Lost Waltz - A Story Of Exile (Paperback, Illustrated Ed)

LOST WALTZ A Story of Exile by BERTITA HARDING Truly, defeat alone can extend our limits . . DR. SERGE VORONOFF THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY Publishers INDIANAPOLIS NEW YORK COPYRIGHT, 1944 BY THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA THE CORNWALL PRESS, INC., CORNWALL, N. Y. Archduke Franz Josef of Austria in New York. To Their Imperial and Royal Highnesses ARCHDUKE AND ARCHDUCHESS FRANZ JOSEF WHOSE HELP WITH THE MATERIAL FOR THIS BOOK AMOUNTED TO ACTUAL COLLABORATION. List of Illustrations Archduke Franz Josef of Austria in New York ., Frontispiece OPPOSITE PAGE Archduke Leopold Salvator as a young man 38 Archduke Leopold Salvator and his bride, the Infanta Blanca 39 The family 54 At Castle Wilhelminenberg 55 Grandchildren, nephews and nieces of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria at Jubilee Celebration 70 Children of Archdukeieopold Salvator at Emperors Jubilee 71 Franz Joseph on delivery boys tricycle in courtyard of the Palais Toscana, Vienna 86 Anton, Leopold, Rainer, Franz Josef, Carlos 87 Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his family 94 Don Carlos of Spain and his son, Don Jaime 95 Franz Josef as a child in gondola of his fathers balloon Meteor . 126 Archduke Franz Josefs Pilot License and Passport . . . 127 Marie Antoinette Brooch 158 Archduke Franz Josefs Castle Hernstein, near Vienna . 159 The Flying Archdukes ofier their services ...... 190 Publicity circular employed by Anton and Franz Josef . . 191 Archduke Anton and family 198 Archduke Carlos and his wife Christa 199 Franz Josef and Anton in their De Havilland Gypsy Moth Espana 214 Crash of the De Havilland-Moth 215 7 8 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS OPPOSITE PAGE Capuchin Monastery in Vienna 230 Franz Josef inAustrian uniform under Schussnigg Regime 231 Franz Josef on tiger hunt in India. Fishing in Florida . . 246 Archduchess former nun Assunta at home of her sister-in law 247 The Gardeners Cottage in Tarrytown during alterations . 258 Archduke Franz Josef during remodeling of cottage in Tarrytown-on-Hudson 259 Shrine of St. Therese of Lisieux 282 Timberland around Franconia, New Hampshire .... 283 Archduchess Franz Josef of Austria as a young girl . . 286-287 Archduchess Franz Josef in New York 286-287 Franz Josef making candle holder 286-287 Lyndhurst Cottage after being transformed into Aus trian Baroque 286-287 Habsburg Genealogical Table 312 LOST WALTZ Chapter One SOLEDAD DID NOT KNOW that she was beautiful. Nor, for that matter, did anyone else. It would have been difficult indeed, even for eyes trained in such matters, to pierce the forbidding exterior which the convent school of Santa Brigida imposed upon its wards. The children who attended Santa Brigida were orphans, supported by charity. Their training was at tuned to that simple fact. Since no easy path was likely to await them on stepping out into the world, it would have been folly to teach them the ways of vanity. The ways of vanity are folly in any case, said Mother Porfiria, prioress of the convent It was Mother Porfiria who designed the hideous gray garments that shrouded the girls young bodies, hiding every vestige of contour and grace. She also imposed a standard coiffure upon her charges, demanding that their hair be yanked back into a braid and in the case of girls above fourteen pinned up in a tight bun. The skinned-rat look thus imparted was ad mirably suited to the timorous dejection of all Santa Brigida orphans.Since they had nothing to expect, they might as well not look as if they expected anything. This was certainly true of Soledad. At seventeen she would have been startled to know that her face and brow were shaped to delight a sculptor. Had she possessed a mir ror none existed in the convent it would have told her that the slant of her hazel eyes was neither doelike nor meek, but touched with a certain daring allure...