You are a singer?"

"Yes, madame, at the Court theatre."

"I know it, I know it! Do you feel inclined to resign your position
there?"

The question was put so suddenly and in such a domineering tone, that
Marietta involuntarily drew back. Since her first meeting with the son,
when he had seemed so stupid and silent, and had run off so
precipitately, she had decided within herself that he was not of sound
mind. Now the thought came to her that his weakness was an inherited
disease from his mother; for certainly this woman could not be in her
right mind.

"To resign my position?" she repeated. "And why?"

"Upon moral grounds, altogether. I am ready to offer you a helping hand.
If you will turn your back upon those paths of frivolity and vice, I
pledge myself to obtain for you a respectable position as governess or
companion."

The young singer understood at last why the matron had been so
concerned; she threw her head back with an angry, half spiteful
movement. "I thank you very much. I love my profession dearly, and have
no thought of exchanging it for any dependent position. Besides, I fear
my education has not fitted me to make an efficient upper housemaid."

"I expected some such answer," Frau von Eschenhagen replied, nodding her
head darkly, "but I felt it my duty to make at least one appeal to your