'You have no heart, Wanda.'
'I do not understand you,' said the Countess von Szalras, very coldly.
'Do you mean to say you have not seen that he loved you?'
The face of Wanda grew colder still.
'Did he instruct you to say this also?'
'No, no,' said the Princess, hurriedly, perceiving her error. 'He only bade me say that he was called away and must leave at once, and begged you to accept through me his adieus and the expression of his gratitude. But it is very certain that he does love you, and that because he is too poor and too proud to say so he goes.'
'You must weave your little romance!' said her niece, with some impatience, striking the gilt wicker table with her riding-whip. 'I prefer to think that M. de Sabran is, very naturally, gone back to the world to which he belongs. My only wonder has been that he has borne so long with the solitudes of the Szalrassee.'
'If you were not the most sincere woman in the world, I should believe you were endeavouring to deceive me. As it is,' said the Princess, with some temper, 'I can only suppose that you deceive yourself.'
'Have you any tea there?' said her niece, laying aside her gauntlets and her whip, and casting some cakes to the two hounds.
She had very plainly and resolutely closed the subject almost before it was fairly opened. The Princess, a little intimidated and keenly disappointed, did not venture to renew it.