was like an isthmus joining two continents. Fleda
felt it all exceedingly; felt that she was changing
from one sphere of life to another; never forgot the
graves she had left at Queechy, and as little the
thoughts and prayers that had sprung up beside them.
She felt, with all Mrs. Carleton’s kindness,
that she was completely alone, with no one on her
side the ocean to look to; and glad to be relieved
from taking active part in anything she made her little
Bible her companion for the greater part of the time.
“Are you going to carry that sober face all
the way to Carleton?” said Mrs. Carleton one
day pleasantly.
“I don’t know, ma’am.”
“What do you suppose Guy will think of it?”
But the thought of what he would think of it, and
what he would say to it, and how fast he would brighten
it, made Fleda burst into tears. Mrs. Carleton
resolved to talk to her no more, but to get her home
as fast as possible.
“I have one consolation,” said Charlton
Rossitur as he shook hands with her on board the steamer;—“I
have received permission, from head-quarters, to come
and see you in England; and to that I shall look forward
constantly from this time.”
The full sum of me
Is sum of something; which to term in
gross,
Is an unlesson’d girl, unschool’d,
unpractis’d;
Happy in this, she is not yet so old
But she may learn; and happier than this,
She is not bred so dull but she can learn;
Happiest of all, is that her gentle spirit
Commits itself to yours to be directed,
As from her lord, her governor, her king.
Merchant of Venice.
They had a very speedy passage to the other side,
and partly in consequence of that Mr. Carleton was
not found waiting for them in Liverpool.
Mrs. Carleton would not tarry there but hastened down
at once to the country, thinking to be at home before
the news of their arrival.
It was early morning of one fair day in July when
they were at last drawing near the end of their journey.
They would have reached it the evening before but
for a storm which had constrained them to stop and
wait over the night at a small town about eight miles
off. For fear then of passing Guy on the road
his mother sent a servant before, and making an extraordinary
exertion was actually herself in the carriage by seven
o’clock.
Nothing could be fairer than that early drive, if
Fleda might have enjoyed it in peace. The sweet
morning air was exceeding sweet, and the summer light
fell upon a perfect luxuriance of green things.
Out of the carriage Fleda’s spirits were at
home, but not within it; and it was sadly irksome
to be obliged to hear and respond to Mrs. Carleton’s
talk, which was kept up, she knew, in the charitable
intent to divert her. She was just in a state
to listen to nature’s talk; to the other she
attended and replied with a patient longing to be
left free that she might steady and quiet herself.
Perhaps Mrs. Carleton’s tact discovered this
in the matter-of-course and uninterested manner of
her rejoinders; for as they entered the park gates
she became silent, and the long drive from them to
the house was made without a word on either side.
