ould
dislike her child offends our feelings and our conceptions of human
sympathy; but that a mother should wantonly and without evidence accuse
her son of a fearful crime, and be his only accuser, is a sin against
humanity itself, and our reason revolts against it as much as our heart.

It was hopeless to attempt an explanation of Madame Patoff's state of
mind. Paul might have understood her better had he known how she talked
and behaved when he was not present. John Carvel and his wife had indeed
assured Paul that his mother was entirely sane, and had forgotten her
resentment against him, speaking of him affectionately, and showing
herself anxious to see him during the long journey. But there was one of
the party who could have told a different story; who could have repeated
some of her aunt's utterances, and could have described certain phases
in her temper in such a way as would have surprised the rest. Madame
Patoff had naturally chosen to confide in Hermione, for Hermione had
first startled her into a confession of her sanity, and with her rested
the secret of the last two years. On the occasion which Carvel had
mentioned in his letter to me, when Madame Patoff had been surprised in
a sensible conversation by her nurse, the old lady had shown very great
presence of mind. She had recognized immediately that she was detected,
and that she would find it extremely difficult in future to deceive the
practiced eye of the vigilant Mrs. North. She was tired, too, in spite
of what she said to Hermione, of the absolute seclusion in which she
lived; not that she was wearied of mourning for Alexander, but because
she had exhausted one way of expressing her grief. So, at least, it
seemed to Hermione. Madame Patoff had therefore accepted the situation
and made the best of it, declaring herself sane and entirely recovered.
She had always contemplated the possibility of some such termination to
her pretended madness, and was perhaps glad that it had come at last.
She even found at first a pleasant relaxation in leading the life of an
ordinary person, and she tried to join in the life of the family in such
a way as to be no longer a burden or a source of anxiety to those she
had capriciously sacrificed during a year and a half. But with Hermione
she was not the same as with the rest. She was with her what she had
been on the first day when Hermione had declared her love for Paul, and
it appeared to the young girl that her aunt was