When he was just thirteen, he indulged in a series of escapades that made Sophia take him seriously. The first of these was that he challenged, fought with, and wrought8 havoc9 upon the pasty person of the son of the Mayor of Amandos, an act undignified in one of his station, and performed in a manner distressingly10 public. The two, stripped to their shirts and trousers, had fought three rounds in the square in front of the cathedral, while Sophia, with whom Leonard had been driving to a public function, paid a call of condolence on the wife of the Mayor, a victim to neuralgia. The Princess and she had been sitting in a room overlooking the square, when the hubbub11 from outside, and shouts of ‘Go it, Prince Leonard! Three to one on the Prince!’ caused them simultaneously12 to rise, and run in apprehensive13 haste to the window. The carriage, which had waited in the street, was tenantless14, the Prince’s hat and sailor jacket were lying in the road, a crowd of street-boys made an enthusiastic ring, and the heir-apparent to the throne had his opponent’s head comfortably in chancery. The wife of the Mayor gazed but for one moment, and then shrieking15 out, ‘The monster! he will kill my child!’ rushed distractedly from the room. Sophia followed, and on the stairs ran into the boy’s tutor, who, being totally unable to stop him fighting, had very sensibly hastened to tell his mother. The Mayoress bore her{211} battered16 offspring away, and Sophia returned to the carriage with Leonard.
‘Oh, mother, didn’t I give it him!’ cried the boy. ‘My knuckles17 are quite sore with hitting his great head. He couldn’t have lasted another round.’
‘Put on your jacket at once, Leonard,’ said his mother sternly. ‘You, the Prince, fighting in the public street! I wonder you are not ashamed!’
‘But I couldn’t help it,’ cried Leonard. ‘I had to fight him. He said things about you.’
‘Don’t talk so loud, Leonard,’ said Sophia. ‘Tell me what he said.’
‘He said that you were the most notor—notorious—he always uses words a yard long—the most notorious gambler in Rhodopé; so, of course, I said he lied, and would he fight or take a licking? Indeed, he did both.’
His mother flushed with pleasure, but she sighed at the end.
‘I’m afraid he was near the mark, Lennie,’ she said.
‘But what is notorious?’ asked Leonard, ‘I didn’t know what he meant, but, anyhow, it was calling you names.’
‘It means the most regular,’ said Sophia.
Leonard considered a moment with his head on one side.
‘That doesn’t sound very bad,’ he said; ‘but, anyhow, he had no business to say so. No. I’m glad I fought him. Lord, how sore he will be!’
He smoothed his ruffled18 hair, and put his hat on.{212}
‘I suppose it is true that you are at the club pretty often?’ he continued. ‘Mother, will you take me there sometimes? I have never been.’
Sophia felt suddenly serious and responsible.
‘No; never,’ she said with energy. ‘Promise me you will never go. I certainly shall not take you there; it is no place for you.’
‘Then, some day I shall go without you,’ remarked Leonard.
Sophia was so anxious that he should not—why, it perhaps would have puzzled her to say, except that she vaguely19 pictured his fresh young face looking singularly out of place in that gas-lit assembly—that she did her best to persuade him to promise that he would never set foot in the club, but unavailingly. The more she urged, the more Leonard’s desire to go increased.
‘And,’ as he remarked with candour, ‘I shan’t make a promise, because then I should feel obliged to keep it.’
So at last she desisted, feeling she would have been wiser not to have urged, and hoping that the boy would forget about it; for she would sooner he fought the Mayor’s son than cut his gambling20 teeth, and, indeed, the history of their quarrel had warmed her heart.
Two evenings afterwards she was sitting at her usual place on the right of Pierre, playing roulette. She was enjoying a rare run of luck, and her stakes were recklessly high. She had just placed the limit on a single number, when, looking up, she saw{213} opposite her a young girl seated at the table watching the game with flushed and wide-eyed interest. She turned to Blanche Amesbury, who was sitting next her.
‘Look at that pretty child opposite,’ she said. ‘But what a way to dress a girl! She must be the daughter of that English brewer21 peer. What refined types you meet among the bourgeois22! How its dear little heart is in the game! Yet it seems almost a shame to bring it here—this is no place for children—but the nouveaux riches are always horrible. Why—— Oh, good gracious me! it’s Leonard.’
Leonard caught the sound of his name, and looked up for a fraction of a second.
‘Oh, a moment—a moment!’ he cried. ‘Fourteen, fifteen—— Hurrah23! sixteen wins. Good old sixteen! I wish I had staked on a single number instead of the half-dozen.’
He had been so absorbed in the game that for a moment he did not notice his self-betrayal, nor the shout of laughter which followed; but now he stood there in all the conscious shame of his girl’s dress. He blushed up to the roots of his hair, and pushed his way confusedly out of the room, forgetting even to take with him what he had won on the last roll.
Sophia tried to look grave and unconscious, but in a few seconds the corners of her mouth broke down, and she leaned back in her chair with peal24 after peal of laughter.
‘Oh, I could never have invented so divinely apt{214} a punishment!’ she cried. ‘Leonard detected in a girl’s dress, and before all the people! Indeed, that is an instance of the fierce light that beats upon a throne. Oh, how furious he will be! I wonder where he got his costume. His hat—oh, my dear Blanche! his hat! It was like Covent Garden on a summer’s morning—a cargo25 of flowers and nameless vegetables. Oh, I cannot stop; I must go and rub the lesson in. He has a horror of making himself ridiculous. Perhaps this will cure him for awhile.’
Sophia went straight back to the Palace, where the servants were all agape to see her return so early, and to Leonard’s room. He had got there only a moment before her, since she had taken the short-cut through the private door in the Palace garden, and he was tearing the detected finery from him. On his bed lay the hat, a perfect garden of magenta26 roses and sage-green ribbons, and he was even then wrestling with the hooks and eyes of the bodice. The boy stamped his foot angrily when he saw her, and his cheeks were redder than the roses in his hat and infinitely27 more healthy in tone.
‘Why did you make a fool of me, mother,’ he cried, ‘before all those people? I shall never be able to go to the Casino again. It was brutal28 of you, and I was enjoying myself so much.’
Sophia burst out laughing.
‘Dear Lennie, what a lovely hat!’ she cried. ‘Where did you get it? I shall order one like it, and we will go driving together in them. Do you{215} propose to wear that dress always instead of your sailor clothes? It is not very well cut. As for my making a fool of you, I think you are more to blame than I. How could you do such a thing!’
‘It was your fault,’ cried he. ‘I had forgotten everything in the game. Oh, these strings29! I think the devil made them.’
‘And a fool tied them,’ said Sophia. ‘Here, let me do them for you. I thought the dress did not fit very well, and no wonder, if you had your shirt on under the bodice and your trousers under the skirt. And where are your stays? It is all your fault, Leonard; I told you not to go to the club.’
‘I hope you didn’t think I was going to obey you?’ said Leonard, with singular contempt.
‘Anyhow, you thought fit to disobey me—oh, don’t wriggle30 so!—and you have been very properly paid out for it. You are too young to gamble. My poor boy! every shopkeeper in Rhodopé is laughing at you this moment, and I’m sure I don’t wonder. For me, I have never been so nearly hysterical31; I was helpless with laughter. I told you you were too young to gamble, and you would not take my word for it. You have been very naughty and disobedient, and you made a thorough exhibition of yourself—within three days to fight in the streets and to dress up as Polly to go to the Casino. Oh, that hat! What a creation!’ and she began to laugh again. ‘I thought you were one of the bourgeois.’
Leonard stepped out of the skirt, and pulled down his trousers, which he had rolled up to the knees{216} over his sturdy calves32, and regarded his mother critically.
‘I say, mother, you know you must have begun pretty young, too,’ he said. ‘The earliest thing I can remember is being told you were the finest gambler in Europe. I watched you playing to-night. You played very quietly, and by your face a man could not tell whether you had won or lost. Is that the chic33 way to gamble?’
‘That is the only way to gamble,’ said she, forgetting for a moment the moral lesson. ‘I have seen men and women tremble so that they could scarcely pick up their winnings. Whatever you do, always keep quiet at the tables. There is no such test of decent breeding.’
‘You must teach me,’ said Leonard insidiously34. ‘We might play for—for counters at first, quietly, at home.’
‘That would be very amusing,’ remarked his mother, ‘and roulette for two would certainly be a novelty; but I don’t want you to grow up a gambler, Leonard.’
‘Yet to-night I found it very entertaining; and did not you grow up a gambler?’ said he. ‘Also, it seemed to me easy, which is an advantage.’
‘Easy! There is no such word. There is good luck and bad luck; that is all the vocabulary.’
‘When did you first begin playing?’ asked he.
‘When I was too young.’
‘Then, I expect that was a very long time ago,’ said the boy; ‘for I do not see how you can begin{217} too early;’ and with this the conversation closed. Sophia, as may have been detected, could never have been predestined to attain36 to eminence37 as a disciplinarian, and Leonard’s tutors, like her own, proved about equally inefficient38 in managing him. One after another were surveyed by the boy, and judged wanting. One could not ride, another could not shoot, a third wore spectacles, and topped his drives with unique regularity39; but one and all joined hands in this, that they were totally unable to make him learn except when he chose to learn, or to exercise the slightest discipline over him out of lesson hours, and very little in.
Sophia soon grew considerably40 exercised about the boy. She had begun to see that the atmosphere of the Palace of Amandos was not entirely41 wholesome42. He was not disciplined in any way, which she considered the worst preparation for a lad who would one day be an autocratic Sovereign. She compared the escapades of her own youth with his, and had to confess that she, at any rate, had been a little in awe44 of her father. She had often revolted, but with an uneasy feeling that consequences might follow, and thus disobedience had its drawbacks. Leonard, on the other hand, disobeyed her whistling, with his tongue in his cheek, and to him disobedience never seemed to bring with it any drawbacks at all. By the time she saw him next she would have forgotten about the incident, or if she remembered it, and began a little homily, Leonard would shut his eyes, turn down the corners of his mouth, and,{218} with an air inexpressibly comic, say, ‘Let us pray.’ Once she had instructed Mr. Lanthony, the tutor with the spectacles, not without much inward misgiving46, to use the cane47 to Leonard next time punishment was necessary, and, such an occasion occurring within an hour of the edict, Leonard had thrown a copy of Magnall’s Questions at Mr. Lanthony’s face when he produced the cane with so much precision that his spectacles were dashed into a thousand fragments, and his eyes gushed48 out with involuntary water. His mother had not told the boy that the proposed caning49 was consonant50 to her orders, and Leonard came to her in much indignation.
‘Mother,’ he cried, ‘you couldn’t guess what has happened if you tried a hundred times: that old giglamps said he would cane me this morning—me!’ and he tapped his waistcoat.
‘I am convinced you deserved it,’ said his mother calmly.
‘And I am convinced that his spectacles will never be fit to see through again,’ retorted Leonard, angry at finding her so unsympathetic.
‘Leonard, what have you done?’ she said.
‘I threw Magnall’s Questions at him hard,’ he said; ‘and thus his spectacles are not worth anything now.’
‘You wicked boy!’ cried his mother. ‘It was I who told Mr. Lanthony to cane you. You are very naughty and mischievous51, and you must go and beg Mr. Lanthony’s pardon, and take your caning like{219} a man; and your pocket-money shall be stopped to pay for his spectacles.’
Down went the corners of Leonard’s mouth.
‘Oh, dear!’ he sighed; ‘let us pray; but get it over quick.’
In effect Mr. Lanthony had to do without the apology, and Prince Leonard without his caning; but the tutor had an interview with Sophia, and, after tendering his resignation, ventured to offer a word of advice.
‘I should lose no time in sending him to Eton,’ he said.
‘Who is Eton?’ asked his mother.
Mr. Lanthony was frankly52 horrified53.
‘Eton is a school, your Royal Highness,’ he replied; ‘in fact, it is the school. It seems strange to an Englishman to find even in Rhodopé that Eton is unknown; but “Non cuivis attingit adire Corinthum.”’
‘I beg your pardon?’ said Sophia politely.
‘I merely said Eton was a school,’ said Mr. Lanthony.
‘I think I have heard of it, now I consider,’ said Sophia. ‘It is near Windsor, is it not? What does one do? Shall I take a house for him, or will he live in London, and go down for an hour or two every day?’
‘That will not be necessary,’ replied Mr. Lanthony. ‘The house, on the other hand, will take him;’ and he sketched54 to the Princess the main features of a public school.{220}
‘Yes, it sounds nice,’ she said vaguely; ‘but he is, as you know, so high-spirited. Will they try to cane him there? I tremble to think what will happen—dear me! your eye is bad, Mr. Lanthony—if the headmaster tries to cane him.’
Mr. Lanthony gave the ghost of a smile. His mouth was untouched by Magnall’s Questions.
‘I don’t think you need consider that, your Royal Highness,’ he said—‘at least, you need not be uneasy for the headmaster; nor, indeed, for the Prince—the birch is quite harmless.’
‘The birch!’ cried Sophia. ‘How terrible it sounds!’
‘It is of no consequence,’ said Mr. Lanthony gravely; and the pain of Magnall’s Questions grew sensibly less.
‘Well, we must ask Leonard,’ said his mother. ‘Supposing he refuses to go? What are we to do then? I don’t think either of us has much influence with him, you know.’
But Leonard, when appealed to, was considerably taken with the idea; there would be a lot of boys to play with, and he wanted to go to England.
‘I expect it’s more fun with heaps of other boys than with one old muff at a time,’ he said. ‘Yes, I’ll be an Eton boy.’
When Sophia had made up her mind to a thing, she was not slow to put it into execution. She wrote an exceedingly kind and condescending55 letter to the headmaster, giving him to understand that she was prepared to confer this priceless boon56 on{221} Eton at Mr. Lanthony’s recommendation; but that gentleman, to whom she read it, advised another tone. The headmaster was radically-minded, and would not be likely to be dazzled at the prospect57; she could put it more simply. Indeed, perhaps it would be better if he wrote himself to a housemaster he knew there, asking if he could by any means secure a vacancy58 in his house for a boy aged59 fourteen, or if he knew of anyone else who had a vacancy. All this sounded terribly democratic to the Princess; but, having failed so signally herself with Leonard, she was desirous that other more practised hands should take the reins60 from her, and she would, so she expressed herself with a little acidity61, go down on her knees before all the masters in Christendom if this were the more proper attitude to take.
It was finally arranged that Leonard should enter the school in April, and Sophia threw herself with zest62 into the scheme. She conferred on his housemaster the Second Order of the Bronze Cross, and sent him the key to a private cipher63, by means of which he could daily communicate with her. She asked whether ￡1,000 pocket-money a term would be sufficient to supply her boy with school requisites64, and whether she should open an account for him at the Eton and Windsor Bank. She hoped they would all remember—perhaps he would be so good as to speak to his colleagues about it—how exceedingly high-spirited the Prince was, and how little discipline he had yet received. Finally, she drove{222} the unfortunate man to the verge65 of imbecility by saying that she hoped they allowed no roulette at all in the school, and only vingt-et-un at moderate points. Mr. Lanthony had already left for England before this unhappy series of letters was despatched, or some of them might have been averted66.
Leonard left for England at the end of March, and it was in a way an immense relief to his mother when he had gone, for she felt strangely responsible for his education. She had made up her mind that he was to be a good ruler, and she saw clearly that Rhodopé was no place for him yet. Her own popularity had redeemed67, so far, her reign43 from failure, but she was candid68 enough to allow that she might have let her sphere border more nearly on usefulness. Prince Petros’s mad attempt had been an unexampled piece of luck; it had given her an éclat she could scarcely have won otherwise, so also had her institution of the club. She had founded it to supply amusement to herself; she found that she had given occupation to her people. But already she foresaw that in the course of years the morals of the people would deteriorate69, the hardy70 mountain folk would become people of the asphalt, of the gaslight. As long as the club continued to act as a star for the enjoyment71 of health-questing moths72, so long, no doubt, would the Budget of Rhodopé be a pattern to other more puritanically73 constituted States; but the surplus on the Budget would be paid for in other ways. She saw the sheep of Rhodopé without their shepherds; she saw the{223} vineyards without their vine-diggers; she dimly forecast the army destitute74 of privates, and peopled only with honorary colonels. She had the grace to shudder75 at the logical outcome of the era she had instituted, only she could not in her own person break the chain of circumstance on which it hung. Amandos without the club! She starved at the thought. It had been bad enough before; now, when the days there had actually ceased to be tedious, owing to the diversions supplied by her roulette, with what a cold shuddering76 of the spirit she saw herself shorn of that which made life tolerable! But that chain of circumstances should be broken by her son. She had endowed him with the gambling blood, but that was inevitable77; at least she was now making an effort whereby the hereditary78 instinct should not come to fruition. She had sent him to England, that home of three-penny points; she had expressed herself most clearly to his housemaster at Eton on the question of roulette. She could not have done more, and her conscience approved her.
Meantime, throughout the length and breadth of Europe her reputation had gone abroad. Her great coup79, now eleven years ago, which had steadied the tottering80 House of ?gina, had taken hold on the popular imagination, and the boldness and dash of the move had raised up in real hosts those unknown admirers which so many of those who act in public secretly and mistakenly suppose are theirs. That return from Corfu, triumphant81 over a riotous82 and{224} wrecking83 sea, the cross-country sledge84 journey, the arrival in the nick of time, the hopeless and utter defeat of her husband and the acuter Malakopf, her rapturous welcome by the people, were all things to enkindle the blood in an age in which diplomatic papers are sufficient to set the world blazing. She was a picturesque85 figure, and an unpicturesque epoch86 has always this saving grace, that it delights in picturesque figures when they do appear. However much we may live environed by gray and green, a vivider tint87 is ever applauded. Again, she was admirably posed. To the eye of Europe she went stake in hand from the roulette-board to the rescue of her House, and having saved her House, went back to where the ball was still rolling and won. She had dash and brilliance88 and beauty, she was neither prude nor puritan. Indeed, she seemed one of those to whom success comes as if by birthright.
But with the instinct of a true gambler, she called her own success a run of luck. Sooner or later, unless her line staked on another colour, it would go against them, and her resolution to reform took the shape of reforming, or rather putting on the other colour, her son, Prince Leonard. She was determined89, at the sacrifice of her natural desire, to see him but seldom; he should be a stranger to the tables of Rhodopé and the Riviera; he should play cricket and polo and hockey—whatever that was—instead of bezique and baccarat. She was herself so warm an admirer of the open air, that she felt she was not starving him. Had she not been a Prin{225}cess, she would have chosen to be a man and a dweller90 in the mountains. Horses and dogs, a keen eye, and an obedient hand, were admirable things, and good enough for anybody.
For the next few years Leonard did not set foot in Rhodopé at all, and he saw his mother occasionally only, in her short and scarce visits to England. At Eton the high spirit which his mother had feared would be a source of possible danger to the head had shown itself reasonable, and in the course of one painful interview between the two, of which the cause was tobacco, and the end the birch, no books had been thrown. He did the minimum of work required with cheerfulness, if not zest, and, far more important, he was immensely popular with his fellows. He grew tall and strong on the banks of the Thames. At the age of sixteen he got into the eleven, and in the match against Harrow cracked the enamelled face of the clock at Lord’s off a half-volley just outside his leg-stump. He also indulged in various other amusements, which as yet had not come to light, but which appeared in damning concourse very shortly indeed before he left.
One morning in July he went into his room after twelve to change for cricket. On the table were two letters—one from his mother, who told him that she was on her way to England, and would arrive at the end of the month. She would stay a few days in London, and if Eton had broken up he had better come to her there. It was long since she{226} had been in London, and they would see the sights together, from the Westminster Aquarium91 to the Tower of London, and from Madame Tussaud’s even to the Zoological Gardens and the Adelphi Theatre. There was no harm, she said, in a little gaiety, and she did not wish to cut Leonard off from all amusements. The other letter was from a groom92 of some training stables, and it interested him far more, for it gave the best possible account of Muley Moloch, a horse which Leonard was backing heavily for the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown. Accordingly at the end of the half Leonard went up to London to join his mother. She had taken a great suite93 of rooms at the H?tel Métropole, with a private entrance, where she lived under her usual incognito94 of the Countess of ?gina.
Leonard arrived late in the evening, and found her with a few friends playing baccarat. His mother threw down her cards when he entered.
‘Dearest Leonard!’ she cried; ‘but I should scarcely have known you. How you have grown, and how you have improved! I am so delighted to see you again! Have you dined?’
Indeed, any mother might have been proud of him. He had grown up tall, well-looking, and with an extraordinary frankness and charm of manner. Though he was still but seventeen, he looked almost a man, and Princess Sophia felt how wise she had been to send him to school.
‘I have dined,’ he said, after being introduced to his mother’s guests. ‘And if you will let me,{227} mother, I will join you in your game. Baccarat, is it not? A good game.’
‘Oh, Leonard, what business have you to know that!’ cried his mother. ‘I particularly asked that no baccarat should be allowed at Eton.’
Leonard laughed.
‘It is strictly95 prohibited,’ he said; ‘every boy at Eton will tell you so. Do not blame the masters. Will you lend me some money, mother?’
Though the Princess would have preferred that he should not play at all, she had the consolation96 of that he played well. His face was a mask of good breeding, not an eyelash betrayed emotion, and he looked gravely amused whether he won or lost.
‘He is a born gambler. It is in the blood, you know,’ she said under her breath to her cousin, the Duchess of Winchester, who was sitting next to her, and the Duchess thought she detected pride and not regret alone in her voice.
Mother and son, as arranged, went out the next days to see the sights of London. To the Princess it seemed to have grown sadder and foggier since she had seen it last. Their expeditions were mostly made on foot, for the Princess loved the bustle97 and stir of the streets, and more than once they made the top of an omnibus their observatory98.
‘There are plenty of people, certainly,’ she said one day to Leonard, as they swayed and rolled up Baker99 Street; ‘and I love crowds. But observe their infinite sadness of demeanour. What a load{228} of responsibility seems to rest on the least and meanest shoulders! Look at that baker there! If he was in Rhodopé I would make him Court undertaker. To what genuine melancholy100 is he the prey101! If I was responsible for the whole creation, I should not be so sad. And they all walk so fast, as if they were going to catch the dying words of a near and dear relative, and would only just get there in time. After all, I am glad I am a Southerner. We may not be so good, but we are certainly gayer. And it is certainly good to be gay.’
They stopped at the corner where Madame Tussaud’s red exhibition stood, and Leonard, who for some minutes had been with difficulty restraining his laughter, suddenly burst out into a great shout of amusement.
‘England, at any rate, has not made you sad at present,’ said the Princess. ‘What is the matter, Leonard?’
‘Oh, nothing,’ said the lad; ‘at least, you will soon know.’
She paid their entrance-money—Leonard tossed his mother who should pay for both, and won—and began the tour of the room. Suddenly the Princess gave a little exclamation102 of horrified surprise, and rapidly turned up No. 27 in the catalogue. What met her indignant eye was this:
‘The gambling Princess Sophia.—Princess Sophia of Rhodopé, though only just forty, is surely the most rankly notorious crowned head of Europe. She spends the greater part of every day in the club{229} she has started at the capital, Amandos, and the era of gambling she has introduced is rapidly undermining the physique and morale103 of her little kingdom. She has confined her old Prime Minister, Malakopf, a financier of European reputation, to a life-long imprisonment104 for some imaginary plot against the throne; and her husband, Prince Petros of Herzegovina, she has divorced and banished105 from the principality of Rhodopé. He is described by those who knew him as a man of charming manner and quick insight. The Princess has a violent temper and is growing very stout106. Her only son, Prince Leonard, is at school at Eton.’
The room was almost empty, and Leonard put no bounds to his amusement. He stamped and choked, his mouth was full of laughter.
‘Oh, oh!’ he cried, ‘it is too funny! And, mother, I hear they are thinking of sending you to the Chamber107 of Horrors. I stayed in London last long leave and saw it. Oh, oh, the Chamber of Horrors, with murderers and Ph?nix Park tragedians and people who have their throats cut in their baths. Oh, I shall burst!’
Sophia turned icily from him, read the description of herself through again in the catalogue, and then examined the figure. It was seated in the most realistic pose in front of a small green-cloth table. One hand held three or four playing-cards, the other was clutched on a heap of counterfeit108 coins. It represented her in full evening dress, with the Order of the Silver Cross and the Salamander on{230} her shoulder, both faultlessly executed. Her dress was of white brocade, and it might have been copied by Worth himself, so she thought, from the gown which she had worn on the night of her memorable109 and unexpected home-coming. The pasty, formless fingers glittered with immense glass jewels; she wore a tiara of diamonds, and a copy in some cheap and tawdry material of the Rhodopé pearls.
But it was the presentment of the face that most appalled110 the Princess. The likeness111 was unmistakable, yet it was the most prodigious112 parody113. She herself was pleasantly furnished with flesh, the waxwork114 bulged115 with fatness. Her own black eyes, with their long lashes116, became wicked lakes of darkness, her fine-lipped mouth was moulded into evil and monstrous117 curves. Avarice118 sat enthroned in her greedy expression and in the clutching hand.
The Princess examined it with scrupulous119 care, then turned with a petrified120 face to Leonard, who was wiping his eyes. Every now and then a fresh gust121 of laughter shook him, and he held his aching ribs122 for fear they should burst. Sophia watched him a moment with malignity123; it seemed yet doubtful whether she would run her parasol through the face of the waxwork, or box his ears; but by degrees the infection of his merriment caught her, and sitting down by him on a crimson124-covered ottoman, she gave way to peal after peal of laughter. He had been on the verge of recovery, but they mutually infected one another, and in a few moments were equally lost to all power of speech,{231} and could only point feebly and shakingly, as they shook and rolled on the sofa, at the greedy and clutching figure of the waxwork. A few more people had come into the gallery, and were attracted by this convulsed couple, but, with the supercilious125 contempt with which the English regard merriment in which they do not share, passed them by. Close at hand, however, sat the figure of the gambling Princess, and one by one they glanced back furtively126 to the real one on the crimson ottoman. There could be no mistaking, even in the convulsions of her laughter, the prototype of the figure.
Soon Princess Sophia observed this, and with a sudden accession of dignity hurried Leonard off.
‘Let me show you the way to the Chamber of Horrors,’ he said, in a voice vibrating with suppressed laughter, ‘so that you will know where to look for yourself next year.’
They could give but a superficial attention to that temple of classical criminals. Sophia longed to go back to her own figure, which exercised a strange fascination127 over her. She wanted to see the manager, to have him to dinner, to hail him as the first humorist in Europe. Then she protested that it was monstrous that she should have to pay to see an exhibition in which she herself was so leading an attraction. She was half inclined to demand her money back at the door, had it not been for the treat she had enjoyed in seeing herself as others, or, at any rate, that strict moralist who wrote the account of the figure, saw her. The{232} Monument, the Zoological Gardens, the Underground Railway, even a most remarkable128 play at one of the West End theatres, where two ignoble129 gentlemen cut through a pack to see who should marry an heiress, both turning up sevens and then kings, had a touch of bathos after Madame Tussaud’s; and Leonard and Sophia went back there more than once and found the joke remained of that superlative order which is only enhanced by repetition. The Princess, even in her middle life, retained a youthful passion for being amused, but never, so she thought, had she made a better investment in joy than with those shillings she paid to the doorkeeper at the waxwork show.
She remained in England all August and September, and in the third week of that month Leonard went back to Eton. Sophia, who wished to see the place, paid him a visit there, and made herself remarkably130 popular by securing for the school the promise of an extra week in the next summer holidays, in honour of her visit. In eight weeks Leonard would be easily repaid for his four days’ journey to Rhodopé, and she intended him to come home, for the first time since he went to Eton. Femme propose.
She was to leave England about the middle of October, and a week before she should have started she was back in London again from a round of visits. One morning she found on her breakfast-table a letter with the Eton postmark on it, but not addressed in Leonard’s hand. She opened it{233} without apprehension131, and read the following statement in the headmaster’s neat and scholarly handwriting:
‘Your Royal Highness,
‘Little did I think when we had the honour so short a time ago of welcoming your Royal Highness to Eton that it would be my painful duty to write this letter to you. Your son, Prince Leonard, was found last week to have visited the Windsor races, where he was seen smoking and talking to a successful jockey, whose equestrian132 skill, so it appeared, had been the means of winning your son a considerable sum of money. This offence could not, of course, be passed over, and it was my duty to visit it on him in the most severe manner—in short, I gave him a flogging. But he refused, apparently133, to take the warning to heart, and yesterday evening his housemaster, going into his room, found him, with several other boys, engaged in a game of roulette. This was more particularly heinous134, since I well remember how warmly your Royal Highness urged on us not to allow roulette in the school. I therefore beg to advise your Royal Highness to remove Prince Leonard at once from Eton, to save him the disgrace, which must otherwise be inevitable, of being expelled. The roulette-board I send to you to-day by parcel post. I must add that Prince Leonard was most anxious to have it understood that he had persuaded the others to play, in spite of their unwillingness135.’
{234}
Sophia did as she was advised, and instantly telegraphed to the headmaster, saying that she intended to remove her son at once from Eton. She was exceedingly annoyed at what had occurred, and felt quite angry with Leonard. She had expressly desired him not to play roulette; it was very tiresome136 to be disobeyed like this. She had hoped that he would have learned obedience45 at school. As for his removal from Eton, it was most inconvenient137; she was at her wits’ end to know what to do with him. It would hardly be possible, at his age, to send him to Harrow; besides, she believed that Harrow boys always fought with Eton boys, and wore swallow-tail coats in the morning, which would never do. That the headmaster of Harrow would not be infinitely delighted at his entering there did not for a moment occur to her.
Her annoyance138 was very materially increased by the arrival of the roulette-board. It was a villainous piece of construction, faulty in carpentering, odiously139 coloured with the crudest and most violent tints140; and it contained two zeros. She had, as the reader will have gathered, no moral objection at all to gambling, but her horror of not doing the thing properly was vital and ineradicable. In a fit of anger she smashed it into bits and threw the pieces on to the fire.
Later in the day Leonard arrived, completely himself.
‘How could you be so stupid and disobedient!{235}’ cried the Princess. ‘And, Leonard, to play with that roulette-board is a disgrace.’
Leonard looked up in surprise.
‘How have you seen it? Where is it?’ he asked.
‘It is at present in ash in the grate, and its finer particles are contributing to the London fog,’ said the Princess, with some asperity141. ‘In fact, I threw it into the fire. The headmaster sent it me.’
‘I thought we might have had a game together this evening,’ said Leonard, seating himself. ‘What was the good of burning it? Besides, it was mine. Oh, mother’—and his handsome face flushed with a sudden fresh eagerness—‘you never saw such a run of luck as I had last night! I staked three times on thirteen, and won twice!’
‘On thirteen! Good gracious,’ cried the Princess, ‘it is madness, Leonard! No wonder your housemaster came in and discovered you. Dear me, I remember horrifying142 your poor foolish father so much at Monte Carlo by backing single numbers. He had a system. Thank Heaven, you did not get caught playing on a system! The disgrace would have been double. I am spared that.’
Sophia pulled herself up sharp, for she was aware that her instinct had taken the reins from the serious spirit with which she had intended to handle Leonard. The little homily she had prepared had merged143 into the never-ending discussion on the subject of number thirteen.
‘But I am very much shocked and distressed144 at all this, Leonard,’ she went on. ‘You have ruined{236} and cut short your school career, and disgraced your name.’
Leonard’s eyes began to twinkle.
‘How about Madame Tussaud’s?’ he asked. ‘I am not the first.’
‘That is beside the point,’ said Sophia, and when the boy laughed outright145: ‘At any rate, it is no good talking of that. Oh, but it was very funny! Well, Leonard, I do not mean to send you to the other public school—what is it called?—Harrow. Also, I do not intend you to come and live idly at Rhodopé.’
‘No, that would be rather too slow after England,’ remarked Leonard.
‘Well, what do you want to do? Can’t you suggest anything?’ asked the Princess, with some impatience146.
‘I should like to stay in England, or travel, perhaps. Yes; why shouldn’t I travel?’
‘I think that is the best thing you could do,’ said the Princess, ‘and I am glad you suggested it. But I shall have to get you a tutor; it will be a great expense. I suppose you will go round the world. We will go to some agent to-morrow—I suppose there are agents for such things—and see how they are done.’
As usual, the Princess put her purpose into effect without loss of time. She advertised for a travelling tutor, and for three days made the life of Thomas Cook and Sons but a parody of existence. She went to the docks, and inspected large numbers of ocean{237} liners, and at length fixed147 upon a vessel148 of the Peninsular and Oriental line, which would take him as far as Egypt. There he would spend a few weeks, go on to India, thence to Australia, and back over America. She had a personal interview with the captain of the vessel, and insisted on all the games provided for the use of passengers being turned out, so that she might assure herself that no game of hazard was played on board. But as the entire stock of entertainment consisted of some inglorious little rope-rings, which were to be thrown into buckets, she felt no further anxiety on this score. It puzzled her to understand how people could find amusement in this, but the captain assured her that they did.
She saw Leonard off on a drizzly149 November morning. He was to be away at the least for two years, and she parted from him with some emotion. But the conviction that she was doing the wisest thing for him was a large consolation. To let him go back to Rhodopé with all his inherited instincts of gambling would be a dangerous experiment, for she was firm in her resolve that he should prove a good and useful man, a ruler who might be able to grapple with the insidious35 gambling disease which had spread so direfully through the country, for she felt herself unable, morally incapable150, of dealing151 with it. Personally, she could not face the idea of Amandos shorn of its club, and how should she, the priestess of the goddess, recant? She was determined to give Leonard the best chance possible. He should live on vessels152 where only rings were provided for entertainment, and when he landed he should shoot animals, and see mosques153 and wigwams, and other tedious and exotic objects.
She had engaged for him a tutor who inspired her with confidence. He had a lofty, commanding forehead, with high, knobby temples and a pedantic154 and instructive manner. He kept accounts in a book, and money in a purse. She herself had tried to teach him picquet, and was delighted to observe that he seemed almost incapable of understanding the ordinary value of cards, though he was said to be a fine classical scholar. He said he thought games of chance were irrational155 amusements, and though in sheer loyalty156 she was bound to attempt to convince him they were not, she was delighted to find that she failed egregiously157. And next day Sophia saw the s.s. Valetta start from Tilbury, bearing Prince Leonard, his tutor, and the little rope-rings out into the siren-haunted mists of the mouth of the Thames.
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1
craving
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| n.渴望,热望 | |
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2
aspersion
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| n.诽谤，中伤 | |
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3
precariously
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| adv.不安全地；危险地；碰机会地；不稳定地 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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boilers
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| 锅炉，烧水器，水壶( boiler的名词复数 ) | |
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6
abhorrence
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| n.憎恶；可憎恶的事 | |
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linguistic
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| adj.语言的，语言学的 | |
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8
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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9
havoc
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| n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱 | |
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distressingly
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| adv. 令人苦恼地；悲惨地 | |
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hubbub
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| n.嘈杂；骚乱 | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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apprehensive
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| adj.担心的，恐惧的，善于领会的 | |
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tenantless
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| adj.无人租赁的，无人居住的 | |
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15
shrieking
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| v.尖叫( shriek的现在分词 ) | |
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16
battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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17
knuckles
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| n.（指人）指关节( knuckle的名词复数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝v.（指人）指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝 | |
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18
ruffled
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| adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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19
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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20
gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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21
brewer
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| n. 啤酒制造者 | |
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22
bourgeois
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| adj./n.追求物质享受的(人)；中产阶级分子 | |
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23
hurrah
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| int.好哇，万岁，乌拉 | |
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24
peal
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| n.钟声；v.鸣响 | |
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25
cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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26
magenta
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| n..紫红色（的染料）；adj.紫红色的 | |
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27
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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28
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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29
strings
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| n.弦 | |
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30
wriggle
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| v./n.蠕动，扭动；蜿蜒 | |
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31
hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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32
calves
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| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
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33
chic
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| n./adj.别致(的)，时髦(的)，讲究的 | |
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34
insidiously
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| 潜在地，隐伏地，阴险地 | |
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35
insidious
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| adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧 | |
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36
attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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37
eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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38
inefficient
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| adj.效率低的，无效的 | |
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39
regularity
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| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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40
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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41
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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42
wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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43
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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44
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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45
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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46
misgiving
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕 | |
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47
cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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48
gushed
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| v.喷，涌( gush的过去式和过去分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
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49
caning
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| n.鞭打 | |
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50
consonant
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| n.辅音；adj.[音]符合的 | |
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51
mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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52
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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53
horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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54
sketched
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| v.草拟（sketch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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55
condescending
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| adj.谦逊的,故意屈尊的 | |
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56
boon
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| n.恩赐，恩物，恩惠 | |
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57
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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58
vacancy
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| n.（旅馆的）空位，空房，（职务的）空缺 | |
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59
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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60
reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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61
acidity
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| n.酸度，酸性 | |
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62
zest
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| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
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63
cipher
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| n.零；无影响力的人；密码 | |
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64
requisites
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| n.必要的事物( requisite的名词复数 ) | |
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65
verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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66
averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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67
redeemed
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| adj. 可赎回的，可救赎的 动词redeem的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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68
candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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69
deteriorate
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| v.变坏；恶化；退化 | |
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70
hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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71
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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72
moths
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| n.蛾( moth的名词复数 ) | |
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73
puritanically
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74
destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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75
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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76
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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77
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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78
hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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79
coup
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| n.政变；突然而成功的行动 | |
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80
tottering
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| adj.蹒跚的，动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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81
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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82
riotous
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| adj.骚乱的；狂欢的 | |
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83
wrecking
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| 破坏 | |
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84
sledge
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| n.雪橇，大锤；v.用雪橇搬运，坐雪橇往 | |
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85
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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86
epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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87
tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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88
brilliance
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| n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智 | |
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89
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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dweller
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| n.居住者，住客 | |
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91
aquarium
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| n.水族馆，养鱼池，玻璃缸 | |
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92
groom
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| vt.给（马、狗等）梳毛，照料，使...整洁 | |
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93
suite
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| n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员 | |
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94
incognito
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| adv.匿名地；n.隐姓埋名；adj.化装的，用假名的，隐匿姓名身份的 | |
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95
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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96
consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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97
bustle
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| v.喧扰地忙乱，匆忙，奔忙；n.忙碌；喧闹 | |
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98
observatory
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| n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台 | |
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99
baker
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| n.面包师 | |
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100
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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102
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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103
morale
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| n.道德准则，士气，斗志 | |
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imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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105
banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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108
counterfeit
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| vt.伪造，仿造；adj.伪造的，假冒的 | |
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109
memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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110
appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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111
likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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112
prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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113
parody
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| n.打油诗文，诙谐的改编诗文，拙劣的模仿；v.拙劣模仿，作模仿诗文 | |
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114
waxwork
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| n.蜡像 | |
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115
bulged
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| 凸出( bulge的过去式和过去分词 )； 充满； 塞满（某物） | |
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116
lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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117
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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118
avarice
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| n.贪婪；贪心 | |
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119
scrupulous
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| adj.审慎的，小心翼翼的，完全的，纯粹的 | |
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120
petrified
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| adj.惊呆的；目瞪口呆的v.使吓呆，使惊呆；变僵硬；使石化(petrify的过去式和过去分词) | |
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121
gust
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| n.阵风，突然一阵（雨、烟等），（感情的）迸发 | |
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122
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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123
malignity
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| n.极度的恶意，恶毒；（病的）恶性 | |
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124
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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125
supercilious
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| adj.目中无人的，高傲的；adv.高傲地；n.高傲 | |
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126
furtively
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| adv. 偷偷地, 暗中地 | |
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127
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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128
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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129
ignoble
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| adj.不光彩的，卑鄙的；可耻的 | |
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130
remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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131
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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132
equestrian
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| adj.骑马的；n.马术 | |
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133
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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134
heinous
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| adj.可憎的，十恶不赦的 | |
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135
unwillingness
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| n. 不愿意，不情愿 | |
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136
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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137
inconvenient
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| adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的 | |
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138
annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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139
odiously
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| Odiously | |
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140
tints
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| 色彩( tint的名词复数 )； 带白的颜色； （淡色）染发剂； 痕迹 | |
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141
asperity
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| n.粗鲁，艰苦 | |
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142
horrifying
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| a.令人震惊的，使人毛骨悚然的 | |
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143
merged
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| （使）混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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144
distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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145
outright
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| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
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146
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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147
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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148
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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149
drizzly
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| a.毛毛雨的(a drizzly day) | |
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150
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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151
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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152
vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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153
mosques
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| 清真寺； 伊斯兰教寺院，清真寺； 清真寺，伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 ) | |
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154
pedantic
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| adj.卖弄学问的；迂腐的 | |
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155
irrational
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| adj.无理性的，失去理性的 | |
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156
loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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157
egregiously
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| adv.过份地，卓越地 | |
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