"Very good!" said Earl, as he stepped back, "Queechy can't get along without you, that's no mistake."
They drove on a few minutes in silence.
"Aren't you thinking, Mr. Carleton," said Fleda, "that my countrymen are a strange mixture?"
"I was not thinking of them at all at this moment. I believe such a notion has crossed my mind."
"It has crossed mine very often," said Fleda.
"How do you read them? What is the basis of it?"
"I think, the strong self-respect which springs from the security and importance that republican institutions give every man. But," she added, colouring, "I have seen very little of the world, and ought not to judge."
"I have no doubt you are quite right," said Mr. Carleton, smiling. "But don't you think an equal degree of self-respect may consist with giving honour where honour is due?"
"Yes," said Fleda, a little doubtfully, "where religion and not republicanism is the spring of it."
"Humility and not pride," said he. "Yes, you are right."