"
"Dr. Burns! May I ask who the gentleman is?"
"My neighbour across the street. He is devoted to Granny, and had as many
fears as you could have before he tested the house."
"Is he married?"
"Certainly." It was impossible to help laughing a little at his tone,
which was that of a jealous boy.
"Thank heaven for that! I'm suspicious of men who are devoted to your
grandmother, charming old lady though she is. But, in spite of Dr.
Burns's invaluable opinion, I must beg to differ with him. You can't be
comfortable in that chicken-coop through the winter."
"I don't know," Charlotte said slowly, sitting up very straight in the
twilight, and looking steadily in front of her, "that you have any right
to care whether we are comfortable or not."
"No right to care? Not the right of an old friend? Charlotte, you
wouldn't deny me that? Why, child, I saw you grow up. I was your father's
trusted friend, in spite of being much younger than he. And I'm not so
much older than you, after all--only fifteen years. You might at least
let me play at being elder brother to you."
"I did let you play that for a long, long time. It was only when--"
She paused. He took her up.
"Only when I began to intimate that the relation wasn't fully satisfying
that you began to give me the cold shoulder. You haven't even written to
me since you've been here.
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