Count Morynski and Leo were together in the drawing-room. They had
already heard from Pawlick of Waldemar's arrival, but had not wished to
disturb the first meeting between mother and son. The Count looked a
little surprised, as Wanda, whom he believed to be in her room, came in
with them; but he did not put the question which was on his lips. For
the moment young Nordeck engaged his whole attention. The Princess took
her younger son by the hand, and led him to the elder. "You do not know
each other yet," she said, significantly; "but to-day, at last, the
satisfaction of bringing you together is granted me. Leo is ready to
meet you with a brother's love, Waldemar. Let me hope that he may find
the same in you."
Waldemar, with a rapid glance, took the measure of the new-found
brother standing before him. There was no hostility in his manner now.
The young Prince's handsome face took him captive on the spot, so much
was evident; perhaps, too, he had been won over to a milder mood by
that which had passed, for when Leo, still with some shy reserve, held
out his hand to him, he grasped it warmly.
Count Morynski now drew near to address some words of courtesy to his
sister's son. The latter answered chiefly in monosyllables, and the
conversation, which, on Waldemar's account, was carried on exclusively
in German, would have been forced and languid, had not the Princess
guided it with truly masterly tact. She steered clear of every rock
ahead, she avoided every painful allusion, and skilfully contrived that
her brother, her sons, and Wanda should by turns be drawn into the
general talk, so as, for half an hour, really to conjure up an illusion
of the most perfect harmony reigning among the different members of the
family.
Leo stood close to Waldemar's chair, and the contrast between the
brothers was thus brought into strongest relief. The young Prince
himself had hardly emerged from boyhood; he no more than his neighbour
had yet ripened to man's estate. But how different was the transition
here! Waldemar had never appeared to greater disadvantage than by the
side of this slender, supple form, where there was symmetry in every
line--by this youthful aristocrat, with his easy, assured bearing, his
graceful gestures and ideally beautiful head. Young Nordeck's sharp,
angular figure, his irregular features and sombre eyes, looking out
from under a tangle of light hair, justified but too fully the mother's
feelings, as her gaze rested on them both--on her darling, her handsome
boy, so full of life and animation, and on that other, who was also her
son, but to whom she was linked by no single outward trait, by no
impulse of the heart. There was something in Waldemar's manner to-day
which showed him in a more than usually unfavourable light. The short,
imperious tone that was habitual to him, though unattractive enough,
was yet consistent with his general appearance, and lent to it a
character of its own. This tone he had maintained throughout the
interview with his mother; but, from the moment of the young Countess
Morynska's entrance, it had deserted him. For the first time in his
life he appeared shy and under restraint; for the first time he seemed
to feel the influence of society in every way superior to himself, and
the novelty of his position robbed him, not only of his defiance, but
visibly of his self-confidence also. He had come prepared to face a
hostile camp, and his resolution had armed him with a certain rugged
dignity. Now he had given up the fight, and his dignity had vanished.
He was awkward, abstracted, and Morynski's surprised look seemed now
and then to ask whether this really could be the Waldemar as to whom
such alarming reports had been made. When they had sat and talked for
about half an hour, Pawlick came in and announced that dinner was
ready.
"Leo, you must resign your office to your brother, and let him take
Wanda in to-day," said the Princess, as she rose and, passing her hand
through her brother's arm, went on first with him to the dining-room.
"Well," asked the Count in a low voice, and in Polish, "how do matters
stand? What was the result of the interview?"
The Princess only smiled. She gave one rapid glance back at Waldemar,
who was just going up to Wanda, and then answered, also in Polish,
"Make your mind easy. He will comply. I will answer for it."
It was nearly evening when young Nordeck set out on his homeward
journey. Leo went with his brother to the gate of the villa, and then
returned to the drawing-room. The Princess and Count Morynski were no
longer there, but Wanda still stood on the balcony, watching the
departing horseman.
"Good gracious, what a monster that Waldemar is!" cried Wanda to her
cousin as he came in. "However did you manage to keep serious all the
time, Leo? Look here, I have nearly bitten my handkerchief to pieces,
trying to hide that I was laughing; but I can't keep it down any
longer, or I shall suffocate!" and, falling on to one of the balcony
chairs, Wanda broke into a violent burst of merriment, which plainly
showed what severe restraint she must hitherto have placed on herself.
"We were prepared to find Waldemar odd," said Leo, half apologetically.
"After all we had heard of him, I, to tell the truth, expected he would
be much rougher and more disagreeable than he is."
"Oh, you only saw him in company dress to-day," jested Wanda; "but when
one has had the good fortune to admire him, as I did, in all his
primeval grandeur, it is hard to recover from the overpowering effect
of the savage's first appearance. I yet think with awe of our meeting
in the forest."
"Yes, you owe me an account of that meeting still," put in Leo. "So it
was Waldemar who showed you the way to the Beech Holm the day before
yesterday? I have gathered this much from your discourse, but I really
do not understand why you make such a mystery of the matter."
"I only did that to torment you," replied the young lady with great
candour. "You grew so angry when I told you of my interesting adventure
with a stranger. You naturally believed some fascinating cavalier had
escorted me, and I left you in that belief. Now, Leo"--here her gaiety
got the better of her again--"now you see it was not a very dangerous
affair."
"Well, yes, I see that," assented the young Prince, laughing; "but
Waldemar must have had some knightly instinct, or he would not have
condescended to act as your guide."
"Possibly; but I shall remember his escort as long as I live. Just
fancy, Leo; all in a minute I lost the path I had so often taken, and
which I thought I knew so well. At every attempt to find it I got
deeper and deeper into the forest, until at last I strayed into regions
quite unknown to me. I could not even tell in which direction the Beech
Holm or the sea lay, for there was not a breath of wind, and not a
murmur of the waves reached me. I stood still, not knowing what to do,
and was just on the point of turning back, when something broke through
the bushes as violently as though the woods were being beaten for a
battue. Suddenly the figure of a man stood before me, whom I really
could take for none other than the wood-demon in person. He was up to
his knees in mud. A freshly killed doe was thrown over his shoulder,
quite regardless of the fact that blood was dripping from the animal
down on to his clothes and staining them. The enormous yellow mane,
which serves him for hair, had been roughly used by the bushes, and was
hanging down over his face. He stood there with a gun in his hand, and
a growling, snarling dog at his side, who showed his teeth as he looked
at me. I ask you if it was possible to take this monster of the woods
for a human being bent on sport."
"You were in a tremendous fright, I suppose," said Leo, banteringly.
Wanda tossed her head. "In a fright? I? You ought to know by this time
that I am not timid. Another girl would have probably fled
precipitately, but I kept my ground, and asked the way to the Beech
Holm. Though I repeated the question twice, I got no answer. Instead of
replying, the spectre stood as though rooted to the ground, and stared
at me with its great wild eyes without uttering a sound. Then I did
begin to feel uncomfortable, and turned to go, when in a moment, with
two strides, he was at my side, pointing to the right, and showing an
unmistakable intention of acting as my guide."
"But not by pantomime alone?" interposed Leo. "Waldemar spoke to you,
surely."
"Oh yes, he spoke; he honoured me in all with six or seven words,
certainly not more. On joining company with him, I heard something like
'We must take to the right;' and on parting, 'Yonder lies the Beech
Holm.' During the half-hour's interval, there reigned an impressive
silence which I did not venture to break. And what a way it was we
took! First we went straight into the very midst of the thicket, my
amiable guide walking on ahead of me, trampling and crushing down the
bushes like a bear. I believe he destroyed half the forest to make some
sort of a passage for me. Then we came to a clearing, then to a bog. I
expected we should plunge right into it; but, marvellous to say, we
stopped on the brink. All this time not a word passed between us; but
my singular companion stuck close to my side, and whenever I looked up
I met his eyes, which seemed to grow more and more uncanny every
minute. I now inclined decidedly to the opinion that he had risen from
one of the ancient tumuli, and was prowling about in search of some
human being whom he would straightway drag off to one of the old
heathen altars, and there immolate. Just as I was preparing for my
approaching end, I saw the blue sea glistening through the branches,
and at once recognised the neighbourhood of the Beech Holm. My
wonderful cavalier came to a halt, fixed his great eyes on me once
more, as though he would eat me up on the spot, and seemed hardly to
hear that I was thanking him. Next minute I was on the shore, where I
caught sight of your boat. Think of my astonishment when I came in
to-day and found my wood-demon--my giant of primeval times, whom I
thought long since buried in some deep cavern of the earth--in my
aunt's reception room, and when the said ghostly vision was introduced
to me as 'Cousin Waldemar.' It is true, he conducted himself in the
most approved style; he even took me in to dinner. But, goodness me!
how funnily he set about it! I believe it was the first time in his
life he ever offered a lady his arm. Did you see how he bowed, how he
behaved at table? Don't be offended, Leo; but this new brother of yours
belongs rightly to the wilderness, and to the furthest depths of it,
too! There he has at least something awe-inspiring about him; but when
he comes out among civilised men, he simply convulses one with
laughter. And to think that he should be the future lord of Wilicza!"
At heart, Leo shared this opinion; but he thought it incumbent on him
to take his brother's part. He felt how infinitely superior to young
Nordeck he himself was, both in appearance and bearing, and this made
it easy to be generous.
"But it is not Waldemar's fault that his education has been so entirely
neglected," said he; "mamma thinks that his guardian has let him run
wild systematically."
"Well, all I can say is, he is a monster," decided the young lady. "I
herewith solemnly declare that if I have to go in to dinner with him
again, I will impose a voluntary fast on myself, and not appear at
table."
During their talk, Wanda's handkerchief, with which she had been
fanning herself, had slipped down, and now lay at some distance below
them in the ivy which crept round the balcony. Leo noticed this, and
gallantly bent to reach it. He was obliged almost to go down on his
knees. In this position, he picked up the handkerchief, and restored it
to his cousin. Instead of thanking him, she burst out into a peal of
laughter. The young Prince sprang to his feet.
"You are laughing?"
"Oh, not at you, Leo. It only struck me how unutterably comic your
brother would have looked in such a situation."
"Waldemar? Yes, indeed; but you will hardly have that satisfaction. He
will never bend the knee before a lady, certainly not before you."
"Certainly not before me!" repeated Wanda, in a tone of pique. "Oh, you
think I am still such a child, it is not worth while kneeling to me. I
have a great mind to prove to you the contrary."
"How?" asked Leo, laughing. "By bringing Waldemar to your feet,
perhaps?"
The girl pouted. "And suppose I undertook to do it?"
"Well, try your power on my brother, if you like," said he, touchily.
"Perhaps that will give you a better notion of what you can do, and
what you can't."
Wanda sprang up with the eagerness of a child who sees a new toy before
it.
"I agree. What shall we wager?"
"But it must be done in earnest, Wanda. It must not be a mere act of
politeness, like mine just now."
"Of course not," assented the young Countess. "You laugh; you think
such a thing is quite beyond the range of possibility. Well, we shall
see who wins. You shall behold Waldemar on his knees before we leave. I
only make one condition; you must give him no hint of it. I think it
would rouse all the bear in him if he were to hear we had presumed to
make his lordship the object of a wager."
"I won't say a word," declared Leo, carried away by her mischievous
eagerness, and joining in the frolic. "We shan't escape an outburst of
his Berserker wrath, though, when you laugh out at him at last, and
tell him the truth. But perhaps you mean to say yes?"
Both the children--for children they still were with their respective
sixteen and seventeen years--joked and made merry over their conceit,
as such thoughtless young creatures will. Accustomed constantly to
tease and torment each other, they had no misgivings about including a
third person in their sport. They never reflected how little Waldemar's
stern, unbending character was suited to such trifling, or to what
bitter earnest he might turn the play imagined by them in the foolish
gaiety of their hearts.