She went on a number of steps, and turned again toward her aster:
"Father is angry at Maryan—I see that very clearly. Everything in this house is, somehow, so strange."
She went out, but Irene clasped her hands, and for some seconds squeezed them with all her might, and thought:
"That child will soon look at life just as I have been looking at it for some time past. It is necessary to foresee, absolutely necessary!" She returned to her reminiscences. Her mother said to her father:
"Our fortune is now considerable."
"In that direction," answered her father, "it never can be too great, nor even sufficient."
Then, playing with her beautiful hair, he asked:
"But do you believe that I love you?"
After some hesitation she answered:
"No. I have lost that faith, I lost it some time ago."