Elinor's Baby

One of the charms of The Marriage of Elinor by Margaret Oliphant are the scenes depicting Elinor and her baby and the reaction of John Tatham to the sight of the two together. Mrs. Oliphant has a wonderful way of letting the reader into the mind of John, who first thinks of the baby as "it". John's feelings are at first hostile to this child, but Mrs. Oliphant shows how his feelings change as he sees the beauty of the mother-child interaction in scenes that seem to me to be verbal images depicting the Madonna and child.