He took him in his arms, like a bundle, swung him to and fro for a moment and pitched him through the open window:
“Mind the rose trees, grand-duke! There are thorns!”
When he turned round, Dolores was close to him and looking at him with eyes which he had never seen in her before, the eyes of a woman who hates and who is incensed with rage. Could this possibly be Dolores, the weak, ailing Dolores?
She stammered:
“What are you doing? … How dare you? … And he. … Then it’s true? … lied to me? …”
“Lied to you?” cried Lupin, grasping the humiliation which she had suffered as a woman. “Lied to you? He, a grand-duke! A puppet, that’s all, a puppet of which I pulled the string … an instrument which I tuned, to play upon as I chose! Oh, the fool, the fool!”
Overcome with renewed rage, he stamped his foot and shook his fist at the open window. And he began to walk up and down the room, flinging out phrases in which all the pent-up violence of his secret thought burst forth:
“The fool! Then he didn’t see what I expected of him? He did not suspect the greatness of the part he was to play? Oh, I shall have to drive it into his noddle by force, I see! Lift up your head, you idiot! You shall be grand-duke by the grace of Lupin! And a reigning sovereign! With a civil list! And subjects to fleece! And a palace which Charlemagne shall rebuild for you! And a master that shall be I, Lupin! Do you understand, you numskull? Lift up your head, dash it! Higher than that! Look up at the sky, remember that a Zweibrucken was hanged for cattle-lifting before the Hohenzollerns were ever heard of. And you are a Zweibrucken, by Jove, no less; and I am here, I, I, Lupin! And you shall be grand-duke, I tell you! A pasteboard grand-duke? Very well! But a grand-duke all the same, quickened with my breath and glowing with my ardor. A puppet? Very well. But a puppet that shall speak my words and make my movements and perform my wishes and realize my dreams … yes … my dreams.”
He stood motionless, as though dazzled by the glory of his conception. Then he went up to Dolores and, sinking his voice, with a sort of mystic exaltation, he said:
“On my left, Alsace-Lorraine. … On my right, Baden, Wurtemburg, Bavaria. … South Germany … all those disconnected, discontented states, crushed under the heel of the Prussian Charlemagne, but restless and ready to throw off the yoke at any moment. … Do you understand all that a man like myself can do in the midst of that, all the aspirations that he can kindle, all the hatred that he can produce, all the angry rebellion that he can inspire?”
In a still lower voice, he repeated:
“And, on my left, Alsace-Lorraine! … Do you fully understand? … Dreams? Not at all! It is the reality of the day after tomorrow, of tomorrow! … Yes. … I wish it. … I wish it. … Oh, all that I wish and all that I mean to do is unprecedented! … Only think, at two steps from the Alsatian frontier! In the heart of German territory! Close to the old Rhine! … A little intrigue, a little genius will be enough to change the surface of the earth. Genius I have … and to spare. … And I shall be the master! I shall be the man who directs. The other, the puppet can have the title and the honors. … I shall have the power! … I shall remain in the background. No office: I will not be a minister, nor even a chamberlain. Nothing. I shall be one of the servants in the palace, the gardener perhaps. … Yes, the gardener. … Oh, what a tremendous life! To grow flowers and alter the map of Europe!”
She looked at him greedily, dominated, swayed by the strength of that man. And her eyes expressed an admiration which she did not seek to conceal.
He put his hands on Dolores’ shoulders and said:
“That is my dream. Great as it is, it will be surpassed by the facts: that I swear to you. The Kaiser has already seen what I am good for. One day, he will find me installed in front of him, face to face. I hold all the trumps. Valenglay will act at my bidding. … England also. … The game is played and won. … That is my dream. … There is another one. …”
He stopped suddenly. Dolores did not take her eyes from him; and an infinite emotion changed every feature of her face.
A vast joy penetrated him as he once more felt, and clearly felt, that woman’s confusion in his presence. He no longer had the sense of being to her … what he was, a thief, a robber; he was a man, a man who loved and whose love roused unspoken feelings in the depths of a friendly soul.
Then he said no more, but he lavished upon her, unuttered, every known word of love and admiration; and he thought of the life which he might lead somewhere, not far from Veldenz, unknown and all-powerful. …
A long silence united them. Then she rose and said, softly:
“Go away, I entreat you to go. … Pierre shall marry Geneviève, I promise you that, but it is better that you should go … that you should not be here. … Go. Pierre shall marry Geneviève.”
He waited for a moment. Perhaps he would rather have had more definite words, but he dared not ask for anything. And he withdrew, dazed, intoxicated and happy to obey, to subject his destiny to hers!
On his way to the door, he came upon a low chair, which he had to move. But his foot knocked against something. He looked down. It
