human
; and certainly these tranquil, gently useless years of being very busy about nothing, and living quite alone with her stepmother, had emphasized in her a simplicity and literalness of mind that was sometimes very amusing to the other three friends. At any rate, hers was a pallid little personality--perhaps it could not have been anything else in the household of a woman like Sarah Maitland, with whom, domestically, it was always either peace, or a sword! Nannie was incapable of anything but peace.
gpt
You are a 'fraid-cat, Elizabeth used to tell her,
human
gpt
Nannie is unscrupulously good, Blair said once; and her soft stubbornness in doing anything she conceived to be her duty, warranted his criticism. But during the first year that David and Elizabeth were engaged, her stagnant existence in the silent old house began to stir; little shocks of reality penetrated the gentle primness of her thought, and she came creeping out into the warmth and sunshine of other people's happiness; indeed, her shy appreciation of the lovers' experiences became almost an experience of her own, so closely did she nestle to all their emotions! It was a real blow to her when it was decided that David should enter a Philadelphia hospital as an interne.
human
Won't he be at home even for the long vacations? Nannie asked, anxiously; when she was told that hospitals did not give
gpt
I'll have a love-sick girl on my hands, he complained to Mrs. Richie.
human
You'll have to do your share of it, he barked at her. He had come in through the green door in the garden wall, with a big clump of some perennial in his hands, and a trowel under one arm.
gpt
Peonies have to be thinned out in the fall, he said grudgingly,
human
You are robbing yourself; I believe that is your precious white peony!
gpt
It's only half of it, and I get as much good out of it here as in my own garden, he grunted (he was sitting on his heels digging a hole big enough for a clump of peonies with a trowel, so no wonder he grunted);
human
Oh, said Mrs. Richie, sighing,
gpt
I don't like to think of that 'next tenant.'
human
What do you mean? You are not going to Philadelphia with David next April?
gpt
Why, you didn't suppose I would let David go alone?
human
What! You will leave Mercer? he said. In his dismayed astonishment he dropped his trowel and stood up.
gpt
Will you please tell me why I should stay in Mercer, when David is in Philadelphia?
human
It never occurred to me that you would go, too.
gpt
You'll have to be extra nice to Elizabeth when we are not here,