She smiled bitterly. "No, it was Mary's. Martin did not keep his whole
bargain with me--I was nothing more than his 'scrub wife' in every way."
"You _think_ you gave birth to Mary's child."
Mrs. Kesserich turned on Jack in anger. "I've been wounded by him,
day in and day out, for years, but I've never failed to recognize his
genius. Besides, you've seen the girl, haven't you?"
Jack had to nod. What confounded him most was that, granting the
near-impossible physiological feat Mrs. Kesserich had described, the
girl should look so much like the mother. Mothers and daughters don't
look that much alike; only identical twins did. With a thrill of fear,
he remembered Kesserich's casual words: "... parthenogenesis ... pure
stock ... special techniques...."
"Very well," he forced himself to say, "granting that the child was
Mary's and Martin's--"
"No! Mary's alone!"
Jack suppressed a shudder. He continued quickly, "What became of the
child?"
Mrs. Kesserich lowered her head. "The day it was born, it was taken
away from me. After that, I never saw Hilda and Hani, either."
"You mean," Jack asked, "that Martin sent them away to bring up the
child?"