“Why, Michael, you are quite a youthful Cromwell! But I must warn you that Count Mortimer will make no concessions.”
“Don’t you see that’s exactly what I want? He will have to go then. Why, it makes me want to marry Lida just because I know it will mean getting rid of him. How I hate that smooth, cynical manner of his, as if he were worlds above me! He has done nothing but try to thwart and restrain me all my life, and my mother would have let him have his way. It was you who opened my eyes and helped me to get the better of him.”
“No, my dear boy, I am sure you are mistaken in thinking that I ever spoke against the Premier in your hearing, or encouraged you to oppose him. You may possibly have heard me lament the extraordinary and pernicious influence he exercises over your dear mother, or remark upon the unconstitutional way in which he uses the power he won by such peculiar means. But you drew your own conclusions, and I have merely done my best to protect you against the worst results of his system of training.”
“Very well, Tant’ Ottilie. It comes to much the same thing, after all, and that is, that he goes at the first opportunity.”
“I fancy that you will have to reckon with your mother there, Michael.”
“My mother? But when he is gone he will have no more influence over her, and she will not oppose my marrying to please myself.”
“But will she let him go? I am certainly not the person to speak against love-matches, Michael, for my own marriage was a shining example, and I fancy your mother would agree with me in any case but yours, especially——”
“But what in the world have my mother’s views on love-matches to do with Count Mortimer?” asked the boy, bewildered by what seemed to him the sudden change of subject. “Do you call Lida’s and mine a love-match?”
“Of course.” The Princess was not disturbed by her prospective son-in-law’s undisguised amusement at the idea. “What else could it be? But if you don’t see the connection which led me to say what I did, you must not expect me to enlighten you. I am the very last person to do so.”
“What do you mean, Tant’ Ottilie? What are you hinting at? I will know. Don’t sit there and look mysterious, but tell me.”