"Have I not a thousand times expressed my wish that you should not go on the stage?"
"Oh," answered Mitzi sweetly, "you have certainly done it more than a thousand times. But I have failed to understand why."
"Is the example of your unhappy aunt, of La Carina, not enough?"
"My mother, too, was an operatic singer."
"I do not speak of your mother, I speak of your aunt."
"Well, what of her?"
"Was her's not a life of shame?"
"I feel unable to see it in that light."
"Was your mother not ashamed of her? Did she not for years hide from me the mere existence of your aunt Kathi, of La Carina? Was I not cheated by your mother every day exactly as I have now been cheated once more by you? And what for? I ask you, what for? Do you think that every she-cat that walks miaowing over the boards will find an Archduke?"