DADDY-LONG-LEGS (8)

DADDY-LONG-LEGS (8)

" This gentleman has taken an interest in several of our boys. You remember Charles Benton and Henry Freize ? They were both sent through college by Mr. ー er ー this Trustee, and both have repaid with hard work and success the money that was so generously expended. Other payment the gentleman does not wish. Heretofore his philanthropies have been directed solely toward the boys ; I have never been able to interest him in the slightest degree in any of the girls in the institution, no matter how deserving.
He does not, I may tell you, care for girls. "

※philanthropies 慈善行為

" No, ma'am, " Jerusha murmured, since some reply seemed to be expected at this point.

" Today at the regular meeting, the question of your future was brought up. "

Mrs. Rippett allowed a moment of silence to fall, then resumed in a slow, placid manner extremely trying to her hearer's suddenly tightened nerves.

" Usually, as you know, the children are not kept, after they are sixteen, but an exception was made in your case. You had finished our school at fourteen, and having done so well in your studies ー not always, I must say, in your conduct ー  it was determined to let you go on in the village high school. Now you are finishing that, and of course the asylum cannot be responsible any longer for your support. As it is, you have had two years more than most.

(8/27)