human
Is that really your name--Algernon?
gpt
I cannot deny it.
human
I think your father is a darling,
gpt
The D's, he said.
human
Is it possible that posterity will know me as Bayliss the Dermatologist? Or as Bayliss the Drop Forger? I don't quite like that last one. It may be a respectable occupation, but it sounds rather criminal to me. The sentence for forging drops is probably about twenty years with hard labour.
gpt
I wish you would put that book away and go on with your lunch,
human
Perhaps, said Jimmy,
gpt
I think you ought to be ashamed of yourself. You are wasting your time, when you ought to be either talking to me or else thinking very seriously about what you mean to do.
human
I will be with you in a moment, he said.
gpt
Try to amuse yourself somehow till I am at leisure. Ask yourself a riddle. Tell yourself an anecdote. Think of life. No, it's no good. I don't see myself as a Fan Importer, a Glass Beveller, a Hotel Broker, an Insect Exterminator, a Junk Dealer, a Kalsomine Manufacturer, a Laundryman, a Mausoleum Architect, a Nurse, an Oculist, a Paper-Hanger, a Quilt Designer, a Roofer, a Ship Plumber, a Tinsmith, an Undertaker, a Veterinarian, a Wig Maker, an X-ray apparatus manufacturer, a Yeast producer, or a Zinc Spelter. He closed the book.
human
There is only one thing to do. I must starve in the gutter. Tell me--you know New York better than I do--where is there a good gutter?