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But as her foot touched him he turned carelessly round, and perceiving the empress, rose slowly, and bent his head as though to any lady whom he might pass. Maria Theresa was astonished. She knew not what to think of the irreverent bearing of this man, who was no other than Stockel, one of the servants whose duty it had been, for thirty years, to light the fires in her dressing-room.
"I am glad to see you, Stockel," said she, with one of her own bewitching smiles; "it is long since you have visited me in my room. I am such a poor, sorrowing widow, that I have not had heart enough to think of the poverty of others." Steckel said nothing. He turned and slightly shrugged his shoulders. "How?" said Maria Theresa good-humoredly, "are you offended?
Have you the heart to be angry with your empress?" "Empress?" returned Stockel; "I took your highness for a pious nun. The whole world knows that Maria Theresa is no longer an empress; she no longer reigns in Austria." Maria Theresa felt a pang as she heard these words, and her cheeks flushed almost with anger.
It is summer, and there is no fire to kindle. As for the poor unfortunates whom I used to visit, I can do them no good; their benefactress is no more. I must do something, or life will be a burden; and if your majesty will condescend to give me leave, I shall seek another place." "Another place, Stockel!" said the empress. "What other place?"
Maria Theresa looked down, and the tear-drops that had been gathering in her eyes fell upon her black dress, where they glistened like diamonds. "It is true," whispered she, "I was sovereign of all Austria." "And what prevents you from being sovereign to-day?" asked Stockel eagerly. "Have your people released you?" The empress waved her hand impatiently. "Enough," said she, "let me go my way!"
"A place in the household of the REIGNING empress," answered Stockel with a low inclination. Maria Theresa raised her head, and her astonishment was visible in her large, open eyes. "The reigning empress?" said she musing. "Who can that be?" "The wife of the reigning emperor, your majesty," said Stockel grimly. The empress threw back her proud head, and drew her mantle convulsively around her.
But overcoming the feeling she smiled sadly and said: "I see that you are really angry, poor Stockel. You do not like to see my palace made a cloister. You think, perhaps, that I have done wrong?" "I do not pretend to judge of the acts of the rulers of earth," replied he gloomily. "Perhaps the deeds which in ordinary people would be called cowardly, may with them be great and noble.
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