human
But that _isn't_ an American duel, he objected, still rippling with mirth.
gpt
You commit suicide, you know. The man who draws the short bit of paper agrees to go quietly off and kill himself decently somewhere, before the end of a stipulated time.
human
I'm aware of that, but I gambled on Paolo's ignorance of the custom, said I.
gpt
I flattered myself that I'd totted up his character like a sum on a slate, and I acted on the estimate I formed. If I had kept entirely to facts, without giving the rein to my imagination, you might now be doomed to travel at this time next year to Buda-Pesth, and there drown yourself in the largest possible vat of beer. Had Paolo been unlucky in the matter of getting the short bit of paper, a little thing like that wouldn't have bothered him much. He would simply have gone off for a long trip in his newest air-ship, and conveniently forgotten such an obscure engagement. It was the thought of standing up defenceless, to be artistically potted at by you, that turned his heart to water.
human
I believe you're right, and anyway, you are very clever, said the Boy.
gpt
What does one do for a man who has saved one's life?
human
If you were only a girl, now--a Princess in a fairy story--you would bestow upon me your hand, I replied gaily.
gpt
As it is--I can't at the moment think of a punishment to fit the crime.
human
Though I can't be a Princess, I might play the Prince, and give you a ring,
gpt
But it wouldn't fit the crime--I mean the finger.
human
Mere mortals never argue when the fairy Prince makes them a present. Do take the ring. I should like you to have it to--remember me by.
gpt
To remember you by? But such chums as we have got to be don't give memory much pull; they arrange to see each other often.
human
Fairy Princes vanish sometimes, you know.
gpt
If I take your ring, will you appear if I rub it?
human
If when the Fairy Prince has vanished--that is, if he _should_--you want to see him really badly, try rubbing the ring. It might work. But you'll probably lose the ring before that--and the memory.
gpt
My watch and I are one, I said.
human
Only burglary or death can separate me from the ring now; and if I'm smashed next time Jack Winston lets me drive his motor car, there will probably be a romantic little paragraph in the papers--perhaps even a pathetic verse--about the ring on the dead man's watch-chain, which will give you every satisfaction.
gpt
The boat's whistling, said the Boy.
human
We'd better run, if we want to see the Abbey of Hautecombe before lunch.