"Yes, dear, I understood."
"Only...."
"What?"
"I am sorry to have robbed you of Addie."
"But, my dear, a son does not belong to his parents."
"Still, I reproach myself.... But I could not stay with you any longer. You understood that it was not because ... because you were not kind to me. You were very kind ... you tried to be ... though I do not believe that Papa likes me, that Emilie, Aunt Adeline or any of the others like me.... I bear them no malice: I don't like them either."
Constance was silent.
"I am so different from the boy and girl cousins ... and Papa was always jealous."
"My dear!"
"And you too; but you fought against it."