human
Are you going to give me those papers?
gpt
No.
human
What do you expect to do with them?
gpt
Deliver them to Professor Elizabeth Challis, President of the National Federation of Independent Women of America.
human
Is this a private enterprise of yours, he asked curiously,
gpt
I suppose you mean to be impertinent, but I shall not evade answering you, Captain Jones. I am acting under orders.
human
Betty's?
gpt
The orders of Professor Elizabeth Challis,
human
Exactly. It _is_ a conspiracy, then, complicated by riot, assault, disorderly conduct, and highway robbery--isn't it?
gpt
You may call it what you choose.
human
Oh, I'll leave that to the courts.
gpt
We recognize no laws in the making of which we have had no part.
human
There's no use in discussing that, said the Governor blandly;
gpt
It is reactionary--a miserable subterfuge--a treacherous attempt to return to the old order of things! A conspiracy to re-shackle, re-enslave American womanhood with the sordid chains of domestic cares! To drive her back into the kitchen, the laundry, the nursery--back into the dark ages of dependence and acquiescence and non-resistance--back into the degraded epochs of sentimental relations with the tyrant man!
human
Once, she said,
gpt
That's a gay outlook, isn't it?
human
The outlook, Captain Jones, is straight into a glorious millennium. Marriage, in the future, is to mean the regeneration of the human race through cold-blooded selection in mating. Only the physically and mentally perfect will hereafter be selected as specimens for scientific propagation. All others must remain unmated--_pro bono publico_--and so ultimately human imperfection shall utterly disappear from this world!
gpt
Do you know, he said cautiously,
human
Some traitor in our camp, she said,
gpt
It--it isn't true, then, is it?
human
What isn't true?
gpt
That the Governor of the great State of New York is in any danger of being seized for any such purpose?
human
I think, she said,
gpt
Professor Challis means to seize him.
human
What does she look like? he inquired.
gpt
Is she rather a tough old lady?
human
No; she's young and--athletic.
gpt
Barrel-shaped?
human
Oh, she's as tall as the Governor is--about six feet, I believe.
gpt
Nonsense!
human
Six feet, she repeated carelessly;
gpt
This--this is terrible,