human
I am going to the cottage to see mother, she explained.
gpt
I have been making a new cap for her,--look, Nelly.
human
Why didn't you let me make it, mamma? the girl asked.
gpt
I think you ought to use these idle hands of mine, if you want to keep them out of mischief.
human
I gave you a book to read this morning,
gpt
Yes. I have read it, and I don't like it, said candid Nelly, stepping back to lay the volume on the hall table.
human
I will go with you to the cottage, and we can talk it over.
gpt
I don't like the book, Nelly repeated, after a pause.
human
The writer seems to have strange ideas. The hero--a very poor hero--is false to the heroine. After getting engaged to her, he discovers that he can never love her as he loves another girl; and of course she releases him from the engagement when she finds out the truth. But instead of representing him as the worthless fellow that he was, the author persists in showing us that he became a good husband and father. He begins his career by an act of treachery; and yet he prospers, and is wonderfully happy with the wife of his choice! It is too bad.
gpt
Lewis Moore was not a treacherous man, said Mrs. Channell, quietly.
human
He made a great and terrible mistake. But sometimes it is not easy to distinguish between a blunder and a crime. The heroine--Alice--had grace given her to make that distinction. She saved him and herself from the effects of the blunder by setting him free. She bade him go and marry Margaret, because she saw that Margaret was the only woman who could make him happy.
gpt
He didn't deserve to be happy! cried Nelly.
human
He ought to have been sure of himself before he proposed to Alice. If I had been in Alice's place I would have let him depart, but not with a blessing! She took it far too tamely. I would have let him see that I despised him.