Natalya shook her head. 'I am a Jewess. I could not eat with you.'
'That's just what I told her, grandmother,' added Daisy eagerly.
'Then the child must remain with you at my expense,' said the old lady.
'But if she likes the country so——' murmured Natalya.
'I like you better, grandmother.' And Daisy laid her ruddied cheek to the withered cheek, which grew wet with ecstasy.
'She calls you "grandmother," not me,' said the old gentlewoman with a sob.
'Yes, and I wished her mother dead. God forgive me!'
Natalya burst into a passion of tears and rocked to and fro, holding Daisy tightly to her faintly pulsing heart.
'What did you say?' Daisy's grandmother flamed and blazed with her ancient anger. 'You wished my Madge dead?'
Natalya nodded her head. Her arms unloosed their hold of Daisy. 'Dead, dead, dead,' she repeated in a strange, crooning voice. Gradually a vacant look crept over her face, and she fell back again on the bed. She looked suddenly very old, despite her glossy black wig.