human
Right, said Stephen Lorimer, amiably,
gpt
You mean Rodney?
human
I mean Jimsy King, naturally, as you quite well know, Sapphira,
gpt
Stephen, I don't think Mr. King can afford to send him.
human
Then we'll take him.
gpt
Jimsy wouldn't let us. He is very proud,--I admire it in him.
human
Do you, my dear? Then, can't you manage to admire some of his other nice young virtues and graces?
gpt
I do, Stephen. I give the boy credit for all he is, but----
human
But you don't intend to let him marry your daughter if by the hookiest hook and crookedest crook you can prevent it. I observed your Star Chamber sessions with Mrs. Van Meter last year; I saw you wave her and her son hopefully away; I observed, smiling with intense internal glee, that you welcomed them back with deep if skillfully dissembled disappointment. Top Step, God love her, sat tight. Don't you know your own child yet, Mildred? Don't you know the well and favorably known chemical action of absence on young and juicy hearts? Don't you know --he broke off to stare at her, flushed and a little breathless as she always was in discussions and unbelievably youthful and beautiful still, and finished in quite another key--