human
Disappeared? Do you mean to say that you don't know where he is?
gpt
I have no idea.
human
Look here, Tallente,
gpt
Come quickly, she begged.
human
I can do nothing with Mr. Dartrey. He has just decided that our whole scheme of life is absurd, that politics and power are shadows, and that work for others is lunacy. All that he wants is your cottage, a fishing rod and a few books.
gpt
Nothing else?
human
Nothing else in the world,
gpt
You see, Tallente, he said,
human
I have never been a practical politician. I dare say that accounts for my rather peculiar position to-day. I have evolved a whole series of social laws by which I maintain that the people should be governed, and those laws have been accepted wherever socialism flourishes. They took me some years of my earlier life to elaborate, some years of study before I set pen to paper, some years of my later life to place before the world, and there my task practically ended. There is nothing fresh to say about these great human problems. They are there for any man to whom daylight comes, to see. They are all inevitably bound up with the future of our race, but there is no need to dig further. My work is done.
gpt
How can you say that, Tallente argued,
human
Precisely, Dartrey replied quietly.
gpt
That is why I am here. The head of the Democratic Party has a right to the government of this country, but you know, at this point I have a very sad confession to make. I am the worst politician who ever sat in the House. I am a poor debater, a worse strategist. Again, Tallente, that is why you and I at this moment walk together through your beautiful grounds and watch the rim of that yellow moon. It is yourself we want.
human
If you are our man, Tallente, his visitor continued,
gpt
But do you mean to say, Tallente asked,
human
I should never accept the task of forming a government, Dartrey said quietly,
gpt
Yours is the offer of a prince, Tallente replied, after a brief, nervous pause.
human
If I hesitate, you must remember all that it means for me.
gpt
Now, my friend, he said,
human
Tallente was silent. There was, in fact, no answer which he could make.
gpt
I do not wish to dwell on that, Dartrey went on.
human
Ingratitude is the natural sequence of the distorted political ideals which we are out to destroy. You should be in the frame of mind, Tallente, to see things clearly. You must realise the rotten condition of the political party to which Horlock belongs--the Coalitionists, the Whip, or whatever they like to call themselves. The government of this country since the war has been a farce and a mockery. We are dropping behind in the world's race. Labour fattens with sops, develops a spirit of greed and production languishes. You know why. Labour would toil for its country, Labour can feel patriotism with the best, but Labour hates to toil under the earth, upon the earth, and in the factories of the world for the sake of the profiteer. This is the national spirit, that jealousy, that slackness, which the last ten years has developed. There is a new Little Englander abroad and he speaks with the voice of Labour. It is our task to find the soul of the people. And I have come to you for your aid.