THE BROTHERS' FIRST MEETING.
Count Morynski and Leo were in the sitting-room of the princess. They
had been informed of Waldemar's arrival, but did not wish to intrude
upon this first meeting between mother and son. The count appeared
somewhat surprised at seeing Wanda enter with both, but refrained from
questioning his daughter. Young Nordeck for the moment riveted his
whole attention.
The princess took the hand of her younger son and led him to the elder.
"You two have never met before," she said, "but from this day I hope
that the estrangement may end. Leo meets you in warm brotherly love,
Waldemar, and I believe he will find a brother in you."
Waldemar measured his brother with a hasty glance, but it had no
hostility. The beauty of the young prince fascinated him, and he
cordially grasped the hand Leo extended, with a half bashful reserve.
Count Morynski now approached to greet his sister's son, but Waldemar
answered all his questions in monosyllables. The conversation which,
out of regard to Waldemar, was in German, would have been forced and
insipid if the princess had not skilfully led it. She avoided every
unpleasant topic and every offensive allusion. So admirable was her
tact that for half an hour there seemed to exist the most perfect
harmony between all present. Leo stood close to Waldemar, and the
contrast between the two brothers was very striking. The young prince,
also, had just outgrown his boyhood, and had not yet arrived at
manhood; but how different was the transition state in the two
brothers! The elder never appeared to greater disadvantage than when
near this slender, elastic, youthful figure, with perfect symmetry in
every outline, and easy assurance in every posture and movement, with
the handsome head so well poised upon the graceful shoulders. Young
Nordeck, with his sharp, irregular features, with his sullen eyes
peering forth from under the mass of blonde hair that fell low over his
forehead, justified his mother's feeling as her glance rested upon
both,--upon her idol, her handsome, spirited boy, and upon that other
one, who was also her son, but to whom she was united neither by
similarity of feature nor by one emotion of the heart. Waldemar to-day
appeared more repulsive than usual. His rude, imperious nature
ordinarily corresponded with his outward appearance, and was at least
characteristic; but now for the first time in his life he was timid and
embarrassed, for the first time he felt himself among people superior
to him in all respects. It was the presence of Wanda, more than all the
others, which gave him this timidity and self-distrust. He had come
prepared for a hostile encounter, but he now helplessly gave up the
contest. Count Morynski's questioning glance every now and then seemed
to ask if this blushing, embarrassed youth was really the Waldemar
Nordeck of whose rude, ungovernable disposition he had heard so much.
When Paul came to announce dinner, the princess said, as she rose and
took her brother's arm, "Leo, you will allow your brother to be Wanda's
escort."
"Well, how do matters stand?" asked the count in Polish, as they passed
on in advance to the dining-room.
The princess smiled significantly, then she glanced back at Waldemar
who was timidly approaching Wanda, and replied in Polish, "Do not fear;
he can be led, you may be sure of that."
Young Nordeck returned to Altenhof at nightfall. Leo accompanied him to
the porter's gate, and then returned to the drawing-room. The princess
and her brother were no longer there. Wanda stood alone on the balcony
to see her cousin ride away.
"Good heavens, what a monster this Waldemar is!" she exclaimed. "How
was it possible, Leo, for you to keep a sober face the whole time? See
here! I have torn my handkerchief in pieces trying to keep from
laughing, but now I can control myself no longer; if I do I shall
suffocate!" And throwing herself upon a chair, Wanda indulged in peal
after peal of merry laughter.
"We were prepared for Waldemar's peculiarities," said Leo, coming to
the defence of his brother. "After all I had heard, I was certainly
most agreeably disappointed in him."
"O, you have only seen him in his parlor guise," returned Wanda.
"Supposing you had, like me, met this savage in his primitive forest: I
tremble at the very thought of that meeting."
"But you haven't told me about it yet," Leo replied, excitedly. "It was
Waldemar, then, who guided you to the beech-holm day before yesterday;
at least, I infer this from your words. But why need you make such a
secret of the affair?"
"Just to tease you. You were so irritated when I spoke of that
delightful meeting with a stranger, supposing, of course, that my
escort was some chivalrous gentleman, that I just let you go on
thinking so. Now, Leo," she added, almost convulsed with laughter, "you
see there was no danger of a love-affair."
"Yes, I see," replied Leo, laughing. "But Waldemar seems to have been
gentleman enough to act as your guide."
"O, yes; and I shall always be grateful to him. I all at once lost the
path--a path that I had often travelled and thought I knew perfectly.
At every attempt to regain it I went deeper into the forest, and
finally found myself in a spot entirely new to me. I did not even know
the direction of the sea, for there was no breeze, and I could not hear
the roar of the waves. I stood there perfectly helpless and irresolute,
when all at once I heard a loud crashing in the bushes as if a whole
hunting party were driving through. Suddenly a figure stood before me
which I could take for nothing but a satyr. It seemed to have risen
from the swamp, for it was covered with mud to the knees. A young deer
just slain dangled from its shoulders, and the warm blood was trickling
down over the clothes of this grotesque being. A sort of huge, tawny
lion's mane,--I could scarce call it hair,--torn by the bushes, hung
down over the satyr's face. Thus the apparition stood before me, rifle
in hand, and a snarling hunting-hound at its heels. Could I possibly
regard this sylvan monster as a man and a hunter?"
"No doubt you were terribly frightened," said Leo, teasingly.
Wanda lifted her head in scorn. "Frightened, _I_? You know I am not
cowardly. Any other girl would no doubt have run away; but I held my
ground, and inquired the direction to the beech-holm. I repeated the
question, but received no answer. Instead of answering me, the monster
stood there as if petrified, and stared at me with his great, wild
eyes, not uttering a single word. I began to feel uncomfortable, and
turned to go; but he came up to me in two strides, pointed to the
right, and showed an unequivocal intention of guiding me."
"But it was not all in pantomime?" asked Leo. "He must have spoken to
you."
"Yes, he spoke; that is, along the whole distance he honored me with a
dozen words, but no more. When we started, I heard him say, 'We must go
to the right;' when we had reached our goal, he added, 'There is the
beech-holm.' We were a whole half-hour on the way, and these are the
only words he spoke. And what a walk it was! My amiable guide went
ahead through the thicket, breaking and treading down all the bushes
like a bear. I really believe he laid waste half the forest making a
path for me. We then came to a clearing, and pretty soon to a piece of
marshy ground. Without a single word, my companion took me up under one
arm as if I had been a feather's weight, and carried me safely over. I
really began to be afraid, and when I glanced up in the face bending
over me, I felt more uncomfortable than ever. The look in those eyes
startled me. I made up my mind that this strange apparition had just
risen from some giant's grave, and was going to carry off the first
human being he met, to offer up upon some old heathen altar as a
sacrifice to the pagan gods. Just as I had given up all for lost, I
caught a glimpse of the blue sea shimmering through the trees, and
recognized the vicinity of the beech-holm. My cavalier paused, stared
at me with open eyes and mouth, as if ready to devour me on the
spot, and turning a deaf ear to my trembling words of gratitude,
incontinently vanished among the trees. The next minute I was
on the strand, where I found you and your boat awaiting me. Imagine
my surprise, on returning home to-day, to find my satyr, my
giant-spectre,--whom I had supposed back again in his old
resting-place, the bowels of the earth,--in my aunt's reception-room,
and my utter astonishment in having this monster introduced to me as my
cousin Waldemar! He was really upon his good behavior to-day; he even
escorted me to dinner. But, good heavens, how embarrassed he was! This
must have been the first time he had ever offered a lady his arm. Did
you notice how he bowed, and how awkward he was at table? Don't be
offended, Leo; this new brother of yours is a true son of the
wilderness; he cannot appear among civilized people without convulsing
everybody with laughter. And this is the future master of Villica!"
Leo shared Wanda's opinion, but he felt in duty bound to take his
brother's part. Fully conscious of his own superiority in manners and
appearance, he could afford to be magnanimous. "It is not Waldemar's
fault that his education has been so entirely neglected," he said;
"mamma thinks that his guardian has let him run wild on purpose."
"That does not matter,--he is a monster. If such an escort to dinner is
again given me, I shall decline to appear at table."
As they talked, Wanda's handkerchief had fallen, and lay under the ivy
branches encircling the balcony. Leo politely stooped to pick it up; in
order to reach it he had to kneel upon the floor, and in this posture
he returned the handkerchief to his cousin, who, instead of thanking
him, began to laugh anew.
"Why do you laugh?" cried the young prince, hastily springing to his
feet.
"O, not at you, Leo,--not at all. I was only thinking how comical your
brother would appear in such a position."
"But you will scarcely have the pleasure of seeing him in it. Waldemar
will certainly never bend the knee to any lady, and least of all to
you."
"Least of all to _me_!" repeated Wanda, in an offended tone. "Ah, yes!
you think me such a child that no man would think of falling on his
knees to me. I have a great mind to prove the contrary to you."
"How--by making Waldemar kneel to you?" The young girl gave him a
defiant glance. "And supposing I really try to bring him to that pass?"
"Try your power over my brother as you like," said Leo, pettishly; "you
may learn to duly estimate its extent."
Wanda sprang up with the eagerness of a child delighted with a new
plaything.
"It is a bargain," she said; "what shall the wager be?"
"But it must be a genuine falling upon the knees, not a mere act of
politeness, like that which just now brought me to your feet."
"Of course. You keep laughing. Do you consider such a thing impossible?
I shall win the wager. You will see Waldemar on his knees to me before
we leave this place. I make only one condition: you are to give him no
hint of this transaction. His bearish nature would be aroused if he
should learn that we had presumed to make his formidable self the
object of a wager."
"You may rely upon my silence," Leo answered, beginning to enter into
the joke, and to share Wanda's confidence in its success. "But he will
be furious if you finally reject him and the truth dawns upon him. Or
do you intend to say Yes?"
And so these two children of sixteen and eighteen years laughed and
jested over the idea of the fine joke they were about to play upon
Waldemar. Presumptuous, thoughtless children! They were so accustomed
to each other's jests that they felt no compunction at drawing a third
party into their sport. They did not at all consider how little the
rough, intense nature of Waldemar was adapted to such foolery, and into
what terrible earnest he might turn this joke, concocted in their
mischievous and frivolous young heads.