Yolanda: Maid of Burgundy eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 348 pages of information about Yolanda.

Yolanda: Maid of Burgundy eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 348 pages of information about Yolanda.

“Teach me, Karl, to stand before the glass,” said Max, plaintively.

“You are before it now, my dear boy,” I answered.  “These new friends are giving you only what you give them.  With me, you have always been before the glass.”

“That has been true,” said Max, “ever since the first day you entered Hapsburg.  Do you remember?  I climbed on your knee and said, ’You have a big, ugly nose!’ Mother admonished me, and I quickly made amends by saying, ‘But I like you.’”

“I well remember, Max,” I responded.  “That day was one of mutual conquest.  That is the prime condition of friendship:  mutual conquest and mutual surrender.  But you must have other friends than me.  You see I am not jealous.  You must have friends of your own age.”

“I now realize why I have hungered all my life,” said Max, “though I have never before known:  I longed for friends.  Is it not strange that I should find them among these low-born people?  It surely cannot be wrong for me to live as I do, though father and mother would doubtless deem it criminal.”

“These good burgher folk are making you better and broader and stronger,” I answered.  “But there is one thing I want to suggest:  you are devoting too much of your time to the brown-eyed little maid.  You must seek favor with Twonette.  She is harmless, and through her you may, by some freak of fortune, reach the goal of your desires.  With the prestige of your family and the riches of Burgundy, you may become the most powerful man in the world, save the Pope.”

“Perhaps Fraeulein Yolanda is also acquainted with the Princess Mary,” responded Max, half reluctantly speaking Mary’s name.

“No,” I answered, “she is not.”  I asked her if she were.  She laughed at the suggestion, and said:  ’Oh, no, no, the princess is a very proud person and very exclusive.  She knows but one burgher girl in Peronne, I am told.  That one is Twonette, and I believe she treats her most ungraciously at times.  I would not endure her snubs and haughty ways as Twonette does.  I seek the friendship of no princess.  Girls of my own class are good enough for me.  “Twonette, fetch me a cup of wine.”  “Twonette, thread my needle.”  “Twonette, you are fat and lazy and sleep too much.”  “Twonette, stand up.”  “Twonette, sit down.”  Faugh!  I tell you I want none of these princesses, no, not one of them.  I hate princesses, and I tell you I doubly hate this—­this—­’ She did not say whom she doubly hated.  She is a forward little witch, Max.  She laughed merrily at my questions concerning the princess, and asked me if we were going to Burgundy to storm Mary’s heart.  ‘Who is to win her?’ she asked.  ’You, Sir Karl, or Sir Max?  It must be you.  Sir Max is too slow and dignified even to think of scaling the walls of a maiden fortress.  It must be you, Sir Karl.’  The saucy little elf rose from her chair, bowed low before me and said, ‘I do liege homage to the future Duke of Burgundy.’  Then she danced across the room, laughing at my discomfiture.  She is charming, Max, but remember Gertrude the Conqueror!  Such trifling affairs are well enough to teach a man the a-b-c of life but one with your destiny ahead of him must not remain too long in his alphabet.  Such affairs are for boys, Max, for boys.”

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Yolanda: Maid of Burgundy from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.