human
No, she replied,
gpt
Compassion?
human
Yes, compassion for your victim.
gpt
You mean?
human
Reginald!
gpt
I am all ear.
human
I implore you.
gpt
Speak.
human
You have ruined one life.
gpt
Yes, she continued fiercely,
human
I have never wilfully ruined any one's life.
gpt
You have ruined mine.
human
Wilfully?
gpt
How else shall I explain your conduct?
human
I warned you.
gpt
Warning, indeed! The warning that the snake gives to the sparrow helpless under its gaze.
human
Ah, but who tells you that the snake is to blame? Is it not rather the occult power that prescribes with blood on brazen scroll the law of our being?
gpt
This is no solace to the sparrow. But whatever may be said, let us drop the past. Let us consider the present. I beg of you, leave this boy--let him develop without your attempting to stifle the life in him or impressing upon it the stamp of your alien mind.
human
Ethel, he protested,
gpt
What if I knew?
human
You shall know, he said, simply.
gpt
Are you strong?
human
Strong to withstand anything at your hand. There is nothing that you can give me, nothing that you can take away.
gpt
No, he remarked,
human
We both have changed. We meet now upon equal grounds. You are no longer the idol I made of you.
gpt
Don't you think that to the idol this might be a relief, not a humiliation? It is a terrible torture to sit in state with lips eternally shut. Sometimes there comes over the most reticent of us a desire to break through the eternal loneliness that surrounds the soul. It is this feeling that prompts madmen to tear off their clothes and exhibit their nakedness in the market-place. It's madness on my part, or a whim, or I don't know what; but it pleases me that you should know the truth.
human
You promised me long ago that I should.
gpt
To-day I will redeem my promise, and I will tell you another thing that you will find hard to believe.
human
And that is?
gpt
That I loved you.
human
You have loved often.
gpt
No, he replied.
human
Loved, seriously loved, I have, only once.