human
Well, life is short at the best. Seventy years, they say, pass like a vapour, like a dream when one awaketh; and every path trod by human feet terminates in one bourne--the grave, the little chink in the surface of this great globe, the furrow where the mighty husbandman with the scythe deposits the seed he has shaken from the ripe stem; and there it falls, decays, and thence it springs again, when the world has rolled round a few times more. So much for the body. The soul meantime wings its long flight upward, folds its wings on the brink of the sea of fire and glass, and gazing down through the burning clearness, finds there mirrored the vision of the Christian's triple Godhead--the sovereign Father, the mediating Son, the Creator Spirit. Such words, at least, have been chosen to express what is inexpressible, to describe what baffles description. The soul's real hereafter who shall guess?
gpt
It is cold.
human
You are very diligent at that sewing, Miss Caroline,
gpt
I am tired of it, Fanny.
human
Then why do you go on with it? Put it down. Read, or do something to amuse you.
gpt
It is solitary in this house, Fanny. Don't you think so?
human
I don't find it so, miss. Me and Eliza are company for one another; but you are quite too still. You should visit more. Now, be persuaded: go upstairs and dress yourself smart, and go and take tea, in a friendly way, with Miss Mann or Miss Ainley. I am certain either of those ladies would be delighted to see you.
gpt
But their houses are dismal: they are both old maids. I am certain old maids are a very unhappy race.
human
Not they, miss. They can't be unhappy; they take such care of themselves. They are all selfish.
gpt
Miss Ainley is not selfish, Fanny. She is always doing good. How devotedly kind she was to her step-mother as long as the old lady lived; and now when she is quite alone in the world, without brother or sister, or any one to care for her, how charitable she is to the poor, as far as her means permit! Still nobody thinks much of her, or has pleasure in going to see her; and how gentlemen always sneer at her!
human
They shouldn't, miss. I believe she is a good woman. But gentlemen think only of ladies' looks.
gpt
I'll go and see her, exclaimed Caroline, starting up;
human
she said, as she tied the sash of her brown silk frock, having previously smoothed her soft, full, and shining curls;