human
Do you say Mr. Benson is away?
gpt
He was off before lunch. Wouldn’t eat anything for some reason which he’ll have forgotten by the time he comes back. I don’t know where he is, I’m sure. He always goes away just when we want him most.
human
But, surely, this is a dreadful night to be out; he should have returned by this time?
gpt
Madame is quite right, he said;
human
I? exclaimed Lily, turning her large eyes upon him.
gpt
But, surely, Mr. Benson would not listen to a woman?
human
He would listen to you, Jack rejoined with emphasis.
gpt
He thinks a good deal of your opinion—he told me so.
human
And what am I to say to your brother?
gpt
Tell him that he can do it yet, if he will only believe as much. Say that it’s not the game for him to be here, there and everywhere when his future depends on what we’re doing for him. If he wins the ten thousand pounds put up by the London daily paper, he’s a made man for life. There’s nothing Benny could not do with capital, nothing on earth, I do believe. Why, he’s invented a dozen machines as clever as this, and all of them are just so many drawings, because he hasn’t got the money to build them. And here’s ten thousand going begging, so to speak, and he’s dreaming all the time; acting like some moonsick shepherdess, and got just about as much sense in his head. If you’d tell him that, you’d be doing him a very great kindness, Mrs. Kennaird. There’s no one else at Andana who could do it, I assure you.
human
And what does Monsieur l’Abbé say?
gpt
I think that Madame is the only person who could help us,