human
I’ve been up to Vermala on a luge, he said as though the idea tickled him immensely;
gpt
Benny, he exclaimed at last,
human
No, she’s not in it, Jack, he rejoined hastily.
gpt
I was just thinking that it was odd I should have brought her down, that’s all. She’s Mrs. Kennaird, one of the Yorkshire lot, I guess, though she wouldn’t own up. I suppose she didn’t want anyone to know too much about her—that would be very natural, eh?
human
But it wasn’t much of a compliment to you, Benny.
gpt
Do you think so, Jack? Well, I didn’t look at it in that light. Perhaps it wasn’t, after all. She might have been afraid that I would go down to her house in Yorkshire and try to see her. She might have done so—and, of course, it wouldn’t have done; would it, Jack?
human
Why wouldn’t it have done? Aren’t you good enough for her? You’re always crying us down, Benny. Wasn’t our grandfather a Brerton, and wasn’t he a d——d sight better than any Kennaird in Yorkshire? Why shouldn’t you call on her if you wanted to?
gpt
Oh, he said almost impatiently,
human
I never heard you talk like this before, he said questioningly;
gpt
The old one will do yet awhile, Jack. It’s up in London, packed away with the cylinder castings we had from Anzini. No, I’m not going in for that line, old boy; but when a man does meet a pretty woman, one he’s likely to remember, why then, I suppose, these thoughts will come. That’s what old Shakespeare says, and he knew women better than most of us. Wasn’t it the same old Billy who told us to fling away ambition, for by that sin fell the angels? Well, I hope I shan’t fall to-night, for I’m going to try the Zaat again.
human
The Zaat—but you never told me!
gpt
The idea came as I walked along. I want to see how the new propeller is working. It’s only three weeks to the day, Jack, and if I let some Frenchman in before me, you know you’d never forgive me. Ten thousand pounds, my boy—and that’s fortune. Let me win them and I will be one of the richest men in Europe in five years’ time. You believe that, Jack, don’t you?