The lady stretched out her hands towards him imploringly.  “What can I do?  They took him away from me and adjudged him to De Gemer.  My lawyer did everything that he could, but in vain.”

“But would you love him, would you like to take care of him as it behooves a decent mother, if my lord would return him to you?”

“Why would I not!  I deserve that you ask me that.  Whether you believe me or not, Bacha Filina, I would give everything if I could only get him back again.  I see he loves me, unworthy though I am.”

“Yes, he loves you as only forsaken children know how to do.  Therefore I came to you, lady—­today or never God gives you an opportunity to get your treasure back again.  Your former husband fell deeply into debt.  His administrator received the order to sell the estate of the De Gemer family.  If you have enough money—­the doctor told me that you have—­buy it out of the first hands before the Jews get hold of it.  When your lawyer writes him that you will have the estate turned over to the boy, if Lord de Gemen will give it to you in black and white, he will be glad to do so, I know, and will give you the boy.  He always boasted that the ‘De Gemer’ estate shall belong to Ondrejko, his first-born.  Everybody in the neighborhood knows about it.  It would not be such a great shame on the family, that they had to sell the family castle, if, after all, the property remained in his son’s hands.  It is a beautiful estate, and it is wisely managed.  It will bring a much larger income later on, than it does today.  Even if you had to borrow some money to purchase it, it would be worthwhile to do so.”

“Oh, Bacha Filina!” The lady took the man’s hard right hand into her small ones.  “How can I thank you enough for this good and beautiful advice?  I don’t know if my ready money will suffice, but I have beautiful jewelry, and when I sell that, we will have something to start with at least.  I am not altogether so unfamiliar with managing as you may think; I am the daughter of a farmer.  But who will buy this for me?  My lawyer is not here.”

“Leave Ondrejko with the doctor.  Ride to the administrator’s office and buy the estate yourself.  He has orders to sell it.  Do not begin to deal about the boy before the estate is yours.  At least, that is what I think.  But today let Ondrejko know that you are his mother, that the boy may not suffer longer.  Come to us in the afternoon.  I will send Palko for you.”

Filina arose.  “I would not have come to you while you are still weak, but we must hurry with the buying, and Ondrejko cared so much that he shook all over, thinking that surely he had said something bad to you so that you fainted.  The boy is very tender.  He needs not only strengthening with me—­that is only for the body—­but his heart needs a mother.  The God in the heavens has become his Father.  Good-bye, then.”

“Bacha Filina,” the lady stopped the man.  “Do you know why I parted with De Gemer?  Or do you think that because I am a singer, I have left him like an unfaithful wife?”