human
You are the most inconsistent woman I ever met!
gpt
Why inconsistent?
human
You say that children have been the means, from time immemorial, of enslaving women, and here you go and adopt one of your enslavers!
gpt
But this child is not legitimate.
human
Whatever the wrongs of Ellen Jervis, at least there were no laws written, and unwritten, which demanded of her as a duty that she should become the mother of this child. In that respect she escapes the ignominy reserved for the married mother who produces children that are not even hers.
gpt
You do manage to ferret out the unpleasant aspects of our position! Miss Du Prel exclaimed.
human
But I want to know why you do this, Hadria. It is good of you, but totally unlike you.
gpt
You are very polite! cried Hadria.
human
Why should I not lay up store for myself in heaven, as well as Mrs. Walker and the rest?
gpt
You were not thinking of heaven when you did this deed, Hadria.
human
No; I was thinking of the other place.
gpt
And do you hope to get any satisfaction out of your _protégée_?
human
I don't know. The child is the result of great sorrow and suffering; it is the price of a woman's life; a woman who offended the world, having lived for nearly forty weary obedient years, in circumstances dreary enough to have turned twenty saints into as many sinners. No; I am no Lady Bountiful. I feel in defending this child--a sorry defence I know--that I am, in so far, opposing the world and the system of things that I hate----. Ah! _how_ I hate it!
gpt
Is it then hatred that prompts the deed?
human
Can you ever quite unravel your own motives, Valeria? Hatred? Yes; there is a large ingredient of hatred. Without it, probably this poor infant would have been left to struggle through life alone, with a mill-stone round its neck, and a miserable constitution into the bargain. I hope to rescue its constitution. But that poor woman's story touched me closely. It is so hard, so outrageous! The emptiness of her existence; the lack of outlet for her affections; the endless monotony; and then the sudden new interest and food for the starved emotions; the hero-worship that is latent in us all; and then--good heavens!--for a touch of poetry, of romance in her life, she would have been ready to believe in the professions of the devil himself--and this man was a very good understudy for the devil! Ah! If ever I should meet him!
gpt
What would you do?
human
Avenge her,
gpt
Easier said than done, my dear!