human
Tea?
gpt
Oh! cried Rachel.
human
Yes. Yes, certainly. Rather. Tea.
gpt
with Rachel. But before I could do anything of the sort the Fürstin pounced upon me. She made me sit up that night after her other guests had gone to their rooms, in the cosy little turret apartment she called her study and devoted to the reading of whatever was most notorious in contemporary British fiction.
human
Sit down, said she,
gpt
Because manifestly it isn't my destiny,
human
Stuff,
gpt
You know perfectly well why I am out of England.
human
Everybody knows--except of course quite young persons who are being carefully brought up.
gpt
Does _she_ know?
human
She doesn't seem to.
gpt
Well, that's what I want to know.
human
Need she know?
gpt
Well, it does seem rather essential----
human
I suppose if you think so----
gpt
Will you tell her?
human
Tell her yourself, if she must be told. Down there in Surrey, she _must_ have seen things and heard things. But I don't see that she wants a lot of ancient history.
gpt
If it is ancient history!
human
Oh! two years and a half,--it's an Era.
gpt
I don't think it is ancient history at all, I said.
human
I think if I met Mary again now----
gpt
You mean Lady Mary Justin?
human
Of course.
gpt
It would be good for your mind if you remembered to call her by her proper name.... You think if you met her again you two would begin to carry on. But you see,--you aren't going to meet her. Everybody will see that doesn't happen.
human
I mean that I---- Well----
gpt
You'd better not say it. Besides, it's nonsense. I doubt if you've given her a thought for weeks and weeks.
human
Until I came here perhaps that was almost nearly true. But you've stirred me up, sweet cousin, and old things, old memories and habits have come to the surface again. Mary wrote herself over my life--in all sorts of places.... I can't tell you. I've never talked of her to anyone. I'm not able, very well, to talk about my feelings.... Perhaps a man of my sort--doesn't love twice over.
gpt
That was all so magic, all my youth, all my hope, all the splendid adventure of it. Why should one pretend?... I'm giving none of that to Rachel. It isn't there any more to give....
human
One would think, remarked the Fürstin,
gpt
Do you think that Lady Mary Justin thinks of you--as you think of her? Do you think she hasn't settled down?
human
She's just going to have a second child,
gpt
That girl, said the Fürstin,