human
Now tell me all the news at Woolhanger?
gpt
Woolhanger lies under a mantle of snow, she told him.
human
There is a wind blowing there which seems to have come straight from the ice of the North Pole and sounds like the devil playing bowls amongst the hills.
gpt
The hunting?
human
All stopped, of course. A few nights ago, two stags came right up to the house and quite a troop of the really wild ponies from over Hawkbridge way. We've never had such a spell of cold in my memory. It reminded one of the snowstorm in 'Lorna Doone.'--But after all, I told you all about Woolhanger last night. I want your news.
gpt
I seem to have settled down with the Democrats, he told her.
human
I do my best to keep the party in line. The great trades unions are, of course, our chief difficulty, but I think we are making progress even with them. Some of the miners' representatives dined with me at the Trocadero the other night. Good fellows they are, too. There is only one great difficulty, he went on,
gpt
I can quite understand, she acquiesced sympathetically,
human
We had a small tactical success against the Government this afternoon, he explained.
gpt
It doesn't really amount to anything. We are not ready for their resignation at the moment, any more than they are ready to resign.
human
You are an object of terror to all my people, she confided smilingly.
gpt
They say that Horlock dare not go to the country and that you could turn him out to-morrow if you cared to.
human
So much for politics,
gpt
So much for politics, she assented.
human
And now about yourself?
gpt
A little finger of flame burning in an empty place, he sighed.
human
That is how life seems to me when I take my hand off the plough.
gpt
Aren't you by way of being just a little sentimental?
human
Perhaps, he admitted.
gpt
If I am, let me feel the luxury of it.
human
One reads different things of you.
gpt
For instance?
human
Town Topics says that you have become an interesting figure at many social functions. You must meet attractive people there.
gpt
I only wish that I could find them so, he answered.
human
London has been almost feverishly gay lately and every one seems to have discovered a vogue for entertaining politicians. There seems to be a sort of idea that dangerous corners may be rubbed off us by a judicious application of turtle soup and champagne.
gpt
Cynic!
human
Well, I don't know, he went on.
gpt
From any other point of view, some of the entertainments to which I have been bidden appear utterly without meaning. However, it is part of my programme to prove to the world that we Democrats can open our arms wide enough to include every class in life. Therefore, I go to many places I should otherwise avoid. I have studied the attitude of the younger women whom I have approached, purely impersonally and without the slightest hypersensitiveness. They have all been perfectly pleasant, perfectly disposed for conversation or any of the usual social amenities. But they know that I have in the background a wife. To flirt with a married man of fifty isn't worth while.
human
It appears to me, she said, with a slight note of severity in her tone,
gpt
Not at all, he objected.
human
I have simply been experimenting.