human
We are foreigners, she went on,
gpt
I could have told most of that of you both,
human
My father was always a student. As a young man in the university, he was devoted to certain theories of his own. _N'est-ce pas vrai, mon drôle?_
gpt
Yes, I wass student, he said.
human
I wass not content with the ways of my people.
gpt
So, my father, you will see, said she, smiling at him,
human
This dear old dreamer, my father, then, and five others--
gpt
I name them! he interrupted.
human
There were Karl von Goertz, Albrecht Hardman, Adolph zu Sternbern, Karl von Starnack, and Rudolph von Wardberg. We were all friends--
gpt
Yes, she said softly,
human
My dear, your mother!
gpt
But I must tell this as it was! Then, sir, these six, all Heidelberg men, all well born, men of fortune, all men devoted to science, and interested in the study of the hopelessness of the average human being in Central Europe--these fools, or heroes, I say not which--they decided to do something in the interest of science. They were of the belief that human beings were becoming poor in type. So they determined to marry--
human
Naturally, said I, seeking to relieve a delicate situation--
gpt
You do them too much credit! said she slowly.
human
That would have meant no sacrifice on either side. They married in the interest of _science!_ They married with the deliberate intention of improving individuals of the human species! Father, is it not so?
gpt
Yes, these six concluded to improve the grade of human animals! They resolved to marry _among the peasantry_--because thus they could select finer specimens of womankind, younger, stronger, more fit to bring children into the world. Is not that the truth, my father?
human
It wass the way we thought, he whispered.
gpt
It wass the way we thought wass wise.
human
And perhaps it was wise. It was selection. So now they selected. Two of them married German working girls, and those two are dead, but there is no child of them alive. Two married in Austria, and of these one died, and the other is in a mad house. One married a young Galician girl, and so fond of her did he become that she took him down from his station to hers, and he was lost. The other--