Sunday and Tom accept Treetops Manor for a foundling home

Sunday Small and Tom Branning accept Treetops Manor as the foundation for a home for foundlings, transforming Lady Lavinia Huntley’s inheritance offer into a shared undertaking. Sunday’s acceptance follows an initial refusal and a reconciliation with the mother she believed had abandoned her; she agrees to the plan only if Lavinia stays to help. The decision gives practical form to Sunday’s long-held wish that abandoned children should have a safe home and a sense of belonging.

The Offer and Sunday’s Initial Refusal

While Sunday Small is recovering, Zillah brings her a letter from Lady Lavinia Huntley. It offers Treetops Manor and a sizeable sum of money, to be transferred when the necessary papers are prepared, so Sunday can establish the foundling school she had once described as her dream. Lavinia intends to move away, and Zillah says she will go with her.

Sunday initially rejects the offer. She believes Lavinia abandoned her and regards the proposed inheritance as an attempt to quiet her mother’s conscience; she insists that she has managed without Lavinia’s help. Her response makes clear that accepting a building and money is not simply a practical decision: it would also mean acknowledging a relationship Sunday still regards with hurt and suspicion.

Zillah replies that Sunday does not yet know the whole story of her birth and offers to explain what happened. The account is deferred at this point, but the disclosure becomes part of the circumstances preceding Sunday’s later reconciliation. The offer’s meaning shifts from a financial settlement to an opportunity for a changed relationship.

Reconciliation on Mothering Sunday

The reconciliation takes place at a church service on Mothering Sunday. With Tom Branning’s encouraging squeeze of her fingers and his nod, Sunday rises and walks to the pew where Lavinia is sitting. She offers her a posy of violets and addresses her as her mother. Lavinia responds emotionally, embracing her daughter; Sunday, who has not cried for years, cries in her arms.

The scene resolves the distance that had made Sunday reject the inheritance. Rather than accepting Lavinia’s help while remaining estranged, Sunday approaches her openly and restores the mother-daughter bond. Their shared walk out of the church, talking together, marks a new beginning rather than a formal transfer of property alone.

The Conditions of Acceptance

As they leave, Sunday tells Lavinia that she and Tom will accept the offer of Treetops Manor as a home for foundling children when they marry, provided Lavinia stays there too and helps them. The condition makes Lavinia’s continuing presence part of the plan: Sunday wants her not only to provide the means, but to take part in the work and offer guidance.

Sunday and Tom envisage distinct but complementary roles. Tom is ready to handle practical jobs around the house, while Sunday will do what she can to run the home. She acknowledges that they are young and will need someone to advise them. The arrangement therefore joins Lavinia’s resources and experience with the couple’s commitment to the children they hope to care for.

The Home’s Purpose and Later Continuation

Tom understands the undertaking as a home for lost and lonely children in which no child will feel unwanted and every child will belong. His emotion at the prospect underscores how the plan grows from more than the acquisition of a property: it is a response to the insecurity both he and Sunday experienced as workhouse children. The home is imagined as a deliberate alternative to abandonment, offering children care and belonging.

Years later, Sunday and Tom are married and run Treetops Children’s Home with help from Lady Lavinia Huntley. Sunday has not had a child of her own, but the home keeps her among babies and children. A baby left at the doorstep is not the first infant they have found there, confirming that the undertaking has become an ongoing refuge rather than a single charitable project. The offer accepted after Sunday and Lavinia’s reconciliation thus endures in the repeated act of taking abandoned children in.