CHAPTER IX.

THE UNDERSCORED LINES.

Some one was expected at the castle: a letter had been received from A-dAśn--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. A-dAśn 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 A-dAśn, kissing his mother. "We have each other once more."

Entering his mother's carriage, the young man proceeded without delay, in her company, to Nemesdomb. 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 assume 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 assemblies. But you are well and strong, and it rests with you to see that no one usurps your rights."

A-dAśn 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.

"Is my will, then, of supreme authority with you?" asked the mother.

"You know that it is my highest law," was the reply.

"Very well. Now I will tell you what my will really is. The house of Baradlay needs a master and a mistress,--a master to command and guide, a mistress with power to win hearts. A master it will find in--you."

A-dAśn started in surprise.

"You will be the master, and your wife the mistress, of this house."

The young man sighed heavily. "Mother, you know this cannot be," said he.

"Will you not marry?"

"Never!"

"Make no such rash vow. You are but twenty-four years old. You were not born to be a Carthusian monk. The world is full of pretty faces and loving hearts, and even you are sure to find one for yourself."

"You know there is none among them for me," returned the young man.

"But what if I have already found one?"

"Your quest has been in vain, mother."

"Say not so," rejoined the other, tenderly drawing her son to her side. "Can you pass judgment without first seeing? She whom I have chosen is good and beautiful, and loves you fondly."

"She may be as beautiful as a fairy and as good as an angel, with a heart more full of love than even your own; yet I care not to see her."

"Oh, do not speak so rashly; you might repent it. I am sure you will retract your words when you see her face. Come, I will show it to you in the next room."

"It will have no effect on me," declared A-dAśn.

The mother led her son to the door and let him open it and enter first. There stood Aranka, trembling with expectant happiness.

Hastening to her own room, the baroness drew from her portfolio the memorable document dictated to her by her dying husband, and underscored with a red pencil the lines referring to the event which that day had witnessed.

"Thus far it is accomplished," she said to herself.