"But such a state of things is unjust! It is shameful! Is there no such thing as pity for the woes of others in the world? Is it a matter of little or no consequence that there should be so many people in the world who do not know whether they will have food on the morrow?
"Oh, mother, mother, now I understand the vague fear and uneasiness I experienced when they told me I was so rich! I had good reason to say to myself, with something akin to remorse:
"Such vast wealth for myself alone? And why?
"Why should I have so much and others nothing?
"How did I acquire this immense fortune?
"Alas! I acquired it only by your death, my mother, and by your death, my father.
"So I had to lose those I held most dear in the world in, order to become so rich.
"In order that I may be so rich, it is necessary, perhaps, that thousands of young girls like Herminie should be always in danger of want,—happy to-day, filled with despair to-morrow.
"And when they have lost their only treasures, the lightheartedness and gaiety of youth, when they are old, and when not only work, but strength is lacking, what becomes of these unfortunates?
"Oh, mother, the more I think of the terrible difference between my lot and that of Herminie and so many other young girls—the more I think of the dangers that surround me, of all the nefarious schemes of which I am the object because I am rich, it seems to me that wealth imparts a strange bitterness to the heart.