human
No, Duco, it is better not.
gpt
Think it over, Cornélie.
human
It is better not, she repeated, obstinately.
gpt
Please, don't let us talk about it any more. It is better not, but I think it so horrid to refuse you, because you want it. I never refuse you anything, as you know. I would do anything else for you. But this time I feel ... it is better not!
human
Don't ask it of me again. What a cloud on your face! I can see that you mean to go on thinking of it.
gpt
Don't think of it any more. I love you, I love you! I want nothing but you. I am happy as we are. Why shouldn't you be too? Because Gilio was rude and Urania prim?... Come and look at your sketches: will you be starting work soon? I love it when you're working. Then I'll write something again: a chat about an old Italian castle. My recollections of San Stefano. Perhaps a short story, with the pergola for a background. Oh, that beautiful pergola!... But yesterday, that knife!... Tell me, Duco, are you going to work again? Let's look through them together. What a lot of ideas you had at that time! But don't become too symbolical: I mean, don't get into habits, into tricks; don't repeat yourself.... This woman here is very good. She is walking so unconsciously down that shelving line ... and all those hands pushing around her ... and those red flowers in the abyss.... Tell me, Duco, what had you in your mind?
human
I don't know: it was not very clear to myself.
gpt
I think it very good, but I don't like this sketch. I can't say why. There's something dreary in it. I think the woman stupid. I don't like those shelving lines: I like lines that go up, as in The Banners. That all flowed out of darkness upwards, towards the sun! How beautiful that was! What a pity that we no longer have it, that it is being sold! If I were a painter, I should never be able to part with anything. I shall keep the sketches, to remind me of it. Don't you think it dreadful, that we no longer have it?