human
What do you say _now_, friend Ferguson? she jeered;
gpt
she ended complacently.
human
Blair has brains; I've always said so.
gpt
I believe, he challenged Mrs. Richie,
human
I did talk to him, she confessed; it was their last interview, for she and David were starting East that night, and Mr. Ferguson had come in to say good-by.
gpt
I talked to him--a little. Mrs. Maitland's disappointment about him went to my heart. Besides, I am very fond of Blair; there is a great deal of good in him. You are prejudiced.
human
No I'm not. I admit that as his mother says, 'he's no fool'; but that only makes his dilly-dallying so much the worse. Still, I believe that if she were to lose all her money, and he were to fall very much in love and be refused, he might amount to something. But it would need both things to make a man of him.
gpt
I am going to charge Elizabeth and Nannie to do all they can to make it pleasant for him, so that he won't find the Works too terrible, she said. At which reflection upon the Works, Mr. Ferguson barked so fiercely that she felt quite at ease with him. But his barking did not prevent her from telling the girls that business would be very hard for Blair, and they must cheer him up:
human
Do try to amuse him! You know it is going to be very stupid for him in Mercer.
gpt
Of course, I'm awfully fond of Blair, but--
human
to keep him at his work, with David--
gpt
Yes, but it is quite different with Blair. Blair doesn't _have_ to do anything, you know.
human
The only thing he did to make life more tolerable for himself was to live in the hotel instead of in his mother's house. But it was characteristic of him that he left the wonderful old canvas--the
gpt
picture, hanging on the wall in Nannie's parlor.
human
You ought to have something fit for a civilized eye to rest upon, he told her,
gpt
If his permanent departure for the River House wounded his mother, she made no protest; she only lifted a pleased eyebrow when he dropped in to supper, which, she noticed, he was apt to do whenever Elizabeth happened to take tea with Nannie. When he did come, Sarah Maitland used to look about the dining-room table, with its thick earthenware dishes--the last of the old Canton service had found its way to the ash-barrel; she used to glance at the three young people with warm satisfaction.
human
Like old times! she would say kindly;
gpt
Perhaps if Mrs. Richie had been in Mercer, to make again and again the appeal of confident expectation, that little feeble sense of duty which had started him upon his
human
might have struck a root down through feeling, into the rock-bed of character. But as it was, not even the girls' obedience to her order,
gpt
that whole summer, and it was a very mild one, caused by the fact that he did not go to church. On those hot July Sunday mornings, his mother in black silk, and Nannie in thin lawn, sat in the family pew, fanning themselves, and waiting; Nannie, constantly turning to look down the aisle; Sarah Maitland intent for a familiar step and a hand upon the little baize-lined door of the pew. The