human
Stephen, she burst out,
gpt
I will tell you--though I don't want to tell you--remember! And if in the telling, she hurried on,
human
I prove rather too candid--please stop me! You will, won't you?
gpt
To begin with, she began, quietly, dreading her task,
human
she broke off.
gpt
And I am very sorry that I must. Though I know you will forgive me. You will, won't you? And she looked up at him wistfully.
human
You thought it might benefit you to know. This is only my opinion. Others may not see it this way. But I am giving it for what it is, and I am giving it only because you asked it and have asked it repeatedly.
gpt
Go on, he said, with evident forced lightness.
human
I see your viewpoint perfectly.
gpt
Well, she resumed, hurriedly,
human
What is that, please? What is that quality?
gpt
I have tried to tell you, she rejoined, patiently.
human
It is a really worth-while ambition. You lack the desire to do something, the desire to be something--a desire that ought to have been yours, should have been yours, years ago--the thing part and parcel of our blood down here. It may take shape in any one of a hundred different things--business ventures; personal prospectings; pursuit of art, science; raising cattle--anything, Stephen! But something, something which will develop a real value, both to yourself and to your fellow-man. We have it. We have inherited it. We got it from our grandfathers--our great-grandfathers, in a few cases--men who wanted to know--to learn--to learn by doing. It is a powerful force. It must be a powerful force, it must have been strong within them, for it dragged them out of the comforts of civilization and led them into the desert. But they found what they sought; and in finding what they sought they found themselves also. And what they found--
gpt
Was something which, having drawn them forward to the frontier, filled them with dislike for those who remained behind?
human
If you wish to put it that way--yes.
gpt
But what of those who remained behind? asked Stephen, alert now.
human
Surely the quality was there! It must be there yet! Those of the old-timers who remained behind must have stayed simply because of circumstances. Good men often curb the adventurous spirit out of sheer conscientious regard for others who--
gpt
It is you, Stephen! interrupted Helen, quietly.
human
It is you, yourself. All Easterners are not like you, I well know. Yet you and your type are found in all parts of the East.