human
EXCUSE ME--ANY OF YOU BLIGHTERS SEEN MY PIPE?
gpt
BEHIND THE GREAT WESTERN BATTLE LINE.
human
How are yours getting on?
gpt
Oh, all right.
human
How many rooms do you give them?
gpt
A sitting-room and two bedrooms.
human
I wish we could. We have no spare sitting-room. They have meals with you, I suppose?
gpt
Lunch and dinner, yes.
human
Do they know any English?
gpt
Devil a word.
human
Do you know any French?
gpt
Precious little. But Norah does--some. I say, what does 'chin-chin' mean?
human
Well, it can't be that. Madame says it at intervals all the time her husband is talking.
gpt
Oh, you mean 'Tiens, tiens,' don't you?
human
Perhaps. What does it mean, anyway?
gpt
It's just an exclamation like 'Really' or 'Just think of that!'
human
Thank Heaven I know! You've taken a terrible load off my mind.
gpt
Do they eat much?
human
Well, I should call their appetites healthy.
gpt
Same with ours. But it's all right. I shouldn't mind if they ate twice as much.
human
Do yours do anything?
gpt
Monsieur is an artist. Madame mends lace beautifully.
human
What does he paint?
gpt
Well, he hasn't painted anything yet, but he says he's an artist. He looks like one. He goes to the National Gallery.
human
Why don't you ask him to paint one of the children?
gpt
My dear, they're terrified of him! They won't come into the room.
human
Are you having an easy time with yours?
gpt
Moderate. Only Jack behaves so badly. After every meal Monsieur always begins a long speech about their indebtedness to us and all the rest of it, and Jack will walk out in the middle.
human
What do you talk about?
gpt
Well, for the most part about the terrible privations before they got away. But now and then they will tell _risqué_ stories. More than _risqué_--really shocking. Jack does his best to get them off it, but he never succeeds. They seem to think we expect it.
human
Oh, ours aren't a bit like that. The trouble with ours is that they hate going out. They sit tight indoors from morning to night.
gpt
Can't you lure them out?
human
Well, I tell them what a wonderful place the British Museum is; but it's no use.
gpt
Every evening during dinner Madame tells us how she walked from Louvain. Poor creature, she's not slender, and she had to walk mile after mile for eight hours. It must have been dreadful. But she won't remember that we've heard it all before. Everything reminds her of it. We're terrified to speak, Andrew and I, for fear some little tiny word will suggest walking from Louvain, and it always does.... Poor thing, though!
human
HAVE THE GERMANS KILLED MR. LLOYD GEORGE, MA?
gpt
OF COURSE NOT, DEAR. WHY DO YOU ASK?
human
WELL, I HAVEN'T HEARD NUFFIN 'BOUT HIM LATELY.