And then when you come
down the next morning all the boarders stare at you and wonder what makes
you so low-spirited, and why you don't look as happy and talk as cheerful
as one of them rich ladies that has dinner-parties, where they've nothing
to do but give a few orders, and somebody comes and cooks their dinner,
and somebody else comes and puts flowers on the table, and a lot of men
dressed up like ministers come and wait on everybody, as attentive as
undertakers at a funeral.
And that reminds me to tell you that I'm agoing to live with my daughter.
Her husband's a very nice man, and when he isn't following a corpse, he's
as good company as if he was a member of the city council. My son, he's
agoing into business with the old Doctor he studied with, and he's agoing
to board with me at my daughter's for a while,--I suppose he'll be
getting a wife before long. [This with a pointed look at our young
friend, the Astronomer.]
It is n't but a little while longer that we are going to be together, and
I want to say to you gentlemen, as I mean to say to the others and as I
have said to our two ladies, that I feel more obligated to, you for the
way you 've treated me than I know very well how to put into words.
Boarders sometimes expect too much of the ladies that provides for them.
Some days the meals are better than other days; it can't help being so.
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