human
Are you aware, he asked, returning to his model,
gpt
In truth, no.
human
Because she constrains you; because she casts a shadow upon your youth and gayety; in a word, because she prevents you from being yourself.
gpt
Pray, how could you divine that?
human
My dear child, I have already deciphered three thousand human visages, and why should I not have learned to read the soul a little? The lady is your aunt?
gpt
Yes,--at least I have been told to call her so.
human
And your parents?
gpt
My mother is dead; I never knew her. My father has travelled for the past fifteen years in foreign lands; perhaps I shall never see him. While a mere child I was placed in Miss Hannah More's boarding-school at Bristol. One day we learned that our mistress was a poetic genius, that Dr. Johnson himself had deigned to encourage her. You cannot imagine, Sir Joshua, what a sensation the tidings created among us girls! We all sighed to compose verse--or to recite. It was discovered that I spoke rather better than the others. I swear to you that I was possessed of but one desire,--to appear in costume, to escape from that frightful gray gown and that horrible Quaker bonnet in which we were all hooded. One day I was made to declaim before Mr. Garrick. He wished to give me lessons and make an actress of me. And a few months later I made my _début_.
human
And a genuine triumph it was! I was there.
gpt
It was then that I was informed that I had an aunt, a sister of my mother, and I was forthwith placed in her care, in her guardianship.
human
And she has rigorously acquitted herself of the mission which was confided to her.
gpt
Ah, Sir Joshua! It is not that she is unkind in any way, but she is my constant shadow. In the wings, in the greenroom, at the rehearsals, she is ever at my side, answering questions which are put to me, refusing invitations, reading letters which are addressed to me, and forcing me to sing psalms to put to rout the evil thoughts which I find in Shakespeare!
human
I see; and you long to be free?
gpt
Oh, yes, passionately!
human
And what use would you make of your liberty?
gpt
Oh, I can't fancy. Perhaps I might love virtue if it were not crammed down my throat.
human
Good!
gpt
But you do not know the worst yet.
human
Well?
gpt
The worst--is Reuben!
human
And who may Reuben be?
gpt
My cousin, my aunt's son; but he is no Quaker. He belongs to one of those old, rigid, cruel sects which have been perpetuated in shadow since the days of the Puritans. He is a fanatic; it would rejoice his heart to plunge into a sea of papist blood; meanwhile he torments me.
human
Perhaps he loves you?
gpt
Yes, according to his light, which surely is not a fair light.
human
And what is the proper method of loving?
gpt
You ask me more than I can tell, Sir Joshua.
human
Indeed? Pray how, then, can one who is ignorant of the sentiment impart its faithful presentment to others? How can she communicate an emotion which finds no echo in her own soul? Who has the ability to teach her to invest her voice, her gestures, her glance, her very smile, with the woes and joys of love?
gpt
Garrick, I tell you!
human
Poor Garrick! exclaimed Reynolds ruefully;