His Royal Highness wore a great gray cloak when he passed through the main entrance of the hotel flanked on his right by the impeccable Mr. Denby and preceded by two massive and upstanding Hindus whose bearded faces were frozen into a semblance6 of stoical indifference7 that was as grim and forbidding as a box-office man’s impenetrable and imperturbable8 mask. On his head he wore a white turban trimmed with golden braid and his feet were encased in richly embroidered9 red slippers10 with turned-up toes.
He paused for a moment, surveying with a condescending11 air the crowd of gaping12 men which filled the lobby, and then clapped his hands sharply twice. The Hindu attendants moved into position back of him. Another pause and then, with a gesture of surpassing elegance13 he dropped the cloak from his shoulders into their waiting arms. No Roman emperor had ever done it better, Mr. Denby thought to himself. The prince stood revealed in a gorgeous silken robe which was such a shimmering14 mass of color that it almost made one blink to look at it. Purples, flaming shades of orange and greens which seemed to suggest the rank lush foliage15 of some tropical jungle were the predominating shades. The robe was admirably designed to set off to the best advantage the dark and finely chiseled16 features of His Royal Highness, who greeted the manager of the hotel with an air of haughty17 reserve that was positively18 imperial in its implications.
His progress through the lobby to the elevator was made amid a silence that Mr. Denby afterwards paradoxically referred to as “audible” and when the clanging doors closed behind him and he was shot up to his quarters on the third floor, the feelings of all the awed19 onlookers20 found expression in a concerted gasp21.
Jimmy Martin, watching the proceedings22 from behind the cover of a newspaper which he pretended to be reading while he sprawled23 over a great leather chair, chuckled24 quietly to himself and agreed that he was a grand little stage manager. Then he slipped out on to windswept Michigan avenue and walked briskly away to his own hotel. He longed to remain and watch his drama unfold, but discretion25 warned him that it would be well for him to keep in seclusion26 for the present, inasmuch as representatives of the fourth estate would undoubtedly27 descend3 on the hotel shortly in a body.
Prince Rajput Singh graciously received the gentlemen of the press an hour later and discoursed29 at length upon the past, present and future of India. Hearing that his distinguished friend, the Sahib Denby, whom he had entertained some years ago at his father’s palace while the former was traveling in the far east, was planning a lecture tour he had decided30, he said, to visit America himself and lend his aid to the project.
“It has been long dream of my existence,” he announced grandly, picking his words carefully, “to assist in bringing to new world of the west the culture and wisdom of the east. You have made wonderful discoveries in the world of material things. We have long ago found the secret of the soul. It is well we should make ourselves friends.”
The prince posed for flashlight photographs sitting in a great arm chair with his Hindu attendants, arms folded, standing5 erect31 and immovable behind him. All in all a pleasant time was had by everyone concerned and the results in the newspapers on the following morning were all that the most optimistic and sanguine32 publicity33 promoter could have desired. Two and three column pictures of His Royal Highness were given prominent positions and each interview was tagged with a paragraph announcing the first of Mr. Denby’s lectures which was to be given a day later in the grand ballroom34 of the hotel. The prince, it was announced, would supplement the lecturer’s remarks with a little talk of his own.
Jimmy Martin, calling on him for the purpose of giving him a few more instructions concerning his general deportment and demeanor35 on the morrow, was somewhat dazzled by the splendor36 of his surroundings and by the extent of the apartment assigned to him. There were five rooms in all, overlooking the lake, and there was a canopied37 bed on a raised platform in one of them as well as other evidences of extreme luxury to which he was not accustomed. He hunted up his friend, the assistant manager of the hotel.
“Say, Wilkins,” he said cautiously. “I’ve been up to see this prince you’ve got stopping here. That’s some set of rooms. I wonder what they’re going to set him back.”
“That’s the royal suite38,” replied Wilkins. “We don’t get much of a chance to get any real royalty39 very often, and I’m making the old boy a special rate. Mr. Denby arranged for it. We’re only going to charge him two hundred dollars a day.”
“My God,” stammered40 Jimmy, almost swallowing his cigarette and clutching the other by the arm, “you can’t do a thing like that.”
The look of hopeless distress41 on the press agent’s face caused the hotel man to laugh uproariously, for a moment, but he checked himself suddenly.
“What’s the idea?” he inquired. “Why can’t we? You act as if we were going to charge the bill to you.”
“Maybe you are, old man,” was Jimmy’s response as he led Wilkins over to the latter’s little office. “I want to slip you a little side-line of conversation that you’ve got to promise to keep Masonic.”
So it came to pass that in the quiet sanctity of the little office Jimmy outlined certain unpublished details concerning the activities and real mission of Prince Rajput Singh though he said nothing about that dusky gentleman’s previous condition of servitude. He represented him as being a genuine Indian nobleman, temporarily down on his luck, who had consented to assist in a carefully contrived42 and ingenious scheme of indirect advertising43.
“Have a heart, old man,” he pleaded when he had finished. “If you scale that two hundred down to about—well, say twenty-five and Bartlett’ll have heart failure even at that figure—I’ll arrange to have his royal niblets have dinner every night in your Egyptian dining room. You know yourself you don’t do much trade in there. We’ll have those two Hindu birds cook a lot of these curry44 dishes right there in full view of the audience and wait on him. You’ll be able to hang the little old S.R.O. sign out in a couple of days, take it from me.”
The assistant manager succumbed45 to Jimmy’s siren song and consented to slash46 the rate for the royal suite in return for the special performance by the prince and his entourage which the press agent promised to stage nightly.
Mr. J. Herbert Denby and Prince Rajput Singh made their joint47 debut48 on the lecture platform on the following afternoon before a select and soulful audience largely composed of middle-aged49 females who hung rapturously on every word uttered by both speakers.
Mr. Denby was in fine form. His discourse28 on “The Rig-Veda” was as vague and misty50 as a treatise51 on the Hegelian philosophy and about as full of real mental nourishment52 for that particular audience as a scientific monograph53 on the bony structure of the dactylopterus volitans would have been. He soared into the outer void and returned with bay-leaves on his brow and with esoteric phrases dripping from his tongue. The more hopelessly involved he became in the mystic mazes54 of his metaphysical theme, the more ardent55 seemed to be the rapt devotion with which his listeners received his remarks. When he finished in one grand, exultant56 outburst of poetic57 fervor58 a hushed silence fell upon the gathering59 and when a ripple60 of applause broke in upon it there were those whose brows darkened as if something holy had been profaned61.
It remained, however, for the pseudo Prince Rajput Singh to achieve the real sensation of the afternoon. Arrayed in a purple robe and turban of exquisite62 silk and carrying himself with a careless air of superb distinction that was fascinating to watch, he delivered a brief talk in which he pleaded for a better understanding between the East and the West and urged a study of Indian ways and customs as the best method of bringing such an entente63 cordiale about, such a study as was rendered possible, for instance, by witnessing a performance of a play he had recently seen in New York—was it called “The Ganges Princess?”—he was not sure.
His dark face gleamed with animation64 as he spoke65 and his grey eyes sparkled. When he smiled his white teeth flashed brilliantly in the rays of the afternoon sun which poured through the mullioned windows and when he laughed, tossing his head back like some medieval troubadour in rollicking mood, all the impressionable women there present, young and old, went voyaging for a moment or two into the land of romance, and forgotten memory pictures of scenes from the Arabian Nights came trooping back into their several and respective, not to mention respectable, minds.
Taking it by and large Ranjit Lal, former supernumerary, devious66 adventurer in a foreign clime, and now, by the grace of one James T. Martin, Prince Rajput Singh, was, in the parlance67 of the boulevards, a knockout. When the formal festivities were over he was surrounded by a chattering68 swarm69 of females of assorted70 ages and subjected to that particular form of obsequious71 flattery which is usually reserved by the weaker sex for long-haired pianists and corpulent Italian tenors72.
Mr. J. Herbert Denby, feeling himself somewhat out of the picture, viewed the proceedings from a short distance away and particularly noticed one worshiper who had edged herself into a position directly in front of his confrere and who seemed to be trying to entirely73 monopolize74 the swarthy-skinned lion of the occasion.
She was at least fifty. There was no doubting that, though she was dressed, with all the gay abandon of a debutante75, in a silken frock which did not quite touch the tops of her extremely high boots. She was also inclined to stoutness76, though a straight front corset kept her somewhat ample proportions cabined and confined permitting her to present to the world at large at least a semblance of curvilinear grace. There was, Mr. Denby thought, something decidedly suspicious looking about her flaxen tresses whose symmetrically marcelled regularity77 was relieved by two little curls which hung coyly in front of each ear. She was, it was plain to see, convinced that she was the living embodiment of Peter Pan, the young person who never grew old.
Mr. Denby could hear her high pitched voice and the gurgling laugh with which she punctuated78 almost every remark.
“I won’t take ‘no’ for an answer, you dear man,” she was saying. “Four thirty tomorrow afternoon in our Indian room—I’ll have just a few notables there and I have just one favor to ask of you. Please bring those perfectly79 dear gentlemen with whiskers along to help serve. They’ll help my background? Don’t you just love the proper background? It’s so stimulating80. Oh, yes, background is the most important thing in life, if you grasp what I mean.”
A grunt81 escaped a tired looking man next to Mr. Denby. It was so expressive82 that the eminent83 authority on the Far East turned a questioning look on his neighbor.
“Who is she?” he inquired.
“That’s Fannie Easton,” replied the tired-looking man. “Old maid sister of Junius P. You’ve heard of him, of course. Oodles of money, houses in Chicago and New York, ranch84 in California, villa85 in Florence, three private yachts and not a damned soul to decorate ’em with except that blond nut sundae. Life’s a weird86 thing, sir. Too much for me.”
Mr. Denby, forgetting his own isolation87 for the moment, watched the continuation of the episode with a new interest. He saw the gurgling Miss Easton catch hold of his associate’s arm and he observed that the latter was devoting himself to her with assiduous attention as they walked slowly out into the corridor and disappeared, leaving behind a collection of thoroughly88 disappointed admirers. As the echoes of a silly laugh came floating on the air from some unseen corner of the hallway, something seemed to tell Mr. Denby that all was not well.
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1
mythical
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| adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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semblance
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| n.外貌，外表 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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8
imperturbable
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| adj.镇静的 | |
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embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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slippers
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| n. 拖鞋 | |
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condescending
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| adj.谦逊的,故意屈尊的 | |
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gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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13
elegance
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| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
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shimmering
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| v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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15
foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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chiseled
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| adj.凿刻的，轮廓分明的v.凿，雕，镌( chisel的过去式 ) | |
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17
haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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awed
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| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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onlookers
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| n.旁观者，观看者( onlooker的名词复数 ) | |
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gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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23
sprawled
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| v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的过去式和过去分词)；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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24
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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seclusion
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| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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discoursed
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| 演说（discourse的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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sanguine
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| adj.充满希望的，乐观的，血红色的 | |
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publicity
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| n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告 | |
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34
ballroom
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| n.舞厅 | |
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demeanor
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| n.行为；风度 | |
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splendor
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| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
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canopied
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| adj. 遮有天篷的 | |
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suite
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| n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员 | |
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royalty
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| n.皇家，皇族 | |
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stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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advertising
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| n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的 | |
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curry
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| n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革 | |
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45
succumbed
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| 不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死 | |
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46
slash
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| vi.大幅度削减；vt.猛砍，尖锐抨击，大幅减少；n.猛砍，斜线，长切口，衣衩 | |
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47
joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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debut
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| n.首次演出，初次露面 | |
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middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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50
misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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51
treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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52
nourishment
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| n.食物，营养品；营养情况 | |
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monograph
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| n.专题文章，专题著作 | |
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54
mazes
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| 迷宫( maze的名词复数 )； 纷繁复杂的规则； 复杂难懂的细节； 迷宫图 | |
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55
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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exultant
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| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
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poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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fervor
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| n.热诚；热心；炽热 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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ripple
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| n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进 | |
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61
profaned
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| v.不敬( profane的过去式和过去分词 )；亵渎，玷污 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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entente
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| n.协定；有协定关系的各国 | |
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animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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65
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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devious
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| adj.不坦率的，狡猾的；迂回的，曲折的 | |
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parlance
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| n.说法；语调 | |
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chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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69
swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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assorted
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| adj.各种各样的，各色俱备的 | |
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obsequious
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| adj.谄媚的，奉承的，顺从的 | |
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tenors
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| n.男高音( tenor的名词复数 )；大意；男高音歌唱家；（文件的）抄本 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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monopolize
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| v.垄断，独占，专营 | |
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debutante
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| n.初入社交界的少女 | |
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stoutness
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| 坚固，刚毅 | |
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regularity
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| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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punctuated
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| v.（在文字中）加标点符号，加标点( punctuate的过去式和过去分词 )；不时打断某事物 | |
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79
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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80
stimulating
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| adj.有启发性的，能激发人思考的 | |
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81
grunt
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| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
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82
expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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83
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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84
ranch
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| n.大牧场，大农场 | |
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85
villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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86
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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87
isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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88
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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