human
I questioned some of your cowmen. They said you'd gone off, and would be getting back at night in your automobile, not earlier than ten and maybe a good deal later. So I waited. The car I hired is a covered one, and I sat in it, a long way from the house out of sight behind a little rising of the land. Perhaps you call it a hill.
gpt
We do,
human
I brought some food and wine. The chauffeur's there with the car now. He has cigarettes, and doesn't mind if we stay all night.
gpt
I mind, Knight cut her short.
human
You can't stay all night. The road's good enough with such a moon for you to get back to El Paso. You'd better start so as to reach there before she sets.
gpt
Wait till you hear why I've come before you advise me to hurry! the Countess protested.
human
There's no danger of our being disturbed, is there? Where is your wife?
gpt
In bed and asleep, I trust.
human
I'm glad. Then will you sit on the top of these steps in this heavenly moonlight and let me tell you things that are important to me? Perhaps you may think they are important to you as well. Who knows?
gpt
I know. Nothing you can have to say will be important to me. I won't sit down, thank you. I've been sitting in my car for hours. I prefer to stand.
human
Very well. But--how hard you are! Even now, you won't believe I was innocent of that thing you accused me of doing?
gpt
I think now what I thought then. You were not innocent, but guilty. You were just a plain, ordinary sneak, Madalena, because you were jealous and spiteful.
human
It is not true! Spiteful against _you_! It was never in my heart to lie. Jealous, perhaps. But that is not to say I wrote the letter you believe I wrote. You didn't give me time to try and prove I did not write the letter. You accused me brutally. You ordered me out of England, with threats. I obeyed because I was heartbroken, not because I was afraid.
gpt
Why trouble to excuse yourself? he asked.
human
It's not worth the time it takes. If you've come to tell me anything in particular, tell it, and let's make an end.
gpt
I have an offer of marriage from a millionaire,
human
Which no doubt you accepted, not to say snapped at.
gpt
Not yet. I put him off, because I wanted to see you before I answered.
human
You flatter me! Knight laughed, not pleasantly.
gpt
If you've come from San Francisco to get my advice on that subject, I can give it while you count three. Make sure of the unfortunate wretch before he changes his mind.
human
Ah, if I could think that your harshness comes from just a little--_ever_ so little, jealousy! Madalena sighed.
gpt
He won't change his mind. There is no danger. He is old, and I seem a young girl to him. He adores me. He is on his knees!
human
Bad for rheumatism!
gpt
He thinks I am the most wonderful creature who ever lived. I met him through my work. He came from a friend of his who told him about my crystal, and about me, too.
human
You are still working the crystal?
gpt
But, of course! It has always given me the path to success. If I marry this man I shall be able to rest.
human
On your laurels--such as they are!
gpt
On his money. He can't live many years.
human
You are an affectionate fiancée!