human
Oh yes! The big word just means that we can't get on with one another, and hints that it's probably just as much my fault as his. But inkpat means all the one thousand and one unendurable things he does and says to me. Whenever he does or says one, I say invariably, 'Inkpat!' The next moment there's another--'Inkpat!' I really shouldn't have time for the long word even if I wanted to use it.
gpt
You were very fond of him once, weren't you?
human
Supposing I was? Evidently she did not care to be reminded of the fact, if it were a fact. She treated it rather as an accusation.
gpt
Does one really know anything about a man before one marries him? And then it's too late.
human
Are you pleading for trial trips?
gpt
Oh, that's impossible, of course.
human
Is anything impossible nowadays?
gpt
Anyhow, it's not what we're told. I only meant that having cared once made very little difference really--it comes to count for next to nothing, you know.
human
Not a gospel very acceptable to an engaged man, Winnie!
gpt
I know, I'm sorry. I'm longing to know your Cicely and be great friends with her. And it's too bad to bother you with the seamy side of it just now. But you're such a friend, and so sensible, and a lawyer too, you see. You forgive me?
human
I'm awfully glad to help, if I can. Could you give me a few--I don't want a thousand and one, but a few--instances of 'inkpat'?
gpt
That wouldn't be much use. Broadly speaking, inkpat's a demand that a woman should be not what she is, but a sort of stunted and inferior reproduction of the man--what he thinks he would be, if he were a woman. Anything that's not like that gets inkpatted at once. Oh, Hobart, it is horrible! Because it's so utterly hopeless, you know. How can I be somebody else? Above all, somebody like Cyril--only a woman? It's absurd! A Cyrilesque woman! Oh!
human
I don't know him very well, but it certainly does sound absurd. Are you sure you haven't misunderstood? Can't you have an explanation?
gpt
Inkpat never explains; it never sees that there is anything to explain. It preaches, or lectures, or is sarcastic, or grumbles, or sulks--and I suppose it would swear, if Cyril didn't happen to be so religious. But explain or listen to an explanation--never!
human
I declare I envy the raggedest hungriest child playing there in the garden, she said.
gpt
At least it may be itself. Didn't God make me just as much as He made Cyril?