You must n't let them startle you too much , if any such should ever happen , and affect you . Are those wheels upon the road ? You 've a quick ear , Bertha . Are they wheels ? '' `` Yes . Coming very fast . '' `` I -- I -- I know you have a quick ear , '' said Dot , placing her hand upon her heart , and evidently talking on as fast as she could , to hide its palpitating state , `` because I have noticed it often , and because you were so quick to find out that strange step last night . Though why you should have said , as I very well recollect you did say , Bertha , ` Whose step is that ? ' and why you should have taken any greater observation of it than of any other step , I do n't know . Though , as I said just now , there are great changes in the world : great changes : and we ca n't do better than prepare ourselves to be surprised at hardly anything . '' Caleb wondered what this meant ; perceiving that she spoke to him , no less than to his daughter . He saw her , with astonishment , so fluttered and distressed that she could scarcely breathe ; and holding to a chair , to save herself from falling . `` They are wheels indeed ! '' she panted . `` Coming nearer ! Nearer ! Very close ! And now you hear them stopping at the garden-gate ! And now you hear a step outside the door -- the same step , Bertha , is it not ? -- and now -- ! ''
She uttered a wild cry of uncontrollable delight ; and running up XXXXX Caleb , put her hands upon his eyes , as a young man rushed into the room , and , flinging away his hat into the air , came sweeping down upon them .
Though at from nearer of than that to upon with