"i am ashamed! i am ashamed!" she exclaimed in broken tones. "i did not know what a filial child you were. through no fault of yours, but with a step-mother's jealous heart, i have disliked you all the time. hating you so much myself, it was but natural that i should think you reciprocated the feeling, and thus when i saw you retire so often to your room i followed you, and when i saw you gaze daily into the mirror for long intervals, i concluded that you had found out how i disliked you, and that you were out of revenge trying to take my life by magic art. as long as i live i shall never forget the wrong i have done you in so misjudging you, and in causing your father to suspect you. from this day i throw away my old and wicked heart, and in its place i put a new one, clean and full of repentance. i shall think of you as a child that i have borne myself. i shall love and cherish you with all my heart, and thus try to make up for all the unhappiness i have caused you. therefore, please throw into the water all that has gone before, and give me, i beg of you, some of the filial love that you have hitherto given to your own lost mother."