Miss Winchester felt a little incredulous, but she said nothing. Mrs. Cultus continued:
“I never before so well understood Adele, although I am her mother. At times she talks like a chatterbox, but she never says anything unkind about people. Perhaps I shouldn’t say ‘never,’ for she did once give a regular scolding to a rascally brute who was abusing his horse—a dumb creature that couldn’t retaliate. Adele did speak for the dumb brute, but that was an exceptional case, and she did right to interfere.”
“She has my full approval,” remarked Miss Winchester. Mrs. Cultus continued:
“Then she is interested in all babies—would you believe it?—of any color. ‘Cherubs’ she calls them if she thinks it will stop their crying. I heard her one day call a cherub, ‘Cupid,’ and kiss him. Bless me, I saw nothing attractive in that particular child. She says she likes babies just as God made them, of any color. Now, Frank, I call that practical religion, and Adele turns from nothing; she is interested in all humanity.”
“No doubt of it,” said Miss Winchester thoughtfully, as if recalling an instance known to her personally.
Mrs. Cultus continued: “But when it comes to talkative religion, Adele is more conservative, says little or nothing—only acts naturally what she feels. And the strangest thing of all is——” and Adele’s mother paused an instant as if she ought to be careful about what she wished to say.
“What?” asked Miss Winchester, closely attentive.
“Why, she is always so sure, so perfectly sure in her own mind, as if under the influence of some invisible power—something mystical, you see, but very practical, too. I never heard her say much about it but once—you remember when she spoke to that Geyser Science woman on the Atlantic steamer?—and then she certainly did express herself like a girl much older, very precocious, to my notion. Do you know what I think, Frank?”
“No, I can’t imagine.”
“Well, Adele was talking about Christ, and she was perfectly fearless; you remember how He talked, when only a youth, to the Doctors in the Temple?”