"In her room; do you wish to see her?"
"No; she would repel me with aversion and contempt. I can endure no more."
He leaned heavily against the chair; his usually clear, joyous voice was hollow and broken. That scene with his mother had completely unmanned him.
"Leo," said Waldemar, remorsefully, "if you had not enraged me so, I should have broken the news to you more gently; but that fatal word, 'renegade,' exasperated me beyond endurance."
"You are avenged; my mother has hurled it back at me. In her eyes I am a traitor and a renegade. I was forced to hear her and to be--silent."
There was something ominous in the rigid, unnatural composure of this fiery, passionate youth, whose whole nature seemed to have undergone a transformation within the last half-hour.
"Follow me!" urged Waldemar. "You must conceal yourself in the castle."
"No; I shall go immediately to W----. I must know what has become of my uncle and his men."
"In heaven's name, do not make the foolhardy attempt to cross the boundary in broad daylight. It would be deliberate suicide."
"I must," persisted Leo. "I know the place where passage is still possible. If I found the way this morning, I shall be able to do so again."