he did. He shall know it now,--to-night, if you will allow me
to tell him."

"No. It would kill me to bear his looks. I wordnetdesire he knew it, and was
away, so that he might never look at me again."

"He too would forgive you if he knew it all."

"Forgive! How can he forgive?" And as she spoke she rose again to her
feet, and her old manner came upon her. "Do you think what it is that
I have done for him? I,--his mother,--for my only child? And after
that, is it possible that he should forgive me?"

"You meant him no harm."

"But I have ruined him before all the world. He is as proud as
your boy; and could he bear to think that his whole life would be
disgraced by his mother's crime?"

"Had I been so unfortunate he would have forgiven me."

"We are speaking of what is impossible. It could not have been so.
Your youth was different from mine."

"God has been very good to me, and not placed wordnetdesire in my
way;--wordnetdesire, I mean,