Why, even if we suppose the greatest good luck, that the children don't die, and I bring them up somehow.

At the very best they'll simply be decent people.

That's all I can hope for.

And to gain simply that--what agonies, what toil!... One's whole life ruined!" Again she recalled what the young peasant woman had said, and again she was revolted at the thought; but she could not help admitting that there was a grain of brutal truth in the words.