I think this very hard. I didn't come into the world
at my own request, did I? I didn't ask to be born. If I was such
an annoyance to them when I came into existence, why didn't they
throw me into the river? Then they would have been well rid of me,
and I should be out of my misery!"
He stopped short, struck dumb with amazement, for Madame d'Argeles
had thrown herself on her knees at his feet. "Have mercy!" she
faltered; "Wilkie; my son, forgive me!" Alas! the unfortunate
woman had failed in playing a part which was too difficult for a
mother's heart. "You have suffered cruelly, my son," she
continued; "but I--I--Ah! you can't conceive the frightful agony
it costs a mother to separate from her child! But you were not
deserted, Wilkie; don't say that. Have you not felt my love in
the air around you? YOU forgotten? Know, then, that for years and
years I have seen you every day, and that all my thoughts and all
my hopes are centered in you alone! Wilkie!"
She dragged herself toward him with her hands clasped in an agony
of supplication, while he recoiled, frightened by this outburst of
passion, and utterly amazed by his easily won victory. The poor
woman misunderstood this movement. "Great God!" she exclaimed,
"he spurns me; he loathes me. Ah! I knew it would be so. Oh! why
did you come? What infamous wretch sent you here? Name him,
Wilkie! Do you understand, now, why I concealed myself from you? I
dreaded the day when I should blush before you, before my own son.
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