because I dreamed of a vengeance as terrible as the offence. I
said to myself that the day would come when, at any risk, you
would try to see your child again, to embrace her, and provide for
her future. Fool! fool that I was! You had already forgotten her!
When you received news of my intended return, she was sent to some
foundling asylum, or left to die upon some door-step. Have you
ever thought of her? Have you ever asked what has become of her?
ever asked yourself if she had needed bread while you have been
living in almost regal luxury? ever asked yourself into what
depths of vice she may have fallen?"

"Always the same ridiculous accusation!" exclaimed the baroness.

"Yes, always!"

"You must know, however, that this story of a child is only a vile
slander. I told you so when you spoke of it to me a dozen years
afterward. I have repeated it a thousand times since."

The baron uttered a sigh that was very like a sob, and without
paying any heed to his wife's words, he continued: "If I consented
to allow you to remain under my roof, it was only for the sake of
our daughter. I trembled lest the scandal of a separation should
fall upon her. But it was useless suffering on my part. She was
as surely lost as you yourself were; and it was your work, too!"

"What! you blame me for that?"

"Whom ought I to blame, then? Who took her to balls, and theatres
and races--to every place where a young girl ought NOT to be