Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-15

said: "And you think honored hsr7
seemed to me a. if honors were easy, - on
says in English whistl''
'Oh, monsieur!' Blanca cried; and Will
she locked into his face, which of late ha
grown to her more than kingly-had grow
to her, indeed, almost like the face OF
god-she ardently persisted: "For you t
speak like that! For you to even hint tina
mere nobody should not be honored, ant
yerv greatly honored, by the least smil
from youl"
He watched her for moment as thougl
she half irritated, half shocked him. IT an
mani" he then said, with great simplicity
and gentleness. ''Nor can be more, ane
why should not dislike hearing 1t sug
gested that am more?"
'You are a King" replied Blanca
You are King, with Q long ancestry o.
kings behind your
He laughed softly, and shrugged hi
shoulders, glancing about him at the walls
OF the festal room in which they stood, with
Its huge cluster of wax-lights for side.
chandeliers beaming above other huge clust'
ers of prisms like stalactites, and with its
ceilings where cupids drove in chariots
drawn by butterflies through gorges and
over causeways of rosy and azure cloud.
| ~ hCoIS very 1lttlc 70 De o hiuS
days" he said. "At least, 1t means very
little to me-"
.I am SO sorry" she answered. IT am
so intensely sorryp
"You have been talking with my mother?''
he replied ''It is easy to see thu you are
full OF her views and prejudices"
mo, they are mine" she averred, "call
them what you please, II hate so to ad-
dress you as monsieur but this is your
command, and what can one do but obey ?
You are royal, and Majesty is your RI, nr-
full form of address, And then the way in
which you dispise and fout all ceremonial
Oh, this is harder to bear still You should
have entered here, just as you should walk
abroad, with your equerries, YOUR gentle
men-in-waiting. All, it is terrible, terri
blel It saddens me, it wounds me, to see
you cast aside the rights and dignities of
your great birth. do not wonder that
your mother sorrows. It is not mere pride
that makes her feel as she does. It is a
sense-oh, pardon me, for speak from the
inmost depths of my heartl A sense of
your having been appointed by Heaven it
self to rule over your people, and of your
treating this holy mission as though it con-
cerned some slight and paltry oficep'
As Blanca d. Este ended the King took
her hand in his own for moment. He felt
that It was trembling and he saw that there
were tears in her bright, wide, childish
eyes
"You are very sincere" he said, with a
smile that was not exempt from a certain
delicate melancholy. "a great many peo-
pie, since history began, have been quite
Hrong and yet excessively sincere. He
paused, still holding her hand, and it few
about the great room like wild-6re that he
was paying this public courtesy to the
italian girl whom his mother So avidly
desired him to marry. "Perhaps, my dear
Blanca d'Este," he presently resumed, with
a faint, enigmatic smile lettering at the
corners of bis lips, ''you are right, prac-
tically after all, and l, practically, am in
error. The whole affair of conservatism
against liberalism grows harder to manage,
l imagine, every new day of my reign.
Well, 1 thank you for your lecture, altis
sima;" and with his odd smile fading little
yet not wholly dying, he dropped Bianca's
hand and passed from her presence
He had detested the idea of this enter
tainment tonight Its Limitations in the
way of asking only certain guests dis
gusted him like all the receptions given BY
realm, it positively reeked with what he
held to be the worst creeds of caste. There
were present several mobiles. on this particu-
lar occasion, who had only deigned to come,
as Clarimond we'll knew, at the eager solici-
tation of the Princess. They were mostly
men past middle age, and their young King
had Mortified them by his liberalisms. They
held his person sacred, and were infexible
in their fealty to him, never forgetting that
their ancestors, through centurieo back,
had fought and died in tho service
of his. But they abhorred his
modernity of ideas, and had suffered keen
Of ho oh ho;r
land. Political, no less than social and
physical, these changes had affected them
with mingled melancholy and horror. Two
or three of them had chosen to hide their
chagrin amid the gayeties of Paris. where
their great wealth and princely Saltravian
birth had secured welcomes for them among
the most exclusive sets. One of these latter,
q man of about 40 years old, with black,
flashing eyes, olive skin and little curly
beard and moustache, held an exceptional
position as cousin twice removed from the
King His fortune was very large, and he
passed most of his year in the French capi-
tai, whence he had but lately returned. He
had been for long time past, one of the
bitterest of the malcontents; he was iras-
cible, and notoriouslv naughty to all infer
iors. While the King had made his first
tour through the ballroom every eve had
sought his own and even every head had
bowed. But it mad struck him, however
vaguely, that this particular nobleman had
bowed with certain distinct stiffness. As
Clairmond now drew near his mother, he
fixed his eyes full on the handsome, swarthy
face at her side, and said with an accent Of
quiet good humor:
"Ah, Philibert, 80 you're back once
again 2" AT the same moment he put forth
his hand
Prince Philibert advanced. and. taking
the Kings hand in his own, with o rever-
ent droop of the head, firmly, even reso-
nantlv, kissed it. A smile of proud pleas
Brindisi. This was the immemorial usage
of the Saltravian Court, for peer or peer
ess, on returning after an absence and be-
ing addressed by the King, to give his
hand an obeisant kiss.
But Clairmond, meanwhile, grew white
with anger. He had long ago forbidden all
such forms of self-humiliatioh on the part
of his courtiers. Prince Philibert well |
knew this fact, and what he had Just done |
favored of the most overt defiance.
The crystal-gray eyes of the King met |
the dark and brilliant ones of his subject. |
Prince" he said, with some curtness, "I |
supposed you were aware that dislike, and !
indeed have vetoed, all this flourish on the |
p rt of nv friends"
Philibert, while he stood moveless as a |
statue with, both hands behind him, and |
while he looked, in his evening dress, dec !
grated by several orders that betokened his |
great rank, figure of striking distinction,
answered composedly and gravely:
pardon me, your Majesty, but only
fulfilled Q usage that is many centuries |
old"
UyIs l.