human
Efficiency is the gravest menace that the war holds over us, said O'Rane reflectively.
gpt
Whenever I've met it, it means being unkind--with Government sanction--to some one weaker than yourself; Jesus Christ would not have been tolerated by the Charity Organisation Society, all the bourgeois press would have said that He was pampering the incompetent and maintaining the survival of the unfit. Efficiency frightens me.
human
If we don't learn our lesson out of this war, we don't deserve to win it,
gpt
But what is the lesson? O'Rane asked, more of himself than of us.
human
Do you men find that you think best at night? he went on reflectively.
gpt
There's less distraction ... and I'm always thinking at night now. I would say that every man who comes out of this war alive is a reprieved man and that we don't deserve to win it unless we learn that the only crime in all the world is cruelty.... If we can't affect others, we can at least affect ourselves. It's no use waiting for an act of parliament to make you humane; if you're prepared to jump into the river to save a child from drowning, you must be prepared to jump through a window to save it from starving. He shook his head and turned to me.
human
But how you're going to teach that, sir, even with your million a year to endow schools.... The Church has had Peter's keys for nearly two thousand years, but how many of us would literally pick a man out of the street, turn on the hot water for him, lend him a razor and a rig-out, keep him in funds till his ship comes home.... As he paused, I looked beyond him to the sofa where Beresford lay idly fingering Mrs. O'Rane's amber beads.
gpt
Of course it's all figurative and the gorgeous imagery of the East and that sort of thing, but I don't know how any man could remain a professing Christian for two minutes if he didn't believe that Christ would bathe the feet of the first tramp on the road. That's far more important to the human race than the Crucifixion. But then Christ was always poor, and you can't begin to be charitable until you've known what it means to be poor. His voice sank and grew silent.
human
I'm boring you, Grayle!
gpt
I must be getting home, was the answer, following hot-foot on an ill-suppressed yawn.
human
Boring me, indeed? Enjoyed it all immensely. He got up and walked towards Mrs. O'Rane, to whom he bade an elaborate good-bye, while I followed slowly behind, wondering how such a woman ever came to marry such a man.
gpt
I shan't see you this side of Christmas, I suppose?
human
But I thought I was dining with you on Friday?
gpt
I understood you were going to Melton.
human
I must think about this, she said.
gpt
Yes. I don't know how long it'll take me to tidy up things here.... Oh, I shall certainly be in London on Friday. David darling, you understand that I can't possibly get away at a moment's notice--any more than you can.
human
Come whenever it suits you,
gpt
You mustn't stay on my account, he said to Mrs. O'Rane.
human
It won't be a _party_, you know.
gpt
Jealous?
human
Not a bit. I shouldn't like you to come, though, if you were simply going to be bored.
gpt
Oh, if you'd rather I didn't come, I won't.