human
Are you glad I'm back?
gpt
Glad? You're worth all the doctor's medicines and tonics. I'm well now!
human
Aren't you dying to hear my news?
gpt
It's such wonderful news that you've come, I can't think of anything else,
human
All the same I'm going to tell you, Sanda insisted, panting a little over her heartbeats.
gpt
My news is not about a 'sale,' it's about a _gift_. Yet I think it's the very same news Nurse Yorke almost read you. Oh, I should have been thwarted, cheated, if she had! This is for _me_ to tell you, my Soldier, me, and no one else, for the gift is to me, for you. The President of the French Republic has given it to me for Max St. George of the Tenth Company, First Regiment of the Legion; Max St. George, owner of the Château de la Tour, home of his far-off ancestors--where he and his Sanda will go some day together when he's tired of soldiering--and Sanda's father, Max's grateful colonel, will visit them. And that wonderful old Four Eyes, who has almost worked the Legion into a mutiny for the Soldier's sake, will live with them, if he can ever bear to leave the Legion. Now, can't you guess what the President's gift is?
human
Not--not pardon?
gpt
Pardon, and a lieutenant's commission in the Legion.
human
Sanda!
gpt
My Soldier!