human
I am glad to see that type endures,
gpt
Phonographs and kinematographs, said Lincoln, a little spitefully.
human
He has studied from the life.
gpt
As a matter of fact we bought him, said Lincoln.
human
Partly. And partly he was afraid of Ostrog. Everything rested with him.
gpt
We have conquered Cram, he said,
human
How do you get the work done?
gpt
We make it attractive--as attractive as possible. And if it does not attract then--we let it go. We cover an immense field.
human
There is a certain type of girl, for example, said the Surveyor-General, dilating with a sense of his usefulness,
gpt
he said with a Napoleonic touch,
human
About the public elementary schools, said Graham.
gpt
Do you control them?
human
Now, Graham, in his later democratic days, had taken a keen interest in these and his questioning quickened. Certain casual phrases that had fallen from the old man with whom he had talked in the darkness recurred to him. The Surveyor-General, in effect, endorsed the old man's words.
gpt
We try and make the elementary schools very pleasant for the little children. They will have to work so soon. Just a few simple principles--obedience--industry.
human
You teach them very little?
gpt
Why should we? It only leads to trouble and discontent. We amuse them. Even as it is--there are troubles--agitations. Where the labourers get the ideas, one cannot tell. They tell one another. There are socialistic dreams--anarchy even! Agitators _will_ get to work among them. I take it--I have always taken it--that my foremost duty is to fight against popular discontent. Why should people be made unhappy?
human
I wonder, said Graham thoughtfully.
gpt
But there are a great many things I want to know.
human
There are others,
gpt
Perhaps, said Lincoln, intercepting a casual glance,
human
I have tried, she said,
gpt
Into this,
human
Out of your life--out of all that was familiar.
gpt
The old life was not a happy one, said Graham.
human
I do not regret that.
gpt
No?
human
No, said Graham.
gpt
It was a little life--and unmeaning. But this--We thought the world complex and crowded and civilised enough. Yet I see--although in this world I am barely four days old--looking back on my own time, that it was a queer, barbaric time--the mere beginning of this new order. The mere beginning of this new order. You will find it hard to understand how little I know.
human
You may ask me what you like,
gpt
Then tell me who these people are. I'm still very much in the dark about them. It's puzzling. Are there any Generals?
human
Men in hats and feathers?
gpt
Of course not. No. I suppose they are the men who control the great public businesses. Who is that distinguished looking man?
human
That? He's a most important officer. That is Morden. He is managing director of the Antibilious Pill Department. I have heard that his workers sometimes turn out a myriad myriad pills a day in the twenty-four hours. Fancy a myriad myriad!
gpt
A myriad myriad. No wonder he looks proud, said Graham.
human
Pills! What a wonderful time it is! That man in purple?
gpt
He is not quite one of the inner circle, you know. But we like him. He is really clever and very amusing. He is one of the heads of the Medical Faculty of our London University. All medical men, you know, wear that purple. But, of course, people who are paid by fees for _doing_ something--
human
Are any of your great artists or authors here?
gpt
No authors. They are mostly such queer people--and so preoccupied about themselves. And they quarrel so dreadfully! They will fight, some of them, for precedence on staircases! Dreadful, isn't it? But I think Wraysbury, the fashionable capillotomist, is here. From Capri.
human
Capillotomist, said Graham.
gpt
Ah! I remember. An artist! Why not?
human
We have to cultivate him, she said apologetically.
gpt
Our heads are in his hands.
human
Have the arts grown with the rest of civilised things? he said.
gpt
Who are your great painters?
human
For a moment, she said,
gpt
I thought you meant-- She laughed again.
human
You mean, of course, those good men you used to think so much of because they could cover great spaces of canvas with oil-colours? Great oblongs. And people used to put the things in gilt frames and hang them up in rows in their square rooms. We haven't any. People grew tired of that sort of thing.
gpt
But what did you think I meant?
human
And here,
gpt
I see, he remarked inadequately. He turned awkwardly away from her fascinating facility. He looked about him to meet a number of eyes that immediately occupied themselves with other things. Possibly he coloured a little.
human
Who is that talking with the lady in saffron?
gpt
And, bye the bye, she added,
human
Graham was on the verge of hesitating inquiries about the status of a