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Page 11
"I hope that you granted the favor."
"I did. The equipage will be sent to-day."
"The dapple-grays are remarkably beautiful," said the old gentleman,
rubbing his hands contentedly. "They are worth at least a thousand florins,
and the _coup�_ is a model of elegance and beauty. The count received it
from Paris a fortnight ago. But how did you repay Andreossy for his regal
gift?"
"I told him that I detested him, and that he need never hope for my love."
"Yet you accepted his gift?" he asked, smiling.
"Yes. I accepted it because he entreated it as the first and greatest
favor, and because, after the deep sorrow I had caused him, I could not
help granting so small a boon."
"Magnificent!" he cried, laughing; "you talk like a reigning queen,
accepting gifts from her vassal. Then the count loves you passionately,
does he not?"
"He loves nothing except himself and his ambition. He would like to obtain
the title of prince from Napoleon."
"And he believes that you could aid him?"
"Indirectly, yes. If I help him to discover an affair which is of great
importance to the emperor, and for whose disclosure he could not fail to
reward Count Andreossy."
"What kind of an affair?"
"A conspiracy," she said quietly.
"A conspiracy? Against whom?"
"Against the Emperor Napoleon. Andreossy naturally believes me to be an
enthusiastic admirer of his emperor, and therefore he imparted to me his
fears and conjectures. The point in question is a widespread conspiracy,
which is said to exist in the French army and have assistants among the
Austrians."
"And _you_? Do you believe in this conspiracy?"
"I am on the track and perhaps shall soon be able to give the particulars.
Only it requires time and great caution and secrecy. Let me say no more
now, but I promise that I will be active and watchful. Only I make one
condition."
"What is that?"
"If I succeed in discovering this conspiracy, delivering the leaders into
your hands, giving the emperor undeniable proofs of the existence of this
plot, perhaps even saving his life by the disclosure; if I succeed, as I
said, in doing all this, then you will release me and permit me to leave
Vienna."
"To go where?"
"Wherever I wish, only alone, only not--"
"Only not with you, you wanted to say," he added, completing the sentence.
"My child, you see that I was right in remarking that a change had taken
place in you. Formerly you were glad to be with me; you never felt a wish
to leave me; formerly it was your ardent desire to occupy a brilliant
position in society, to be rich, aristocratic, brilliant, influential; and
now, when you have attained all this, now you are still unsatisfied, now
you long to resign all this again. But you will reflect, Leonore; you will
listen to reason. You will consider what we have suffered from the
pettiness, the pitifulness, the arrogance, and the selfishness of men. You
will remember how often you vowed, with angry tears, to avenge yourself
some day for all that we have suffered. Remember, child, remember! Have you
forgotten how we starved and pined, when your mother died, because we were
so poor that, in her illness, we could not give her the necessary nursing,
could not pay a doctor. Have you forgotten how we both knelt beside her
corpse and, with tears of grief and anger, swore to avenge the death of the
poor sufferer upon cruel men, base society?"
"I know it, father, yes, I know it," she answered, panting for breath, as
she slowly raised her hands and pressed them on her bosom as if to force
down the anguish within. "Ah, yes, I shall never forget it! That was the
hour when we both sold ourselves to hell."
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