They were both mute: he did not even look at her, and she might have heard the beating of his heart. She looked at him and the colour came back into her face, the smile back upon her mouth.
'My friend,' she said very gently,'did never you think that I also----'
She paused: it was very hard to her to say what she must say, and he could not help her, dared not help her, to utter it.
They stood thus another moment mute, with the sunset glow upon the shining water, and upon the feudal majesty of the great castle.
Then she looked at him with a straight, clear, noble glance, and with the rich blood mounting in her face, stretched out her hand to him with a royal gesture.
'They robbed you of your ivy leaf, my cruel Prussian cousins. Will you--take--this--instead?'
Then Heaven itself opened to his eyes. He did not take her hand. He fell at her feet and kissed them.
Is it wisest after all to be very unwise, dear mother mine?' she said a little later, with a smile that was tender and happy.
The Princess looked up quickly, and so looking understood.
'Oh, my beloved, is it indeed so? Yes, you are wise to listen to your heart; God speaks in it!'
With tears in her eyes she stretched out her pretty hands in solemn benediction.
'Be His Spirit for ever with you,' she said with great emotion. 'I shall be so content to know that I leave you not alone when our Father calls me, for I think your very greatness and dominion, my dear, but make you the more lonely, as sovereigns are, and it is not well to be alone, Wanda; it is well to have human love close about us.'
'It is to lean on a reed, perhaps,'murmured Wanda, in that persistent misgiving which possessed her. 'And when the reed breaks, then though it has been so weak before, it becomes of iron, barbed and poisoned.'
'What gloomy thoughts! And you have made me so happy, and surely you are happy yourself?'
'Yes. My reed is in full flower, but--but--yes, I am happy; I hope that Bela knows.'
'That I am sure of; yet I might never have known it but for you.'
'I will send him to you. I want to be alone a little. Dear mother, he cares for you as tenderly as though he were your son.'
'I have been his friend always,' said the Princess, with a smile, whilst the tears still stood in her eyes. 'You cannot say so much, Wanda; you were very harsh.'