human
Can he walk?
gpt
Yes.
human
Stand up for fifteen minutes?
gpt
Yes.
human
Then I'll take him. He'll do for the last scene in the 'Destruction of Sennacherib'--it's a tremendous thing, you know. We'll have two thousand people on the stage. I was a trifle alarmed at the title, and ventured to suggest (without betraying my poor friend's secret) that he could not actively engage in the
gpt
Destruction of Sennacherib, and that even the spectacle of it might be too much for him.
human
Needn't see it at all, said my managerial friend;
gpt
The Destruction of Sennacherib, which I conscientiously attended, I was somewhat relieved. I had often been amused with the placid way in which the chorus in the opera invariably received the most astounding information, and witnessed the most appalling tragedies by poison or the block, without anything more than a vocal protest or command, always delivered to the audience and never to the actors, but I think my poor friend's utter impassiveness to the wild carnage and the terrible exhibitions of incendiarism that were going on around him transcended even that. Dressed in a costume that seemed to be the very soul of anachronism, he stood a little outside the proscenium, holding a spear, the other hand pressed apparently upon the secret within his breast, calmly surveying, with his waxen face, the gay auditorium. I could not help thinking that there was a certain pride visible even in his placid features, as of one who was conscious that at any moment he might change this simulated catastrophe into real terror. I could not help saying this to the Doctor, who was with me.
human
Yes, he said with professional exactitude;
gpt
Destruction of Sennacherib
human
The Man with an Aneurism, that, happening to be at dinner party of practical business men, I sought to interest them with the details of the above story, delivered with such skill and pathos as I could command. I regret to say that, as a pathetic story, it for a moment seemed to be a dead failure. At last a prominent banker sitting next to me turned to me with the awful question:
gpt
Why don't your friend try to realize on his life insurance? I begged his pardon, I didn't quite understand.
human
Oh, discount, sell out. Look here--(after a pause). Let him assign his policy to me, it's not much of a risk, on your statement. Well--I'll give him his five thousand dollars, clear.
gpt
The Man with an Aneurism