human
I can't say that; but I can say something more important.
gpt
That settles it, by Jove. I sha'n't give you up. There's no reason for it. So long as we love each other--
human
Our loving each other wouldn't make your refusal any the less hard for me. As your wife I should be trying to fill a position for which I'm no longer qualified and in which I should be a failure.
gpt
As my wife, he said, slowly, with significant deliberation,
human
That is, you could send in your papers and retire into private life.
gpt
If we liked.
human
So that you'd be choosing between your career--and me.
gpt
I object to the way of putting it. If my career, as you call it, didn't make you happy, you should have whatever would do the trick.
human
I'm afraid you'll think me captious if I say that nothing _could do_ it. If you weren't happy, I couldn't be; and you'd never be happy except as a soldier.
gpt
That trade would be open to me whatever happened.
human
In theory, yes; but in practice, if you had a wife who was under a cloud you'd have to go under it, too. That's what it would come to in the working-out.
gpt
She's stunning--by Jove! It seemed to him that he saw her for the first time. For the first time since he had known her he was less the ambitious military officer seeking a wife who would grace a high position than he was a man in love with a woman. Separating these two elements within himself, he was able to value her qualities, not as adornments to some Home or Colonial Headquarters House, but as of supreme worth for their own sake.
human
People have only got to see her,
gpt
I dare say the cloud may not be so threatening, after all; and even if it is, I should go under it with the pluckiest woman in the world.
human
Thank you; I'm foolish enough to like to hear you say it. I think I _am_ plucky--alone. But I shouldn't be if I involved anybody else.
gpt
But if it was some one who could help you?
human
That might be different, but I don't know of any one who could. _You_ couldn't. If you tried you'd only injure yourself without doing me any good.
gpt
At the least, I could take you away from--from all this.
human
No, because it's the sort of thing one can never leave behind. It's gone ahead of us. It will meet us at every turn. You and I--and papa--are probably by to-day a subject for gossip in half the clubs in New York. To-morrow it will be the same thing in London--at the club you call the Rag--and the Naval and Military--and your different Service clubs--
gpt
As a mere nine days' wonder.
human
Which isn't forgotten when the nine days are past. Long after they've ceased speaking of it they'll remember--
gpt
They'll remember, he interrupted, fiercely,
human
That you--what?