"You exaggerate," she replied at last. "Are you so timid that you can see a revolution brewing in your Wilicza, merely because I have sometimes used my influence in favour of my protégé's? I regret it, if some among them have abused my confidence and wrought you injury, instead of doing their duty by you; but these things happen everywhere--you are at liberty to dismiss them. What, after all, is it you reproach me with? When I came here, the estates were, to all intents and purposes, without a master. You took no interest in them, cared nothing for them; so I, as your mother, considered myself justified in taking up the reins which had fallen from your hands. It was certainly safer for me to hold them than to trust them with your paid agents. I have governed in my own fashion, I admit; but you were perfectly aware that I have always sided with my own family and my own people. I have never made a secret of it. My whole life bears witness to the fact, and to you, I should hope, I need offer no justification of my conduct. You are my son, as you are your father's, and the blood of the Morynskis runs also in your veins."
Waldemar seemed about vehemently to protest against the assertion; but again his self-command triumphed.
"It is the first time in your life you have acknowledged my share in that noble blood," he answered, ironically; "hitherto you have only seen--and despised--the Nordeck in me. True, you have not declared so much in words; but do you think I cannot interpret looks? I have seen the expression of your eyes, as they turned from Leo and your brother to me! You have put away from you the memory of your first marriage as of some disgrace. Happy in your position as Prince Baratowski's wife, satisfied with the love of your youngest-born, you never gave me a thought; when, later on, circumstances forced you to draw nearer me, it certainly was not I myself whom you sought. I do not reproach you with this. My father may have sinned against you in much--in so much that you can feel no affection for his son; but we must therefore leave altogether out of account sentiments which, once for all, do not exist between us. I shall shortly be obliged to prove to you that no drop of the Morynski blood runs in my veins. You may have transmitted it to Leo, but I am made of other stuff."
"I see it," said the Princess, in a low voice; "of other than I thought. I have never really known you."
He took no notice of her words. "You will understand, then, how it is that I now take the management of my affairs into my own hands," he went on. "One more question. What is the meaning of those conferences which were held in your apartments after supper yesterday evening, and which lasted far on through the night?"
"Waldemar, that concerns me alone," his mother answered in frigid self-assertion. "In my own rooms, at least, I will be mistress still."
"Absolute mistress in all that relates to your own affairs, but I will no longer give over Wilicza to serve your party aims. You hold your meetings here. Orders are issued from hence across the frontier, and messages are sent from out yonder to you in return. The Castle cellars are full of arms. You have got together a perfect arsenal below stairs."
The Princess's face turned deadly pale at the last words, but she held her ground, heavy as was the blow. Not a muscle of her face moved as she replied, "And why do you come to me with all this? Why not rather go to L----, where the account of your discoveries would be most gladly received? You have shown such eminent talent as a spy, it could not be so very repugnant to you to turn informer!"
"Mother!" burst from the young man's lips in accents of passionate anger, and he struck his clenched hand violently on the back of the chair. The old fierce temper was breaking forth again, bearing down before it all the self-control acquired so laboriously during the last few years. His whole frame was shaken with agitation, and he looked so menacing in his wrath that his mother involuntarily laid her hand on the bell to summon help. This movement of hers brought Waldemar to himself. He turned away hastily and went up to the window.
Some minutes elapsed in painful silence. The Princess already felt that she had allowed herself to be carried too far--she, who was coolness, prudence itself! She saw how her son wrestled with his passion, and what the struggle cost him; but she also saw that the man who, with such an iron energy, could by sheer force of will subdue his natural violence, that fatal inheritance from his father, was an adversary worthy of her.