human
I cannot restrain you, Lady Florence, said he, half smiling,
gpt
And you, Mr. Maltravers, turning quickly round--
human
Lady Florence--no!--I have friends, it is true, and Cleveland is of the nearest; but the life within life--the second self, in whom we vest the right and mastery over our own being--I know it not. But is it, he added, after a pause,
gpt
Ah, it is a cold philosophy--you may reconcile yourself to its wisdom in the world, in the hum and shock of men; but in solitude, with Nature--ah, no! While the mind alone is occupied, you may be contented with the pride of stoicism; but there are moments when the /heart/ wakens as from a sleep--wakens like a frightened child--to feel itself alone and in the dark.
human
This is a strange conversation--and you must think me indeed a wild, romance-reading person, as the world is apt to call me. But if I live--I--pshaw!--life denies ambition to women.
gpt
If a woman like you, Lady Florence, should ever love, it will be one in whose career you may perhaps find that noblest of all ambitions--the ambition women only feel--the ambition for another!
human
Ah! but I shall never love, said Lady Florence, and her cheek grew pale as the starlight shone on it;
gpt
she added quickly,
human
I may at least know the blessing of friendship. Why now, and here, approaching Maltravers, she laid her hand with a winning frankness on his arm--
gpt
The world, said he, kissing the hand that yet lay on his arm,
human
Oh, you men!--the world, the world!--Everything gentle, everything pure, everything noble, high-wrought and holy--is to be squared, and cribbed, and maimed to the rule and measure of the world! The world--are you, too, its slave? Do you not despise its hollow cant--its methodical hypocrisy?
gpt
Heartily! said Ernest Maltravers, almost with fierceness.
human
No man ever so scorned its false gods and its miserable creeds--its war upon the weak--its fawning upon the great--its ingratitude to benefactors--its sordid league with mediocrity against excellence. Yes, in proportion as I love mankind, I despise and detest that worse than Venetian oligarchy which mankind set over them and call 'THE WORLD.'