Yolande

“ We ought to be very grateful to Yolande. She has practically organized the whole of our future for us. We are settled, fixed, planted—yes, that's it—we grow, ourselves, of course, but she has planted us in the right soil, with exactly the right aspect. Now our dear little characters can develop beautifully, and our hands keep pretty, and no wrinkles come in our nice, smooth foreheads. You've been a little I don't know what about Yolande. But you must own that what she undertakes she does well. ”

“ Mayhap hast heard the beauty and the fame Of fair Yolande, that young and peerless dame “For whom so many noble lovers sigh And with each other in the lists do vie? Though much I've dreamed of sweet Yolanda's charms My days have passed in wars and feats of arms, For, Pertinax, this blemished face I bear, Should fright, methinks, a lady young and fair. ”

“ Sweetly, quietly, Yolande crept into them. For an instant their lips met.
Mrs. Challoner turned away, her eyes were no longer sapphire cold, the violets had became dew wet. She met the gaze of the big man across the table, and scarlet roses flamed in her cheeks.
"Aren't we all silly?" she said. "Let's drink to Love's Young Dream!"
"Love's Dream," echoed Benjamin Loomis, taking the hand that the defeated little chaperone unconditionally surrendered. "Our dream, too—yours and mine!" ”

“ The corners of Yolande's mouth drooped. She rose silently and crossed to the window. Mr. Loomis snorted. Mrs. Challoner continued to reread the plain communication, as if she might find some word of relenting. Déjol's face went white, then his eyes slowly darkened as the pupils distended, his big jaws set, his golden hair seemed to stiffen with anger.
"Upstart—hein!" he exploded. "What of it? My father was a great chemist—I am a great chemist. We have given to the world what will help the world. We give them health and the cleanliness. ”

“ Yolande saw nothing here but the tragic figure of an ambition her perversity had doomed. A dignified presence may command so much more than its due of sympathy for the common crucifyings of circumstance. ”

“ She shuddered, repeating, “I cannot marry him.”
“On the other side,” he hurried on, ignoring her words desperately, “utter material ruin and, what is worse to me, my word, my honour foresworn. Listen, Yolande. In that very hour when you become, if you will become, his wife, he settles his entire property upon you by will. You will be the most influential woman in the duchy, a force for the good which is so dear to your heart. Is to put this in your power the act of a libertine, or of one rather who yearns to find his redemption at the hands of a virtue which he holds so inestimably dear?” ”

“ I whispered: “Chloe, in a very short time those people will come through that French window with the announcement of their engagement on their lips. This is the tamest love-affair I have ever witnessed. Everything has gone far too smoothly. Yolande has fallen in love obviously, bluntly, without any of those fine shades and nice feelings which you will remember to have noted in other cases—our own, for instance. She has grown rather dull.” ”

“ King Rene went forward to meet them, foremost, so as to be ready to hold the stirrup for his sister the Queen of France. Duke Sigismund seemed about to give his hand to the Infanta Violante, as the Provencaux called Yolande, but she was beforehand with him, linking her arm into Jean’s, while Margaret took Eleanor’s, and said in her ear, ‘The great awkward German! He is come here to pay his court to Yolande, but she will none of him. She has better hopes.’
Eleanor hardly attended, for her whole soul was bent on the party arriving. ”

“ Yolande inherited the throne on her mother's death in 1212, but her father ruled as her guardian. In 1223 she married the emperor Frederick II., the pope hoping by this bond to attach the emperor firmly to the crusade. Immediately upon his marriage Frederick demanded all the rights of sovereignty in the kingdom of Jerusalem, which he claimed to exercise in his wife's name. His action led to difficulties with John, who did not relish the loss of his position. Yolande died in 1228 after the birth of a son, Conrad, and her husband then continued to rule, though not without opposition. ”

“ King Rene presented them as his two daughters, Yolande and Margaret, to the two Scottish maidens, and there were kindly as well as courtly embraces on either side. The Lady of Glenuskie, as a king’s grand-daughter, with Annis and Lady Suffolk, had likewise been led up to take their places; the four royal maidens were seated together. Yolande, the most regularly beautiful, but with an anxious look on her face, talked to Eleanor of her journey ”

“ I’m his woman—his kept woman. There, you’ll not think the worse of him for that. We count for little with the quality, when they come to marry—like a man’s brooch, or the buckles in his shoes. We were right enough as a fashion for yesterday; but to-day, when our turn’s over, ’tis bad taste even to speak of us. But there’s something different here, there is. O, my lady! you did ought to consider it before you rob me of him.”
Some terrible emotion, between loathing and pity, was struggling in Yolande’s heart as she looked down on the imploring figure. ”

“ Yolande's coping with it. She loathes a crisis in little, but she's coping with it with the detail of a dictionary and the generalship of a—of a general. I've no time to turn the phrase.” He tore off down the red path, shouting as he went, “I say, Yo, I'll bring home something cold for dinner.”
We were left planted on the doorstep. The next moment Yolande came down the stairs—they lead, sans phrases, from the bedrooms into the dining-room—and stood before us, a changed, a transfigured Yolande. ”

“ But I've been punished for my folly. Chloe, I've come very near to hating Yolande, and all the time it was you—not Yolande or the ghost, but you, who were writing all those wonderful endings to my silly stories! Sit down on your throne and let me do you homage.” I put her back in the rocking-chair and knelt before her.
“I meant to tell you at first,” she said, “but when you thought it was Yolande, I thought it was so funny and stupid of you, because she doesn't really see half the things I put in the stories.”
“Funny and stupid, indeed,” I echoed. “You were wiser. You do see things. ”

“ And this Yolande, that made such complaining of love to a dead man, was one of the fairest ladies of all that time, and of great reputation; and there were many good men that loved her greatly, and would fain have had some favour at her hands; of whom she made no account, saying always, that her dead lover was better than many lovers living. Then certain people said that she was bewitched; and one of these was Amaury. ”

“ In the salon of their suite the two women faced each other.
"Tooth powder!" gasped Mrs. Challoner. "Whoever would have thought! Of course, your mother, my dear, won't care for you to keep up the acquaintance."
"Hair tonic!" added Yolande in a tragic whisper. "But, oh! I do like him," she murmured under her breath.
MORNING brought a huge basket of American Beauties, and noon deposited at Yolande's shrine a miniature Pomeranian puppy with a gold collar. An avalanche of flowers for Mrs. Challoner bore a note in the impressive scrawl of Benjamin Loomis:
"Now, don't boggle over tooth powder ”

“ So she left a half-written story of the very strongest possible “domestic interest” (it was, indeed, for she was to get twenty pounds for the finished article) to go down to Yolande's cottage and borrow this priceless pattern which Yolande was known to possess. She had bought it among others for the guidance of the dressmaker who prepared her trousseau. And I, almost without a pang, abandoned a nearly finished drawing to go with her.
The buds were gray and green on the trees, on the lilacs the buds were bronze, and carmine on the creeper. ”

“ He is probably of noble birth, but we have nobles here in Peronne whom we would not ask to our house. We know nothing of this wandering young Max, save that he is honest and brave and good to look upon."
"In God's name, uncle, what more would you ask in a man?" cried Yolanda, stamping her foot. "'Noble, honest, brave, and good to look upon!' Will not those qualities fit a man for any one's regard and delight any woman's heart? ”

“ Yolanda. Save her?
Vittia. The surety flies
Out of your cheek and dead upon your heart:
Yet you are innocent—oh innocent!—
O'er what abyss she hangs!
Yolanda. O'er no abyss.
Vittia. But to her lord is constant!
Yolanda (desperate) . She is constant.
Vittia. And to his bed is true!
Yolanda. True.
Vittia. And this baron
Of Paphos—Camarin—is but her friend,
And deeply yours—as oft you feign to shield her!
Yolanda. He is no more.
Vittia. Your heart belies your lips,
Knows better than believing what you say.
Yolanda. Were, were he then ... (struggles) lord Renier knows it not! ”

“ Our poor roof shelters few such."
"I mean Yolanda," said Max. Good-natured Frau Kate laughed softly, and Twonette said, with smiling serenity:--
"Yolanda's head will surely be turned, Sir Count, when she hears you have called her the princess. So much greatness thrust upon her will make it impossible for us to live with her."
"She rules us all as it is, sweet soul," said Castleman.
"Yolanda is ill upstairs, Sir Count," said Frau Kate. "She wanted to come down this evening, but I commanded otherwise. Twonette, go to her. She will be lonely." ”

“ Each believes the other is stealing something of her personality, and a woman's vanity prompts her to resent it. If you make the mistake with the princess that you made with me, I warn you it will not be so easily corrected."
My poor riddle! My stony sphinx! My clinging hallucination! Again I should have it with me, stalking at my side by day, lying by me at night, whirling through my brain at all times, and driving me mad with its eternal question, "Who is Yolanda?" The solution of my riddle may be clear to you as I am telling you the story. ”

“ Or death.
Yolanda. Then have you not, unshameable!
A help for it or healing? you who know
So well the world and its unwonted ways!
A man would have, a man.
Camarin. And I am barren.
[66] My brain an arid waste under remorse.
Only one thing it yields—the love of her
My love has made unholy.
Yolanda. While to me
The shame is left, and silence—no defence,
When it is told Amaury, "See her you
Blest with betrothal and the boon of faith,
Chose as the planet-mate of your proud star!
While, in the battle,
You with the weal of Cyprus on your brow
Dared momently peril,
We found her".... ”

“ Is evil mad enchantment come upon
The portals of this castle?
Hassan. I would serve you.
Yolanda. With murder? no. But if you would indeed,
As oft you have——
Hassan. Lady, I will.
Yolanda. Then watch
The Venetian, and when Amaury comes
Find me at once. What sound was that?... A bugle?
It is! it is! Alessa! (Overjoyed.) Do you hear?
His troop! Amaury's! O the silver chime!
Again I breathe, I breathe!
My heart as a bird of May!
[52] Amaury!... Come! we'll go to him! we'll go!
Before any within Lusignan—!
Alessa. Lady!
Yolanda. At once! it rings again! again! we'll go!
Alessa. ”

“ When I spoke of the duke's invitation, I at once caught Yolanda's attention.
"You will not meet the princess if you go to the castle," said Yolanda. "She is an ill-natured person, I am told, and is far from gracious to strangers."
"I do not hope for such an honor," I replied. "I should like merely to see her before I leave Burgundy. That is all the favor I ask at her hands. She is a lady famed throughout all Europe for her beauty and her gentleness."
"She doesn't merit her fame," responded Yolanda, carefully examining her hands folded in her lap, and glancing nervously toward Max. ”

“ Then the duke, placing his hand on Max's shoulder, continued: "You are the best knight in Christendom, the bravest, the most generous, and the greatest fool. Think you Calli would have spared you, boy?"
"I am not Calli, my lord," said Max.
"You certainly are not," returned the duke.
Visions of trouble with France growing out of Yolanda's "t," and of a subsequent union between Max and the princess, floated before my mind, even amidst the din that surrounded me. Taking the situation by and large, I was in an ecstasy of joy. Max's victory was a thousand triumphs in one. ”

“ Such affairs are for boys, Max, for boys."
"Do not fear for me, Karl," answered Max, laughingly. "We are not apt to take hurt from dangers we see."
"Do you clearly see the danger?" I suggested.
"I clearly see," he responded. "I admire Fräulein Yolanda as I have never admired any other woman. I respect her as if she were a princess; but one of the penalties of my birth is that I may not think of her nor of one of her class. She is not for me; she is a burgher maiden--out of my reach. For that reason I feel that I should respect her." ”

“ Think of your rewards," cried Yolanda, running to his side and kissing him. "Many a man would fight a score of dragons for that kiss."
"Dragons!" cried Castleman, protestingly. "I would rather fight a hundred dragons than do this thing for you, Yolanda. I know little concerning the ways of a girl's heart, but, ignorant as I am, I could see--Mother, I never saw a girl so infatuated with a man as our Yolanda is with this Sir Max--this stranger."
"There, tante," cried Yolanda, turning triumphantly to Frau Kate, "you hear what uncle says. ”