"If you say so and live up to it," Suzanna returned.
"Well, anyway," said Maizie, "mother's not cuddling Daphne because she wants to; only because she's sorry for her."
"What do you mean?" asked Mrs. Procter. "I like little Daphne, too, and I'm glad she's come to visit us."
"But you know, mother," said Maizie, "you only find time to cuddle your own babies. And you stop just as soon as they can walk around."
"Mrs. Procter cuddles all children in her heart," said Suzanna loyally. "She'd wear her arms out if she cuddled all of us all the time."
Maizie didn't answer that. But when little Daphne finally left Mrs. Procter's sheltering clasp and went away to play with the children, Maizie still hovered about her mother.
"Mother," she said at last, "did you like to hold Daphne close up to you?"
Now mothers are very wonderful beings, and with no further word from Maizie, Mrs. Procter understood the child's unspoken wish. In a moment Maizie was held close to her mother's breast, and was looking up into her mother's tender eyes. And the mother was thinking. Was mother love selfish then in its inclusion? Weren't there little ones outside hungering for cuddling? How children went to the heart of things! She thought suddenly and perhaps irrelevantly of her husband's invention upon which he poured his heart's best treasures. And yet not once had he ever mentioned the money which might be his did success attend it. Only the good to others. His seemed a wide vision. She sighed. It was hard to find strength enough, time enough to go outside one's home doing good. "Well, at least," she thought with a sudden uplift, "I'll adopt little Daphne into our home circle."
When Mr. Procter arrived home for supper he found, playing happily about, the little addition to his family. Suzanna took her father off to one corner to explain all about Daphne.
"And so I've given my share in mother to Daphne whenever she visits us," concluded Suzanna.