human
No, he replied after a while, a little piqued by her suggestion,
gpt
Clarke is not the hero. What makes you think that he casts a spell on everything I do?
human
Dear child, she replied,
gpt
I know him. He cannot fail to impress his powerful personality upon all with whom he comes in contact, to the injury of their intellectual independence. Moreover, he is so brilliant and says everything so much better than anybody else, that by his very splendor he discourages effort in others. At best his influence will shape your development according to the tenets of his mind--curious, subtle and corrupted. You will become mentally distorted, like one of those hunchback Japanese trees, infinitely wrinkled and infinitely grotesque, whose laws of growth are not determined by nature, but by the diseased imagination of the East.
human
I am no weakling, Ernest asserted,
gpt
Here the Princess Marigold seemed to peer at him through the veil of the past, but he waved her aside.
human
As for my story, he continued,
gpt
Who can it be? Ethel remarked, with a merry twinkle,
human
You?
gpt
Ethel, he said sulkingly,
human
I am immensely flattered, she replied.
gpt
Really, nothing pleases me better than to be immortalised in print, since I have little hope nowadays of perpetuating my name by virtue of pencil or brush. I have been put into novels before and am consumed with curiosity to hear the plot of yours.
human
If you don't mind, I had rather not tell you just yet, Ernest said.
gpt
It's going to be called Leontina--that's you. But all depends on the treatment. You know it doesn't matter much what you say so long as you say it well. That's what counts. At any rate, any indication of the plot at this stage would be decidedly inadequate.
human
I think you are right, she ventured.
gpt
By all means choose your own time to tell me. Let's talk of something else. Have you written anything since your delightful book of verse last spring? Surely now is your singing season. By the time we are thirty the springs of pure lyric passion are usually exhausted.
human
That is something, he said.
gpt
Besides, who can turn out a masterpiece every week? An artist's brain is not a machine, and in the respite from creative work I have gathered strength for the future. But, he added, slightly annoyed,