"Her right?" interrupted the Major violently. "And you say that to me,
Regine?"

"I say it, because I know what it is to have an only son. It was right
for you to take your child, for such a mother was not fit to educate
him; but that you should refuse to let her see her son again, after an
absence of twelve years, is a hardness and cruelty which can only be
prompted by hate. No matter how great her guilt may have been--the
punishment is too hard."

Falkenried looked gloomily on the ground; he knew there was truth in her
words; at last he said slowly:

"I should never have believed you would espouse Zalika's cause. Once I
injured you deeply for her sake. I tore asunder a bond--"

"Which never had been united," broke in Frau von Eschenhagen, anxious to
avoid the subject. "It was only a plan of our parents, nothing more."

"But the thought was a familiar and cherished one in our childhood's
years. Do not seek to shield me, Regine, I know only too well how I
treated you then--and myself too."

Regine looked straight at him with her clear, gray eyes, but there was
something like moisture in them as she answered:

"Well, well, Hartmut, it's all over now, so many years that I do not
hesitate to admit that I would have had you then, willingly enough, and
perhaps you would have been able to make something more out of me than I
have become. I was always a headstrong creature, you know, and not