"That needs explanation," he said, in the same tone. "Let me have it, Elfie."
"Oh I was thinking of several things," said Fleda, not exactly wishing to give the explanation.
"Too vague," said Mr. Carleton, smiling. "Trust me with a little more of your mind, Elfie."
Fleda glanced up at him, half smiling, and yet with filling eyes, and then, as usual, yielded to the winning power of the look that met her.
"I was thinking," she said, keeping her head carefully down, "of some of the things you and aunt Miriam were saying just now and how good for nothing I am."
"In what respect?" said Mr. Carleton, with praiseworthy gravity.
Fleda hesitated, and he pressed the matter no further; but, more unwilling to displease him than herself, she presently went on, with some difficulty; wording what she had to say with as much care as she could.
"I was thinking, how gratitude or not gratitude alone but how one can be full of the desire to please another a fellow-creature and find it constantly easy to do or bear anything for that purpose; and how slowly and coldly duty has to move alone in the direction where it should be the swiftest and warmest."
She knew he would take her words as simply as she said them; she was not disappointed. He was silent a minute, and then said gravely,
"Is this a late discovery, Elfie?"