human
Who gave you that, Meg? Are you keeping secrets from your crowd? I wouldn't have believed it of you.
gpt
I truly meant to tell you girls before I left tonight, but it was not easy to tell someway. It is absurd to think of it, but really, I am going, if nothing happens, to be Abby Dunbar's sister some day.
human
Margaret! how lovely! no, not that you will be her sister, but that you will be Raymond Dunbar's wife, for he is as broad and generous and fine as she is petty and narrow.
gpt
I congratulate you with all my heart, Meg, and I am so glad that Abby married that Englishman and will live abroad. Raymond is just the one man in all the world that you should marry.
human
Thank you a thousand times, girls, Margaret said heartily when she had been duly kissed and hugged.
gpt
But you know really, that he is much better and nobler than I. It is so, and you need not try to contradict me. I thought at first that he was trying in this way to atone for his father's youthful faults, but--
human
But you do not think so any more,
gpt
No, I do not,
human
Now I wonder if any more of you are hiding weighty secrets. If so, confess!
gpt
How about our hostess, herself?
human
I have absolutely nothing to confess. I feel like a grandmother, with all this talk of engagements and marriage going on around me. I am outside of it all. Margery Ainsworth and I will probably be the old, staid spinsters of the class; we have found work enough to fill all our lives. By the way, Dolly, how long is Mr. Martin going to consent to wait for you? You have been engaged a couple of years now.
gpt
More than that, and his patience seems about exhausted, Dolly acknowledged with a frank blush.
human
So I presume that you will receive our cards immediately after Christmas.
gpt
It is your turn, now, Mary. What have you to say for yourself?
human
Absolutely nothing beyond what you already know. I have the position which I have coveted all my life, so, of course, I am quite satisfied.