human
Thank you so much for coming,
gpt
I am sure we have all to thank you, she answered.
human
Isn’t it hard to be reconciled to letting your brother and Hilda go? We have been such a pleasant party.
gpt
Yes, returned Page, looking down at her as she stood in her white wrap, an unconsciously adoring expression in his eyes;
human
he smiled vaguely,
gpt
We won’t borrow trouble, she said.
human
Good-night.
gpt
Do you think Jack enjoyed himself?
human
I suppose he did. How anxious you are about Jack all the time! You make an absolute fetish of him. It used to mislead me.
gpt
Did it?
human
Yes, indeed, and no wonder. It is a good thing, however, that I was mistaken, else I’m sure there would have been coffee and pistols ordered for two. I want your opinion, Clover, on a delicate question. Supposing a man of some strength of character spends a whole evening at a dance following about after a woman, smiling pensively at her face, or the back of her head, or her shoulder, or whatever of her he can get to smile at, and finding spots of vantage from which he can behold her dance when he is not dancing with her himself. Supposing he flies about to bring her glasses of water, and wraps, and fans, and performs all the other offices which are usually the privilege of her partners, driving said partners to the last pitch of exasperation. What, I ask you, is the matter with that man?
gpt
Dear, she said reproachfully,
human
That is what I supposed myself, replied Mildred demurely;
gpt
Too seriously so for you to make merry over it,
human
Well, if you aren’t a pair of you! exclaimed Mildred, bursting into laughter, which she endeavored to repress out of consideration of the lateness of the hour. Then she seized her sister’s astonished face between her hands and kissed her repeatedly.
gpt
I suppose there isn’t another man in the world beside Jack Van Tassel, is there? How glad I am, I am not attached to him; I should be wildly jealous.
human
Oh—let me go, Mildred. I didn’t know you meant—I didn’t know that any one noticed
gpt
Noticed! Why, my dear, he was a perfect spectacle. I fancy everybody in the room noticed except himself. He doesn’t know what is the matter with him, either. He asked me once, when we were out on the piazza, if there wasn’t some malaria here. He isn’t able to sleep of late, and his appetite isn’t right.
human
Hush. Do please hush, Milly, implored poor crimson Clover in an agony.
gpt
Supposing Hilda should hear you and come in. She will. Oh, _please_.
human
He said he thought he should take—oh dear, I’m hurting myself—he thought he should take quinine! Mildred wiped her eyes;
gpt
Mildred, tell me instantly you didn’t say that!
human
Well, not quite so much as that; but he tempted me dreadfully.
gpt
Go to bed, Milly. Go to bed straight off. It is late.
human
All right; but isn’t it funny?
gpt
No. I do not think it funny at all.
human
Oh, you must; that big, absent man, vainly mooning around among his data
gpt
Well, if you will only go away; perhaps—it’s a little— There, I have turned the gas out. You will have to go.
human
I am about to set up a Gorham to match your Jack, said Mildred irrepressibly.
gpt
I am going to see that you treat the poor man right, and help him diagnose his symptoms. I am going to give you reproachful glances and him tender ones. I shall have to tell him they’re tender, though