human
Heigh-ho--ho hum--Two United States Senators, one slightly damaged Governor, marked down, five congressmen and three liars, one supreme court justice, also a liar, a working interest in a second, and a slight equity in a third; organization of the Senate, speaker of the house,--forty liars and thirty thieves--that's my political assets, my dear.
gpt
I wish you'd quit politics, Doctor, and attend to your practice,
human
Liabilities of James Nesbit, dealer in public grief, licensed dispenser of private joy, purveyor of Something Equally Good, item one, forty-nine gentlemen who think they've been promised thirty-six jobs--but they are mistaken, they have been told only that I'll do what I can for them--which is true; item two, three hundred friends who want something and may ask at any minute; item three, seventy-five men who will be or have been primed up by the loathed opposition to demand jobs; item four, Tom Van Dorn who is as sure as guns to think in about a year he has to have a vindication, by running for another term; item five--
gpt
He can't have it,
human
Item six, a big, husky fight in Greeley county for the maharaja of Harvey and the adjoining provinces. A deep sigh rose from the Doctor, then followed more clapping of hands and kicking of heels and some slapping of suspenders, as the voices of Kenyon and Lila came into the veranda from the lawn, and the Doctor cast up his accounts:
gpt
Let's see now--naught's a naught and figure's a figure and carry six, and subtract the profits and multiply the trouble and you have a busted community. Correct, he piped,
human
Bedelia, my dear, observe a busted community. Your affectionate lord and master, kind husband, indulgent father, good citizen gone but not forgotten. How are the mighty fallen.
gpt
Doctor, snapped Mrs. Nesbit,
human
Ho-ho-ho! Oh, I don't know--I should say--yes. He'll just about have to run--for a Vindication.
gpt
Well, you'll not support him! I say you'll not support him,
human
Then I'll not support him. Where's Laura?
gpt
She went down to South Harvey to see about that kindergarten she's been talking of. She seems almost cheerful about the way Kenyon is getting on with his music. She says the child reads as well as she now and plays everything on the violin that she can play on the piano. Doctor, added Mrs. Nesbit meditatively,
human
The wife hesitated and asked,
gpt
Would you do it?
human
Greater love than this hath no woman shown, my dear--that she gives up oriental rugs for a kindergarten--by all means give it to her.
gpt
James, Lila still grieves for her father.
human
Yes, answered the Doctor sadly,
gpt
Duty, Bedelia, is the realest obligation in the world. Here are Lila and Henry Fenn. What a miserable lot of tommy rot about soul-mating Tom and this Fenn woman conjured up to get away from their duty to child and husband. They have swapped a place with the angels for a right to wallow with the hogs; that's what all their fine talking amounts to. The Doctor's shrill voice rose.
human
They don't fool me. They don't fool any one; they don't even fool each other. I tell you, my dear, he chirped as he rose from his chair,
gpt
I never saw one of those illicit love affairs in life or heard of it in literature that was not just plain, old fashion, downright, beastly selfishness. Duty is a greater thing in life than what the romance peddlers call love.
human
Oh you Satterthwaites with hearts of marble,