human
Yes,
gpt
It was a sad experience to come suddenly from a large beautiful city, which offers every imaginable diversion and enjoyment, to the silent forest, and live upon a lonely mountain. You were, of coarse, inconsolable at the exchange?
human
I regarded it as a piece of undeserved good fortune,
gpt
Indeed? Most strange! It seems to me that one would hardly choose the thistle when the rose might be had.
human
Of course, I cannot presume to pass judgment upon your opinions.
gpt
True, because you do not know me; but my idea is almost universal.
human
Yet surely it is very one-sided.
gpt
Well, then, I will not combat further your peculiar taste, with which you would scarcely find any one to sympathize among companions of your own age. I will rather believe, for your credit, that it was not so easy to leave your friends.
human
But it was very easy, for I had none.
gpt
Is that possible? cried Fräulein von Walde.
human
Did you have no intercourse with any one?
gpt
Oh, yes, with the people who paid me.
human
You gave lessons?
gpt
Yes.
human
But did you never feel the want of a female friend?
gpt
Never, for I have a mother,
human
Happy child!
gpt
And did you desire to live in the Thuringian forest especially?
human
Yes.
gpt
And why?
human
Because I had been told from my earliest childhood that my family had its origin in the Thuringian forest.
gpt
Ah, yes, you belong to the Gnadewitzes.
human
My mother’s name was Gnadewitz. I am a Ferber,
gpt
You say that as if you were thankful that you did not bear the name of Gnadewitz.
human
I am thankful for it.
gpt
Hm!—in its time it has made a fine noise in the world.
human
None pleasant to hear.
gpt
Why, what would you have? At every court it was pure gold, for it was very old, and the last of those who bore it were heaped with dignities and honours, on account of the antiquity of their name.
human
Pardon me, but I cannot possibly understand how—
gpt
Go on; you have begun the sentence, and I depend upon hearing the end.
human
Well, then, how sin can be honoured, because it is old,
gpt
Softly! they say that several of the Gnadewitz lineage were brave and true.
human
That may be; but is there not great injustice in the idea of rewarding their merit, centuries after, by honouring those who are neither good nor true?
gpt
Should not noble deeds live forever?
human
Most certainly; but, if we refuse to emulate them, we certainly are not worthy to share in their rewards,