CHAPTER XXV

ON BOARD A YACHT

With the heartiest consent I could give, and a blank cheque, my father

returned to England to hire forthwith a commodious yacht, fitted and

manned. Before going he discoursed of prudence in our expenditure; though

not for the sake of the mere money in hand, which was a trifle, barely

more than the half of my future income; but that the squire, should he by

and by bethink him of inspecting our affairs, might perceive we were not

spendthrifts.

'I promised you a surprise, Richie,' said he, 'and you have had it;

whether at all equal to your expectations is for you to determine. I was

aware of the margravine's intention to bring the princess to these

sea-sands; they are famous on the Continent. It was bruited last Winter

and Spring that she would be here in the season for bathing; so I held it

likely we should meet. We have, you behold. In point of fact, we owe the

good margravine some show of hospitality. The princess has a passion for

tossing on the sea. To her a yacht is a thing dropped from the moon. His

Highness the prince her father could as soon present her with one as with

the moon itself. The illustrious Serenity's revenue is absorbed, my boy,

in the state he has to support. As for his daughter's dowry, the young

gentleman who anticipates getting one with her, I commend to the practise

of his whistling. It will be among the sums you may count, if you are a

moderate arithmetician, in groschen. The margravine's income I should

reckon to approach twenty thousand per annum, and she proves her

honourable sense that she holds it in trust for others by dispersing it

rapidly. I fear she loves cards. So, then, I shall go and hire the yacht

through Dettermain and Newson, furnish it with piano and swing-cot, etc.;

and if the ladies shrink from a cruise they can have an occasional sail.

Here are we at their service. I shall be seriously baffled by fortune if

I am not back to you at the end of a week. You will take your early

morning walk, I presume. On Sunday see that our chaplain, the excellent

Mr. Peterborough, officiates for the assembled Protestants of all

nations. It excites our English enthusiasm. In addition, son Richie, it

is peculiarly our duty. I, at least, hold the view that it is a family

duty. Think it over, Richie boy. Providence, you see, has sent us the

man. As for me, I feel as if I were in the dawn of one life with all the

mature experience of another. I am calm, I am perfectly unexcited, and I

tell you, old son, I believe--pick among the highest--our destinies are

about the most brilliant of any couple in Great Britain.'

His absence relieved me in spite of my renewed pleasure in his talk; I

may call it a thirsty craving to have him inflating me, puffing the deep

unillumined treasure-pits of my nature with laborious hints, as mines are

filled with air to keep the miners going. While he talked he made these

inmost recesses habitable. But the pain lay in my having now and then to

utter replies. The task of speaking was hateful. I found a sweetness in

brooding unrealizingly over hopes and dreams and possibilities, and I let

him go gladly that I might enjoy a week of silence, just taking

impressions as they came, like the sands in the ebb-tide. The impression

of the morning was always enough for a day's meditation. The green colour

and the crimson athwart it, and higher up the pinky lights, flamingo

feathers, on a warm half-circle of heaven, in hue between amethyst and

milky opal; then the rim of the sun's disc not yet severe; and then the

monstrous shadow of tall Schwartz darting at me along the sand, then the

princess. This picture, seen at sunrise, lasted till I slept. It stirred

no thoughts, conjured no images, it possessed me. In the afternoon the

margravine accompanied the princess to a point facing seaward, within

hearing of the military band. She did me the favour to tell me that she

tolerated me until I should become efficient in German to amuse her, but

the dulness of the Belgian city compared with her lively German

watering-places compelled her to try my powers of fun in French, and in

French I had to do duty, and failed in my office.

'Do you know,' said she, 'that your honourable papa is one in a million?

He has the life of a regiment in his ten fingers. What astonishes me is

that he does not make fury in that England of yours--that Lapland! Je ne

puffs me passer de cet homme! He offends me, he trifles, he outrages, he

dares permit himself to be indignant. Bon! we part, and absence pleads

for him with the eloquence of Satan. I am his victim. Does he, then,

produce no stir whatever in your England? But what a people! But yes, you

resemble us, as bottles--bottles; seulement, you are emptied of your

wine. Ce Monsieur Peterbooroo'! Il m'agace les nerfs. It cannot be blood

in his veins. One longs to see him cuffed, to see if he has the English

lion in him, one knows not where. But you are so, you English, when not

intoxicated. And so censorious! You win your battles, they say, upon beer

and cordials: it is why you never can follow up a success. Je tiens cela

du Marechal Prince B-----. Let that pass. One groans at your intolerable

tristesse. La vie en Angleterre est comme un marais. It is a scandal to

human nature. It blows fogs, foul vapours, joint-stiffnesses, agues,

pestilences, over us here,--yes, here! That is your best side: but your

worst is too atrocious! Mon Dieu! Your men-rascals! Your women-rascals!'

'Good soul!' the princess arrested her, 'I beg that you will not abuse

England.'

'Have I abused England?' exclaimed the margravine. 'Nay, then, it was

because England is shockingly unjust to the most amusing, the most

reviving, charming of men. There is he fresh as a green bubbling well,

and those English decline to do honour to his source. Now tell me, you!'

She addressed me imperiously. 'Are you prosecuting his claims? Are you

besieging your Government? What! you are in the season of generosity, an

affectionate son, wealthy as a Magyar prince of flocks, herds, mines, and

men, and you let him stand in the shade deprived of his birthright? Are

you a purse-proud commoner or an imbecile?'

'My whimsy aunt!' the princess interposed again, 'now you have taken to

abusing a defenceless Englishman.'

'Nothing of the sort, child. I compliment him on his looks and manners;

he is the only one of his race who does not appear to have marched out of

a sentinel's box with a pocket-mirror in his hand. I thank him from my

soul for not cultivating the national cat's whisker. None can imagine

what I suffer from the oppressive sight of his Monsieur Peterbooroo'! And

they are of one pattern--the entire nation! He! no, he has the step of a

trained blood-horse. Only, as Kaunitz, or somebody, said of Joseph II.,

or somebody, he thinks or he chews. Englishmen's mouths were clearly not

made for more purposes than one. In truth, I am so utterly wearied, I

could pray for the diversion of a descent of rain. The life here is as

bad as in Rippau. I might just as well be in Rippau doing duty: the silly

people complain, I hear. I am gathering dust. These, my dear, these are

the experiences which age women at a prodigious rate. I feel chains on my

limbs here.'

'Madame, I would,' said I, 'that I were the Perseus to relieve you of

your monster Ennui, but he is coming quickly.'

'You see he has his pretty phrases!' cried the margravine; adding

encouragingly, 'S'il nest pas tant sort peu impertinent?'

The advance of some German or Russian nobleman spared me further efforts.

We were on shore, listening to the band in the afternoon, when a sail

like a spark of pure white stood on the purple black edge of a

storm-cloud. It was the yacht. By sunset it was moored off shore, and at

night hung with variegated lamps. Early next morning we went on board.

The ladies were astonished at the extent of the vessel, and its luxurious

fittings and cunning arrangements. My father, in fact, had negotiated for

the hire of the yacht some weeks previously, with his accustomed

forethought.

'House and town and fortress provisioned, and moveable at will!' the

margravine interjected repeatedly.

The princess was laid on raised pillows in her swingcot under an awning

aft, and watched the sailors, the splendid offspring of old sea-fights,

as I could observe her spirited fancy conceiving them. They were a set of

men to point to for an answer to the margravine's strictures on things

English.

'Then, are you the captain, my good Herr Heilbrunn?' the margravine asked

my father.

He was dressed in cheerful blue, wearing his cheerfullest air, and seemed

strongly inclined for the part of captain, but presented the actual

commander of the schooner-yacht, and helped him through the margravine's

interrogations.

'All is excellent,--excellent for a day's sail,' she said. 'I have no

doubt you could nourish my system for a month, but to deal frankly with

you--prepared meats and cold pies!--to face them once is as much as I am

capable of.'

'Dear Lady Field-Marshal,' returned my father, 'the sons of Neptune would

be of poor account, if they could not furnish you cookery at sea.'

They did, for Alphonse was on board. He and my father had a hot

discussion about the margravine's dishes, Alphonse declaring that it was

against his conscience to season them pungently, and my father preaching

expediency. Alphonse spoke of the artist and his duty to his art, my

father of the wise diplomatist who manipulated individuals without any

sacrifice of principle. They were partly at play, of course, both having

humour.

It ended in the margravine's being enraptured. The delicacy of the

invalid's dishes, was beyond praise. 'So, then, we are absolutely better

housed and accommodated than on shore!' the margravine made her wonder

heard, and from that fell to enthusiasm for the vessel. After a couple of

pleasant smooth-sailing days, she consented to cruise off the coasts of

France and England. Adieu to the sands. Throughout the cruise she was

placable, satisfied with earth and sea, and constantly eulogizing herself

for this novel state of serenity. Cards, and a collection of tripping

French books bound in yellow, danced the gavotte with time, which made

the flying minutes endurable to her: and for relaxation there was here

the view of a shining town dropped between green hills to dip in

sea-water, yonder a ship of merchandise or war to speculate upon,

trawlers, collier-brigs, sea-birds, wave over wave. No cloud on sun and

moon. We had gold and silver in our track, like the believable children

of fairyland.

The princess, lying in her hammock-cot on deck, both day and night, or

for the greater part of the night, let her eyes feast incessantly on a

laughing sea: when she turned them to any of us, pure pleasure sparkled

in them. The breezy salt hours were visible ecstasy to her blood. If she

spoke it was but to utter a few hurried, happy words, and shrink as you

see the lightning behind a cloud-rack, suggestive of fiery swift emotion

within, and she gazed away overjoyed at the swoop and plunge of the

gannet, the sunny spray, the waves curling crested or down-like. At night

a couple of sailors, tender as women, moved her in the cot to her cabin.

We heard her voice in the dark of the morning, and her little maid

Aennchen came out and was met by me; and I at that hour had the privilege

to help move her back to her favourite place, and strap the iron-stand

fast, giving the warm-hooded cot room to swing. The keen sensations of a

return to health amid unwonted scenes made things magical to her. When

she beheld our low green Devon hills she signalled for help to rise, and

'That is England!' she said, summoning to her beautiful clear eyeballs

the recollection of her first desire to see my country. Her petition was

that the yacht should go in nearer and nearer to the land till she could

discern men, women, and children, and their occupations. A fisherman and

his wife sat in the porch above their hanging garden, the woman knitting,

the man mending his nets, barefooted boys and girls astride the keel of a

boat below them. The princess eyed them and wept. 'They give me

happiness; I can give them nothing,' she said.

The margravine groaned impatiently at talk of such a dieaway sort.

My father sent a couple of men on shore with a gift of money to their

family in the name of the Princess Ottilia. How she thanked him for his

prompt ideas! 'It is because you are generous you read one well.'

She had never thanked me. I craved for that vibrating music as of her

deep heart penetrated and thrilling, but shrank from grateful words which

would have sounded payment. Running before the wind swiftly on a night of

phosphorescent sea, when the waves opened to white hollows with frayed

white ridges, wreaths of hissing silver, her eyelids closed, and her hand

wandered over the silken coverlet to the hammock cloth, and up, in a

blind effort to touch. Mine joined to it. Little Aennchen was witness.

Ottilia held me softly till her slumber was deep.