The past was absorbed in the present; and she loved
as parents none other than those she called by the tender names of
"father" and "mother." The children with whom she grew up she
knew only as her brothers and sisters. This thorough adoption and
incorporation of the child into their family was not, in any sense,
the work of design on the part of Claire and his wife. But they saw,
in the beginning, no reason to check the natural tendency thereto.
When little Fanny, of her own accord, addressed them, soon after her
virtual adoption, as "father" and "mother," they accepted the child's
own interpretation of their relative positions, and took her from that
moment more entirely into their hearts.
And so Fanny Elder grew up to womanhood, in the full belief that she
was the child of Mr. and Mrs. Claire. The new trial through which this
excellent couple were now to pass, the reader can easily imagine.
The time had come when Fanny must know the real truth in regard to
herself--must be told that she had no natural claim upon the love of
those whose love she prized above all things.
It seemed cruel to take away the conscious right to love and be loved,
which had so long blessed her. And yet the truth must now be made
known, and Mrs. Claire took upon herself the task of breaking it as
gently as possible.
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