Yet the Princess followed her niece's example, and leaned far out of the window. The two women waited, listening breathlessly. Yes, a sound was borne over to them certainly; but it was distant and indistinct, and now again the wind rose, and wafted it from them altogether. Full ten minutes passed in torturing suspense--then, at last, steps were heard in one of the side avenues of the park, where there was an outlet into the forest--careful steps, warily approaching, and their eyes, strained to the uttermost, could discern through the darkness two figures issuing from among the trees.
Fabian rushed into the room. He had been watching too.
"They are there," he whispered, hardly able to restrain his emotion. "They are coming up the side steps. The little door leading to the park is open. I went to see not half an hour ago."
Wanda would have flown to meet the new-comers, but Gretchen, who had followed her husband, held her back.
"Stay here, Countess Morynska," she entreated. "We are not alone in the Castle. There is no safety but in your own rooms."
The Princess said not a word, but grasped her niece's hand to check the imprudent impulse. They were not long kept on the rack now. Only a few minutes--then the door flew open, and Count Morynski stood on the threshold, Waldemar's tall figure appearing in the background. Almost in the same instant Wanda lay in her father's arms.
Fabian and Gretchen had tact enough to withdraw, feeling that, after all, they were but strangers, and that the family should be left alone. But Waldemar, too, seemed to reckon himself among the strangers, for, instead of going in, he closed the door behind the Count, and stayed himself in the outer room. Turning to his old friend and tutor, he held out his hand to him with hearty warmth.
"Well, we have got here in safety," said he, drawing a deep breath. "The principal danger, at least, is over. We stand on German soil."
Fabian clasped the offered hand in both his own. "Oh, Waldemar, what a venture for you to plunge into! Suppose you had been discovered!"
Waldemar smiled. "It does not do to suppose anything in such an undertaking. A man, who wants to cross an abyss, must not think of turning giddy, or he is lost. I only took such possibilities into account so far as to provide against them. I kept my aim steadily in view, and looked neither to the right nor to the left. You see my plan has answered."