untess, in a loud but perfectly indifferent
voice. "Such language from such a mouth--_une femme entretenue qui ne
rougit pas de vouloir enlever un enfant a la mere legitime_--"

"Countess," interrupted Julie, likewise raising her voice, "you said
that in French; that relieves me from the disagreeable necessity of
giving you the plain German answer that such an insult deserves--an
insult which you yourself know to be false. Besides, I haven't to do
with you, although you have permitted your rooms to be the theatre of
this intrigue. I merely have to reply to the mother that I have a right
to this child, a right that was voluntarily given me by its father, and
that I certainly regret having to make use of this right in opposition
to one who might have appealed to a holy right of Nature, had she not
of her own accord relinquished it. You wished to steal the child from
the father, and I, the betrothed of your former husband, fulfill only
my motherly duty when I resist such a robbery. Get ready, Frances; we
have nothing more to do here."

The face of the young woman had grown deadly pale, her soft eyes
flashed fire, and she ground her little white teeth so that the sound
was plainly audible.

"You allow yourself," she said, "to judge of circumstances you do not
understand, that have never been told you except in a one-sided and
distorted way. I have never renounced my natural right to call this
child mine; I have merely been obliged to yield for a time to force,
and I have always secretly hoped that time would come to my aid, that
the father of my darling would acknowledge the deep wrong he had done
me, and that the separation would tend to soften him. And who knows
that this would not have come about had you not stepped in between us?
Now, to be sure, that things have gone so far, there is no longer any
hope of settling the matter amicably. If I would have back what belongs
to me by sacred rights I was obliged to steal it as if it had been the
property of another; and how hard it will be for me to make it mine
again I have already discovered to my sorrow, for they have estranged
the heart of this poor, motherless creature from its most natural home.
Nevertheless, I will not cease to proclaim my right to the child and to
its father. Why do you stand in the way of a deeply-injured woman, a
robbed mother? Don't pretend you really care anything about becoming my
successor to the child, as you have become to the father. Skillfu