human
I hear you have arrived,
gpt
This is a pretty time for you to be answering, Robert. Where have you been all day?
human
Driving with Francis. He hasn’t been very well lately. I took him over to the Sound. How is Mrs. MacBirney, Fritzie?
gpt
Come over and see.
human
Call her to the telephone.
gpt
How do you do, Mr. Kimberly?
human
Glad to hear your voice. Fritzie has been telling me stories about you all winter.
gpt
You mustn’t believe the stories you hear, she laughed.
human
How are you all?
gpt
One story to-day sounded pretty straight.
human
Sometimes those are the least reliable. How is your uncle?
gpt
Still I shall have to have it out with you--passing us by this morning.
human
But you weren’t at home.
gpt
Worse and worse--you didn’t know that.
human
You may scold as much as you like, I’m so happy to get home I’m walking on air.
gpt
How do you manage that? I never can get up any excitement over getting home. I wish I might come and see how it affects you.
human
Do come.
gpt
Unfortunately I am leaving to-night for the Southwest.
human
For the Southwest? she echoed in surprise.
gpt
But we heard of you just back from the West.
human
Yes, and with some stories for you. This time it is New Orleans and a terminal project.
gpt
So busy a man! I hope we shall see you when you return.
human
I certainly hope so. If I didn’t, I shouldn’t go. By-the-way, he added humorously,
gpt
I seem to have dropped something.
human
What can it be?
gpt
The string you held out a minute ago.
human
What string?
gpt
About letting me come over. A car was set in this afternoon at Sunbury but the train doesn’t pick me up till eleven o’clock to-night. I might run over to see you on my way down----
human
Oh, by all means, do, Mr. Kimberly.
gpt
Do come; but I am always happy.
human
If I were sure of that I might not come.
gpt
You _may_ be ’sure,’ I assure you. And why, pray, shouldn’t you come?
human
Because in that case I could see your happiness, without intruding on you when you are tired--as you must be now. However, I will run in for a few moments after dinner.
gpt
Oh, aren’t you youthful to-night? she exclaimed. He was in a travelling suit and his face was tanned from his Western trip.
human
You should never wear anything but gray, Robert.
gpt
Has she been as agreeable as this all winter?
human
All winter, declared Fritzie, answering for herself,
gpt
Many worthy people seemed to sympathize with that effort, responded Kimberly dryly.
human
I trust you didn’t?
gpt
I? Not in the least. If they had succeeded, I should have brought you flowers.
human
What have you been doing all winter?
gpt
Nothing.
human
Listen to that! exclaimed Fritzie.
gpt
Why, we’ve been as busy as ants all winter.
human
Fritzie would never allow you to do nothing, said Kimberly.
gpt
You met a lot of people she tells me.
human
I said ’nothing,’ because the time went so fast I found no time to do anything I had intended to.
gpt
You kept at your singing all winter, didn’t you?
human
Good! Let us hear now how your voice sounds in the country air.
gpt
I haven’t any songs.
human
You threw some into the wicker trunk,
gpt
Find them, Fritzie, do, said Kimberly.
human
And what else did you do?
gpt
Everything that country people do, responded Alice.
human
And you’ve been West? Tell me all about it.
gpt
Hardly a spot in Colorado escaped me this time. And I went to Piedmont----
human
To Piedmont? cried Alice.
gpt
Oh, to see the little factory.
human
To see the house you lived in when you were there.
gpt
What possible interest could that poor cottage have for any one? You must have realized that we began housekeeping very modestly.
human
I wanted to see it merely because you had lived in it. He waited a moment.
gpt
Can’t you understand that?
human
Frankly, I cannot.
gpt
St. Louis was very interesting,
human
Oh, I love St. Louis!
gpt
So do I, assented Kimberly.
human
And in St. Louis I went to see the house you were born in. It was worth looking at; your father’s house was a house of character and dignity----
gpt
Why, thank you!
human
I can hardly believe you are not making fun of me. What ridiculous quests in St. Louis and in Piedmont! Surely there must have been incidents of more importance than these in a three-weeks’ trip.
gpt
I stood a long time staring at your father’s house, and wishing I might have been born in that little old cottage just across the street from where that rich little girl of sixteen lived. I would rather have known you then than lived all I have lived since you were born there.
human
I did not live there till I was sixteen, if you mean the old home. And if you had been born just across the street you would have had no absurd idea about that little girl in your head. Little girls are not usually interested in little boys across the street. Little boys born thousands of miles away have better chances, I think, of knowing them. And it is better so--for _they_, at least, don’t know what absurd, selfish little things girls across the street are.
gpt
That is all wrong----
human
It is not,
gpt
Only give me the same street and the meanest house in it! His intensity would not be answered.
human
What confidence!
gpt
And I’d have done it or torn the house down.
human
I can’t find the music anywhere.
gpt
No matter, he persisted,