But upon the third or fourth occasion of his being there, I became interested, finding often a pair of handsome eyes fixed on me, and being occasionally addressed and made a partner in the conversation.

Uncle Leonard very rarely talked to me, and I think found me in the way when Richard Vandermarck made the talk extend to me.
But this was the beginning of a very much improved era for me.

I lost my shyness, and my fear of Uncle Leonard, and indeed, I think, my frantic thirst for books, and became quite a young lady.

We were great friends; he brought me books, he told me about other people, he opened a thousand doors of interest and pleasure to me.

I never can enumerate all I owed to him.