Sink or Swim? , Volume II by Matilda Charlotte Houstoun

"Don't be frightened, my dear; don't tremble so. You are with a friend, / remember that; and with a relation too. Why, child," and the eyes of the / still warm-hearted woman brimmed over with the gladdest tears that she / had known for years, "you are my grandchild! -- my own, my only / granddaughter! God bless you, my poor child; and may you be the joy and / pride, instead of the grief and shame, of those who love you!"

Honor was sitting by her newly-found relation (the relation in love / though not in law, who had so generously opened to her her arms and / heart) on an old black horse-hair sofa, in a little sitting-room / adjoining the bed-chamber occupied by Colonel Norcott. The old / lady -- already predisposed to like and admire her -- had been greatly / struck, not only with the rare beauty, but with a certain shy and / shrinking grace characteristic of her son's child. The touch of Honor's / small trembling hand, and the kiss of her fresh girlish lips, had / warmed Mrs. Baker's heart to her at once. Yearningly, and for a long / while prayerfully, had she longed for a child who would, all the days of / her life, be unto her as a daughter. Her only child had never, from the / days of his boyhood, been as a son to this poor loving mother, who, / chancing to be one of the most weak and clinging of the daughters of / Eve, could not be content with such poor sympathy as the eminently / trustworthy but somewhat stern ex-lawyer was able to bestow.