The child flared up.
“He’s a liar. He’s false through and through. Whatever he does is calculated and common. He wanted to get to know you, so he made friends with me and promised me a dog. I don’t know what he promised you, or why he’s so friendly with you, but he wants something of you, too, mamma, positively he does. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be so polite and friendly. He’s a bad man. He lies. Just take a good look at him once, and see how false his eyes are. Oh, I hate him!”
“Edgar, how can you talk like that!” She was confused and did not know what to reply. The feeling stirred in her that the child was right.
“Yes, he’s a bad man, you can’t make me believe he isn’t. You must see he is. Why is he afraid of me? Why does he try to keep out of my way? Because he knows I can see through him and his badness."
“How can you talk like that?” she kept protesting feebly. Her brain seemed to have dried up.
All of a sudden a great fear came upon her, whether of the baron or the boy, she knew not. Edgar saw that his warning was taking effect, and he was lured on to win her over to his side and have a comrade in his hate and hostility toward the baron. He went over to her gently, put his arms about her, and said in a voice flattering with the excitement quivering in it:
“Mamma, you yourself must have noticed that it isn’t anything good that he wants. He’s made you quite different. You’re the one that’s changed, not I. He set you against me just to have you to himself. I’m sure he means to deceive you. I don’t know what he promised you, but whatever it is, he doesn’t intend to keep his promise. You ought to be careful of him. A man who will lie to one person will lie to another person, too. He’s a bad, bad man. You mustn’t trust him.”
Edgar’s voice, soft and almost tearful, seemed to speak out of her own heart. Since the day before an uncomfortable feeling had been rising in her which told her the same, with growing emphasis. But she was ashamed to tell her own child he was right, and she took refuge, as so many do when under the stress of overwhelming feeling, in rude rejoinder. She straightened herself up.
“Children don’t understand such things. You have no right to mix into such matters. You must behave yourself. That’s all.”
Edgar’s face congealed again.