“Dear guardian,” said I, “I want to speak to you. Have I been remiss in anything?”
“Remiss in anything, my dear!”
“Have I not been what I have meant to be since—I brought the answer to your letter, guardian?”
“You have been everything I could desire, my love.”
“I am very glad indeed to hear that,” I returned. “You know, you said to me, was this the mistress of Bleak House. And I said, yes.”
“Yes,” said my guardian, nodding his head. He had put his arm about me as if there were something to protect me from and looked in my face, smiling.
“Since then,” said I, “we have never spoken on the subject except once.”
“And then I said Bleak House was thinning fast; and so it was, my dear.”
“And I said,” I timidly reminded him, “but its mistress remained.”
He still held me in the same protecting manner and with the same bright goodness in his face.