"And where have you been, Fleda, all this while?" said Mrs.
Douglass.
Fleda told, upon which all the quilting party raised their heads simultaneously, to take another review of her.
"Your uncle's wife aint a Frenchwoman, be she?" asked the sewing-woman.
Fleda said, "Oh, no!" and Miss Quackenboss remarked, that "she thought she wa'n't;" whereby Fleda perceived it had been a subject of discussion.
"She lives like one, don't she?" said aunt Syra.
Which imputation Fleda also refuted to the best of her power.
"Well, don't she have dinner in the middle of the afternoon?" pursued aunt Syra.
Fleda was obliged to admit that.
"And she can't eat without she has a fresh piece of roast meat on table every day, can she?"
"It is not always roast," said Fleda, half vexed and half laughing.