'There is no madness in what I shall do, dear mother, and Bela surely would have gone.'
'Can you stay the torrents of heaven? Can you arrest a river in its wrath?'
'No; but lives are often lost because poor people lose their senses in fright. I shall be calmer than anyone there. Besides, the place belongs to us; we are bound to share its danger. If only Egon were not away from Hungary!'
'But he is away. You have driven him away.'
'Do not dissuade me, dearest mother. It would be cowardice not to go.'
'What can women do in such extremities?'
'But we of Hohenszalras must not be mere women when we are wanted in any danger. Remember Luitgarde von Szalras, the kuttengeier.'
The Princess sighed, prayed, even wept, but Wanda was gently inflexible. The Princess could not see why a precious life should be endangered for the sake of a little half barbaric, half Jewish town, which was remarkable for nothing except for shipping timber and selling salbling. The population was scarcely Christian, so many Hebrews were there, and so benighted were the Sclavonian poor, who between them made up the two thousand odd souls that peopled Idrac. To send a special messenger there, and to give any quantity of money that the distress of the moment might demand, would be all right and proper; indeed, an obligation on the owner of the little feudal river-side town. But to go! A Countess von Szalras to go in person where not one out of a hundred of the citizens had been properly baptized or confirmed! The Princess could not view this Quixotism in any other light than that of an absolute insanity.
'Bela lost his life in just such a foolish manner!' she pleaded.
'So did the saints, dear mother,' said his sister, gently.