‘Ah, that is a fine child! but alas for his future!’
‘How so? What mean you?’ asked the young mother in alarm.
‘The child that knows not his father is ill-starred.’
‘Knows not his father!’ echoed Catherine, with flashing eyes, and a voice tremulous with indignation. ‘How dare you say that?’ she added menacingly, as she stamped her foot.
‘Think you,’ asked the pseudo-seer, ‘that I can be deceived? I see with eyes different to yours. That child knows not his father, and never will know him, for he is dead.’
Here Catherine burst into tears, and between her sobs she exclaimed:
‘It’s true, it’s true, it’s true!’
‘Of course it is,’ said Danevitch, with an air of triumph.
Catherine recovered herself, and in an irascible tone said:
‘No doubt you are very clever; but I doubt if you can tell me how his father died.’