The Prisoner of Zenda Anthony Hope (read e book TXT) đ
- Author: Anthony Hope
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âConfound you!â said I; and rising, I left the hapless Bertram in Georgeâs hands and went home to bed.
The next day George Featherly went with me to the station, where I took a ticket for Dresden.
âGoing to see the pictures?â asked George, with a grin.
George is an inveterate gossip, and had I told him that I was off to Ruritania, the news would have been in London in three days and in Park Lane in a week. I was, therefore, about to return an evasive answer, when he saved my conscience by leaving me suddenly and darting across the platform. Following him with my eyes, I saw him lift his hat and accost a graceful, fashionably dressed woman who had just appeared from the booking office. She was, perhaps, a year or two over thirty, tall, dark, and of rather full figure. As George talked, I saw her glance at me, and my vanity was hurt by the thought that, muffled in a fur coat and a neck-wrapper (for it was a chilly April day) and wearing a soft travelling hat pulled down to my ears, I must be looking very far from my best. A moment later, George rejoined me.
âYouâve got a charming travelling companion,â he said. âThatâs poor Bert Bertrandâs goddess, Antoinette de Mauban, and, like you, sheâs going to Dresdenâ âalso, no doubt, to see the pictures. Itâs very queer, though, that she doesnât at present desire the honour of your acquaintance.â
âI didnât ask to be introduced,â I observed, a little annoyed.
âWell, I offered to bring you to her; but she said, âAnother time.â Never mind, old fellow, perhaps thereâll be a smash, and youâll have a chance of rescuing her and cutting out the Duke of Strelsau!â
No smash, however, happened, either to me or to Mme. de Mauban. I can speak for her as confidently as for myself; for when, after a nightâs rest in Dresden, I continued my journey, she got into the same train. Understanding that she wished to be let alone, I avoided her carefully, but I saw that she went the same way as I did to the very end of my journey, and I took opportunities of having a good look at her, when I could do so unobserved.
As soon as we reached the Ruritanian frontier (where the old officer who presided over the Custom House favoured me with such a stare that I felt surer than before of my Elphberg physiognomy), I bought the papers, and found in them news which affected my movements. For some reason, which was not clearly explained, and seemed to be something of a mystery, the date of the coronation had been suddenly advanced, and the ceremony was to take place on the next day but one. The whole country seemed in a stir about it, and it was evident that Strelsau was thronged. Rooms were all let and hotels overflowing; there would be very little chance of my obtaining a lodging, and I should certainly have to pay an exorbitant charge for it. I made up my mind to stop at Zenda, a small town fifty miles short of the capital, and about ten from the frontier. My train reached there in the evening; I would spend the next day, Tuesday, in a wander over the hills, which were said to be very fine, and in taking a glance at the famous castle, and go over by train to Strelsau on the Wednesday morning, returning at night to sleep at Zenda.
Accordingly at Zenda I got out, and as the train passed where I stood on the platform, I saw my friend Mme. de Mauban in her place; clearly she was going through to Strelsau, having, with more providence than I could boast, secured apartments there. I smiled to think how surprised George Featherly would have been to know that she and I had been fellow travellers for so long.
I was very kindly received at the hotelâ âit was really no more than an innâ âkept by a fat old lady and her two daughters. They were good, quiet people, and seemed very little interested in the great doings at Strelsau. The old ladyâs hero was the duke, for he was now, under the late kingâs will, master of the Zenda estates and of the castle, which rose grandly on its steep hill at the end of the valley a mile or so from the inn. The old lady, indeed, did not hesitate to express regret that the duke was not on the throne, instead of his brother.
âWe know Duke Michael,â said she. âHe has always lived among us; every Ruritanian knows Duke Michael. But the king is almost a stranger; he has been so much abroad, not one in ten knows him even by sight.â
âAnd now,â chimed in one of the young women, âthey say he has shaved off his beard, so that no one at all knows him.â
âShaved his beard!â exclaimed her mother. âWho says so?â
âJohann, the dukeâs keeper. He has seen the king.â
âAh, yes. The king, sir, is now at the dukeâs hunting lodge in the forest here; from here he goes to Strelsau to be crowned on Wednesday morning.â
I was interested to hear this, and made up my mind to walk next day in the direction of the lodge, on the chance of coming across the king. The old lady ran on garrulously:
âAh, and I wish he would stay at his shootingâ âthat and wine (and one thing more) are all he loves, they sayâ âand suffer our duke to be crowned on Wednesday. That I wish, and I donât care who knows it.â
âHush, mother!â urged the daughters.
âOh, thereâs many to think as I do!â cried the old woman stubbornly.
I threw myself back in my deep armchair, and laughed at her zeal.
âFor my part,â said the younger and prettier of the two daughters, a fair, buxom,
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