human
Who was she? Who was she?
gpt
Your Aunt Helen, without doubt.
human
But I thought she was in Europe with my grandmother.
gpt
So I thought. She evidently came over on some matter of business, leaving your grandmother there.
human
Are you sorry I saw her, mother? asked Nan, leaning her elbows on her mother's lap and looking up into her face.
gpt
I told her I ought not to go to Uplands because you don't like us to. Are you sorry I went? Are you angry, mother?
human
No, I think I am glad, Nannie.
gpt
Then I am glad, but why didn't she come to see you when she was so near? Did she say mean horrid things, too? I can't imagine her doing anything hateful and mean.
human
What do you know about that sad time, Nannie? I have never mentioned it to you children.
gpt
No, but Unc' Landy told me grandmother said bitter things. I know you didn't though.
human
I said one thing, Nannie, that I have often regretted since, and it is because of it that your Aunt Helen did not let me know of her being here. It was in a moment of deep distress. I was hurt, indignant. I felt that I had been left desolate with insufficient means to support my children, and in the only interview I had with your grandmother I said, 'I hope I shall never again behold the face of one of the Corner family except the children of my beloved husband who bear his name.'
gpt
I don't blame you, said Nan, taking her mother's hand between her own.
human
They were horribly mean to go off with their money and not give you a penny. They ought at least to have let you live in the big house and use the piano.
gpt
That is the way you look at it. Well, we get along somehow without them, thanks to Aunt Sarah. I am sorry I did not try to be more friendly to Helen. She was dominated by her mother and it was no doubt a choice between her and you children. She was very fond of you as a baby and she has not forgotten. Her mother's sadly jealous and envious spirit is what has made all the trouble.
human
I was four years old when they went away, said Nan.
gpt
I don't remember them at all, though I remember dear daddy perfectly.
human
Let's not talk of it any more,
gpt
Aunt Helen said we might see each other again some day. Do you suppose they will come back and will be nice to us and let us go up there sometimes?
human
We cannot say. I do not look into the future to find such possibilities, Nannie. You must not build too many air-castles.
gpt
Oh, but I like to, replied Nan.
human
It's lots of fun to do it and if they don't amount to anything I've had the fun of the building and nobody's hurt when they tumble down.
gpt
In that case I suppose it doesn't make much difference, and when one is naturally a castle-builder it is hard to give up the habit.
human
It isn't as bad as sucking one's fingers as Jean does, for it doesn't put my mouth out of shape; it only amuses me and I often forget my castles an hour after they are ten stories high. I suppose I am not to tell the children about Aunt Helen.
gpt
I think I wouldn't yet.
human
No, said Nan with a mature air.
gpt
I think it's best not. They mightn't understand. Besides, as she isn't a polywog nor a newly hatched bird, Mary Lee wouldn't be very much interested in her.