Mrs. Oliphant

“ You shall be her governess, my dear. Oh, you need not teach her anything—that is not what I mean. I think, I am sure, you will be the saving of her, Miss Vivian; and such a lady as you are, it will be everything for the other girls to live with you. Don't stop to think, but just come with me. You shall have whatever you please, and always be treated like a lady. Oh, my dear, consider my feelings as a mother, and come; oh, come to Connie! I know you will save her; it is an inspiration. Come back! Come back with me!"
It seemed to Mary too like an inspiration. ”

“ There is no one in the world like her!" Mary cried.
"And yet she left you without a penny. Oh, you must be a good girl to feel for her like that. She left you without—— What are you going to do, my dear? I feel like a friend. I feel like a mother to you, though you don't know me. You mustn't think it is only curiosity. You can't stay with your friends for ever,—and what are you going to do?"
There are some cases in which it is more easy to speak to a stranger than to one's dearest and oldest friend. ”

“ I see now; you are the young lady who—you are the young lady that,—you are the one that—suffered most."
"I am Lady Mary's goddaughter," said the girl. "I have lived here all my life."
"Oh, my dear, I have heard all about you," the stranger cried. The people who had taken the house were merely rich people; they had no other characteristic; and in the vicarage, as well as in the other houses about, it was said, when they were spoken of, that it was a good thing they were not people to be visited, since nobody could have had the heart to visit strangers in Lady Mary's house. ”