"Because she has made a good friend?" said Mr. Carleton, quietly. "Will you let me be a friend, too?"
He had turned the old lady's thoughts into a golden channel, whence, as she was an American, they had no immediate issue in words; and Fleda and Mr. Carleton left the house without anything more.
Fleda felt nervous. But Mr. Carleton's first words were as coolly and as gravely spoken as if they had just come out from a philosophical lecture; and with an immediate spring of relief, she enjoyed every step of the way, and every word of the conversation, which was kept up with great life till they reached Mrs. Plumfield's door.
No one was in the sitting-room. Fleda left Mr. Carleton there, and passed gently into the inner apartment, the door of which was standing ajar.
But her heart absolutely leaped into her mouth, for Dr. Quackenboss and Mr. Olmney were there on either side of her aunt's bed. Fleda came forward and shook hands.
"This is quite a meeting of friends," said the doctor, blandly, yet with a perceptible shading of the whilome broad sunshine of his face. "Your a aunt, my dear Miss Ringgan, is in a most extraordinary state of mind!"
Fleda was glad to hide her face against her aunt's, and asked her how she did.
"Dr. Quackenboss thinks it extraordinary, Fleda," said the old lady, with her usual cheerful sedateness, "that one who has trusted God, and had constant experience of His goodness and faithfulness for forty years, should not doubt Him at the end of it."
"You have no doubt of any kind, Mrs. Plumfield?" said the clergyman.
"Not the shadow of a doubt!" was the hearty, steady reply.