human
You owe me another circuit, he said;
gpt
Tell me when you first began to think about me, he said, as they passed the choir.
human
Was it when you read that letter?
gpt
It was an absurd letter.
human
On the contrary, it was a very good one, and you know it. You have kept it?
gpt
No; I burned it long ago.
human
Not so very long! However, never fear; I will write you plenty more, and even better ones. I will go away on purpose.
gpt
You said some bitter things to me in that old amphitheatre, Margaret; I shall always hate the place. But after all--for a person who was quite indifferent--were you not just a little _too_ angry?
human
It is easy to say that now,
gpt
Why did you stop and leave the room so abruptly when you were singing that song I asked for--you know, the 'Semper Fidelis?'
human
My voice failed.
gpt
No; it was your courage. You knew then that you were no longer 'fidelis' to that former love of yours, and you were frightened by the discovery.
human
And now, as to that former love, he said, pausing.
gpt
I will never ask you again; but here and now, Margaret, tell me what it was.
human
It was not 'a fascination'--like yours,
gpt
Do not be impertinent, especially in a church. Mrs. Lovell was not my only fascination, I beg to assure you; remember, I am thirty-six years old. But now--what was it?
human
A mistake.
gpt
Good; but I want more.
human
It was a will-o'-the-wisp that I thought was real.
gpt
Better; but not enough.
human
You ask too much, I think.
gpt
I shall always ask it; I am horribly selfish; I warn you beforehand that I expect everything, in the most relentless way.
human
Well, then, it was a fancy, Trafford, that I mistook for--
gpt
I have a sort of feeling that I owe it to the old fellow, he said.
human
I have always been his faithful disciple, and now he has rewarded me with a benediction. On the next high-festival his tablet shall be wreathed with the reddest of roses and a thick bank of heliotrope, as an acknowledgment of my gratitude.
gpt
the inquiring tourists would have been rendered distracted by the impossibility of finding out; but to the native Florentines attending mass at the cathedral, to whom the Latin inscription,
human
I am he through whom the lost Art of Painting was revived, remains a blank, it was only a tribute to some
gpt
And he is as much my friend as though he had not departed something over five centuries ago, said Trafford;
human
I wonder if he knows any better, now, how to paint an angel leaning from the sky,
gpt
Have you any idea why Miss Harrison invented that enormous fiction about you?
human
Not the least. We must ask her.
gpt
I thought you were in Tadmor,
human
I started; but came back to ask a question. Why did you tell me that this young lady was going to be married?
gpt
Well, isn't she? said Miss Harrison, laughing.
human
Sit down, you two, and confess your folly. Margaret has been ill all summer with absolute pining--yes, you have, child, and it is a woman's place to be humble. And you, Trafford, did not look especially jubilant, either, for a man who has been immensely amused during the same space of time. I did what I could for you by inventing a sort of neutral ground upon which you could meet and speak. It is very neutral for the other man, you know, when the girl is going to be married; he can speak to her then as well as not! I was afraid last night that you were not going to take advantage of my invention; but I see that it has succeeded (in some mysterious way out in all this rain) better than I knew. It was, I think, she concluded, as she commenced on a new needle,
gpt
I don't know what you two are laughing at, said Miss Harrison, surveying them.
human
I should think you ought to be more sentimental, you know.
gpt
To confess all the truth, Aunt Ruth, said Trafford, going across and sitting down beside her,
human
Margaret and I have tried one or two of those experiments already!