Waldemar, after a moment's silence, replied in a subdued voice, and with an emphasis upon every word: "To-morrow I shall go to P---- on business, and remain a week. Before my return, Villica must be freed from every semblance of disloyalty. Transfer your arms and your secret assemblies to Radowicz or wherever you will, my domains must be rid of them. Shortly after my return I shall give a large hunting-party, in which the governor of the province and the officers of the garrison at L---- will participate; as mistress of the house, you will of course have the courtesy to join your name with mine in the invitations."
"No!" replied the princess, emphatically.
"Then I will sign them alone, as the invitations must be issued in any event. The time has come for me to take my stand upon the question now agitating our whole province. You are at liberty to keep your room from feigned illness on that day, or to go to your brother's; but you must consider whether it is best to have the breach between us become public, and therefore irreparable. It is in our power to forget this interview. If you comply with my demands, I shall never again remind you of the matters we have discussed to-day. You must decide upon your own course of action. You can tell Leo and your brother what I have said to you,--they had better hear it from your lips than mine; I certainly desire no rupture."
"And what if I will not obey the orders you so tyrannically impose upon me?" asked the princess defiantly. "Supposing I should contest your claim to the entire inheritance, and assert my right to Villica, which should have been my widow's dower? The courts would never do me justice, but there is a public opinion higher than all law; do you dare defy it by breaking your word to your mother and brother, and exposing them to the bitterest poverty and dependence, while you revel in luxury?"
"Do as you please," returned Waldemar; "but do not hold me responsible for what may happen."
They stood face to face, eye to eye, and that similarity between the two which had hitherto escaped the notice of all but Wanda, was now fully evident. Both faces wore the same expression: an iron will that was ready to stake everything in the furtherance of its plans. Now, as they stood there confronting each other, ready to engage in a life-and-death conflict, for the first time they showed that they were really mother and son, perhaps for the first time they felt this truth.
Waldemar stepped close to the princess, and laid his hand upon her arm.
"I have left the way open for my mother to retrace her steps," he said, emphatically; "but I forbid the Princess Zulieski's concocting party schemes upon my estates. If she goes on doing this, if she forces me to extreme measures, I shall carry them out, even if I must see you all--"
He stopped suddenly. His mother saw how he trembled, how the hand which held hers with an iron grasp instantly relaxed and fell powerless at his side. In mute surprise she followed the direction of his glance which was fixed upon the study-door. Wanda stood upon the threshold. Unable longer to keep back, she had come forward with a sudden impulse, and thus revealed her presence.
A flash of triumph shot from the eyes of the princess; she had found at last the vulnerable spot in her son's heart. Although the next moment he had mastered his emotion, and stood there self-poised and imperturbable as before, it was too late--that one unguarded moment had betrayed him.