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Rh "Will you be strong, Gerdy?"

She sobbed and laughed through her tears:

"I have tried to be all the time, Addie," she whispered. "But for you . . ."

"You know, life isn't all your first suffering."

"No, so you've told me."

"And you must believe it. . . . It will help you. . . . You have such a long future before you."

"Yes. Oh, Addie, Addie, but for you . . ."

"What?"

"I should have died! I have suffered so, I have suffered so!"

"And you see so much suffering around you. . . . But life . . ."

"Isn't all your first suffering . . . as you say."

"And you must believe it."

"Yes, I'll try."

Constance entered:

"Am I to see nothing of my boy this evening?" she asked, banteringly.

He took her in a clinging embrace:

"You've got him home for good now."

She gave a sob:

"My poor child . . . then I haven't lost you?"

"Lost me? Why?"

"A son . . ."

"You've always been afraid . . . of losing me. But you never have lost me."

"No, never. . . . Tell me, dear, am I to blame? I am to blame, am I not?"

"How?"

"About Mathilde."

"No, you're not to blame. . . . But, if she comes back, later, with the children, Mamma, let us try . . ."

"Yes, dear, yes."