The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy
Every man must sympathize with the feelings of a mother on such an occasion as this,--and will easily comprehend, that, in the questions which my duty obliges me to put to Mrs. Walkinshaw, I am, as it were, obliged, out of that sacred respect which is due to her maternal sensibility, to address myself in more general terms than I should otherwise do.'