t you, but you do not see it--you think you are younger when you
call me a child. I say to you I will not endure it! I will be a
lady--I will adorn myself and go into society. I will not remain in the
school-room with a governess while you are sparkling in the saloon
and enchanting your followers by your beauty. I will also have my
worshippers, who pay court to me; I will write and receive love-letters
as other maidens do; I will carry on my own little love-affairs as all
other girls do; as you did, from the time you were twelve years old, and
still do!"

"Silence, Camilla! or I will make you feel that you are still a child!"
cried Louise, raising her arm threateningly and approaching the divan.

"Would you strike me, mother?" said she, with trembling lips. "I counsel
you not to do it. Raise your hand once more against me, but think of the
consequences. I will run away! I will fly to my poor, dear father, whom
you, unhappy one, have made a drunkard! I will remain with him--he loves
me tenderly. If I were with him, he would no longer drink."

"Oh, my God, my God!" cried Louise, with tears gushing from her eyes;
"it is he who has planted this hate in her heart--he has been the cause
of all my wretchedness! She loves her father who has done nothing for
her, and she hates her mother who has shown her nothing but love."
With a loud cry of agony, she clasped her hands over her face and wept
bitterly.

Camilla drew close to her, grasped her hands and pulled them forcibly
from her face, then looked in her eyes passionately and scornfully.
Camilla was indeed no longer a child. She stood erect, pale, and
fiercely excited, opposite to her mother. Understanding and intellect
flashed from her dark eyes. There were lines around her mouth which
betrayed a passion and a power with which childhood has nothing to do.

"You say you have shown me nothing but love," said Camilla, in a cold
and cutting tone. "Mother, what love have you shown me? You made my
father wretched, and my childish years were spent under the curse of
a most unhappy marriage. I have seen my father weep while you were
laughing merrily--I have seen him drunk and lying like a beast at my
feet, while you were in our gay saloon receiving and entertaining guests
with cool unconcern. You say you have shown me nothing but love. You
never loved me, mother, never! Had you loved me, you would have taken
pity with my future--you would not have given me a step-father while I