human
May I ask, continued her father with a dignity that verged upon acerbity,
gpt
Oh, Dad, you know what I mean! she said rather desperately.
human
I simply want to be independent.
gpt
And where can you be more independent than under your father's roof? he demanded.
human
Free to come and go as you choose, free to entertain your friends as you like, to make what purchases you will, to run up accounts at the shops--
gpt
And without a penny I can call my own!
human
As to that, he remarked with a shrug of distaste,
gpt
Exactly,
human
The girl's right. She ought to have her own allowance--as you were saying only last night, Dickie.
gpt
Was I?' murmured the Major.
human
Yes, yes, so I was! An allowance of--How much did I say, my darling?
gpt
Two hundred dollars a month, prompted his darling.
human
Do you think you could manage on that, Joan?
gpt
Very well, she said in a low voice.
human
I'll be a débutante since you wish it--I'll spend the money and wear the clothes you provide, and eat the food you give me--but understand me! I'm only doing it because I have no choice.
gpt
What's come over the child? She used to be so sweet-tempered and reasonable, grateful for everything. All this nonsense about independence! What does she mean by it, anyway?
human
She simply means she wants a man of her own, like every blessed mother's daughter of us, explained Effie May comfortably,
gpt
she seated herself upon his knee, as was her cosy custom when opportunity offered--
human
He's a very successful writer, I believe.
gpt
Hmm! Old? _Too_ old, I mean?
human
For what?
gpt
Why, for Joan, old duckie.
human
Joan? repeated the Major vaguely. He had for the moment lost interest in his daughter's affairs. The ex-widow Calloway made rather a luscious armful. He roused himself to the required attention, however.
gpt
For Joan? Why, good gad! the man's old enough to be her father! He was a friend of Mary's.
human
Before she married you?
gpt
Oh, no, afterwards. She picked him up somewhere when Joan was a baby.
human
murmured Effie May with an indescribable expression.
gpt
I didn't know Mary was the sort to have friends after she was married! (It is just possible that the bride was rather fed up on the virtues of her predecessor.) But a sudden stiffening of the arms that enfolded her warned her of rocks ahead, and she finished smoothly,
human
I thought she was too interested in you to know that any one else existed.
gpt
By no means, smiled Richard Darcy, mollified.
human
On the contrary, she took an interest in many people whom I found tiresome in the extreme. Her lame ducks, I called them. Mr. Nikolai was one of those.
gpt
Why lame?
human
Well, at the time we first knew him it seems the girl he was engaged to had just thrown him over because she found out that he was a Jew.
gpt
A Jew! Well, I don't blame her for shying at the altar! Of all the men I've known in my day, I never _did_ go with any Jew!
human
I confess I have something of the same prejudice myself, admitted the Major,
gpt
Jews and the canile.... But Mary was different, somehow. Not democratic exactly--she was one of the most fastidious women I have ever known. But people were simply people to her, particularly if they were in trouble. She and Nikolai became great friends. And of course since then he had grown to be quite a distinguished person, Jew or no Jew.
human
I shouldn't have thought you'd have wanted him round the house, though!
gpt
Oh, well, he was so devoted to the child, and so grateful, and in fact made himself useful in so many ways, explained Richard Darcy with a slight blush,
human
I see! Of course Jew money is as good as any money, especially when the Jew's dead. She nodded thoughtfully.
gpt
But it puts him out of the question as a husband for Joan.
human
My darling, he has never been _in_ the question as a husband for Joan! What an idea! Was it so happy in its own little nest that it wants to find nesties for all the other little birdies!
gpt
Um-m-m!