, be calm; don't tremble and give way like that. You know how I love
you, and how, if it only depended on me, we would never leave each
other. But we must be reasonable, and think a little of the future.
Alas! the future is already dark enough for us."

And in one of those outbursts of words that she still had sometimes when
freed from the presence of the master, she endeavored to explain to
Jack, with all kinds of hesitations and reticences, the irregularity of
their position.

"You see, my darling, you are still very young; there are many things
you cannot understand. Some day, when you are older, I will reveal to
you the secret of your birth; quite a romance, my dear! Some day I will
tell you the name of your father, and the unheard-of fatality of which
your mother and yourself have been the victims. But for the present,
what you must know and thoroughly comprehend, is that nothing here
belongs to us, my poor child, and that we are absolutely dependent on
him. How can I therefore oppose your departure, especially when I know
that he wants you to leave for your good? I cannot ask him for anything
more. He has already done so much for us. Besides, he is not rich, and
this terrible artistic career is so expensive! He could not undertake
the expense of your education. What will become of me between you two?
We must come to a decision. Remember that it was a profession you were
being given. Would you not be proud of being independent, of gaining
your own livelihood, of being your own master?"

She saw at once by the flash in the child's eye that she had struck
home; and in a low tone, in the caressing, coaxing voice of a mother,
she murmured:--

"Do it for my sake, Jack; will you? Put yourself in a position that will
enable you soon to gain your livelihood. Who knows if some day I may not
be obliged myself to have recourse to you as my only protector, my only
friend?"

Did she really think what she said? Was it a presentiment, one of those
sudden glimpses into the future which unfold to us our destiny and
reveal the failure and disappointments of our existence? Or had she been
merely carried away in the whirlwind words of her impulsive
sentimentality?

In any case she could not have found a better argument to convince that
little generous spirit. The effect was instantaneous. The idea that his
mother might want him, that he could help her by his work, suddenly
decided him.

He looked her straight in the face.