She concealed this sentiment from Sir Charles, but not from the female servants: and, from one to another, at last it came round to Sir Charles. He disbelieved it utterly at first; but, the hint having been given him, he paid attention, and discovered there was, at all events, some truth in it.
He awaited his opportunity and remonstrated: “My dear Bella, am I mistaken, or do I really observe a falling off in your tenderness for your child?”
Lady Bassett looked this way and that, as if she meditated flight, but at last she resigned herself, and said, “Yes, dear Charles; my heart is quite cold to him.”
“Good Heavens, Bella! But why? Is not this the same little angel that came to our help in trouble, that comforted me even before his birth, when my mind was morbid, to say the least?”
“I suppose he is the same,” said she, in a tone impossible to convey by description of mine.
“That is a strange answer.”
“If he is, I am changed.” And this she said doggedly and unlike herself.
“What!” said Sir Charles, very gravely, and with a sort of awe: “can a woman withdraw her affection from her child, her innocent child? If so, my turn may come next.”
“Oh, Charles! Charles!” and the tears began to well.
“Why, who can be secure after this? What is so stable as a mother's love? If that is not rooted too deep for gusts of caprice to blow it away, in Heaven's name, what is?”