Entering his own room on the upper floor, Henry placed the manuscript on his table, open at the first leaf. His nerves were unquestionably shaken; his hand trembled as he turned the pages, he started at chance noises on the staircase of the hotel.
The scenario, or outline, of the Countess's play began with no formal prefatory phrases. She presented herself and her work with the easy familiarity of an old friend.
'Allow me, dear Mr. Francis Westwick, to introduce to you the persons in my proposed Play. Behold them, arranged symmetrically in a line.
'My Lord. The Baron. The Courier. The Doctor. The Countess.
'I don't trouble myself, you see, to invest fictitious family names.
My characters are sufficiently distinguished by their social titles, and by the striking contrast which they present one with another.
The First Act opens--
'No! Before I open the First Act, I must announce, injustice to myself, that this Play is entirely the work of my own invention. I scorn to borrow from actual events; and, what is more extraordinary still, I have not stolen one of my ideas from the Modern French drama.
As the manager of an English theatre, you will naturally refuse to believe this. It doesn't matter. Nothing matters--except the opening of my first act.
'We are at Homburg, in the famous Salon d'Or, at the height of the season.
The Countess (exquisitely dressed) is seated at the green table.
Strangers of all nations are standing behind the players, venturing their money or only looking on. My Lord is among the strangers.
He is struck by the Countess's personal appearance, in which beauties and defects are fantastically mingled in the most attractive manner.
He watches the Countess's game, and places his money where he sees her deposit her own little stake. She looks round at him, and says, "Don't trust to my colour; I have been unlucky the whole evening.
Place your stake on the other colour, and you may have a chance of winning." My Lord (a true Englishman) blushes, bows, and obeys.
The Countess proves to be a prophet. She loses again. My Lord wins twice the sum that he has risked.
'The Countess rises from the table. She has no more money, and she offers my Lord her chair.
'Instead of taking it, he politely places his winnings in her hand, and begs her to accept the loan as a favour to himself.
The Countess stakes again, and loses again. My Lord smiles superbly, and presses a second loan on her. From that moment her luck turns.
She wins, and wins largely. Her brother, the Baron, trying his fortune in another room, hears of what is going on, and joins my Lord and the Countess.
'Pay attention, if you please, to the Baron. He is delineated as a remarkable and interesting character.
'This noble person has begun life with a single-minded devotion to the science of experimental chemistry, very surprising in a young and handsome man with a brilliant future before him. A profound knowledge of the occult sciences has persuaded the Baron that it is possible to solve the famous problem called the "Philosopher's Stone."His own pecuniary resources have long since been exhausted by his costly experiments. His sister has next supplied him with the small fortune at her disposal: reserving only the family jewels, placed in the charge of her banker and friend at Frankfort.
The Countess's fortune also being swallowed up, the Baron has in a fatal moment sought for new supplies at the gaming table.
He proves, at starting on his perilous career, to be a favourite of fortune; wins largely, and, alas! profanes his noble enthusiasm for science by yielding his soul to the all-debasing passion of the gamester.
'At the period of the Play, the Baron's good fortune has deserted him.
He sees his way to a crowning experiment in the fatal search after the secret of transmuting the baser elements into gold.
But how is he to pay the preliminary expenses? Destiny, like a mocking echo, answers, How?
'Will his sister's winnings (with my Lord's money) prove large enough to help him? Eager for this result, he gives the Countess his advice how to play. From that disastrous moment the infection of his own adverse fortune spreads to his sister. She loses again, and again--loses to the last farthing.
'The amiable and wealthy Lord offers a third loan;but the scrupulous Countess positively refuses to take it.
On leaving the table, she presents her brother to my Lord.
The gentlemen fall into pleasant talk. My Lord asks leave to pay his respects to the Countess, the next morning, at her hotel.
The Baron hospitably invites him to breakfast. My Lord accepts, with a last admiring glance at the Countess which does not escape her brother's observation, and takes his leave for the night.
'Alone with his sister, the Baron speaks out plainly. "Our affairs,"he says, "are in a desperate condition, and must find a desperate remedy.
Wait for me here, while I make inquiries about my Lord.
You have evidently produced a strong impression on him. If we can turn that impression into money, no matter at what sacrifice, the thing must be done."'The Countess now occupies the stage alone, and indulges in a soliloquy which develops her character.
'It is at once a dangerous and attractive character.
Immense capacities for good are implanted in her nature, side by side with equally remarkable capacities for evil.
It rests with circumstances to develop either the one or the other.
Being a person who produces a sensation wherever she goes, this noble lady is naturally made the subject of all sorts of scandalous reports.
To one of these reports (which falsely and abominably points to the Baron as her lover instead of her brother) she now refers with just indignation.
