human
What shall we do with Cousin Ann! exclaimed Mrs. Carey to Nancy in despair.
gpt
She makes us these generous presents, yet she cannot possibly have any affection for us. We accept them without any affection for her, because we hardly know how to avoid it. The whole situation is positively degrading! I have borne it for years because she was good to your father when he was a boy, but now that she has grown so much more difficult I really think I must talk openly with her.
human
She talked openly enough with me when I confessed that Gilbert and I had dropped and broken the Dirty Boy! said Nancy,
gpt
Cousin Ann, said Mrs. Carey that afternoon on the piazza,
human
I don't disapprove of you, particularly, said Miss Chadwick.
gpt
Do I act as if I did?
human
Your manner seems to suggest it.
gpt
You can't tell much by manners, replied Cousin Ann.
human
I think you're entirely too soft and sentimental, but we all have our faults. I don't think you have any right to feed the neighbors and burn up fuel and oil in their behalf when you haven't got enough for your own family. I think you oughtn't to have had four children, and having had them you needn't have taken another one in, though she's turned out better than I expected. But all that is none of my business, I suppose, and, wrong-headed as you are, I like you better than most folks, which isn't saying much.
gpt
But if you don't share my way of thinking, why do you keep fretting yourself to come and see us? It only annoys you.
human
It annoys me, but I can't help coming, somehow. I guess I hate other places and other ways worse than I do yours. You don't grudge me bed and board, I suppose?
gpt
How could I grudge you anything when you give us so much,--so much more than we ought to accept, so much more than we can ever thank you for?
human
I don't want to be thanked; you know that well enough; but there's so much demonstration in your family you can't understand anybody's keeping themselves exclusive. I don't like to fuss over people or have them fuss over me. Kissing comes as easy to you as eating, but I never could abide it. A nasty, common habit, I call it! I want to give what I like and where and when I like, and act as I'm a mind to afterwards. I don't give because I see things are needed, but because I can't spend my income unless I do give. If I could have my way I'd buy you a good house in Buffalo, right side of mine; take your beggarly little income and manage it for you; build a six-foot barbed wire fence round the lot so 't the neighbors couldn't get in and eat you out of house and home, and in a couple of years I could make something out of your family!
gpt
I suppose you think I'm crazy?
human
I don't know, Cousin Ann, said Mrs. Carey, taking up her work again.
gpt
Whatever it is, you can't help it! If you'll give up trying to understand my point of view, I won't meddle with yours!
human
I suppose you won't come to Buffalo?
gpt
No indeed, thank you, Cousin Ann!
human
You'll stay here, in this benighted village, and grow old,--you that are a handsome woman of forty and might have a millionaire husband to take care of you?
gpt
My husband had money enough to please me, and when I meet him again and show him the four children, he will be the richest man in Paradise.
human
I'm going to-morrow, and I shan't be back this year. I've taken passage on a steamer that's leaving for Liverpool next week!
gpt
Going abroad! Alone, Cousin Ann?
human
No, with a party of Cook's tourists.
gpt
What a strange idea!
human
I don't see why; 'most everybody's been abroad. I don't expect to like the way they live over there, but if other folks can stand it, I guess I can. It'll amuse me for a spell, maybe, and if it don't, I've got money enough to break away and do as I'm a mind to.