human
Who is it?
gpt
She was my cousin. She has been dead many years.
human
Her name?
gpt
Not so loud. Grandma might hear,
human
It was grandma's youngest child--her only daughter, and she met such a tragic fate that it nearly broke her mother's heart. Even now she can not bear to talk of her. We never speak her name, because it makes our hearts ache.
gpt
It was Zaidee--Zaidee Franklyn,
human
How did you know?
gpt
No matter. Tell me all about her,
human
There is little to tell, he replied.
gpt
My poor cousin's story is short and tragic, like her life. My grandmother had but two children, a son and a daughter. The son, my father, died years ago, but Zaidee, his petted young sister, died years before--died, alas! by her own hand.
human
Was it not horrible? She was so young, so lovely, and she had everything, it seemed, to make her happy. But this is her story: When she was barely sixteen, a rich man from Boston married her and took her away from her simple home to his grand, rich one. She loved her handsome husband very dearly, and seemed to be wildly happy. Her people did not hear from her often, but she sent this picture and many gifts to her mother. In a year she had a little daughter, but she did not invite grandma to go and see the child. Vincent Carew was rich and great, and very proud, so the Franklyns believed that he was trying to break his young wife off entirely from her past. The Franklyns were proud, too, in their way. They resented it; and so the communication between the two families almost ceased, until, suddenly, like a clap of thunder, came the news that the young wife had committed suicide!
gpt
Why?
human
We do not know. It was a profound mystery even to her husband. But it broke my grandfather's heart. He died in less than a week after the news came. Grandma came, then, to live with us at River Cottage. My mother died in a few years after, then my father. We two--grandma and I--are the last of the family unless my cousin, Kathleen Carew, Zaidee's child, is yet living. That we do not know. We wrote several times. No answer came, and we gave up the hope of ever knowing the daughter of the proud Vincent Carew.
gpt
And she has never written to you?
human
Never,
gpt
There must be some mistake,
human
No, there is no mistake; but I fancy the proud Vincent Carew is at the bottom of it all. He would not care for his child to know her humble relatives on her mother's side. Why, he was governor of his state eight years, and was in Congress also. The Franklyns were plain simple people; my grandfather and my father were mechanics, although nobler hearts never beat in human breasts, and they were never rich. It is from the life-insurance money they left us that we are enabled to live in comparative comfort now.
gpt
As for me, I have no taste that way. My desire is for a literary life. I have written some trifles that the critics praised.
human
Your name?
gpt
Chester Franklyn,
human
Would you like to meet your unknown cousin--the daughter of the proud Vincent Carew?
gpt
I do not know how to answer you, he replied.
human
She would not care for us. Perhaps her father has never told her about the Franklyns.
gpt
I am your cousin--I am Kathleen Carew!
human
She was my mother!