"Leo?" asked Waldemar, in evident astonishment.
"Yes, he wants to speak to you. My presence will be superfluous, I am very sure, so I'll stay and keep the Doctor company."
The young man left the room, and Witold sat down in his former place by the bedside.
"The Baratowskis are exceedingly anxious to get hold of him again," said he, alluding to his adopted son. "Three days ago a letter came from her Highness, our lady mamma. Waldemar has not answered it, to my knowledge; in fact, nothing would induce him to leave you, so now the brother is sent over in person. And I must say this, the young Polish shoot is of a very trim growth--a perfect picture of a boy! only, unfortunately, as like his mother as two peas, which goes strongly against him in my eyes. And now it just occurs to me, I have never asked you what discoveries you made at C----. In my worry about you, I had quite forgotten the whole affair."
Dr. Fabian cast down his eyes, and plucked nervously at the counterpane. "I am sorry I cannot give you any information, Herr Witold," he replied. "My visit to C---- was too short, too hurried, and I told you before that I had neither skill nor luck for a diplomatist."
"Ah, you are thinking of the crack in your skull," said the Squire; "but that had nothing to do with the business. However, I won't bother you with such commissions in future. So you could not find out anything? More's the pity! And how goes it with Waldemar? Did you read him a good lecture?"
"He has promised that he will endeavour to put all that has passed away from his mind."
"Thank God! I tell you, you can do anything with him now; and what is more, Doctor, we have both of us been unjust to the boy in thinking he had no feeling. I never should have imagined he would take the thing so much to heart."
On entering the study or 'den' before described, Waldemar found his brother waiting for him. The young Prince, on arriving, had been struck by the appearance of the old-fashioned, somewhat low-roofed dwelling-house, and was now examining with wondering eyes the modest arrangements of the room into which he had been shown. Accustomed from his earliest childhood to a well-appointed, elegant house, he could not understand how his brother, wealthy as he knew him to be, could possibly endure to live on here. The salon of the hired house at C----, which to him and to the Princess appeared miserably shabby, was splendid in comparison to this reception-room at Altenhof.
All these reflections vanished, however, on Waldemar's entrance. Leo went up to him, and said hastily, as though to get over a disagreeable but unavoidable task as speedily as possible, "You are surprised to see me here; but you have not been near us for a whole week, and you have not answered mamma's letter, so there was nothing left us but to come and look after you."