easily surprised, but the
question was so direct that she drew further back into her chair with
a quick movement, and her bright eye sparkled angrily as she raised
her sandy eyebrows.

'In this world,' she said, 'the truth is always surprising and
generally unpleasant. In consideration of what I have been obliged to
tell you about yourself, I can easily excuse your foolish speech.'

'You are very kind,' Angela answered quietly enough, but in a tone
that the Princess did not like. 'I was not asking your indulgence, but
an explanation, no matter how disagreeable the rest of the truth may
be. What have I done that you should hate me?'

The Princess laughed contemptuously.

'The expression is too strong,' she retorted. 'Hatred would imply an
interest in you and your possible doings, which I am far from feeling,
I assure you! Since it turns out that you are not even one of the
family----'

She laughed again and raised her eyebrows still higher, instead of
ending the speech.

'From what you say,' Angela answered with a good deal of dignity, 'I
can only understand that if you followed your own inclination you
would turn me out into the street.'

'The law will do so without my intervention,' answered the elder
woman. 'If my brother-in-law had even taken the trouble to acknowledge
you as his child, without legitimising you, you would have been
entitled to a small allowance, perhaps two or three hundred francs a
month, to keep you from starving. But as he has left no legal proof
that you are his daughter, and since he was not properly married to
your mother, you can claim nothing, not even a name! You are, in fact,
a destitute foundling, as Calvi just said!'

'It only remains for you to offer me your charity,' Angela said.

'That was not my intention,' returned the Princess with a savage
sneer. 'I have talked it over with my husband, and we do not see why
he should be expected to support his brother's--natural child!'

Angela rose from her seat without a word and went quietly towards the
door; but before she could reach it the Princess had followed her with
a rush and a dramatic sweep of her black cloth skirt and plentiful
crape, and had caught her by the wrist to bring her back to the middle
of the great room.

'I shall not keep you long!' cried the angry woman. 'You ask me what
you have done that I should hate you, and I answer, nothing, since you
are nobody! But I hated your mother, because she robbed me of the m