For my part, I like those long trials of the old-fashioned chivalry.
That lout of a young lord, who took offence because his sovereign-lady
sent him down among the lions to fetch her glove, was, in my opinion,
very impertinent, and a fool too. Doubtless the lady had in reserve
for him some exquisite flower of love, which he lost, as he well
deserved--the puppy!
But here am I running on as though I had not a great piece of news to
tell you. My father is certainly going to represent our master the
King at Madrid. I say our master, for I shall make part of the
embassy. My mother wishes to remain here, and my father will take me
so as to have some woman with him.
My dear, this seems to you, no doubt, very simple, but there are
horrors behind it, all the same: in a fortnight I have probed the
secrets of the house. My mother would accompany my father to Madrid if
he would take M. de Canalis as a secretary to the embassy. But the
King appoints the secretaries; the Duke dare neither annoy the King,
who hates to be opposed, nor vex my mother; and the wily diplomat
believes he has cut the knot by leaving the Duchess here. M. de
Canalis, who is the great poet of the day, is the young man who
cultivates my mother's society, and who no doubt studies diplomacy
with her from three o'clock to five. Diplomacy must be a fine subject,
for he is as regular as a gambler on the Stock Exchange.
The Duc de Rhetore, our elder brother, solemn, cold, and whimsical,
would be extinguished by his father at Madrid, therefore he remains in
Paris. Miss Griffith has found out also that Alphonse is in love with
a ballet-girl at the Opera. How is it possible to fall in love with
legs and pirouettes? We have noticed that my brother comes to the
theatre only when Tullia dances there; he applauds the steps of this
creature, and then goes out. Two ballet-girls in a family are, I
fancy, more destructive than the plague. My second brother is with his
regiment, and I have not yet seen him. Thus it comes about that I have
to act as the Antigone of His Majesty's ambassador. Perhaps I may get
married in Spain, and perhaps my father's idea is a marriage there
without dowry, after the pattern of yours with this broken-down guard
of honor. My father asked if I would go with him, and offered me the
use of his Spanish master.
"Spain, the country for castles in the air!" I cried. "Perhaps you
hope that it may mean marriages for me!"