"I believe, Mrs. Evelyn," said Fleda, smiling and blushing "I am of the mind of the old woman who couldn't bear to see anything wasted."
"But the assertion is, that it isn't wasted," said Mr.
Stackpole.
" 'That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain,' " said Mrs. Evelyn.
"Yes, to flood and lay waste the fair growth of nature," said Fleda, with a little energy, though her colour rose and rose higher. "Did it never occur to you, Mrs. Evelyn, that the streams which fertilize as they flow, do but desolate if their course be checked?"
"But your objection lies only against the author's figure," said Mr. Stackpole "come to the fact."
"I was speaking as he did, Sir, of the fact under the figure
I did not mean to separate them."
Both the gentlemen were smiling, though with very different expression.
"Perhaps," said Mr. Carleton, "the writer was thinking of a gentler and more diffusive flow of kind feeling, which, however it may meet with barren ground and raise no fruit there, is sure, in due time, to come back, heaven-refined, to refresh and replenish its source."
"Perhaps so," said Fleda, with a very pleased answering look "I do not recollect how it is brought in I may have answered rather Mrs. Evelyn than Mr. Longfellow."
"But granting that it is an error," said Mr. Stackpole, "as you understood it what shows it to have been made by a man?"