The Adventures of Hiram Holliday (13 page)

He knew that he was bowing acknowledgement to the introductions, and he forced himself to see the people whose names had barely filtered through his consciousness - the Count, a small, dapper man with slick, black hair, a narrow face, tiny black moustache, the kind he somehow had always connected with shoe salesmen in New York, and small teeth that were extraordinarily white; Dr Virslany fantastically fat and shaking with apparent jollity, and Captain Ovenecka, quite the handsomest man he had ever seen.

A woman came over and joined them. Startled, Hiram recognized her immediately as the one he had seen in the lobby of the building a short while before, with the man he had been following. Heidi arose and put her arms around her neck and kissed her, and said: 'Lola dear. It was so good of you to come. So good. Hiram, this is Madame Strakova, my dearest friend. Lola,dear,
you are Justin therighttime. And you, too, Hiram. We were talking
of
going
upstairs
to
call upon Madame von Ovenecka, Captain Ovenecka's mother, and you shall come,
too....'

Mother
...
captain
...
fiance
¹
...
Heidi
...
'how glad I am to see you again.' Lola, dear
...
small, white teeth
...
enormous, round, bald head, endless chins, twinkling eyes and rumbling chuckle
...
frightened white face behind a barred window, and a call for help in the night:
'A moi! a moi!’
violets worn at a slender waist, lights and laughter, and people, and the sound of a piano
...
thoughts, and sounds, and faces went racketing through Hiram's brain, and loudest he seemed to hear at that awful moment the
un-sounds, the not-clashing of
non-existent rapiers
.

With a harsh, physical effort Hiram
wrenched himself back into the world that was, and to what Heidi was saying even while he wondered whether she was deliberately creating a diversion to keep him from referring to their fantastic, bravado adventure in London.

But even that did not seem to be so. He caught up with Heidi's words
:'...
and the most fascinating woman in Prague. Imagine, eighty-seven, and she still cooks. She baked me a cake for tonight. We shall have it later. We always go up to call on her. She is simply marvellous. I adore her. She lives up on the next floor. Shall we go now ?'

The handsome Captain glanced at his wrist-watch, and said
:'
It will make my mother so happy. You are so kind, Your Highness. She loves you as though you were her daughter. Now, or perhaps a little later. It is still early,' and he glanced at the throng in the
salon
through which they would have to thread their way.

Heidi caught the glance, and said: 'Now. Come, we will go this way.'

She took Madame Strakova by the hand and led her through the less crowded dining-room, followed by the enormously obese Virslany, chuckling, grunting and puffing, the small, lithe, dapper d'Aquila, Hiram and the Captain.

All reality had again fled from Hiram. He did not seem to be walking, but instead objects were passing him - a door, the long corridor he had seen before, down which they turned, another door at the end of the corridor through which they passed, that opened to the outer hall, obviously a service entrance to the apartment, a flight of steps up to the next floor
...
another door at which they paused and rang, and a sharp voice that called out in German from within:
'Wer ist da ?'

The Princess replied, almost in song:
'Heidi, Heidi
...
Heidi ist hier.'

There was a moment of silence and then the door was opened by a tall, angular woman in the neat, black dress of a companion nurse, and they all trooped in.

Madame von Ovenecka was seated at a little table under a lamp, drawing on a pad with a crayon pencil, with bold, broad strokes, but she set them down when they entered, and Hiram thought that he had never seen age look so lovely, or an old woman so sweet.

Her hair was snow white and piled on top of her head in the same manner
as
Heidi's and held there with an amethyst clip. She was still slender and wore a trailing lavender gown with long, loose sleeves that ended in lace almost to her finger-tips, and a high collar that came up beneath her chin, and her face, though lined and wrinkled, was ageless. Hiram had never seen
a
grande dame
before, and for the moment he was fascinated by the extraordinary sweetness and charm of the old lady, and when he was introduced to her, he felt impelled to bend over to kiss her hand, but she withdrew her fingers and instead, patted his cheek with the gentlest gesture, and said: 'An American, the only place where there is left the real gallantry,' in soft English, only slight accented.

The conversation was carried on sometimes in German, sometimes in Czech, and sometimes, through the Captain's forethought and politeness and deference to Hiram, in English.

To Dr Virslany she said
:'
Anton, did you really lift yourself the whole flight of stairs to see me
?'

The fat doctor roared
, and rumbled and chuckled, and
heaved, and made her a bow that
was astonishingly graceful for
so gross a man, and said: 'Mad
ame, I would climb the steps of
Santa Maria di Aracoeli vor a look vrom you '

The stalwart Captain bent over and kissed the top of his mother's head, and said: 'Madame
...
were I not your son
...

I would suspect you of devil's arts. Each time I see you, you look younger.'

The old woman looked at her son with delicious mischief on her bright, aristocratic face. 'Petrus, you are a fool. The arts by which an old woman makes herself look younger have nothing to do with the devil. Thank God for Paris.' To Heidi she said: 'Don't let Petrus eat too much of the cake I baked. He always does.'

Somehow Hiram was conscious t
hat the tall, angular com
panion had whispered
to someone: 'Madame must not be tired too much
'

They began to take their leave. Hiram found himself next through the door after Heidi. Without turning her head, she said quietly: 'Later, we shall find time to talk, Hiram. Lola, my dear, where are you ? Come.'

Hiram suddenly realized that he disliked Madame Strakova intensely, with her thick, shiny black hair, protruding eyes and tiny painted mouth. The Count moved forward to Heidi's elbow with a mincing step, and Hiram added him in his dislike to Madame Strakova. He dropped back and descended the stairs with the cheerful, chuckling Virslany and the powerfully-built Captain, and then they were back in the throng and clatter of the party where Hiram immediately sought out Reck and found him by himself, eating a plate of chicken salad.

'I've just met the most wonderful old lady,' Hiram began by way of introduction.

Reck smiled with a mouth full of salad, and said: 'Mmmm. Madame Ovenecka.'

'Who
...
who are all the others
?'
Hiram asked. 'The little guy who looks like
...
like a
gigolo....'

'Gigolo?' said Reck, and then grinned. 'Oh, you mean Count Mario d'Aquila. He's the first secretary of the Italian Legation. The fat chap is Dr Anton Virslany. He's a Czech. Officially he isn't supposed to be anything more than the Czech correspondent of the
Amsterdamer Handlesblat,
but unofficially he's probably the most powerful man in Prague.

Europe's full of guys like
that. Knows everyone and every
thing. He's the best source I've got here '

Hiram searched the crowd for the huge figure of the Doctor. He was standing not far away, holding forth in English to an amused group. He was an enormous blob of a man who must have weighed in the neighbourhood of three hundred and fifty pounds. His huge, round head was hairless and sank, via a series of chins, directly into his body, a body that was always shaking with laughter. Even through the noise Hiram could hear his rumbling bellow: 'Oh-ho-ho-ho.... The Czechs haff been goot rewanched on Austria. Last nide, the Czech Catherina Myslikova danced in
Die Fledermaus
ballet. Oh-ho-ho-ho. She is the worst dancer in the world. Der Strauss iss still in his grave abinning. So she danced it
...'
and he suddenly, with all his three hundred and fifty pounds, went into the most absurd pirouette in the world. Hiram watched him with a grin as he actually completed a turn and ended in a grotesque burlesque of the offending ballerina.

'...
Madame Strakova,' Reck was saying, 'is the widow of the former Minister of the Interior. He was a great man. She's a bigger power in the Government now than he was.'

Holliday saw Count d'Aquila cross the room in response to a glance from Madame Strakova, and noted that he moved like a cat.

'The tall, good-looking chap,' Reck went on, 'was Captain Petrus Ovenecka. He's really the political head of the Czech Army. You know how those things go sometimes. He's quite a guy. He's fought five duels, rode in the last Olympic Games
...'
Holliday looked for the Captain, but did not see him. He had been powerfully drawn to the tall, magnificently built, blue-eyed man with the lean, square jaw and lean mouth and the charming manner. He had the looks and carriage of a hero.
'...
is afraid of nothing and could head a revolt in the Czech Army any day he wanted,' continued Reck. Before he had finished speaking, Hiram noticed that the Captain was again in the room and part of a group.

Reck looked at his watch, and said
:'
I've got to blow and see a guy and check on something I heard here. Why don't you stick around ? They'll be thinning out soon. Funny your having met the Princess before. Well, maybe we can have lunch tomorrow.'

Alone, Hiram browsed through the party. One thing he had ascertained. The Man with the False Beard who had gone up in the elevator with Madame Strakova apparently was not there. Soon there was another departure. Madame Strakova suddenly complained of feeling ill. Hiram was instantly certain that she was lying, and watched the scene. Over Heidi's protestations she persisted in going home. Dr Virslany, who was nearby, offered to take her, but it was the Count d'Aquila who insisted and won out. They left together. Hiram had a sharp sensation of a definite plan, something that had been cooked up between the two. A few minutes after they had left, the Count returned alone. Madame Strakova had left a small, diamond-encrusted vanity case. He found it on the sideboard of the dining-room and departed again through the dining-room exit.

Hiram was desperately miserable, let down and uncomfortable. But he could not leave until he had spoken to Heidi, to reassure himself that all was well and that the fears that had begun to grow in him again in spite of the shock of his disillusionment were groundless. The guests began to
thin
out until there were only Virslany, the Captain, and a half-dozen others. Heidi came over to him after having bid some guests good-bye and said: 'My dear Hiram, at last we can be together. Come and tell me everything. We shall sit over there and talk.' She led him over to a settee in a corner and they sat down and looked at one another. Hiram was the first to speak.

'Heidi
...
Heidi
...'
he said. 'Are you safe? Is everything all right?'

She took his hand in hers and said: 'My dear, good, kind friend
...
yes,
yes....
I have been so happy here. It was not safe in Paris. When Mario - that is the Count d'Aquila, my
...
my
...'
she hesitated for
a hardly perceptible fraction, ‘fiance
, was moved to Prague he suggested that I come here. I have been able to live again, Hiram. I have such good and strong friends. They are so good to me.' Perhaps she noticed the shadow that had passed on Hiram's face, for she added quickly: 'And now you are here, too!'

'The boy
...
Peter
...'
said Hiram.

'Safe and well,' said Heidi, proudly. 'He is sleeping in his little room,' she indicated the direction with a nod of her fine head, 'with Johanna. Do you remember Johanna?'

Hiram nodded and said: 'Yes. I remember Johanna. She
...
she kissed my hand when you left.'

Heidi nodded too, and said: 'Johanna does that only to a Royal personage. Or to a personage with a Royal heart - such as yours.'