"Take her away. It is enough. Christ be with her!" And for a
moment he collected strength to place his hand on the child's head.

The doctor took the little girl by the hand, but her mother moved
quickly toward her.

"Kiss him! Kiss papa's hand!" she whispered, "bid him good-by!"

The general's wife sobbed, and covered her face with her
handkerchief, with the grand gesture of a stage queen. The sick
man did not see this. At the sound of her voice he frowned and
closed his eyes tight, evidently trying not to listen. The doctor
led the little girl away to another room and gave her to her
governess.

When he came back to the sick man, the general, lying on the sofa,
still in the same position, and without looking at his wife who
stood beside his pillow, said to her:

"I expect my poor daughter Anna, who has suffered so much injustice
through you. . . . I have asked her to forgive me. I shall pray
her to be a mother to her little sister . . . . I have appointed
her the child's guardian. She is good and honest . . . she will
teach the child no evil. And this will be best for you also. You
are provided for. You will find out from the new will. You could
not have had any profit from being her guardian. If Anna does not
consent to take little Olga to live with her, and to educate her
with her own children, as I have asked her, Olga will be sent to a
school. You will prefer liberty to your daughter; it will be