human
What will you do then?
gpt
Go away, declared Thorne.
human
Strike west and vanish out of sight. I've no doubt somebody will hire me to load up railroad ballast or herd cattle. He smiled at her harshly.
gpt
After all, it will be a relief to my few friends. They may be a little sorry--but my absence will save their making excuses for me.
human
You must be just to them, she said.
gpt
Why should they invent excuses--when you have made such a fight with so much against you? Besides, you are wrong when you say they might be--a little sorry. Can you believe that it would be easy to let you go away?
human
Is there any one who would have much difficulty in doing that?
gpt
Yes, murmured Alison, with suddenly lowered eyes;
human
It is quite true, she added, with flaming cheeks.
gpt
I must say it. I mean myself.
human
Don't make it all unbearable! he cried at length.
gpt
There's only one course open to me. It's hard enough already.
human
Oh, she exclaimed,
gpt
I'm afraid you are right; but I believed that I might make a success of this farming venture.
human
Dare you believe that would have mattered so very much to me? Do you think I didn't know why you turned farmer, and why you have since then done things that none of your neighbors would have been capable of?
gpt
It seemed necessary, explained Thorne, still with the same expressive quietness.
human
I did so because I wanted you, and that is exactly what makes defeat so bitter now.
gpt
And you imagined that you had hidden your motive? Can you believe that a man could change his whole mode of life and take up a burden he had carefully avoided, as you have done, without having the woman on whose account he did it understand why? Are we so blind or utterly foolish? Don't you know that our perceptions and intuitions are twice as keen as yours?
human
Then you understood what my object was all along--and it didn't strike you as absurd and impossible?
gpt
Why should it seem absurd that I should love you, Mavy?