A choking voice kept him silent for a moment only.
'Mother, the loss is nothing to you; you are above regrets of that kind; and for myself, I am almost glad to have lost it.' 'In very truth,' answered the mother, 'I care little about the wealth you might have possessed.

What I do care for is the loss of all the hopes I had built upon you.

I thought you honour itself; I thought you high-minded.

Young as you are, I let you go from me without a fear.
Hubert, I would have staked my life that no shadow of disgrace would ever fall upon your head! You have taken from me the last comfort of my age.' He uttered words she could not catch.
'The purity of your soul was precious to me,' she continued, her accents struggling against weakness; 'I thought I had seen in you a love of that chastity without which a man is nothing; and I ever did my best to keep your eyes upon a noble ideal of womanhood.

You have fallen.