'You are always lovers still, and one is afraid of interrupting you,' she said, as she took one of the gilded wicker chairs. 'I have had a letter from Olga Brancka; the post is come in. She says she will honour you in the autumn on her way to waiting at Gödöllö.'
'It is impossible!' cried Sabran, who grew first red, then pale.
'Nothing is impossible with Olga,' said the Princess, drily. 'I see even yet you are not acquainted with her many qualities, which include among them a will of steel.'
'She cannot come here,' he said in haste under his breath.
Wanda looked at him a moment.
'My aunt shall tell her that it will not suit us. She can go to Gödöllö by way of Gratz,' she said quietly.
The Princess shifted her sunshade.
'What effect do you think that will have? She will cross your mountains, and she will call up a snowstorm by incantation, so that you will be compelled to take her in. You who know so much of the world, Réné, can you inform me how it is that women possess tenacity of will in precise proportion to the frivolity of their lives? All these butterflies have a volition of iron.'
'It is egotism,' he replied with effort, unable to recover his astonishment and disgust. 'Intensely selfish people are always very decided as to what they wish. That is in itself a great force; they do not waste their energies in considering the good of others.'
'Olga's energies are certainly not wasted in that direction,' said Madame Ottilie.