`` Yes , my dear , '' returned Caleb . `` Here she is . '' `` There is no change in her . You never told me anything of her that was not true ? '' `` I should have done it , my dear , I 'm afraid , '' returned Caleb , `` if I could have made her better than she was . But I must have changed her for the worse , if I had changed her at all . Nothing could improve her , Bertha . '' Confident as the Blind Girl had been when she asked the question , her delight and pride in the reply , and her renewed embrace of Dot , were charming to behold . `` More changes than you think for may happen , though , my dear , '' said Dot . `` Changes for the better , I mean ; changes for great joy to some of us . 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 XXXXX him , no less than to his daughter .
Though as at for if of than that to upon