human
Come out and keep your father and me company. We've been gossiping all afternoon. Nobody to bother us but the flies.
gpt
No, I never come out here any more. Olaf doesn't like it. I must live up to my position, you know.
human
You mean to tell me you never come out and chat with the boys, as you used to? He _has_ tamed you! Who keeps up these flower-beds?
gpt
I come out on Sundays, when father is alone, and read the Bohemian papers to him. But I am never here when the bar is open. What have you two been doing?
human
Talking, as I told you. I've been telling him about my travels. I find I can't talk much at home, not even to Eric.
gpt
I suppose you will never tell me about all those things.
human
Where can I tell them? Not in Olaf's house, certainly. What's the matter with our talking here?
gpt
No, it wouldn't do. Besides, I am going now.
human
I'm on Eric's mare. Would you be angry if I overtook you?
gpt
You might try and see. I can leave you if I don't want you. Eric's mare can't keep up with Norman.
human
Not a God-damn a your money go in my drawer, you hear? Only next time you bring your flute, te-te-te-te-te-ty. Joe wagged his fingers in imitation of the flute-player's position.
gpt
My Clara, she come all-a-time Sundays an' play for me. She not like to play at Ericson's place. He shook his yellow curls and laughed.
human
Not a God-damn a fun at Ericson's. You come a Sunday. You like-a fun. No forget de flute.
gpt
What's the matter, Clara Vavrika?
human
Oh, I get blue sometimes. It was awfully jolly living there with father. I wonder why I ever went away.
gpt
That's what I've been wondering these many years. You were the last girl in the country I'd have picked for a wife for Olaf. What made you do it, Clara?
human
I suppose I really did it to oblige the neighbors --Clara tossed her head.
gpt
People were beginning to wonder.
human
To wonder?
gpt
Yes--why I didn't get married. I suppose I didn't like to keep them in suspense. I've discovered that most girls marry out of consideration for the neighborhood.
human
I'd have gambled that one girl I knew would say, 'Let the neighborhood be damned.'
gpt
You see, they have it on you, Nils; that is, if you're a woman. They say you're beginning to go off. That's what makes us get married: we can't stand the laugh.
human
In your case, there wasn't something else?
gpt
Something else?
human
I mean, you didn't do it to spite somebody? Somebody who didn't come back?
gpt
Oh, I never thought you'd come back. Not after I stopped writing to you, at least. _That_ was all over, long before I married Olaf.
human
It never occurred to you, then, that the meanest thing you could do to me was to marry Olaf?
gpt
No; I didn't know you were so fond of Olaf.
human
You know, Clara Vavrika, you are never going to stick it out. You'll cut away some day, and I've been thinking you might as well cut away with me.
gpt
Oh, you don't know me as well as you think. I won't cut away. Sometimes, when I'm with father, I feel like it. But I can hold out as long as the Ericsons can. They've never got the best of me yet, and one can live, so long as one isn't beaten. If I go back to father, it's all up with Olaf in politics. He knows that, and he never goes much beyond sulking. I've as much wit as the Ericsons. I'll never leave them unless I can show them a thing or two.
human
You mean unless you can come it over them?
gpt
Yes--unless I go away with a man who is cleverer than they are, and who has more money.
human
Dear me, you are demanding a good deal. The Ericsons, take the lot of them, are a bunch to beat. But I should think the excitement of tormenting them would have worn off by this time.
gpt
It has, I'm afraid,
human
Then why don't you cut away? There are more amusing games than this in the world. When I came home I thought it might amuse me to bully a few quarter sections out of the Ericsons; but I've almost decided I can get more fun for my money somewhere else.
gpt
Ah, you have got the other will! That was why you came home!
human
No, it wasn't. I came home to see how you were getting on with Olaf.
gpt
Damn!