The mother would have found some way to see her child, and that is her
right--I should do the same."
"Her right?" interrupted the Major violently. "And you say that to me,
Regine?"
"I say it, because I know what it is to have an only son. It was right
for you to take your child, for such a mother was not fit to educate
him; but that you should refuse to let her see her son again, after an
absence of twelve years, is a hardness and cruelty which can only be
prompted by hate. No matter how great her guilt may have been--the
punishment is too hard."
Falkenried looked gloomily on the ground; he knew there was truth in her
words; at last he said slowly:
"I should never have believed you would espouse Zalika's cause. Once I
injured you deeply for her sake. I tore asunder a bond--"
"Which never had been united," broke in Frau von Eschenhagen, anxious to
avoid the subject. "It was only a plan of our parents, nothing more."
"But the thought was a familiar and cherished one in our childhood's
years. Do not seek to shield me, Regine, I know only too well how I
treated you then--and myself too."
Regine looked straight at him with her clear, gray eyes, but there was
something like moisture in them as she answered:
"Well, well, Hartmut, it's all over now, so many years that I do not
hesitate to admit that I would have had you then, willingly enough, and
perhaps you would have been able to make something more out of me than I
have become.
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