human
My! said the latter.
gpt
Well, thank the Lord for that!
human
My dearie, would it help you any to speak of him?
gpt
I don't know,
human
I often wanted to warn you, Mrs. Errol said.
gpt
But I thought--I hoped--it was unnecessary. You were always so kind of frank with him that I thought maybe it would be an impertinence to say anything. It wasn't as if you were an inexperienced girl. If you had been--but to give him his due, Nap never tried to trap inexperience. He's got some morals, knave as he is. Say, Anne dear, you know he is no son of mine?
human
Yes,
gpt
And I sometimes wonder, Mrs. Errol went on, in her deep sing-song voice that yet somehow held a note of pathos,
human
Dear Mrs. Errol! Anne murmured softly.
gpt
Not one woman in a thousand would have done as much.
human
Oh, you mustn't say that, dearie. I'm a very poor specimen. I gave him what advantages I could, but I never loved him. P'r'aps if I had, he'd have been a better boy. It's only love that counts for anything in God's sight, and I never gave him any. Lucas did. That's how it is he knows how to manage him. It isn't personal magnetism or anything of that sort. It's just love. He can't help answering to that, because it's Divine.
gpt
Ah! breathed Anne.
human
You think him capable of love then?
gpt
I guess so, dear. He's raw and undeveloped, but like the rest of creation he has his possibilities. You've seen him in his better moods yourself. I always thought he kept his best side for you.
human
I know, Anne said. She leaned slowly back, looking up into the kindly eyes above her.
gpt
But it was only a mask. I see it now. I think there are many men like that, perhaps all are to a certain extent. They are only themselves to one another. No woman would ever love a man if she saw him as he is.
human
My dear! My dear! Mrs. Errol said.
gpt
That's a bitter thing to say. And it isn't true either. You'll see better by-and-by. Men are contemptible, I own--the very best of them; but they've all got possibilities, and it's just our part to draw them out. It's the divine foolishness of women's love that serves their need, that makes them feel after better things. No woman ever won a man by despising him. He may be inferior--he is--but he wants real love to bolster him up. I guess the dear Lord thought of that when He fashioned women.