"Wake up!" said the doctor, laying his hand kindly upon her shoulder,--"you'll want something fresh again presently. What mine of profundity are you digging into now?"
Fleda looked up and came back from her profundity with a glance and smile as simple as a child's.
"Dear uncle Orrin, how came you to leave me alone in the library?"
"Was that what you were trying to discover?"
"Oh no, sir! But why did you, uncle Orrin? I might have been left utterly alone."
"Why," said the doctor, "I was going out, and a friend that I thought I could confide in promised to take care of you."
"A friend!--Nobody came near me," said Fleda.
"Then I'll never trust anybody again," said the doctor. "But what were you hammering at, mentally, just now?--come, you shall tell me."
"O nothing, uncle Orrin," said Fleda, looking grave again however;--"I was thinking that I had been talking too much to-day."
"Talking too much?--why whom have you been talking to?"