How would he answer to your uncle ?" "It is I who should answer to my uncle," I returned, under my breath.
"Yes, but you are in our house, in our care.

You know, my dear child, you are very young and very inexperienced; you don't know how very careful people have to be." "Why don't you talk that way to Charlotte and Henrietta and Mary Leighton?
Have I done anything so very different from them ?" I answered, with a blaze of spirit.
"No, dear," she said, with a little laugh, "only there are one or two men very much in love with you, and that makes everything so different." I blushed scarlet, and was silenced instantly, as she intended.
"Now, maybe I am mistaken about his having discovered something," she went on, "but I can't make anything else out of Richard's message.

He is not one to send off such a despatch without a reason.

Evidently he is very uneasy; and I thought it was best to be perfectly frank with you, dear, and I know you'll do me the justice to say I have been, if Richard ever says anything to you about it.

You mustn't blame me, you know, for the way he feels.