry of dismay, and, with a sudden falling of the knees, he moved and left the doorway free. "Your majesty!" he faltered. "I did not see?I eoukl not know. Most hum bly I liog your majesty's gracious par don. If your majesty will but hold me blameless with my master"? "Never mind yourself, and never mind your master," broke in the chan cellor. "Open that door at the end of the hall and uunounce the emperor ?rid fount von Breltateln." The unfortunate Jager, approaching a state of collapse, obeyed. The door of the dining room, which Leopold knew of old. was thrown open, and a ijuaverlng voice heralded "His Imperial majesty the emperor and the Herr Chancellor Couut von Breltsteln." The scene disclosed was us unreal to Leopold's eyes as a painted picture ?the walls of pompeltan red, the gold candelabra, the polished floor spread with the glimmering fur of polar bears and In the center a flower decked ta ble 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 bead, then surging back upon his heart. The Impossible had happened. -eg it CHXPTtB. NINETEEN 1 ?si . d<3 J?^'ll S 1IE prince came for ward. "What a de lightful surprise!" he y said. "How good of 1 JL you hoth to look me ?hp! But I wish my prophetic soul had warned me to keep hack dinner. We have Just reached the third course." And his eyes met the chancellor's. "All the same." he went on, "I beg that you will honor me by dining. Ev erything can be ready in a moment, and the bisque eccrevisso"? 'Thank you," cut In the emperor. "We cannot dine." His voice came hoarsely, as If a fierce hand pinched his throat. "Our call is purely one of business and a moment will see it fin ished. We owe you an explanation for this intrusion." He paused. All his calculations were upset by the chan cellor's triumph, for to plan beforehand what he should do if he found Helen Mowbray dining here alone with the prince would have been to insult her. His campaign had been arranged in the event of the chancellor's defeat. Now the one course he saw open be fore him was frankness. To look at the girl and meet guilt or defiance in her eyes would be agony; therefore he would not look, though he saw her, aud her alone, as he stood gazing with a strained fixedness at the prince. He knew that she had risen not in frightened haste, but with a leisured nnd dainty dignity. Now her face was turned to him. He felt it as a blind man may feel the rising of the sun. He wished that she had died before this moment; that they had both died last night in the garden while he held her in his arms and their hearts beat together. She had told him then that she loved him, yet she was here with this man?here of her own free will, the same girl he had worshiped as a goddess in the white moonlight twenty four hours ago. iuc mougnt was nor in ms neart as the searing touch of Iron red from the fire?the same girl! Ills blood sang In his ears a song of death, and for an Instant all was Mack around him. He groped In black chaos where there was neither light nor hope, and dully he was conscious of the chancellor's voice saying, "Your majesty, If you are satisfied, would you not rather go?" Then the dark spell broke. Light showered over him as from a golden fountain, for In spite of himself be had met tho girl's eyes?the same eyes, be cause she was the same girl?sweet eyes, pure and Innocent and wistfully appealing. "My God!" he cried. "Tell me why you are here, and whatever you may say I will believe you, In spite of all aud through all, because you are you, and I know that you can do no wrong." "Your majesty I" exclaimed the chan cellor. But the emperor did not hear. With a broken exclamation that was half a sob the girl held out both her hands, and Leopold sprang forward to crush them between his Ice cold palms. "Thank heaven!" she faltered. "You are true! You've stood the test. I love you." "At last. then. I can Introduce yon to my sister Virginia," said the crown prince of Unngarla, with a great sigh of relief for the ending of his difficult part. f CHAPTER TWENTY jj * HEY were alone togeth **] er. Adalbert and Count a ( von Breltsteln had sto! ? 1 | en from the room and j JL I bad ceased to exist so far as Leopold and Virginia were concerned. "I'll tell you now why I'm here and 1 rverythlug else," she was saying, but the emperor stopped her. "Ever since I cauie to myself I want ed no explanation," he said. "I want ed only you. That Is all I want now 1 I am the hepptest man In the universe Why should 1 ask bow 1 came by my aapplness? Virginia! Virginia! It's a more beautiful name even than Helen." , "But listen," she pleaded. "There are some things?Just a few things? that I long to tell you. Please let tne. 1 Last nlgbt I wished to go into a con- | vent. Oh, It was because I loVed you jo much! I wanted you to seem per fect as my hero of romance. Just as 1 you were already perfect as an em- i peror. To think that I should have been far away out of llhaetla by this time if Miss Portman hadn't been 111! ' Dear Miss Portman! Maybe If we'd 1 gone nothing would ever have come ( right. Who can say? "You know, my brother came to our hotel this afternoon. When his card 1 arrived we couldn't tell whether he < knew our secret or not, but when we ^ had let him come up we had only to see his face of surprise. He was an- ' gry, too, as well as surprised, for he blurted out that there wero all Borts of t horrid suspicions against us, and moth er explained everything to him before i couiu nave sioppea ner even lr I would?how I had not wanted to ac cept you unless you could learn to love me for myself and then how I bad been disappointed. No, don't speak; that's all over now. You've more than atoned, a thousand times more. "Dal explained things, too, then?very different things?about a plan of the chancellor's to disgust you with me ? and how he (Dall had played Into the | chancellor's hands because, you see. he thought he was acting wisely for his neglected sister's sake and because he had really supposed an actress he knows was masquerading as Miss Mowbray. Very imprudently he'd told her that some day there might be something between you and his sister. She kuew quite well, too, that the real Mowbrays were our cousins; so, you see, as she and he have quarreled, it might have been an easy and clever way for an unscrupulous woman to take revenge. Dal would have gone and perhaps have said dreadful things to the chancellor, who was waiting downstairs for news, but I beggqd him not. From being the saddest girl in the world I'd suddenly become the happiest, for the chancellor had told Dal and Dal had told me that you had followed Helen Mowbray to ask her to be the empress. That changed every thing, for then I knew you really loved j her, but Just to punish you for what I suffered through you last night I long ed to put you to one more test. 1 said: 'Let the chancellor carry out his plot. Let me go with you to your hunting lodge.' At first Dal wouldn't consent, but when I begged him he did, for , generally I can get my way with peo ple, I warn you. "That's all, except that I hadn't real ized how severe the test would be un til you came In and I saw the look in your eyes. It was a dagger of Ice in my heart. I prayed heaven to make you believe in me without a word. Oh, how 1 prayed through all that dread ful mqment and how I looked at you, saying with my eyes, 'I love you; I am true!' If you had failed me then It would have killed me, but"? "There could be no but," the em 1 peror broke In. "To doubt is not to ' love. When a man loves he knows. Even out of darkness a light comes and tells him." "Then you forgive me?for tonight, and for everything, from the begin ning?" "Forgive you?" "And if I'd been different, more like other girls, content with a conventional nffectlon, you wouldn't have loved me more?" He took her in his arms and held her as if he would never let her go. "If you had been different I wouldn't , have loved you at all," he said. "But ' If things had been different I couldn't have helped loving you Just the same. I should have been fated to fall In ; love with Princess Virginia of Bau menburg-Drippe at first sight, exactly as I fell In love with Helen Mow bray." "Ah, but at best you'd have fallen In love with Virgiula because It was | " PFc thalt tuvcr tn, old.'* your duty, and you fell In love with Helen Mowbray because It was your duty not to, wbicb makes It so much nicer." "It was no question of duty, but of destiny," said tbe emperor. "The stars ordained that I should love you." "Then I wish," and Virginia laugh ed happily, as she could afford to laugh now. "that the Btars bad told me lest summer. It would bare saved me a great deal of trouble. And yet I don't know," she added thoughtfully. "It's been a wonderful adventure. We ?hall often talk of It when we're old." "We shall never be old, for we lore each other," said the emperor. THE END. Mrs. J. Morgan. Health is a valuable asset for rich or poor. Mrs. J. Morgan of Neosha falls, Kan., says she would not take *500 to go back to where she was before taking Dr. Caldwell's Syrup Pepsin. She suffered from chronic In digestion for fifteen years, and last winter she thought she would surely die, but she took this great herb laxative compound and was cured. It Is absolutely guaranteed to do what is claimed, and if you want to try it be 'ore buying, send your address for a 'ree sample bottle to Pepsin Syrup 2o., 119 Caldwell Bldg., Monticello, 111. it is sold by Hood Bros, at 50c and fl a bottle. FOR THE PIANO OR ORGAN With the Sweet Tone See C. B. PAYLOR And get the KIMBALL Smithfield, N. C. New Shop! ? I have rented the Shop recently occupied by Marshal Avera & have Opened a First-Class Blacksmith and Wood Shop. Mr. A. H. Phelps will have charge of the work and will be glad to have all his old cus^ tomers and friends call on him. When in need of anything in his line he will be glad to have you call on him. Shoeing a Specialty F. H. Parrish Smithfield, N. C. Tobacco Flues Be Progressive. Make more money by using Flues made by S. B. Johnson, the old Flue maker, to cure your to bacco. S. B. JOHNSON, Smithfield, N. C. Wkead, Corn, Oa.ts. The Neuse Milling Company, at Smithfield, is now doing splendid work, and farmers having grain of any kind to sell or exchange for Flour, Meal or Feed will find it to their interest to give them a trial. Office in the old bank building near the market. NOTICE. The undersigned having qualified as Executor on the estate of John Allen deceased, hereby notifies all persons having claims against said estate to present the same to me duly verified on or before the 5 day of June 11)09 or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their re covery: and all persons indebted to said estate will make immediate payment This 3 day of June, 1908. W. T. ALL^N, Exr. Four Oaks. NOTICE. The undersigned having qualified as Admr. on the estate of John R. Creech deceased, hereby notifies all persons having claims against said estate to pre sent the same to us duly verified on or before the 15 day of May. 1909 or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their re covery; and all persons indebted to said estate will make payment by Novem ber 1st, 1908. This 14 day of May, 1908. W. 8. Creech ( . , A. S. Creech f Admrs.
The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, N.C.)
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June 12, 1908, edition 1
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