"You yourself? I am astonished."
"You need not be; I have been trained for the position. Frank will remain until spring, and initiate me into all the details."
He said this very calmly, not taking his eyes from the album, whose paintings seemed to absorb his whole attention. He did not notice the look of anxious scrutiny with which his mother scanned his face as she said,--
"But you led us to infer that your visit would be very short."
"I intended to make it so, but I find that my estates need a master's care; and besides--I have something to say to you, mother."
He closed the album, and laid it on the table. Now, for the first time, the princess felt that Wanda's instinct had been more correct than her own penetration. She saw the storm coming, and prepared to meet it.
"Speak," she said, coolly, "I will listen."
Waldemar rose and gazed reproachfully at his mother. "When I offered you Villica as a home," he said, "I gave you entire control of the castle, but the estates were my own."
"Has any one disputed your right to them?"
"No one; but I now see what it meant to leave them for years in Polish hands."