"If you did, you
should have put me on an equality with other people."
"Dolly," Herminia moaned, wringing her hands in her despair, "my
child, my darling, how I have loved you! how I have watched over
you! Your life has been for years the one thing I had to live for.
I dreamed you would be just such another one as myself. EQUAL with
other people! Why, I thought I was giving you the noblest heritage
living woman ever yet gave the child of her bosom. I thought you
would be proud of it, as I myself would have been proud. I thought
you would accept it as a glorious birthright, a supreme privilege.
How could I foresee you would turn aside from your mother's creed?
How could I anticipate you would be ashamed of being the first
free-born woman ever begotten in England? 'Twas a blessing I meant
to give you, and you have made a curse of it."
"YOU have made a curse of it!" Dolores answered, rising and glaring
at her. "You have blighted my life for me. A good man and true
was going to make me his wife. After this, how can I dare to palm
myself off upon him?"
She swept from the room.
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