human
I'm not called on to go poking behind things to see what's there, now am I?
gpt
Not in the least.
human
I'm willing to consider every one, and I think I do. But there are limits, by Jove! Now, really?
gpt
The minute we recognize limits it's our duty not to go beyond them. It's thus far and no farther--for the man who knows the stretch of his tether, at any rate. The trouble with Peter is that his tether is elastic. It'll spin out as far as he sees the need to go. For the rest of us there are limits, as you say; but about him there's something--something you might call limitless.
human
You mean he's so big that no one can be bigger.
gpt
Not exactly. I mean that very few of us _need_ to be as big as that. It's all very well for him; but most of us have to keep within the measure of our own capacity.
human
And sit down under him, while he looms up into God knows where?
gpt
Well, wouldn't that be your idea?
human
Can't say that it is. My idea is that when I take my rights and keep them, I'm as big as any one.
gpt
Quite so; as big as any one--who takes his rights and keeps them. That's very true.
human
And that's what I propose to do,
gpt
It's a very high ideal.
human
I propose to accept the status quo without asking any more questions.
gpt
I should think that would be a very good plan. A wise man--one of the wisest--wrote, apropos of well-disposed people who were seeking a standard of conduct: 'Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.' I should think you'd have every reason for that kind of self-approval.
human
Do you mean that, sir? or are you--trying it on?
gpt
I'm certainly not trying it on. The man who takes his rights and keeps them can be amply justified. If there's a counsel of perfection that goes beyond that standard--well, it isn't given to all men to receive it.
human
Then you think it isn't given to me. You'd put me down as a good sort of chap who comes in second best.
gpt
What makes you think I should do that?
human
Because--because--hang it all! If I let this fellow keep ahead of me--why, I _should_ come in second best.
gpt
You say _keep_ ahead of me. Do you think he's ahead of you now?
human
He's got a pull, by Jove! He made that journey to France--and cracked me up to the Marquise--and wheedled her round--when all the while he must have known that he was hammering nails into his own coffin. He did it, too, after I'd insulted him and we'd had a row.
gpt
Oh, that's nothing. To a fellow like him that sort of thing comes easy.
human
It wouldn't come easy to me, by Jove!
gpt
Then it would be all the more to your credit, if you ever did anything of the kind.
human
Got a light?
gpt
Should you say, he asked, while doing it,
human
Certainly not--unless you want to--to get ahead.
gpt
I don't want to stay behind.
human
Then, it's for you to judge, my son.
gpt
It's this way, he explained, stammeringly;
human
I'm a British officer and gentleman. I'm a little more than that--since I'm a V.C. man--and a fellow--dash it all, I might as well say it!--I'm a fellow they've got their eye on--in the line of high office, don't you know? And I can't--I simply _can't_--let a chap like that make me a present of all his chances--
gpt
Did he have any?
human
Before God, sir, I don't know--but I'm inclined to think--he had. If so, I suppose they're of as much value to him as mine to me.
gpt
But not of any more.
human
I don't know about that. Perhaps they are. The Lord knows I don't say that lightly, for mine are--Well, we needn't go into that. But I've got a good deal in my life, and I don't imagine that he, poor devil--
gpt
Oh, don't worry. A rich soil is never barren. When nothing is planted in it, Nature uses it for flowers.
human
I see, sir, your sympathies are all on his side.
gpt
Not at all. Quite the contrary. My certainties are on his side. My sympathies are on yours.
human
Because you think I need them.
gpt
Because I think you may.
human
In case I--
gpt
In case you should condemn yourself in the thing you're going to allow.
human
But what's it to be?
gpt
That's for you to settle with yourself.
human
I should like to do the right thing, by Jove!--the straight thing--if I only knew what it was.
gpt
Oh, there'll be no trouble about that. In the Street called Straight, my son, there are lights to show the way.
human
Rum old cove, was Ashley's comment to himself as he went back to Boston.
gpt
Got an answer to everything.
human
Had an upset,