Under a Charm Volume Ii Part 14

Wanda shook her head sadly. "The struggle has lasted three months, and for every successful encounter we may count three defeats. Now I understand my father's great emotion at parting from us; it was not only the separation which moved him--he went without any real hope of victory."

"Bronislaus has always looked on the dark side," persisted the Princess. "I hoped more from Leo's constant companionship, and from his influence over his uncle. He, as yet, has all the elasticity and enthusiasm of youth; he looks on every doubt as to the ultimate triumph of our cause as treason. I wish he could communicate some of his unbounded confidence to the other--they both have need of it."

She drew her son's letter out, and looked through it again. "Leo is happy, no doubt, in spite of everything. My brother has at last yielded to his entreaties, and entrusted him with an independent command. He is stationed with his troop only a couple of leagues from the frontier, and his mother and affianced wife cannot see him even for an instant!"

"For Heaven's sake, do not put such thoughts into Leo's mind,"

exclaimed Wanda. "He would be capable of committing the rashest, the maddest acts in order to bring about a meeting."

"There is no fear of that," replied the Princess, gravely. "He has strict orders not to stir from his post; he will, therefore, remain at it. But what does he say to you? His letter to me is very short and written in haste. Yours appears to contain much more."

"It contains very little," declared the young Countess, with visible impatience. "He hardly touches on that which to us, who are forced to await the result here in inaction, is the one subject of importance.

Leo prefers to write pages about his love for me, and finds leisure in the very midst of the war to torment me with his jealousy."

"A singular reproach from the mouth of his betrothed," remarked the Princess, with a sneer. "Most women would be happy and proud to know that their lover's thoughts were given to them at such a time."

"We are engaged in a life and death struggle, and I require deeds from a man, not vows of love," said Wanda, energetically.

The Princess's brow grew dark. "He will not be wanting in deeds when the occasion for them presents itself; but perhaps you think coldness and taciturnity are their inseparable adjuncts."

Wanda rose and walked to the window. She knew at what those words were aimed; but she could not, would not continually be made to render account of herself to those penetrating eyes which rested on her face with so inexorable a scrutiny, as though they would detect the innermost movements of her being. The Princess observed towards her niece the same line of conduct she had adopted towards Waldemar. She had spoken openly once, and that was enough. Repeated warnings were, in her opinion, useless as they were dangerous. Since the evening on which she had judged it necessary to open the young Countess's eyes, no word had pa.s.sed between them on the subject then alluded to; but Wanda well knew that every word, every look of hers was weighed in the balance, and this consciousness often made her feel insecure and ill at ease in her intercourse with her aunt.

That lady had meanwhile folded and laid together the letters from her brother and her son.

"To all appearances, we may expect some fighting close to the frontier in the course of a few days," she began again. "What Wilicza might have been to us at such a time, and what it is!"

The young Countess turned round, and fixed her dark eyes on the speaker.

"Wilicza?" she repeated. "Aunt, I understand the necessity which keeps you there; but I should not be equal to the task! Any other sacrifice I could make; but it would be impossible to me to live day by day with any one on the terms existing between you and your son."

"No one else would find it so bearable as it is to us," said the Princess, with bitter irony. "I bear you testimony, Wanda, that you were right in your estimate of Waldemar. I expected the contest would have proved an easier one. Instead of tiring, him out, it is I who am almost ready to yield. He is more than a match for me."

"He is your son," said Wanda; "you always lose sight of that fact."

The Princess sat leaning her head on her hand.

"He takes care that I shall not forget it; he shows me every day of my life what the last four years have done for him. I never should have believed that he could have worked his way up with such wonderful energy from the rough semi-savage condition of his younger days. He has learned to control himself, and therefore he can control others in spite of enmity and opposition. Already I find it more difficult to get my orders obeyed when he sets his will against them, and yet the people are as devoted to me as ever. He awes them with his indomitable spirit, with his tone of command. They fear his eye more than they have ever feared me. I wish Nordeck had left me the boy. I would have brought him up for our cause. He would have been worth much to us, I think--not merely as master of Wilicza. As it is, he belongs altogether to his father's people, and he will maintain his place in the enemy's ranks, though the highest offers should be made to him by our side. I know him well enough to be sure of that. It has been a misfortune that I could never be a real mother to him. We have both to pay the penalty for it now."

There was something almost of self-accusation, of sorrowful regret, in her words. The tone was quite a new one in the Princess's mouth when referring to her elder son. Those tenderer impulses, which at rare intervals would gain the mastery over her, had hitherto invariably been stirred within her by love for her youngest-born alone, and even now she put the pa.s.sing weakness from her with a strong hand. Rising abruptly, as though to end the discussion, she said in a stern voice--

"No matter, we are enemies, and enemies we shall remain. That must be borne, like so much else."

They were here interrupted. A servant came in with the announcement that the house-steward of Wilicza had just arrived, and begged to be allowed to speak to his mistress. The Princess looked up.

"Pawlick? Then something must have happened. Send him in at once."

Hardly a minute had elapsed when Pawlick entered. He had been Prince Baratowski's servant, had accompanied the family into exile, and now filled the office of major-domo at the Castle. The old man seemed excited and in haste; yet he omitted none of those marks of respect with which he was wont to approach his liege lady.

"That will do, that will do," said the Princess, impatiently. "What brings you here? What has happened at Wilicza?"

"Nothing at Wilicza itself," reported Pawlick; "but at the border-station on the frontier ..."

"Well?"

"There have been some squabbles with the military again, as has often been the case of late. The ranger and his men have placed every possible difficulty in the way of the patrols, have even insulted them at last--it nearly came to an open fight."

An exclamation of extreme displeasure escaped the Princess's lips.

"Must our plans always, invariably, be thwarted by the folly of our subordinates! Just now, when everything depends upon diverting attention from the station, they absolutely challenge observation. Did I not expressly command Osiecki to keep quiet, and to hold his men in check! A messenger must be sent over at once to repeat the order in the most strenuous terms."

Wanda had drawn nearer to listen. The border-station, as it was commonly called, because it was the last forester's post on the Nordeck property and lay within half a league of the frontier, seemed to have a great interest for her also.

"Unfortunately, Herr Nordeck has been beforehand with us," went on Pawlick, hesitatingly. "He has twice warned the forester, and threatened to punish him. On this last occasion he has sent him instructions to clear out of the station, and to come over to that of Wilicza. For the present, one of the steward's German inspectors is to be sent to the frontier, until a subst.i.tute is found."

"And what has Osiecki done?" interrupted the Princess, hastily.

"He has positively refused to obey, and sent word to the master that he has been placed at the border-station, and there he shall remain--if any one wants to drive him from it he may come and try."

The importance of the event described must have been greater than would appear. On the Princess's face were signs of unmistakable alarm.

"And what has my son determined to do?"

"Herr Nordeck declared that he would ride over himself this afternoon."

"Alone?" exclaimed Wanda.

Pawlick shrugged his shoulders. "The master always rides alone."

The Princess seemed hardly to have heard the last words. She roused herself from her meditations.

"See that the horses are put to at once, Pawlick. You will accompany me back to Wilicza. I must be on the spot if any events are preparing there. Go."

Pawlick obeyed. He had hardly closed the door behind him when Countess Morynska stood at her aunt's side.

"Did you hear, aunt? He is going over to the border-station."

"Well?" replied the Princess, "what of it?"

"What of it? Do you think Osiecki will comply?"

"No, he must not comply, come what may. His station is of the greatest importance to us, doubly important in view of what the next few days may bring forth. We must have people there we can trust. The madmen, to risk losing us the post just at this time!"

"They have lost it us," cried Wanda, hastily. "Waldemar will compel them to obey."

"In this particular case he will not use compulsion," replied the Princess. "He avoids all acts of violence. I know that the President himself has specially begged him to do so, and he has given his promise. In L---- they fear nothing so much as a revolt on this side the frontier. Osiecki and his men will yield to nothing short of force; and to that, Waldemar will not resort. You hear he is going over alone."

"But you will not allow that," interposed the young Countess, eagerly.

"You are going to Wilicza to warn him, to hold him back?"

The Princess looked at her niece with eyes of astonishment. "What are you thinking of? A warning from my mouth would betray all to Waldemar, and at once convince him that my orders are obeyed at the station, and not his. He would then inexorably insist upon Osiecki's leaving, which may perhaps yet be averted, which indeed must be averted, cost what it may."