human
I suppose it has occurred to you by this time, Mr. Tallente, she said, as she watched the coffee in a glass machine by her side,
gpt
Whatever you are, he replied,
human
I am grateful for.
gpt
Cryptic, but with quite a nice sort of sound about it, she observed, smiling.
human
Tell me honestly, though, aren't you surprised to find me living here quite alone?
gpt
It seems to me perfectly natural,
human
I live without a chaperon, she went on,
gpt
I have always had a fancy to spend a winter on Exmoor,
human
It has its compensations, she agreed,
gpt
How much of the year, he asked,
human
As much as I can.
gpt
You are content to be here alone, even in the winter?
human
More contented than I should be anywhere else, she assured him.
gpt
There is always plenty to do, useful work, too--things that count.
human
London?
gpt
Bores me terribly,
human
Foreign travel?
gpt
I have done a little of it, she said.
human
I should love to do more, but travel as travel is such an unsatisfying thing. If a place attracts you, you want to imbibe it. Travel leaves you no time to do anything but sniff. Life is so short. One must concentrate or one achieves nothing. I know what the general idea of a stay-at-home is, she went on.
gpt
Many of my friends consider me narrow. Perhaps I am. Anyhow, I prefer to lead a complete and, I believe, useful life here, to looking back in later years upon that hotchpotch of lurid sensations, tangled impressions and restless moments that most of them call life.
human
You display an amazing amount of philosophy for your years, he ventured, after a little hesitation.
gpt
There is one instinct, however, which you seem to ignore.
human
What is it, please?
gpt
Shall I call it the gregarious one, the desire for companionship of young people of your own age?
human
You mean that I ought to be husband hunting, she said.
gpt
I quite admit that a husband would be a very wonderful addition to life. I have none of the sentiments of the old maid. On the other hand, I am rather a fatalist. If any man is likely to come my way whom I should care to marry, he is just as likely to find me here as though I tramped the thoroughfares of the world, searching for him. At last! she went on, in a changed tone, as she poured out his coffee.
human
I do hope you will find it good. The cigarettes are at your elbow. This is quite one of the moments of life, isn't it?
gpt
A counsel of perfection, he murmured, as he sniffed the delicate Turkish tobacco.
human
Tell me some more about yourself?
gpt
I am much too selfish a person, she declared,
human
Let us finish talking about you first, he begged.
gpt
You spoke quite frankly of a husband. Tell me, have you made up your mind what manner of man he must be?
human
Not in the least. I am content to leave that entirely to fate.
gpt
Bucolic? Intellectual? An artist? A man of affairs?
human
How can I tell? I cannot conceive caring for an ordinary person, but then every woman feels like that. And, you see, if I did care, he wouldn't be ordinary--to me. And so far as I am concerned, she insisted, with a shade of restlessness in her manner,
gpt
One of the world's successful men, he repeated.
human
Is that how I seem to you?
gpt
And to the world,
human
I have worked very hard, he said.
gpt
I have been very ambitious. A few of my ambitions have been gratified, but the glory of them has passed with attainment. Now I enter upon the last lap and I possess none of the things I started out in life to achieve.
human
But how absurd! she exclaimed.
gpt
You are one of our great politicians. You would have to be reckoned with in any regrouping of parties.
human
Without even a seat in the House of Commons, he reminded her bitterly.
gpt
And again, how can a man be a great politician when there are no politics? The confusion amongst the parties has become chaos, and I for one have not been clear-sighted enough to see my way through.
human
Of course, I know vaguely what you mean, she said,
gpt
I'll try and explain, if I can, he went on.
human
To be a successful politician, from the standard which you or I would aim at, a man needs not only political insight, but he needs to be able to adopt his views to the practical programme of one of the existing parties, or else to be strong enough to form a party of his own. That is where I have come to the cul-de-sac in my career. It was my ambition to guide the working classes of the country into their rightful place in our social scheme, but I have also always been an intensely keen Imperialist, and therefore at daggers drawn with many of the so-called Labour leaders. The consequence has been that for ten years I have been hanging on to the thin edge of nothing, a member of the Coalition Government, a member by sufferance of a hotchpotch party which was created by the combination of the Radicals and the Unionists with the sole idea of seeing the country through its great crisis. All legislation, in the wider sense of the term, had to be shelved while the country was in danger and while it was recovering itself. That time I spent striving to educate the people I wanted to represent, striving to make them see reason, to combat the two elements in their outlook which have been their eternal drawback, the elements of blatant selfishness and greedy ignorance. Well, I failed. That is all there is about it--I failed. No party claims me. I haven't even a seat in the House of Commons. I am nearly fifty years old and I am tired.
gpt
Nearly fifty years old! she repeated.
human
But what is that? You have--health, you are strong and well, there is nothing a younger man can do that you cannot. Why do you worry about your age?
gpt
Perhaps, he admitted, with a faint smile, and an innate compulsion to tell her of the thought which had lurked behind,
human
Absurd! she scoffed.
gpt
I am twenty-nine years old--practically thirty. That is to say, with the usual twenty years' allowance, you and I are of the same age.