human
How goes it at _The Mail_?
gpt
Oh--so so, said Georgia fretfully.
human
Newspaper work is a thankless job.
gpt
Why, Georgia, I thought you loved it so.
human
Oh, yes,--yes, in a way, I do. But it's thankless. And you never get anywhere. You break your neck one day, and then there's nothing to do the next, but start in and break it again. You're never any better to-day for yesterday's killing. Now with you--when you paint a good picture, it stays painted.
gpt
Why don't you get married?
human
Married! Pooh--that would be a nice thing!
gpt
Indeed it would. If you care for the man.
human
I mean it, Georgia, Ernestine went on.
gpt
If you care for him, marry him.
human
Care for whom? Georgia demanded, and then coloured and laughed at the folly of her evasion.
gpt
Well, the fact of the matter is, she finally blurted out,
human
I don't know whether I do or not. Now, in a way, I do. That is, I want him to care for me, and I shouldn't like it if he sailed away to the Philippine Islands and never showed up again, but at the same time--well, I don't think even _you_ could get up much sentiment about paper bags, and besides --tempestuously--
gpt
What are those terms the lawyers are so fond of--immaterial, irrelevant, and something else? Georgia, once when I was a little girl and went to visit my grandmother, I had a stubborn fit and wouldn't eat any dinner because the dining-room table had such ugly legs. And the dinner, Georgia, was good.
human
But Ernestine --with a swift turn to seriousness--
gpt
Shall I tell you something, Georgia? --her voice low and queer.
human
Something I _know_? You wouldn't be willing to fight 'till you dropped for sympathetic ideas. You wouldn't be willing to lay down your life for intellectual companionship. You wouldn't be willing to go barefoot and hungry and friendless for kindred tastes. Don't for one minute believe you would! The only thing for which you'd be willing to let the whole world slip away from you is an old-fashioned, out-of-date thing called love--just the primitive, fundamental love there is between a man and a woman. If you haven't it, Georgia--hold back. If you have, --a wonderful smile of understanding glowed through a rush of tears--