03 The Princess of the Chalet School

Into the pretty bedroom came the great English doctor, a jolly smile on his face as he approached the bed where his patient was lying. ‘Good-morning, your Highness. How are you this morning?’ he cried.

The little girl on the bed looked at him wearily. ‘I am getting better, thank you,’ she replied in listless tones which made the doctor frown.

The younger man who had entered the room with him bent over the child. ‘Still rather tired, my darling?’

he asked tenderly

‘Just a little, daddy.’

‘It’s the dreadful weather,’ he said, looking out of the window at the rain which poured steadily down.

‘When it’s fine again, you’ll soon be all right.’

‘Shall I?’ Her Royal Highness the Princess Elisaveta Margherita of Belsornia looked at her father with a little wondering smile.

‘Why, yes! That is what good Dr. Tracy says.’

The doctor nodded as the great dark eyes were turned to him. ‘Yes, indeed, Highness. It is true. And how would you like to get up for a while this afternoon?’

The Princess shook her head. ‘I’m so tired,’ she said. ‘I don’t think I shall ever want to get up again.’

‘Nonsense!’ declared the physician. ‘You shall get up for a short while, and I expect you will soon be making an outcry if I suggest keeping you in bed an hour longer than need be.’ He made a short examination of her, and then stood back, still frowning slightly.

The Crown Prince of Belsornia glanced at him. ‘Will that be all at present, sir?’ he asked in his pleasant voice.

‘All I want just now, thank you,’ replied the doctor. ‘I will come up this afternoon after her Highness has got up, and see how she feels.’ He smiled at the little girl. ‘I am sure she will feel much better soon.’

He stepped back from the bed, and the Crown Prince took his place. ‘I must leave you now, Carina. There is a meeting of the Grand Council, and they need me. I will try to come and have tea with you this afternoon though, so you must be sitting up, ready to pour it out for me.’

Elisaveta nodded. ‘Yes; I will. You
will
come, daddy?’

‘If it’s at all possible. If the welfare of the kingdom doesn’t require my immediate attention! You’ll be good, old lady, and eat all your luncheon?’

‘Yes, daddy. At least, I’ll
try
,’ promised the Princess. ‘I do hope the kingdom won’t need you. It’s so lonely by myself!’

‘Oh, come! You have Nurse, and Alette, to say nothing of Mademoiselle!’

‘I know; but they don’t play as you do. So you’ll come, daddy? And you come, too, doctor,’ she added politely.

‘Perhaps,’ laughed the doctor. ‘If I am not wanted at the hospital I will come with pleasure.’

They said good-bye to her, and then they went out of the room, the Crown Prince turning back to throw kisses to her as she lay on her big pillows. Once they were out of hearing, however, he caught the doctor by the arm. ‘Tracy, come into my library a minute. I must know what you think of Elisaveta! I am horribly worried about her – she seems so listless and weak. She always was such a jolly kiddy; it isn’t at all like her to be so languid.’

They entered the great library as he finished speaking, and sat down beside the blazing wood fire. The doctor looked at the Prince for a moment before he replied. ‘It would not be fair to you, Prince, to hide from you that I
am
anxious about the Princess’s slow recovery,’ he said at length. ‘Of course, bronchial influenza is a nasty thing, and the Princess has had a sharp attack; still, she ought to be picking up, now. The worrying thing is that she is making little or no headway. I think she needs rousing. That is why I am so determined that she shall get up if only for a short while this afternoon. I was thankful that you backed me up in it.’

‘Well, I could do no less. But tell me, Tracy, is there anything I can do to help matters on? I’ll do anything I can.’

‘So far as I can see, the only thing you could do would be to give up your position as Crown Prince and settle down as an ordinary man,’ said the doctor dryly. ‘Her Royal Highness is suffering mainly from lack of suitable companions, and you are the only one she can have – and she gets very little of you.’

The Prince threw out his hands with a gesture of despair. ‘That’s all very well, but what can I do? I’d willingly give up my claim to the throne, but my father would never hear of it, and you know that in Belsornia the heir cannot give up his rights without the consent of the King and the Government. The next after me is my cousin, Cosimo, and his is not exactly the type of heir of whom one can be proud!’

‘He isn’t,’ agreed the doctor, his mind going to some of the escapades which had made Prince Cosimo one of the most hated royalties on the Continent.

‘Well, then, suggest something possible.’

The doctor thought again. ‘There can never be any question of Princess Elisaveta succeeding to the throne?’ he queried.

‘None. The Salic law holds good here. I believe the Belsornians would rather become a republic than have a woman on the throne!’

‘Then why not send her to school?’

The Prince raised his eyebrows. ‘To school? I don’t know what the King would say to that. It’s never been done in our family – not for the girls. Of course, I had a year at Eton and two at Oxford. But that was only thanks to my mother. She was English, you know, and she persuaded my father to agree to it. But for a girl, I don’t know if he would consent. Where would you suggest sending her?’

‘Not to England! I love my country, but not her climate, and the English winters with the heavy fogs would be the last thing for the Princess. No; what I have in mind is something far better than that. I have a friend who has just sent his daughter to a school in the Austrian Tyrol. It is quite a big school, I am told, run by an English girl. It is up in the mountains, beside the Tiern See, and is just the very thing we need – if his Majesty will give his consent.’

‘The Tiern See? I went there once – when I was on my honeymoon. I remember it well. It was very beautiful and ringed round with mountains. So there is a school there now? A good school?’

‘Very! I am sure of that, or my friend would never have sent his child there. She is an only child – and motherless.’

‘Like my poor Elisaveta. I believe you are right, Tracy. If she had companions, I think she would soon be all right.’

‘I am sure of it,’ said the physician with conviction. Then suddenly he let himself go: ‘For heaven’s sake, Prince, can’t you see that all the court ceremony and restrictions are simply sucking the child’s vitality away? She has no change to be child-like. What has a baby of twelve to do with “the welfare of the kingdom”? She ought to be climbing trees, and sliding down the banisters; not troubling herself with the meetings of the Grand Council! I’d rather see the Princess black with mud and wearing a badly torn frock, than in her prettiest robes and helping to receive royalty like a young queen. The one’s natural childhood –the other isn’t!’

‘I agree,’ said her father. ‘You are right. If words can do it, my father shall consent to it tonight. After all, the child is mine. She shall not die for lack of what the poorest child in the kingdom has. If he won’t agree, she shall be smuggled out of the country somehow! There’s my hand on it.’

He held out his hand, and the doctor gripped it. ‘I wish you success with his Majesty with all my heart, Prince. I think perhaps he may agree.’

Then the two men went on their way, the Prince to a meeting of the Grand Council, where he was to represent his father, and the doctor to the children’s hospital, where he was doing such grand work for Belsornia.

In the meantime, the Princess, never dreaming of what was to happen, had fallen into her favourite day-dream, and was arriving at school, where there were lots of nice girls who were all anxious to be friendly and work and play with her, as she had read of girls doing in the school-stories which her father had given her. One of Elisaveta’s chief reasons for not getting well too quickly was that when she was well there was too little time for dreaming. There were lessons with her three governesses, who were all deeply concerned in turning out Elisaveta as a credit to her family. The Belsornian princesses had always been renowned for their learning, and it seemed to the three ladies who had charge of the latest princess, that she must not fall short of the standard set by her ancestresses. So Mademoiselle de Séguiné insisted on a great deal of French, literature, and astronomy; Signorino di Basaco taught history of the world, Italian, Latin, and Greek; Miss Bruce was very thorough over all mathematics and chemistry. Botany was taught by one of the professors from the Firarto University; and German and music were in the charge of an old Bavarian, who came to the palace twice a week for his subjects. Much reading of those delightful stories which were kept in the bookcase in her sitting-room was forbidden, and Princess Elisaveta led a strenuous life when she was well.

Since she had begun to get better after her sharp illness, she had begun to feel a dread of the return of the old schoolroom days. It seemed to her that she
could
not go back to the long lesson hours and the dull days when she saw her father for a few minutes only. Like most royal children, Elisaveta had had the lesson ‘the good of the country first’ well rubbed in from her earliest days; but just at present she felt that she didn’t care what happened to the country if only she need not do so many lessons and have such a lonely life.

When three o’clock brought Alette, her maid, to dress her ready to be carried to the big arm-chair by the fire, she felt ready to cry. However, her training held good, and she allowed Alette to put her into her pale blue velvet dressing-gown with the slippers to match, and wrap a white shawl of embroidered Indian silk round her, without making any remarks. After that the nurse carried her across the room and settled her comfortably in the big arm-chair, in which she could almost lie at full length. The tea-table was arranged, and then Mademoiselle, who had left her to Nurse and Alette lately, made her appearance. ‘This is better, my dear Elisaveta.’ She remarked as she sat down. ‘Now, if you will only make a little effort, I am sure you will soon be quite all right again. We shall have to work very hard, once you are back in the schoolroom, you know, to make you all you have lost during your illness. I hope you have not forgotten everything.’

This was not very cheering conversation for the invalid, and Elisaveta simply sat silent, though she was making up her mind that she would not go near the schoolroom till she absolutely had to. She glanced at the clock. Surely her father was very late. He should have been with her quite ten minutes ago. Suppose he could not come! She knew already that the doctor was busy in the hospital with a bad accident case, but daddy had sent no message yet.

Mademoiselle saw where her look went, and guessed the cause of it. ‘It is only ten minutes after the time, yet,’ she said kindly. ‘His Highness would certainly have sent a message if he had been prevented from coming.’

Before Elisaveta could answer her, there was the sound of quick, light footsteps along the corridor, and then the door opened, and daddy came in.

Mademoiselle rose at once, of course. She curtseyed to the Prince. ‘Have I you permission to retire, sire?’

she murmured.

‘Thank you, Mademoiselle,’ replied daddy. ‘I will look after this bad child for a while. You must need a holiday.’

‘Thank you, sire,’ replied Mademoiselle; ‘but Elisaveta is a good child on the whole, and I am glad she shows signs of improvement.’ Then she curtseyed again and left the room, while Elisaveta sat literally dumb with surprise at the first part of her speech. She had not known that she was good at all, much less that Mademoiselle thought so!

As soon as Mademoiselle had left the room, Elisaveta turned to her father eagerly. ‘Daddy! What an extraordinary thing for her to say! She
never
praises me!’

She spoke in the English her father loved for the sake of his long-dead mother, and which they always used when they were alone together. The thought now crossed his mind that it was as well, since she was to go to an English school. ‘I expect she wants to encourage you to hurry up and get well,’ he told his little daughter, laughing.

Elisaveta sighed deeply. ‘I don’t think I want to get well, daddy. I’d rather remain as I am.’

‘Why?’ he asked quietly.

There was a moment’s silence. Then out it all came – the whole of the loneliness and unhappiness that she had managed to suppress up to date. ‘Daddy! It’s so lonely, all by myself! They all mean to be kind, but they don’t know how to play, and they think I’m too big, anyway. I don’t want to be learned or discover stars, or make wonderful translations from the Greek – or any-things like that! I only want to do the things other girls do! Oh, daddy! I want to go to school!’

It was out – the secret longing of which she had never spoken to a single person until this moment. Now she had spoken it she suddenly wished she hadn’t. It seemed to silly, and it was so impossible. The princesses of Belsornia never went to schools. They always had governesses who helped them to become the wise and learned ladies of whom history told.