The Princess knitted her brow, and quickly interfering to cut short her niece's speech, she said, turning to the Count--
"Show your authority as her father at last, Bronislaus, and command her to remain. She must stay at Wilicza."
The young Countess started angrily at these words, which were spoken with great harshness. Her exasperation drove her beyond bounds.
"Well, then, if you compel me to speak out, my father and Leo shall hear my reason. I did not at the time understand the ambiguous words you spoke to me a little while ago, but now I know their meaning. You think I am the only person Waldemar will not offer up, the only one who can restrain his hand. I do not think so, for I know him better than you; but no matter which of us is right--I will not put it to the test."
"And I would never, never endure that such an experiment should be made," blazed out Leo. "If that was the motive, Wanda shall remain at Rakowicz, and never set foot in Wilicza. I believed that Waldemar's old attachment had long ago died out and was forgotten. If it is not so--and it cannot be, or the plan would never have been imagined--I will not leave you near him for a day."
"Make your mind easy," said Wanda, her own voice, however, sounding anything but tranquil; "I shall not again allow myself to be used as a mere tool, as I was in the old days at C----. I have played with this man and with his love once, but I will not do it a second time. He has let me feel his contempt, and I know the weight of it; yet there was nothing worse then to arouse his scorn than the caprice of a thoughtless child. If he were to discover a scheme, a calculation, and I were one day to read that in his eyes--I would rather die than bear it!"
She had allowed herself to be so carried away by her vehemence that she forgot all those around her. Erect, with glowing cheeks and flashing eyes, she delivered this protest with such passionate intensity of feeling that the Count gazed at her in astonishment, and the Princess in consternation; but Leo, who had been standing by her side, drew back from her. He had turned very pale, and in his eyes, as he fixed them on her steadily, enquiringly, there was more than astonishment or consternation.
"Rather die!" he repeated. "Do you set such store by Waldemar's esteem? Do you know so well how to read in his eyes? That is strange."
A hot flush overspread Wanda's face. She must herself have been unconscious of this, for she cast a look of unfeigned indignation at the young Prince, and would have answered him, but her father interfered.
"Let us have no jealous scenes now, Leo," he said gravely. "Do you wish to disturb our parting, and to offend Wanda just when you are about to leave her? As you now insist upon it, she shall remain at Rakowicz. My sister will yield to you on this point, but do not again wound Wanda by any such suspicions. Time presses, we must say farewell."