human
What do you want Mary Lee for?
gpt
I want to see her before Aunt Sarah does,
human
Of course, commented Mary Lee, when Nan's story was told,
gpt
Mother isn't so dead set against our going there, Nan informed her.
human
She would like to make up with Aunt Helen, I know she would, and I know she will say I am to go if I choose.
gpt
Well I shouldn't choose, returned Mary Lee, her head in air.
human
I don't see how you can feel so. I shouldn't want to make up with them when they have treated mother so mean.
gpt
Aunt Helen hasn't. She's always loved us, but she had to stand by her mother and that was right, persisted Nan. Then in a little superior way--
human
You don't understand all the ins and outs of it as I do, Mary Lee.
gpt
I don't care, returned Mary Lee, immediately on the defensive.
human
I think you are very mealy-mouthed and are not showing proper respect to the family.
gpt
Pooh! returned Nan.
human
Just you wait till you hear what mother has to say.
gpt
Well, she said,
human
I wouldn't have gone myself, still, I think Aunt Sarah has no right to punish big girls like us for something our mother would not scold us for. She ought to wait till she knows for sure before she ups and makes a prisoner of one of us.
gpt
She'd think she had a right to shut mother up if she did anything Aunt Sarah disapproved of, said Nan, mournfully.
human
Tell me, Mary Lee, how are you going to explain it to the boys?
gpt
I'll tell them the truth.
human
But you can't say there is a family quarrel and that we aren't allowed to visit our own nearest relations.
gpt
Yes I can. Everybody knows it or suspects it, and we are not the only ones that have had a family quarrel. _We_ can't help our grandmother's being a horrid old skinflint.
human
Oh! Nan was about to defend her grandmother vigorously but concluded to say only:
gpt
Maybe she didn't mean to be quite so horrid as she seemed. When people get mad they say lots of things they don't mean. I know I do.
human
Oh, yes, I know you do, returned Mary Lee,
gpt
At which sisterly reproof Nan had nothing to say.
human
At all events, Mary Lee continued,
gpt
I'll stand by you, Nan, and I know the boys will, too.
human
I wish she'd send a telegram, sighed Nan,