human
Drink?
gpt
No, thanks.
human
I'm devilish sorry for you, Jack, he said at length.
gpt
But I see by the paper that it is all over.
human
Yes; they finished with me this afternoon. Alington will have another week of it. Jove! Toby, for all his sleekness and hymn-singing, he is an iron fellow! He's got some fresh scheme on hand, and he's going about it with all his old quiet energy, and asked me to join him; but I told him I'd had enough of directorships. But there's a strong man for you! He is knocked flat, he picks himself up and goes straight on.
gpt
And here's the cruel part of it all, he said,
human
About the Park Lane house, he said, after a pause.
gpt
I talked it over with Lily, and if you'll let us have it at that price, we shall be delighted to take it. We only have our present house on a yearly lease, which expires in July.
human
You're a good fellow, Toby.
gpt
Oh, that's all rot! said Toby.
human
Lily and I both want your house. It isn't as if we were doing you a kindness--it isn't really, Jack. But it's such rough luck on you having to turn out. Of course, you and Kit will always come there whenever you like.
gpt
I think I will have a drink, Toby, he said;
human
Poor old Jack! Whisky? Whisky-and-soda, waiter--two. Well, it's all over.
gpt
Ted Comber was in court to-day, continued Jack,
human
I've made it up with him, I'm sorry to say, he remarked.
gpt
Lily insisted on it. We shook hands, and I was afraid he was going to kiss me.
human
By the way, how is Lily?
gpt
Happy as a queen when I left her this morning, and the boy, oh! Jack, a beauty. He was shouting fit to knock the house down: you could have heard him in Goring. I left early, but Kit got up and breakfasted with me. Knowing how she hates getting up early, I put that down at its proper value. But she didn't attend to me much: she has no thoughts except for Lily and the boy.
human
Kit has behaved like a real trump all through this, said Jack.
gpt
Never a word or a look of reproach to me. She's just been cheery, and simple, and splendid. You know, Toby, she is utterly changed since--since that time before Easter. We had a long talk the day after you and Lily left us there two months ago. I was never so surprised in my life.
human
At what?
gpt
At what she said, and at what I said--perhaps most of what I said. She told me she was going to try not to be such a brute. And, upon my soul, I thought it was an excellent plan. I said I would try too.
human
There's your whisky, he said.
gpt
Hang it all! I haven't got any money. You'll have to pay for it yourself, Jack--and mine, too. So you and Kit made a bargain?
human
Yes, we made a bargain. The worst of it was that neither of us know how to try, so we consulted Lily. Did it ever occur to you, Toby, that you have married the nicest girl that ever breathed?
gpt
I _had_ an idea of it. It was Kit's doing, too. Funny, that.
human
Well, Lily told us. She said some damned clever things. She said that turning over a new leaf meant not even looking back once to the old one. You know, Toby, that's devilish good. I thought she'd tell us to think what brutes we had been, and repent. Not a bit of it. We've just got to go straight on. Don't grin; I'm perfectly serious.
gpt
I'm sure you are. I was only grinning at the notion of Lily telling you to repent. You know, if there are two things that girl is not, Jack, they are a preacher and a prig.
human
You're quite right, and I always thought that to be good you had to be either one or the other, and probably both. She tells me it is not necessarily so, and so Kit and I are going to set to work. We are not going to run up any more huge bills which we can't pay; we are not going to invent or to listen to scandalous stories about other people; and we are going to flirt. We suggested that, and Lily thought it would do to begin upon. Also I was to tell the truth about Alington's bankruptcy. I did that. Really, Toby, it's very easy to tell the truth: it requires no effort of the imagination. But the truth is a brute when it comes out.
gpt
Yes, you may think I don't mean it, he said,
human
We are indeed, he said.
gpt
Good-night, Toby;
human
Meistersingers,