Excerpt from Laneton Parsonage: A Tale for Children
'Mamma,' said little Madeline Clifford, as she looked up from the work which she had been industriously hemming for nearly a quarter of an hour, 'I want very much to ask you a question.'
'Well, my love, what is it? why should you be afraid?'
'Because, perhaps, you will think it is curious, and would rather not answer.'
'I can but say no, if I think it wrong.'
'Oh! it is not wrong, I am sure; but sometimes you tell us not to trouble ourselves about other persons' concerns; and what I wish to know has nothing really to do with me, or with any of us.'
Mrs Clifford smiled: 'Shall I tell you, Madeline,' she said, 'what you are going to ask?'
'You can't, mamma; how should you know? you cannot look at my thoughts.'
'But I can guess them, which sometimes does as well. What made you listen so much to what Mrs Mortimer and I were saying just now?'
'Oh, then, mamma, you do know: but I did not understand when I did listen; because I could not make out what Mrs Mortimer meant when she said that Lady Catharine Hyde was going to adopt Alice Lennox. What is adopting?'
'Taking her to be her own child; and having her taught, and clothed, and fed, as a mother would.'
'And will she love her?' inquired Madeline.
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