"Indeed! Then this is the only point of resemblance between my mother and me."
"That is true; you resemble her only in this one respect; but Leo is her exact image."
"Leo!" echoed Waldemar, with a peculiar intonation. "Ah, yes! that is very natural."
"And why ought the younger brother to have the advantage of the elder?"
"Why not in all else, since he has the first place in his mother's love?"
"But, Waldemar--"
"Is this news to you?" interrupted the young man, almost sadly. "I thought my relations toward my mother were known to every one. She forces herself to treat me kindly and courteously, and effort enough it costs her. But she cannot overcome her inward aversion--neither can I; so we stand on the same footing."
Wanda made no reply. The turn the conversation had taken surprised her greatly. Waldemar did not seem to notice her astonishment; he went on in a tone of great bitterness. "The Princess Zulieski is a stranger to me and must remain so. I do not belong to her or to her son; I have no part in their life. I feel this more and more at every meeting. You have no idea, Wanda, what it costs me to cross their threshold. It is a torture I have imposed upon myself, and I would never have believed I could endure it so patiently."
"Why do you endure it? No one forces you to come," exclaimed Wanda, thoughtlessly.
He gazed at her intently, and his whole soul was in that gaze. The answer beamed so plainly from his eyes that the young girl blushed deeply. That ardent, reproachful look spoke only too plainly.