human
I've no fault to find with your friends being here, if they don't interfere with your studies,
gpt
Oh, he said rather blankly; then his shame of her stung him into fury:
human
I've been to see the Dean, she said;
gpt
It shows how young you are, Blair, she said kindly,
human
But if he kept the foolishness up, and this other tomfoolery on account of which she had had to leave the Works and spend her valuable time talking to the Dean, why, he might be expelled. He would certainly be suspended. And that would put off his getting into business for still another year.
gpt
And you are twenty-four!
human
Shame on you! to let your mother see a thing like that!
gpt
I didn't ask my mother to see it.
human
If you have thoughts like this, she said,
gpt
Elizabeth did well to throw you over for David.
human
Oh, David has got her, has he?
gpt
At any rate, he's a _man!_ He doesn't live like this --she made a contemptuous gesture;
human
--she set her heel on the smiling face;
gpt
She looked at him in growing agitation.
human
My God! Blair, what are you--living this way, with silks and perfumery and clay baby dolls? You've got no guts to you! I didn't mind your making a fool of yourself; that's natural; nobody can get to be a man till he's been a fool; but this-- She stood there, with one hand on the mantelpiece beside the row of photographs and bits of carving and little silver trinkets, and looked at him in positive fright.
gpt
And you are _my_ son,
human
One of the men gave me that picture; I--
gpt
You ought to have slapped his face! Listen to me: you are going to be looked after,--do you hear me? You are going to be watched. Do you understand? She gathered up the whole row of photographs, innocent and offensive together, and threw them into the fire.
human
You are going to walk straight, or you are coming home, and going to work.
gpt
Blair has not been behaving himself; he's in debt; he has been gambling. See that all these bills are paid. Tell Watson to give him a hundred dollars more a month; I won't have him running in debt in this way. Now what about the Duluth order?
human
If his mother wants to ruin him, it isn't my business, he said. The fact was, he had not recovered from his astonished resentment at Sarah Maitland's joke in Mrs. Richie's parlor. He thought about it constantly, and asked himself whether he did not owe his neighbor an apology of some kind. The difficulty was to know what kind, for after all _he_ was perfectly innocent!
gpt
Such an idea never entered my head, he thought angrily;
human
So, for once, Robert Ferguson was distinctly out with his employer, and when she told him to see that Blair had a hundred dollars more a month, he said, in his own mind,
gpt
and held his tongue--until the next day. Then he barked out a remonstrance:
human
I suppose you know your own business, but if _I_ had a boy I wouldn't increase his allowance because he was in debt.
gpt
I want to keep him from getting in debt again,
human
If you will allow me to say so--having been a boy myself, that's not the way to do it.
gpt
I am at my wit's end to know what to do about him! My idea has been to make a man of him, by giving him what he wants, not making him fuss over five-cent pieces. He's had everything; he's never heard '_no_' in his life. And yet--look at him!
human
That's the trouble with him. He's had too much. He needs a few no's. But he's like most rich boys; there isn't one rich man's son in ten who is worth his salt. If he were _my_ boy, said Robert Ferguson, with that infallibility which everybody feels in regard to the way other people's children should be brought up,
gpt
I'll think it over, she said;
human
I'll think it over. Hold on; what's your hurry? I want to ask you something: your neighbor there, Mrs. Richie, seems to be a very attractive woman; 'fair and forty,' as the saying is--only I guess she's nearer fifty? But she's mighty good-looking, whatever her age is.
gpt
I have never noticed her looks,
human
It just struck me when I caught you in there the other day, she ruminated;
gpt
Buried deep in the casual question was another question, but Robert Ferguson did not hear it; she was _not_ going to venture! He was so relieved, that he was instantly himself again. He told her briefly what little he knew: Mrs. Richie was a widow; husband dead many years.
human
I have an idea he was a crooked stick,--more from what she hasn't said than what she has said. There's a friend of hers I meet once in a while at her house, a Doctor King, and he intimated to me that her husband was a bad lot. It appears he hurt their child, when he was drunk. She never forgave him. I don't blame her, I'm sure; the baby died. It was after the death of the husband that she adopted David. She has no relations apparently; some friends in Old Chester, I believe; this Doctor King is one of 'em.
gpt
Is she going to marry him?
human
There might be objections on the part of the present incumbent,
gpt
she said, cheerfully;
human
I'm interested to know that Mrs. Richie has friends; I was wondering-- She did not say what she wondered.
gpt
She's a nice woman, Robert Ferguson, and a good woman, _and_ a good-looking woman, too; 'fair and'--well, say 'fifty'! And if you had any sense--
human
as he expressed it to his sister, gaily, when she came east to see him graduate, three years behind the class in which he had entered college. But as to his conduct, that domiciliary visit had hardened him into a sort of contemptuous common sense. And his annoyed and humiliated manhood, combined with his esthetic taste, sufficed, also, to keep things fairly peaceful when he was at home, which was rarely for more than a week or two at a time. Quarrels with his mother had become excruciating experiences, like discords on the piano; they set his teeth on edge, though they never touched his heart. To avoid them, he would, he told Nannie, chuckling at her horror,--
gpt
His lying, however, was nothing more serious than a careful and entirely insincere politeness; but it answered his purpose, and