human
Why do you not speak? asked the Advocate.
gpt
Surely there is nothing offensive in such a question between friends like ourselves.
human
I can offer you no explanation of what I am about to say, replied Almer:
gpt
Why did you not speak of it before? he said.
human
But when a mind is unbalanced, trifling matters are magnified into importance.
gpt
I can only ask you to forgive me, said Almer, placing the envelope in his pocket-book.
human
I have no doubt in the course of your career you have met with many small incidents quite as inexplicable. Then an excuse which would surely be accepted occurred to him.
gpt
It may be sufficient for me to say that this is the first night of my return to the house in which I was born and passed a not too happy boyhood, and that in this room my mother died.
human
There is no need for another word. You have been looking over some old family papers, and they have aroused melancholy reminiscences. I should have been more thoughtful; I was wrong in coming to you. It will be best to say good-night.
gpt
Nay, stay with me a few minutes longer, or I shall reproach myself for having behaved unreasonably. You were asking----
human
A delicate question. Whether you love without being loved in return?
gpt
No, Edward, that is not the case with me.
human
You have no intention of marrying?
gpt
No.
human
Then your heart is still free. You reassure me. You are not suffering from what has been described as the most exquisite of all human sufferings--unrequited love. Neither have you experienced a disappointment in friendship?
gpt
No. I have scarcely a friend with the exception of yourself.
human
And my wife. You must not forget her. She takes a cordial interest in you.
gpt
Yes, and your wife.
human
It was Jacob Hartrich who suggested that you might have met with a disappointment in love or friendship. I disputed it, in the belief that had it been unhappily so you would have confided in me. I am glad that I was right. Shall I continue?
gpt
Yes.
human
The banker, who entertains the most kindly sentiments towards you, based all his conjectures upon a certain remark which made a strong impression upon him. You told him you were weary of the gaiety and the light and bustle of cities, and that it was your intention to seek some solitude where, by a happy chance, you might rid yourself of a terror which possessed you. I can understand your weariness of the false glare of fashionable city life; it can never for any long period satisfy the intellect. But neither can it instil a terror into a man's soul. That would spring from another and a deeper cause.
gpt
The words were hastily spoken. Look upon them as an exaggeration.
human
I certainly regard them in that light, but they were not an invention, and there must have been a serious motive for them. It is not in vain that I have studied your character, although I feel that I did not master the study. I am subjecting you, Christian, to a kind of mental analysis, in an endeavour to arrive at a conclusion which will enable me to be of assistance to you. And I do not disguise from you that, were it in my power, I would assist you even against your will. Our friendship, and my age and more varied experience, would justify me. I do not seek to force your confidence, but I ask you in the spirit of true friendship to consider--not at present, but in a few days, when your mind is in a calmer state--whether such counsel and guidance as it may be in my power to offer will not be a real help to you. Do not lightly reject my assistance in probing a painful wound. I will use my knife gently. There was a time when I believed there was nothing that could happen to either of us which we should be unwilling to confide each to the other, freely and without restraint. I find I am not too old to learn the lesson that the strongest beliefs, the firmest convictions, may be seriously weakened by the occurrence of circumstances for which the wisest foresight could not have provided. Keep, then, your secret, if you are so resolved, and bear in mind that on the day you come to me and say, 'Edward, help me, guide me,' you will find me ready. I shall not fail you, Christian, in any crisis.
gpt
Does this lesson, presently said Almer,