human
You are clever to me, Mr. Gorham, she repeated gratefully, when all was made clear.
gpt
Now I want to pay you exactly as any of your clients would,
human
You can’t, he answered, throwing himself back in his chair,
gpt
Now please don’t joke, she begged, half-laughing.
human
You’ve had the cookies already.
gpt
Of course, just a retaining fee as it were. Blitzen and I want some more before I go to bed.
human
But such an obligation,
gpt
Such a pleasure, Aunt Love, rejoined her lawyer.
human
Now, to change the subject, what is Pearfield’s opinion about the World’s Fair? Where do you think it ought to be held?
gpt
I don’t know enough about the different cities to say, returned Miss Berry.
human
I see by the papers some o’ the Western cities think they have as good a right as anybody. Chicago is after it. Such an idea! As though folks want to have to traipse way across the country to see the Fair. I don’t know much about public questions, continued Miss Lovina, complacently smoothing her apron,
gpt
Chicagoans have that idea, answered Page, smiling.
human
I have a friend who recently returned from Europe; and he says that one day in the boat’s music-room he found on the table a book purporting to portray only Chicago and its suburbs. There were pictures in it of Niagara Falls and the Yellowstone Park.
gpt
Do tell! exclaimed Miss Berry, laughing.
human
Well, where do you want the Fair to be, Mr. Gorham?
gpt
Oh, I feel as though New York were the proper place. I think it is the general feeling that it would be a risk to trust a matter like that to Chicago. There has been a very clever cartoon published recently in New York, showing our principal cities represented as pretty women standing in a semicircle around Uncle Sam waiting to see which shall receive a bouquet which he holds in his hands labeled ’World’s Fair,’—that is, they are all pretty women except Chicago, who is a half-grown, scrawny girl, arrayed in an evening gown covered with a pattern of little pigs. She has huge diamonds blazing in her breast and ears, her thin arms are bare, and the hands she wildly stretches out to Uncle Sam wear white kid gloves with one button at the wrist. Her mouth is wide open, and she is evidently vociferously demanding the prize, while New York, a beautiful society girl, gazes at her with well-bred scorn. For my own part, I think New York may overdo the nonchalant business, and if she does, the energetic maiden stands a good chance to gain her end.
human
How do you suppose your cousin Jack likes to have his city made such game of?
gpt
Oh, I fancy Jack has learned by this time to view the Garden City from a Bostonian standpoint. I don’t know what his views are on the subject of the Fair. I have seen very little of him the last years.
human
You are liable to make up for it in the year to come,