"I haven't told you the half!" said Constance, demurely. "And then mamma excused herself as well as she could, and Mr. Carleton said, very seriously, that he knew there was a great element of headstrongness in your character; he had remarked it, he said, when you were arguing with Mr. Stackpole."
"Constance, be quiet!" said her sister. "Will you tell me, Fleda, what you have come to town for? I am dying with curiosity."
"Then it's inordinate curiosity, and ought to be checked, my dear," said Fleda, smiling.
"Tell me."
"I came to take care of some business that could not very well be attended to at a distance."
"Who did you come with?"
"One of our Queechy neighbours that I heard was coming to New
York."
"Wasn't your uncle at home?"
"Of course not. If he had been, there would have been no need of my stirring."
"But was there nobody else to do it but you?"