"O yes I am," said Elizabeth, — "I don't mind it — I don't care for it. But Mr. Winthrop —"
"What were you going to say?" he asked, when he had waited half a minute to find out.
"You understood that I did not mean to speak of your mother, when I said that, about thinking it seemed tame to let one's wishes die out? — I excepted her entirely in my thought — I was speaking quite in the abstract."
"I know that, Miss Elizabeth."
She was quite satisfied with the smile with which he said it.
"How much better that odd little black child liked you than she did me," she went on with a change of subject and tone together.
"You were a little further off," said Winthrop.
"Further off?" said Elizabeth.
"I suppose she thought so."
"Then one must come near people in order to do them good?"