"Perhaps it would have been better! This sham-saint had not even sufficient healthful nature in her to be grateful?"
"Ah, she had reason to hate me, she loved my child more than any earthly thing and reproached me for having neglected it. These people can imagine love only in the fulfillment of lowly duties and physical attendance. That a woman can have no time or understanding of these things, and yet love, is beyond their comprehension."
"A fine state of affairs, where the servant makes herself the judge of her mistress--nay even discovers in her conduct an excuse for the basest treachery. A plain maid-servant, properly reared by her parents, would have fulfilled her duty to her employers without philosophizing."
The countess nodded, she was thinking of old Martin.
"But," the duke continued, "extra allowance must of course be made for these Ammergau people."
"We will let her rest; she is dead. Who knows how it happened, or the struggles through which she passed?"
"Is she dead?"
"Yes, she died just after the child."
"Indeed?" said the duke, thoughtfully, in a gentler tone: "Well, then at least she has atoned. But, my dear Madeleine, this does not undo the disaster. The Wildenaus will at any rate try to make capital out of their knowledge of your secret, and, as the dear cousins are constantly incurring gaming and other debts--especially your red-haired kinsman Fritz--they will not let slip the opportunity of making their honored cousin pay for their discretion the full amount of their notes!"
"Ah, if that were all!"