human
Ah! I see--I see, she cried.
gpt
But how did you contrive to get left behind, most beloved lunatic, and be born five or six centuries out of your time into this shouting, pushing, modern world which knows not chivalry? Do you imagine this is the fashion most men treat women? Here I am laughing, yet I could cry that you should come to me--me, of all people--on such a lovely, fine, fanciful errand.
human
My conduct appears to me perfectly obvious and simple,
gpt
I know it does, my dear, and there's the pathetic splendour of it, Poppy declared, soft mothering tones in her voice.
human
All the same we must keep our heads screwed on the right way. So, tell me, will it be of any personal advantage to you to help pull these elderly plungers out of the quagmire?
gpt
None whatever.
human
At least they will make it worth your while by paying up handsomely?
gpt
No doubt they will make me some offer, but I shall decline it, Iglesias said.
human
I draw a pension. I will continue to do so. That is just. I have a right to it in virtue of my past work. But I shall refuse to accept any salary over and above that. I shall make it a condition that I give my services. And that which I give I give, whether it be to king or to beggar. To make profit out of my giving would be intolerable to me.
gpt
Don't bother! you little miseries, she said,
human
Presently she glanced up at Mr. Iglesias, who held himself proudly, as he stood waiting before her.
gpt
Do you care for these barking people? Is it a question of affection between any of them and you?
human
I am afraid not, he answered.
gpt
Ours has been a purely business connection throughout. How should it be otherwise? The social interval between employers and employed is not easily bridged.
human
Stuff-a-nonsense! Poppy put in scornfully.
gpt
They might feel honoured to tie your shoe.
human
Any attempt to ignore differences of wealth and station, which others are pleased to remember, would be unbecoming, he continued.
gpt
Nor do I relish condescension on the part of my social betters. It does not suit me. I prefer to remain within my own borders. Still, there is the tie of long association with these merchant princes and their undertakings, and this, I own, influences me strongly. It would be shocking to me to witness the failure or ruin of those with whom I have been in daily intercourse. Then, too, there is a certain challenge in the present position which appeals to the fighting instinct in me. If not altogether by nature, still by habit I am a business man. Affairs interest me, and consequently the more embarrassed and apparently hopeless the existing state of things is, the greater would be my satisfaction in mastering the intricacies of it and reducing them to order. These practical matters are not without very real excitement and drama to those who have the habit of handling them. Iglesias paused, and then added quietly,
human
But I am contented enough as I am, and should not voluntarily have touched business again had there not been another consideration over and above those I have enumerated--namely, the plain obligation of right doing, whether the said doing be congenial to one or not. This obligation is supreme, or should be so, in the case of one who, like myself, has bound himself by definite acts of obedience and self-dedication.