human
You two think yourselves everybody! As a matter of fact, for the last hour or so--how late is it? Eleven! Oh, I say! Yes, of course! Well, for the last two hours or so, Tora and I have forgotten your very existence; and, if I may use the candour of an old friend, it's rather a jar to find you here. You'd better escort your friend home, Mr. Dennehy.
gpt
Well, what have you been doing then?
human
It's one of Tora's theories that I should propose to her all over again about once a year--and somehow to-night seemed rather a suitable opportunity, Stephen explained.
gpt
She's at perfect liberty to refuse me, and, as a matter of fact, she's generally rather difficult about it. That's why it's so late. His eyes twinkled again.
human
She imposes all sorts of conditions as to my future conduct. I argue a bit, or she wouldn't respect me. Then I give in--but, of course, I don't observe them all, or what fun would it be next year? She's accepted me this time, but she says it's the last time, unless I mend my ways considerably.
gpt
So that's the way she gets round her precious theory, is it? And the woman a respectable wife and mother all the time!
human
There is one thing that can get round everything, Dick.
gpt
A fact which, in all its bearings for good and evil, must be carefully brought out in the Synopsis,
human
Hang the man, is he in earnest about his old Synopsis, as he calls the thing?
gpt
I don't quite know. That's the fun of Stephen! But, anyhow --she pressed his arm--
human
Her laugh ended in a sigh, her sigh again in a smile.
gpt
Oh, I'm talking as if it were a fairy-tale ending, out of one of Alice's stories. Well, just for to-night! But it isn't really--it can't be, Dick. It's not an ending at all. It's a beginning, and a beginning of something difficult. Look what you're giving up for me--the great thing I'm accepting from you! And it's not a thing to be done once and for all. It'll be a continuing thing, always cropping up over other things great and small. Oh, it's not an ending; it's only a start. Is it even a fair start, Dick?
human
It's a matter of faith, like everything else in the world that's worth a rap, said Dick Dennehy.
gpt
At all events, we know this about one another--that we're equal to putting up a fight for what we believe in and love. And odds against don't frighten us! I call that a fair start. What do you make of life, anyhow, unless it's a fight? We'll fight our fight to a finish!
human
Ah, now, you're not the girl you were if ye're afraid of an experiment!
gpt
Not the girl I was, indeed! How could I be, after it all? But here's my life--am I to be afraid of it? Any use I am, any joy I have--am I to turn tail? I won't, Dick!
human
Always plucky! As plucky as wrong-headed, Winnie!
gpt
Wrongheaded still? she laughed, now gaily.
human
That question, like everything else, is, as Stephen says, 'in solution.' It's not my fate to settle questions, but it seems as if I couldn't help raising them!