The Princess would have interposed, but the Count held her back. He stepped up to his nephew with an air of authority.
"That is for me to decide, and not for you. Our departure has been fixed for today. I consider it necessary, and with that all is said. If I have to submit each of my orders to your approval, or to make them subservient to your jealous caprices, it will be better that you should not go with me at all. I exact from you the obedience you have sworn to your leader. You will either follow me this very hour or, take my word for it, I will exclude you from every post where I have power to command. You have the choice."
"He will follow you, Bronislaus," said the Princess, with sombre earnest. "He will follow you, or he will cease to be my son. Decide, Leo. Your uncle will keep his word."
Leo stood battling with himself. His uncle's words, his mother's imperious looks, would probably have remained powerless in presence of his jealousy, now so violently aroused; but he saw that Wanda shrank from him. He knew that by staying he should incur her contempt, and that thought turned the scale. He rushed to her, and took her hand.
"I will go," he gasped; "but promise me that you will avoid Wilicza during my absence, and only see my mother at Rakowicz--above all, that you will keep at a distance from Waldemar."
"I should have done that without any promise," replied Wanda, more gently. "You forget that it was my refusal to remain at Wilicza which led to this outburst of most groundless jealousy on your part."
Leo drew a breath of relief at the thought. Yes, it was true. She had refused, peremptorily refused to remain under the same roof with his brother.
"You should have spoken more convincingly," he said, in a calmer tone. "Perhaps I may one day apologise for having wounded you--I cannot now, Wanda"--he pressed her hand convulsively in his. "I do not believe you could ever be guilty of such treason to me, to us all, as to love this Waldemar, our foe, our oppressor; but you ought not to feel any of this esteem, this admiration for him. It is bad enough that he should love you, and that I should know you to be within his reach."
"You will have some trouble with that hot-headed boy," said the Princess to her brother in a low voice. "He cannot comprehend the word 'discipline.'"
"He will learn it," replied the Count with quiet firmness; "and now good-bye, Hedwiga. We must be gone."