"But will you not stay to dinner?"
"No, aunt; I wish to go at once. Do you think it is pleasant for me to remain here and be ignored by Waldemar Nordeck, as I have been for the last half hour? He never spoke to me once; he did not even answer me."
The princess smiled. "Well, you can afford him this petty revenge at your first meeting; the old grudge still remains, but it will wear away upon longer acquaintance. What do you think of his personal appearance? I consider him very much improved."
"He is just as repulsive as ever!" exclaimed Wanda, passionately, "and even more so, for now he studies to repel. But, in spite of everything, for some undefined reason, perhaps it is on account of his really fine eyes and forehead, he no longer suffers from comparison with Leo."
The same observation had forced itself upon the mother, as her two sons stood side by side. Although the beauty of the younger son was unquestionable, and the elder had very slight claims to good looks, still there was in Waldemar a certain something which usurped the place of every mere personal advantage, and the mother was compelled to admit the fact.
"Such tall, well-developed figures always possess an advantage," she said. "They make a favorable impression at first, but that is all. Mind and character are never associated with them."
"Never?" asked Wanda, with a peculiar emphasis. "Are you perfectly sure?"
The princess looked at her niece in surprise, and Wanda continued,--
"We both know the designs now on foot at Villica, and how inconvenient and dangerous to our purposes it would be to have Waldemar give evidence of the possession of mind and character. Let us be cautious! This outward composure, and above all this forehead, do not please me."
"Will you allow my ability to read my son's true character?" replied the princess, in a tone of self-conscious superiority; "or do you credit your twenty years with a greater discernment than mine, which more than double them, can claim? Waldemar is a Nordech--that tells the whole story."