"The prince will not dream of taking Tekla from me. He knows she is not his child."
"But your son Alexander? What will he be to you when you are called Madame Meyrin? You don't suppose Pierre will ever let you see him or speak to him? What will they tell him when he asks where his mother is? If he is sick who will care for him?"
Lise Barineff turned very pale. As we have said, she had always been a good mother. Her head drooped; she answered nothing. It was plain that she suffered.
"Is your marriage fixed?"
"Yes," said the young woman. "In the first place, I love Monsieur Paul Meyrin."
"A fine reason!"
"Besides, if he does not marry me—of course, you can't have known this—the prince will kill him."
"And a good thing, too."
"Oh, mother, mother!"
"Do you suppose I can easily fall in with this ridiculous change in your life? If my pride could bear it, would not my motherly love take the alarm! Think of the society you have lived in, and compare it with that which you will have to live in."