“Have you not been well?”
“Yes, Sir. I am quite well.”
“Have you had news that has distressed you?”
“Where from?” asked she, hurriedly.
“From your friends—from home.”
“Don’t you know, Sir, that I have neither!”
“I meant, my dear child—I meant to say, that perhaps you had heard or learned something that gave you pain.”
“Yes, Sir,” broke she in, “that is it. Oh, if I could tell you——”
“Why not write it to me, dear child?”
“My writing is coarse and large, and I misspell words; and, besides, it is such a slow way to tell what one’s heart is full of—and then I’d do it so badly,” faltered she out with pain.