He who placed it on my finger said to me, as he did so: "I am going out now into the world as a wandering pilgrim; I am driven forth; but whithersoever fate may lead me, I shall circle around this spot as a planet about its sun. Do you, however, stay here. I shall come back to you some day. Therefore, madam, you will understand that I cannot go away; that no promises, no threats can move me. I will suffer want, if I must, but I will remain here."
Baroness Baradlay now rose from her seat also, and took in her own the girl"s hand on which was the ring. "Do you, then, love my son?" she asked; "and don"t you believe that I love him too? One of us must give him up. Which shall it be?"
Aranka, in despair, sought to free her hand; but the other held it fast. "Oh, dear madam," she cried, "why do you ask me that question?
Whichever one of us dies first will give him up. Do you wish to make me take my own life?"
The widow released Aranka"s hand and stood looking into her eyes with a kindly smile. "No," she replied, "I wish him to belong to both of us. He shall be yours, and you shall be mine. You shall be my daughter. Come home with me and keep me company until my son returns; then you shall love each other, while I will content myself with what crumbs of love you may have to spare."
The young girl could not believe her ears; she thought she must be dreaming. "Oh, madam," she cried, "what you say is too beautiful to be true. I cannot understand it."
The baroness sighed. "Is my face then so cold," she asked, "and my voice so chill, that you cannot think me capable of wishing your happiness? But I will convince you." So saying, she drew the girl to her side on the sofa and took a letter from her bosom. "Look here,"
said she, "I have just received a letter from Russia, from my son, whom I have called home from St. Petersburg. I restrained my desire to open this letter, and brought it to you, that you might open it and read it to me. Are you aware what that means in a mother?"
Aranka bowed her head and touched the other"s hand with her lips.
"There, take the letter," said the baroness, "and read it aloud. You know the writing?"
Aranka received the letter, but had no sooner looked at the address than the glad smile vanished from her face. She shook her head and turned her large eyes with surprised inquiry upon the baroness.
"What is the matter?" asked the latter.
"That is not his writing," stammered the girl.
"What do you say?" demanded the other. "Let me look again; I ought to know my son"s handwriting. That is his _B_; that strong downward stroke, the manly firmness in every letter--"
"Are very cleverly imitated," interrupted Aranka, completing the sentence.
"But look again," urged the baroness; "the very words of the address--_a ma tres-adorable mere_--can only have been written by my son. Open the letter and you will be convinced."
A look of joy lighted up the young girl"s face when the beginning of the letter met her eyes. "That is really his writing,--"My dear mother.""
"There, didn"t I tell, you so!" declared the other in triumph.
But, as when a cloud suddenly pa.s.ses over the sun, Aranka"s bright face lost its radiance the next moment.
"What is it this time?" asked the baroness.
"Only those first three words are in his hand; the rest is written by some one else, and in French."
"By some one else? Oh, read quickly!"
The letter trembled in the girl"s hands. ""Dear madam,"" she read; ""forgive the well-meant deception committed by me on the cover of this letter. To spare you unnecessary alarm, I have imitated my friend"s handwriting--for which I must go to the galleys if you betray me. odon wished to write himself, but after the first three words the pen fell from his hand. He is still very weak. Don"t be alarmed, however. He was in great danger, but is now happily on the road to recovery. In two weeks more he will be able to resume his journey.""
"He was in great danger!" exclaimed the anxious mother. "Oh, read on, read on!" Despite her own agitation, she did not fail to note how deeply the girl was affected. Aranka was forced to use the utmost self-command in order to go on with the letter.
""I will write you everything without reserve, just as it occurred.
When odon received your letter calling him home, he dropped everything and hastened to set out. I resolved to accompany him as far as the border, but would that I had not! Then he would have stopped over at Smolensk, and would not have been overtaken by a snow-storm; we should not have been chased by wolves and compelled to save our lives by skating for two hours down the Dnieper.
""Your son odon, my dear madam, is a son to be proud of. When one of my skates came off in the course of our headlong flight, and I was left helpless by the accident, he turned, single-handed, against our pursuers, and, with dagger and pistols, warded them off while I buckled on my skate again. He killed four of the pack, and I owe it to him that I am now alive.""
This praise of her son brought a flush of pride to the mother"s cheek; but she saw that the maiden"s colour left her face entirely as she read on, and that her agitation nearly made her drop the letter. The girl"s love was not that of the Spartan mother, and the heroic deed of daring dismayed her while it delighted the other.
""Then we resumed our flight, and it was a race for life, with a pack of two hundred wolves at our heels.""
"Heavens!" exclaimed the mother, herself now greatly alarmed. Aranka read on with halting accents.
""We were nearing a place of refuge,--a military guard-house,--when we came to a dangerous spot, where some fishermen had cut a hole in the ice. Not noticing the place, as it was frozen over with a thin sheet of ice, we broke through and sank.""
"Merciful G.o.d!" cried the baroness, losing her self-control. Aranka sank back in a faint and was with difficulty restored to consciousness by the ministrations of her companion. At length the two, holding the letter before them both, read on in silence.
"My amulet saved my life. It was a parting gift from my mother, and I had tried to induce my friend to wear it, but he would not. "My stars are my protection," said he, and confessed that his stars were loving women"s eyes. When we had been rescued from our cold bath by the fishermen, I remained constantly by odon"s side until he was able to answer my question, "Do your stars still shine upon you?" "All four of them," said he."
At this each of the readers felt the electric thrill that ran through the other.
"odon was taken with a fever as a result of this mishap, but he is now happily over the worst of it. I am at his side night and day. This morning he was determined to write a letter, but it was too much for him, as you see. I was obliged to take the pen and write for him. He is entirely out of danger, and in two weeks we shall resume our journey. Until then I beg odon"s stars not to weep on his account; for under Russian skies star-tears turn to snow, and of snow we have already more than enough.
"LEONIN RAMIROFF."
The two pairs of stars looked at each other and beamed with heavenly joy. Baroness Baradlay drew Aranka to her and kissed her on the forehead, whispering tenderly: "My daughter!"
CHAPTER IX.
THE UNDERSCORED LINES.
Some one was expected at the castle: a letter had been received from odon--this time written by his own hand and mailed at Lemberg--announcing in advance his early arrival. In the afternoon the baroness ordered her carriage and drove to meet her son. Halting at Szunyogos, she there awaited his coming. odon arrived promptly at the appointed time. The meeting of mother and son was tenderly affectionate.
"How you frightened me with your accident!" exclaimed the baroness, half in reproach.
"That is now happily over," rejoined odon, kissing his mother. "We have each other once more."
Entering his mother"s carriage, the young man proceeded without delay, in her company, to Nemes...o...b.. After he had exchanged his travel-stained clothes for fresh garments, his mother led him into his father"s apartments.
"These rooms," said she, "will now be for your use. You must receive the people that come to visit us. Henceforth you are master here and will exercise that supervision over the estate which it so sadly needs. Our house enjoys great repute in the county, and you must decide what position you will take, what circle of acquaintances you will gather around you, and what part you will play as leader. Have you taken thought that as eldest son you will be called upon to a.s.sume the lord-lieutenancy of the county, which has so long been in our family?"
"An administrator, as I am told, now sits in the lord lieutenant"s chair," observed the son.
"Yes," replied the mother, "because the actual lord lieutenant was an invalid and unable to preside in person over the county a.s.semblies.
But you are well and strong, and it rests with you to see that no one usurps your rights."
odon looked into his mother"s eyes. "Mother," said he, "it was not for this reason that you called me home."
"You are right. I had another motive. I must tell you that your father left directions in his will that, six weeks after his death, I should give my hand in marriage to the administrator. A betrothal ceremony, accordingly, is the immediate occasion of the coming together of our acquaintances. Your father wished our house to gain a new support, able to bear the burden that will be imposed upon it."
"If it was my father"s will and is yours also--" began the son.