"But not on foot. It is quite a mile and a half there."
"Above all no éclat, I entreat you!" whispered Hubert, mysteriously. "I will leave my carriage behind. It is better I should be supposed to be here. Pray do not expect me to supper. Good-bye, Fräulein," and with a short and hasty salutation, he hurried out and immediately afterwards re-crossed the courtyard.
"Now he is off to E---- to fetch the two gendarmes stationed there," said Gretchen to the Doctor, triumphantly; "then he will rush straight over to Janowo, and all three of them will go prowling about the place until far on into the night. Wilicza is safe from them."
She was not mistaken in her suppositions. It was late at night when the Assessor returned from his expedition, which had, as she had guessed, been undertaken in the company of the two gendarmes, and had, naturally enough, been productive of no result. He was much out of temper and very depressed, to say nothing of a violent cold which he had caught by the unaccustomed exposure to the night air. Next day he was so unwell that even Gretchen was roused to a sense of humanity. In a fit of repentance she made tea for him, and nursed him with such care that Hubert forgot all the discomfort he had endured. Unfortunately this behaviour on her part confirmed him in his conviction--unalterable from this time forth--that he was beloved beyond all telling. Dr. Fabian, too, came over in the course of the day to see how the patient was progressing, and showed so much anxious sympathy, such deep regret at his indisposition, that the Assessor was touched and completely comforted. He little knew that he owed all this attention to the remorse of the two confederates in league against him. So he set out at last, burdened with his cold, but with spirits much revived, on his way back to L----.
If on that evening the Wilicza park and its environs still remained free from all inopportune vigilance, the dwellers at the Castle had naturally no notion to whom their thanks for such immunity were due. About the time that Dr. Fabian and Fräulein Margaret were engaged in concocting their plot, a family meeting had taken place in the Princess Baratowska's apartments. Count Morynski and Leo were equipped for travelling; their cloaks lay in the ante-room, and the carriage, which half an hour before had brought the Count and his daughter over, still stood in the courtyard, ready to start again. Leo and Wanda had withdrawn into the deep recess of the centre window, and were talking eagerly, but in a low voice, while the Princess was also carrying on a conversation in an undertone with her brother.
"In the present state of affairs I look upon it as fortunate that circumstances require your hasty departure," she said. "On Leo's account it is desirable, for he would never endure to stay on at Wilicza, if Waldemar begins to play the master. He is not capable of controlling himself. I saw by the way in which he received my disclosures that I should certainly be provoking a catastrophe, if I were to insist on his remaining longer with his brother. As it is, they will not meet for the present, and that is best."
"And you yourself will really be able to hold out here, Hedwiga?" asked the Count.
"I must," she answered. "It is all I can do for you now. I have yielded to the reasoning by which you describe open war with Waldemar as useless and full of peril. We have given up Wilicza as our centre of operations--for the time being, that is; but for you and Leo it is still the place where messages can be sent, and whence news can be transmitted to you in return. So much liberty, at least, I shall be able to maintain. At the worst the Castle will still be your refuge, should you be obliged to re-cross the frontier. Peace will not be disturbed on this side, at all events for some time to come. When do you think of going over?"
"Probably to-night. We shall wait at the last forester's station to find out how and where it will be possible to cross. This evening the last transport of arms will be sent after us; it will be left provisionally in the forester's charge. I consider this precaution to be urgently necessary. Who knows whether your son may not take it into his head to search through the whole Castle on his return the day after to-morrow?"
"He will find it clear"--the Princess clenched her hand in repressed rage, and her lips twitched strangely--"clear as he commanded it should be; but I swear to you, Bronislaus, he shall pay for that command and for his tyranny towards us. I hold the means of retaliation and a bridle wherewith to hold him in check, should he attempt to go still greater lengths."