human
They have a curious, mingled air of primness and gayety, as if gayety were not quite proper, the artist began.
gpt
Some of them look downright interesting, and I've no doubt they are all excellent women.
human
I've no doubt they are all good as gold, put in Mr. King.
gpt
These women are the salt of New England. (Irene looked up quickly and appreciatively at the speaker.)
human
No fashionable nonsense about them. What's in you, Forbes, to shy so at a good woman?
gpt
I don't shy at a good woman--but three hundred of them! I don't want all my salt in one place. And see here--I appeal to you, Miss Lamont --why didn't these girls dress simply, as they do at home, and not attempt a sort of ill-fitting finery that is in greater contrast to Newport than simplicity would be?
human
If you were a woman, said Marion, looking demurely, not at Mr. Forbes, but at Irene,
gpt
I could explain it to you. You don't allow anything for sentiment and the natural desire to please, and it ought to be just pathetic to you that these girls, obeying a natural instinct, missed the expression of it a little.
human
Men are such critics, and Irene addressed the remark to Marion,
gpt
Well, stoutly insisted Forbes,
human
I'll take my chance with the well-dressed ones always; I don't believe the frumpy are the most sensible.
gpt
No; but you make out a prima facie case against a woman for want of taste in dress, just as you jump at the conclusion that because a woman dresses in such a way as to show she gives her mind to it she is of the right sort. I think it's a relief to see a convention of women devoted to other things who are not thinking of their clothes.
human
Pardon me; the point I made was that they are thinking of their clothes, and thinking erroneously.
gpt
Why don't you ask leave to read a paper, Forbes, on the relation of dress to education?