“Send you to help in the kitchen, I suppose,” said Zoe reluctantly, thinking how unsuitable such a fate would be for the brilliant creature before her. The girl’s face darkened with passion.
“You would send my little lord to the kitchen?” she cried.
“Of course not. He stays here.”
“He stays nowhere without me, my lady. If you try to separate us, I shall take him in my arms and run away again as I did before. I will never give him up.”
“This is absurd, Kalliopé. He is no relation of yours, as you have often told me, and you have no rights over him. Until his own parents claim him, we are his guardians, and must do our best for him.”
Danaë was trembling with anger. “He is mine,” she controlled her lips sufficiently to say. “I saved him when his mother was killed——”
“His mother? Oh, Kalliopé, you said she was abroad!”
“I am mad! I know not what I say!” cried Danaë furiously. “If you take away my little lord, you take away my heart, my soul. But he shall not be taken away!”
“I don’t want to take him away. I should be miserable if I had to separate you. But if it was necessary for his good and Harold’s? How could I leave them in charge of a person who didn’t tell the truth?”
“But I always tell the truth unless I can’t help it.” In her anxiety Danaë condescended to excuse herself.