human
Then, if you love me, said she, speaking quickly, with an altered voice;
gpt
Mrs. Pryor----
human
My own child!
gpt
That is--that means--you have adopted me?
human
It means that, if I have given you nothing else, I at least gave you life; that I bore you, nursed you; that I am your true mother. No other woman can claim the title; it is _mine_.
gpt
But Mrs. James Helstone--but my father's wife, whom I do not remember ever to have seen, she is my mother?
human
She _is_ your mother. James Helstone was _my_ husband. I say you are _mine_. I have proved it. I thought perhaps you were all his, which would have been a cruel dispensation for me. I find it is _not_ so. God permitted me to be the parent of my child's mind. It belongs to me; it is my property--my _right_. These features are James's own. He had a fine face when he was young, and not altered by error. Papa, my darling, gave you your blue eyes and soft brown hair; he gave you the oval of your face and the regularity of your lineaments--the outside _he_ conferred; but the heart and the brain are _mine_. The germs are from _me_, and they are improved, they are developed to excellence. I esteem and approve my child as highly as I do most fondly love her.
gpt
Is what I hear true? Is it no dream?
human
I wish it were as true that the substance and colour of health were restored to your cheek.
gpt
My own mother! is she one I can be so fond of as I can of you? People generally did not like her--so I have been given to understand.
human
They told you that? Well, your mother now tells you that, not having the gift to please people generally, for their approbation she does not care. Her thoughts are centred in her child. Does that child welcome or reject her?
gpt
But if you _are_ my mother, the world is all changed to me. Surely I can live. I should like to recover----
human
You _must_ recover. You drew life and strength from my breast when you were a tiny, fair infant, over whose blue eyes I used to weep, fearing I beheld in your very beauty the sign of qualities that had entered my heart like iron, and pierced through my soul like a sword. Daughter! we have been long parted; I return now to cherish you again.
gpt
My mother--my own mother!