They hugged it first, and then asked questions. And
that, I say, is the right way of receiving every good gift of God. Ask what
questions you will, but when you see that the gift is a good one, make
sure that you take it. There is plenty of time for you to ask questions
afterwards. Then the better you love the gift, the more ready you will be
to ask, and the more fearless in asking.
The truth, however, soon became known. And then, strange to relate, we
began to receive visits of condolence. O, that poor baby! how it was
frowned upon, and how it had heads shaken over it, just because it was not
Ethelwyn's baby! It could not help that, poor darling!
"Of course, you'll give information to the police," said, I am sorry to
say, one of my brethren in the neighbourhood, who had the misfortune to be
a magistrate as well.
"Why?" I asked.
"Why! That they may discover the parents, to be sure."
"Wouldn't it be as hard a matter to prove the parentage, as it would be
easy to suspect it?" I asked. "And just think what it would be to give the
baby to a woman who not only did not want her, but who was not her mother.
But if her own mother came to claim her now, I don't say I would refuse
her, but I should think twice about giving her up after she had once
abandoned her for a whole night in the open air.
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