Marana was a mother like none other; for, in her total, her eternal
shipwreck, motherhood might still redeem her. To accomplish sacredly
through life the task of sending a pure soul to heaven, was not that a
better thing than a tardy repentance? was it not, in truth, the only
spotless prayer which she could lift to God?

So, when this daughter, when her Marie-Juana-Pepita (she would fain
have given her all the saints in the calendar as guardians), when this
dear little creature was granted to her, she became possessed of so
high an idea of the dignity of motherhood that she entreated vice to
grant her a respite. She made herself virtuous and lived in solitude.
No more fetes, no more orgies, no more love. All joys, all fortunes
were centred now in the cradle of her child. The tones of that infant
voice made an oasis for her soul in the burning sands of her
existence. That sentiment could not be measured or estimated by any
other. Did it not, in fact, comprise all human sentiments, all
heavenly hopes? La Marana was so resolved not to soil her daughter
with any stain other than that of birth, that she sought to invest her
with social virtues; she even obliged the young father to settle a
handsome patrimony upon the child and to give her his name. Thus the
girl was not know as Juana Marana, but as Juana di Mancini.

Then, after seven years of joy, and kisses, and intoxicating
happiness, the time came when the poor Marana deprived herself of her
idol. That Juana might never bow her head under their hereditary
shame, the mother had the courage to renounce her child for her
child's sake, and to seek, not without horrible suffering, for another
mother, another home, other principles to follow, other and saintlier
examples to imitate. The abdication of a mother is either a revolting
act or a sublime one; in this case, was it not sublime?