human
I am to thank Captain Lewis once more, began the young woman, in a voice vibrant and clear--the sweetest, kindest voice in the world.
gpt
It is good fortune that you rode abroad so early this morning. You always come at need!
human
Can you then call it good fortune?
gpt
Why not, then?
human
You did not need me. A moment, and you would have been in command again--there was no real need of me. Ah, you never need me!
gpt
Yet you come. You were here, had the need been worse. And, indeed, I was quite off my guard--I must have been thinking of something else.
human
And I also.
gpt
And there was the serpent.
human
Madam, there was the serpent! And why not? Is this not Eden? I swear it is paradise enough for me. Tell me, why is it that in the glimpses the sages give us of paradise they no more than lift the curtain--and let it fall again?
gpt
Captain Meriwether Lewis is singularly gloomy this morning!
human
Not more than I have been always. How brief was my little hour! Yet for that time I knew paradise--as I do now. We should part here, madam, now, forever. Yon serpent spelled danger for both of us.
gpt
For both of us?
human
No, forgive me! None the less, I could not help my thoughts--cannot help them now. I ride here every morning. I saw your horse's hoof-marks some two miles back. Do you suppose I did not know whose they were?
gpt
And you followed me? Ah!
human
I suppose I did, and yet I did not. If I did I knew I was riding to my fate.
gpt
I have ridden here since first I saw you turn this way one morning. I guessed this might be your haunt at dawn. I have ridden here often--and feared each time that I might meet you. Perhaps I came this morning in the same way, not knowing that you were near, but hoping that you might be. You see, madam, I speak the absolute truth with you.
human
You have never spoken aught else to any human soul. That I know.
gpt
And yet you try to evade the truth? Why deceive your heart about it, since I have not deceived my own? I have faced it out in my own heart, and I have, I trust, come off the victor. At some cost!
human
Any woman would be glad to hear such words from Captain Lewis, and I am glad. But--the honest wife never lived who could listen to them often.
gpt
I know that,
human
No! Her voice was very low now; her eyes soft and cast down as they fell upon a ring under her glove.
gpt
We must not meet, Captain Meriwether Lewis. At least, we must not meet thus alone in the woods. It might cause talk. The administration has enemies enough, as you know--and never was a woman who did not have enemies, no matter how clean her life has been.
human
Clean as the snow, yours! I have never asked you to be aught else, and never will. I sought you once, when I rode from Virginia to New York--when I first had my captain's pay, before Mr. Jefferson asked me to join his family. Before that time I had too little to offer you; but then, with my hopes and my ambitions, I ventured. I made that journey to offer you my hand. I was two weeks late--you were already wedded to Mr. Alston. Then I learned that happiness never could be mine.... Yes, we must part! You are the only thing in life I fear. And I fear as well for you. One wagging tongue in this hotbed of gossip--and there is harm for you, whom all good men should wish to shield.