He can't love two mothers.

You say he has been your comfort all these years.
Why, then, do you want to unsettle his mind ?" Jane lifted her head and looked at Lucy with searching eyes--looked as a man looks when someone he must not strike has flung a glove in his face.
"Do you really love anything, Lucy ?" she asked in a lower voice, her eyes still fastened on her sister's.
"Yes, Ellen and you." "Did you love her father ?" she continued in the same direct tone.
"Y-e-s, a little-- He was the dearest old man in the world and did his best to please me; and then he was never very well.

But why talk about him, dear ?" "And you never gave him anything in return for all his devotion ?" Jane continued in the same cross-examining voice and with the same incisive tone.
"Yes, my companionship--whenever I could.

About what you give Doctor John," and she looked at Jane with a sly inquiry as she laughed gently to herself.
Jane bit her lips and her face flushed scarlet.

The cowardly thrust had not wounded her own heart.