She went into the church, shrouding her face in her hood, and kneeled
down before a rush chair close to the door. A sense of gratitude,
however, was not that morning to be got by any prayers, however earnest.
It was merely a distaste for ceremonies and observances, she strenuously
assured herself, that had grown upon her during these ten days. She
sought to get rid of that distaste, as she kneeled, by picturing in her
thoughts the Prince to whom she was betrothed. She recalled the
exploits, the virtues, which Wogan had ascribed to him; she stamped them
upon the picture. "It is the King," she said to herself; and the picture
answered her, "It is the King's servant." And, lo! the face of the
picture was the face of Charles Wogan. She covered her cheeks with her
hands in a burning rush of shame; she struck in her thoughts at the face
of that image with her clenched fists, to bruise, to annihilate it. "It
is the King! It is the King! It is the King!" she cried in her remorse,
but the image persisted. It still wore the likeness of Charles Wogan; it
still repeated, "No, it is the King's servant." There was more of the
primitive woman in this girl bred in the rugged country-side of Silesia
than even Wogan was aware of, and during the halts in their journey she
had learned from Mrs. Misset details which Wogan had been at pains to
conceal. It was Wogan who had conceived the idea of her rescue--in the
King's place. In the King's place, Wogan had come to Innspruck and
effected it. In the King's place, he had taken her by the hand and cleft
a way for her through her enemies. He was the man, the rescuer; she was
the woman, the rescued.
She became conscious of the futility of her attitude of prayer. She
raised her head and saw that a man kneeling close to the altar had
turned and was staring fixedly towards her. The man was the Prince of
Baden. Had he recognised her? She peered between her fingers; she
remarked that his gaze was puzzled; he was not then sure, though he
suspected. She waited until he turned his head again, and then she
silently rose to her feet and slipped out of the church. She found Wogan
waiting for her in some anxiety.
"Did he recognise you?" he asked.
"He was not sure," answered Clementina. "How did you know he was at
Mass?"
"A native I spoke with told me."
Clementina climbed up into the cart.
"The Prince is not a generous man," she said hesitatingly.
Wogan understood her. The Prince of Baden must not know that she had
come to Peri escorted by a single cavalier. He would talk bitterly, he
would make much of his good fortune in that he had not married the
Princess Clementina, he would pity the Chevalier de St. George,--there
was a fine tale there. Wogan could trace it across the tea-tables of
Europe, and hear the malicious inextinguishable laughter which winged it
on its way. He drove off quickly from the church door.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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