things come about, to be sure! Here am I with four foolish
girls, each one madder than the other; for if they were not mad, they
would not behave as they have behaved. Each one of them had an
honourable attachment, and well for them had they stopped there! but no,
they were not content, they would have the whole world at their feet,
and so they lost their opportunity."

This was the first assault.

Fanny, however, never answered a word. Mrs. Meyer, therefore, left well
alone. She had made a move in the right direction, as she thought, so
she now passed on to something else.

"How happy you are in this house! I see that every one loves you.
They're a little strict, perhaps, but what good honest people! A
thousand times fortunate you are to have found your way hither, where
you have everything you can desire. Here you can live in perfect
contentment so long as old Boltay lives. God preserve him for many years
to come! And yet I fear that he may one day die suddenly, for his blood
is very thick, and his father and his two brothers all died of apoplexy
much about the same time of life. I know very well that he would not
leave you in want--he would provide for you, of course, if he had not
got a nephew who is an advocate, to whom, perhaps, he will leave
everything. That is family pride, and very natural, after all. Blood,
you know, is thicker than water."

This was the second assault. Frighten the girl with the thought of what
will become of her if Boltay dies! "Waste your precious youth while
Boltay is alive, and then it will be too late to sigh and groan over the
reflection, 'How much better it would have been to have sold it for so
much!'"

And the horror of it was that Fanny understood everything quite well.
She knew what her mother was talking about, what she was aiming at, how
she was tampering with and tempting her, and she fancied that, through
the darkness, she could see her cunning face, and through that cunning
face right into that cunning soul, and she closed her eyes and stopped
up her ears that she might not either see or hear, and yet she saw and
heard all the same.

"Ay, ay!" sighed Mrs. Meyer, by way of announcing that she was about to
begin again.

"Are you asleep, Fanny?"

"No," stammered the girl. She was not even sly enough to leave the
question unanswered, in which case Mrs. Meyer would, perhaps, have
fancied she had dozed off, and not said anything more.

"Are you angry with me for talking?