"And who says that your lot may not be different?" answered Nora. "It is not your sister-in-law that has the disposition of your future; you yourself can do more to make your fortune than she to unmake it. Hope is the last thing lost, but then one must not cross one's arms while they can be of use."
"Idle talk," returned Ismena. "You know that my hopes are as vain as my marriage is sterile."
"It will amount to the same thing," said Nora, "whether you give birth to a son or adopt one."
The lady fixed her great blue eyes upon the woman as she exclaimed, "The count would never consent!"
"He need not know it," replied Nora.
"A fraud, a crime, a robbery! Are you beside yourself?"
"All that sounds very lofty, yet in reality you will only be doing some poor wretch an act of charity. Your nieces are well married; your sister-in-law has a rich jointure, and does not need the count's money. If they desire to have it, it is through ambition, and that you may not enjoy it."
"Never! never!" said Ismena. "Better to lose rank and position than become the slave of a secret which may bring us to dishonor. Never!" she repeated, shaking her head as if she wished to shake the fatal thought from her mind.
"I only shall know the secret, and I alone will be responsible. So it will be more secure in my breast than in your own."