human
Good Lord! He flings himself wildly upon the first pillow, and crams it into the chair behind Miss Wyatt; then without giving his courage time to flag, he seizes the others, and packs them in on top of it:
gpt
Will that do?
human
Oh, perfectly.
gpt
What is it?
human
Oh--nothing. Ah--would--would you draw this one a little--toward you? So! Thanks. And that one--out a little on the--other side? You're very kind; that's right. And this one under my neck--lift it up a little? Ah, thank you ever so much. Bartlett, in a fine frenzy, obeying these instructions, Miss Wyatt at last reposes herself against the pillows, looks up into his embarrassed face, and deeply blushes; then she turns suddenly white, and weakly catching up her fan she passes it once or twice before her face, and lets it fall:
gpt
I'm a little--faint.
human
Thanks, thanks. You are very good. I'm better now. I'm ashamed to have troubled you. But I seem to live only to give trouble.
gpt
Oh, Miss Wyatt, you mustn't say that. I'm sure I--we all--that is--shall I call your mother _now_, Miss Wyatt?
human
No. I'm quite well, now. She is busy. But I know I'm keeping _you_ from your work, --with ever so slight a wan little smile.
gpt
I mustn't do that.
human
Oh, you're not _keeping_ me! There's no hurry. I can work later just as well.
gpt
Then, --with a glance at his devout posture, of which Bartlett has himself become quite unconscious,--
human
Thanks; I think it will be better. He rises, and in his embarrassment draws a chair to the spot on which he has been kneeling, and sits down very close to her. He keeps the fan in his hand, as he talks:
gpt
It's rather nice out there, Miss Wyatt,--there on the island. You must be rowed out as soon as you can stand it. The General would like it.
human
Is it a large place, the island?
gpt
About two acres, devoted exclusively to golden-rod and granite. The fact is, I was going to make a little study of golden-rod and granite, there. You shall visit the Fortunate Isle in my sketch, this afternoon, and see whether you'd like to go, really. People camp out there in the summer. Who knows, but if you keep on--gaining--this way, you may yet feel like camping out there yourself before you go away? You do begin to feel better, don't you? Everybody cries up this air.
human
It's very pleasant; it seems fine and pure. Is the island a pretty place?
gpt
Well, you get the best of it from the parlour window, here. Not that it's so bad when you're on it; there's a surly, frugal, hard-headed kind of beauty about it,--like the local human nature--and it has its advantages. If you were camping out there, you could almost provision yourself from the fish and wild fowl of the surrounding waters,--supposing any of your party liked to fish or shoot. Does your father like shooting?
human
No, I don't believe he cares for it.
gpt
I'm glad of that. I shall be spared the painful hospitality of pointing out the best places for ducks. At an inquiring look from Constance:
human
I'm glad for their sakes, not mine; _I_ don't want to kill them.
gpt
Not like shooting?
human
No, I think it's the sneakingest sort of assassination; it's the pleasure of murder without the guilt. If you must kill, you ought to be man enough to kill something that you'll suffer remorse for. Do you consider those atrocious sentiments, Miss Wyatt? I assure you that they're entirely my own.
gpt
I wasn't thinking--I was thinking--I supposed you liked shooting.
human
How did you get that impression?
gpt
I thought all gentlemen did.
human
They do in this region. It's the only thing that can comfort them in affliction. The other day our ostler's brother lost his sweetheart--she died, poor girl--and the ostler and another friend had him over here to cheer him up. They took him to the stable, and whittled round among the stalls with him half the forenoon, and let him rub down some of the horses; they stood him out among the vegetables and let him gather some of the new kind of potato-bugs; they made him sit in the office with his feet on top of the stove; they played billiards with him; but he showed no signs of resignation till they borrowed three squirrel-guns and started with him to the oak woods yonder. That seemed to 'fetch' him. You should have seen them trudging off together with their guns all aslant,--this way,--the stricken lover in the middle! Bartlett rises to illustrate, and then at the deepening solemnity of Constance's face he desists in sudden dismay:
gpt
Miss Wyatt, I've shocked you!
human
Oh, no--no!
gpt
It _was_ shocking. I wonder how I could do it! I--I thought it would amuse you.
human
It did, thank you, very much. After a pause:
gpt
I didn't know you liked--joking.
human
Ah! I don't believe I do--all kinds. Good Lord--I beg your pardon. Bartlett turns away with an air of guilty consciousness, and goes to the window and looks out, Constance's gaze following him:
gpt
It's a wonderful day! He comes back toward her:
human
What a pity you couldn't be carried there in your chair!
gpt
I'm not equal to that yet. Presently:
human
Then you--like--nature?
gpt
Why, that's mere shop in a landscape painter. I get my bread and butter by her. At least I ought to have some feeling of gratitude.
human
Of course, of course. It's very stupid of me, asking.
gpt
I see you have a passion for formulating, classifying people, Miss Wyatt. That's all very well, if one's characteristics were not so very characteristic of everybody else. But I generally find in my moments of self-consciousness, when I've gone round priding myself that such and such traits are my peculiar property, that the first man I meet has them all and as many more, and isn't the least proud of them. I dare say you don't see anything very strange in them, so far.
human
Oh, yes; very strange indeed. They're all--wrong!
gpt
Well! I don't know--I'm very sorry-- Then you consider it wrong not to like shooting and to be fond of joking and nature, and
human
Wrong? Oh no!
gpt
Oh, I'm glad to hear it. But you just said it was.
human
I meant--I meant I didn't expect any of those things of you.
gpt
Well, on reflection, I don't know that I did, either. I think they must have come without being expected. Upon my word, I'm tempted to propose something very ridiculous.
human
Yes? What is that?
gpt
That you'll let me try to guess _you_ out. I've failed so miserably in my own case, that I feel quite encouraged.
human
I'm not worth the trouble of guessing out.
gpt
That means no. You always mean no by yes, because you can't bear to say no. That is the mark of a very deep and darkling nature. I feel that I _could_ go on and read your mind perfectly, but I'm afraid to do it. Let's get back to myself. I can't allow that you've failed to read my mind aright; I think you were careless about it. Will you give your intuitions one more chance?
human
Oh yes.
gpt
All those traits and tastes which we both find so unexpected in me are minor matters at the most. The great test question remains. If you answer it rightly, you prove yourself a mind-reader of wonderful power; if you miss it-- The question is simply this: Do I like smoking?
human
Oh, yes, indeed!
gpt
Miss Wyatt, you have been deluding me. You are really a mind-reader of great subtlety.
human
I don't know--I can't say that it was _mind_-reading exactly. She lifts her eyes to his, and in his embarrassment he passes his hand over his forehead and then feels first in one pocket, and then in the other for his handkerchief; suddenly he twitches it forth, and with it a pipe, half a dozen cigars, and a pouch of smoking tobacco, which fly in different directions over the floor. As he stoops in dismay and sweeps together these treasures, she cries:
gpt
Oh, it didn't need all _that_ to prove it! and breaks into a wild, helpless laugh, and striving to recover herself with many little moans and sighs behind her handkerchief, laughs on and on:
human
Oh, don't! I oughtn't! Oh dear, oh dear!