"I always do," she said simply. Then she studied the sleeping forms
again.

"I think it will be well, some time soon, to twist the legs of the
small one," she said. "She would make a sweet cripple."

" No!" said Michael. "You may not do so. I will not have it."

The woman laughed. "Said I not that I have my own way?" she asked.

"All right, Martha, you do," said Patro, "but believe me, it is better
to take the greatest care of those little ones. Think what dancers
they may make some day. There is a fortune in those little feet, I'll
be bound. Be careful of them, watch them, and perhaps some day they
may be prancing on the opera stage at St. Petersburg, or even here in
Warsaw."

The woman sat thinking for a little. "Perhaps you are right," she
said. "People are dance-mad these times. They are pretty enough to
climb to any heights."

Patro laughed.

"Why laugh?" said Martha angrily.

"Nothing, nothing, dear Martha, only that it is funny to think you are
taking these children down from the heights where they belong so that
they may climb back for your pleasure."