human
You have as secure a title to be my lover as has any man, Mr. Drogue. Which is no title at all.
gpt
Steve Watts took you in his arms near the lilacs.
human
What was that to you, Mr. Drogue?
gpt
He was a spy in our uniform and in our camp!
human
Yes, sir.
gpt
And you gave him your lips.
human
He took what he took. I gave only what was in my heart to give to any friend in peril.
gpt
What was that?
human
Solicitude.
gpt
Oh. You warned him to leave? And he an enemy and a spy?
human
I begged him to go, Mr. Drogue.
gpt
Do you still call yourself a friend to liberty?
human
Yes, sir. But I was his friend too. I did not know he had come here. And when by accident I recognized him I was frightened, because I thought he had come to carry news to Lady Johnson.
gpt
And so he did! Did he not?
human
He said he came for me.
gpt
To visit you?
human
Yes, sir. And I think that was true. For when he made himself known to his sister, she came near to fainting; and so he spoke no more to her at all but begged me for a tryst before he left.
gpt
Oh. And you granted it?
human
Yes, sir.
gpt
Why?
human
I was in great fright, fearing he might be taken.... Also I pitied him.
gpt
Why so?
human
Because he had courted me at Caughnawaga.... And at first I think he made a sport of his courting,--like other young men of Tryon gentry who hunt and court to a like purpose.... And so, one day at Caughnawaga, I told him I was honest.... I thought he ought to know, lest folly assail us in unfamiliar guise and do us a harm.
gpt
Did you so speak to this young man?
human
Yes, sir. I told him that I am a maiden. I thought it best that he should know as much.... And so he courted me no more. But every day he came and glowered at other men.... I laughed secretly, so fiercely he watched all who came to Cayadutta Lodge.... And then Sir John fled. And war came.... Well, sir, there is no more to tell, save that Captain Watts dared come hither.
gpt
To take you in his arms?
human
He did so,--yes, sir,--for the first time ever.
gpt
Then he is honestly in love with you?
human
But you, also, did the like to me. Is it a consequence of honest love, Mr. Drogue, when a young man embraces a maiden's lips?
gpt
I know nothing about love,
human
Nor I,
gpt
You seem willing to be schooled,
human
Not willing, not unwilling. I do not understand men, but am not averse to learning something of their ways. No two seem similar, Mr. Drogue, save in the one matter.
gpt
Which?
human
The matter of paying court. All seem to do it naturally, though some take fire quicker, and some seem to burn more ardently than others.
gpt
It pleasures you to be courted? Gallantries suit you? And the flowery phrases suitors use?
human
They pleasurably perplex me. Time passes more agreeably when one is knitting. To be courted is not an unwelcome diversion to any woman, I think. And flowery phrases are pleasant to notice,--like music suitably played, and of which one is conscious though occupied with other matters.
gpt
If this be not coquetry, I thought,