"Was that what you were trying to discover?"
"Oh no, Sir! But why did you, uncle Orrin? I might have been left utterly alone."
"Why," said the doctor, "I was going out, and a friend, that I thought I could confide in, promised to take care of you."
"A friend! Nobody came near me," said Fleda.
"Then I'll never trust anybody again," said the doctor. "But what were you hammering at, mentally, just now? Come, you shall tell me."
"O nothing, uncle Orrin," said Fleda, looking grave again, however; "I was thinking that I had been talking too much to- day."
"Talking too much? why, whom have you been talking to?"
"Oh, nobody but Mr. Carleton."
"Mr. Carleton! Why, you didn't say six and a quarter words while he was here."
"No, but I mean in the library, and walking home."