human
So I'm going to undress you, Katie unfolded her plan, encouraged by the tear,
gpt
She patted the hand she held ever so lightly as she said:
human
How happy I would be if I could make you feel that way about it, too. Then I've a dear room to take you into, all soft grays and greens, and oh, such a good bed! Why you know you're tired! That's what's the matter with you, and you're just too tired to know what's the matter.
gpt
Then after I've brushed your hair and done all those 'comfy' things I'm going to put you in a certain, a very special gown I have. It was made by the nuns in a convent in Southern France. As they worked upon it they sat in a garden on a hillside. They thought serene thoughts, those nuns. You see I know them, lived with them. I don't know, one has odd fancies sometimes, and it always seemed to me that something of the peace of things there was absorbed in that wonderful bit of linen. It seems far away from things that hurt and harm. Almost as if it might draw back things that had gone. I was going to keep it-- Katie's eyes deepened, there was a little catch in her voice.
human
Well, I was just keeping it. But because you are so tired--oh just because you need it so.--I want you to let me give it to you.
gpt
Kate, demanded Captain Jones,
human
How should I know?
gpt
I heard a noise in the room above. This chimney carries every sound.
human
Nonsense, jeered his sister.
gpt
Wayne, you've lived alone so long that you're getting spooky.
human
Prescott, didn't you hear something?
gpt
Believe I did. It sounded like a cough.
human
Well, what of it? railed Kate.
gpt
Isn't poor Nora permitted to cough, if she is disposed to cough? She's in there doing the room for me. I'm going to try sleeping in there--isn't insomnia a fearful thing? But the fussiness of men!
human
There are two kinds of girl, he had heard an older officer once say.
gpt
There are girls, and then there is Katie Jones.
human
Katie, exclaimed Wayne, after his sister had read aloud some one's engagement from the Army and Navy Register, and wondered vehemently how those two people ever expected to live together,
gpt
Nora's out on the side porch with Watts!
human
Do you disapprove of this affair between Nora and Watts?
gpt
I distinctly disapprove of having some one coughing in the room upstairs and not being satisfied who the some one is!
human
Wayne, they say there are some excellent nerve specialists in Chicago. I'd advise you to take the night train. Take the rifle along, Wayne, and find out just what it's done to you.
gpt
That's all very well! But if you'd been reading the papers lately you'd know that ideas of house-breaking are not necessarily neurasthenic.
human
Dear Wayne, lover of maps and charts, let me take this pencil and make a little sketch for you. _A_ is the chamber above. In that chamber is Nora. Nora coughs in parting. Then she parts. _B_ is the back hall through which Nora walks. _C_ is the back stairs which she treads. Watts being waiting, she treads--or is it kinder to say trips?--with good blithe speed. _D_ is the side door and _E_ the side porch. Now I ask you, oh master of engineering and weird mechanical and mathematical mysteries, what is to prevent Nora from getting from _A_ to _E_ in the interval of time between the coughing and the viewing?
gpt
There! he cried, triumphantly on his feet before his sister, as again came the faint but unmistakable little cough.
human
A little harder to make a map this time, isn't it? Talk about nerve specialists--!
gpt
Don't go, Wayne,
human
Don't _go?_ Kate, what's the matter with you? Now don't be foolish, Katie, he admonished with the maddening patronage of the older brother.
gpt
Open the door.
human
I wish you wouldn't go, she sighed plaintively, arms outstretched against the door.
gpt
I do hope you won't insist on going. You'll frighten Ann.
human
Frighten _who?_
gpt
Ann,
human
Ann--_who?_ Ann--_what?_
gpt
Ann _who!_ Ann _what!_ That's a nice way to speak of my friends! It's all very well to blow up the world, Wayne, but I think one should retain some of the civilities of life!
human
But I don't understand,
gpt
No, of course not. Do you understand anything except things that nobody else wants to understand? Ann is not smokeless powder, so I presume you are not interested in her, but it seems to me you might tax your brain sufficiently to bear in mind that I told you she was coming!
human
I'm sorry, said Wayne humbly.
gpt
I don't seem able to recall a word about her.
human
I scarcely expected you would,
gpt
Tell me about her, Captain Prescott asked sympathetically.
human
I like girls better than guns. Has Ann another name? Do I know her?
gpt
Oh yes, why yes, certainly, Ann has another name. Her name is Forrest. No, I think you do not know her. I don't know that Ann knows many army people. I knew her in Europe. Then, as they seemed waiting for more:
human
I am very fond of Ann.
gpt
Ann is a dear girl,
human
Having had it impressed upon me that I am such a duffer, Captain Jones began, a little haughtily,
gpt
I naturally hesitate to make many inquiries, but I cannot quite get it through my stupid and impossible head just why 'Ann' is hidden away in this mysterious manner.
human
There's nothing mysterious about it, said Kate sharply.
gpt
Ann was tired.
human
And why, if I may venture still another blundering question, was poor Nora held responsible for a cough she never coughed?
gpt
I am glad that I do not live in the Mississippi Valley,
human
One of Kate's greatest charms, Wayne informed Prescott,
gpt
I am glad that I do not live in the Mississippi Valley, Kate went on, superiorly ignoring the observation,
human
Honestly now, do you get that?
gpt
Ann and I had planned a beautiful surprise for you, Wayne.
human
Thanks,
gpt
To-night Ann was tired. She did not wish to come down to dinner. Of course, I might have told you: 'Ann is here.' To the orderly, West-Pointed mind, the well oiled, gun-constructing mind, I presume that would present itself as the thing to do. But Ann and I have a sense of the joy of living, a delight in the festive, in the--the bubbling wine of youth, you know. So we said, 'How beautiful to surprise dear Wayne.' In the morning Ann, refreshed by the long night's sleep, was to go out and gather roses. Wayne--
human
The roses don't bloom until next month,
gpt
Of course, you would think of that! As we had planned it, Wayne, looking from his window was to see the beautiful girl--she is a beautiful girl--gathering dew-laden roses in the garden. Perhaps Captain Prescott, chancing at that very moment to look from his window, would see her too. It was to be a beautiful, a never-to-be-forgotten moment for you both.
human
We humbly apologize,
gpt
Hum!