human
Dear Lady James, she wheezed, wagging two fat hands, like a seal its flappers,
gpt
--she looked round with pride at the collection of lions, old and young, tame and wild, fat and lean, sham and real.
human
Now, Mr. Wallace here--let me present him. Charming man--very outspoken--great traveller--Zambesi--knows cannibals intimately! Then, behind a plump hand, whispered a nutshell biography,
gpt
Don't mention his wife--divorce.
human
Cannibals?--yes, Lady James, I know a few and love them.
gpt
What strange affection, Mr. Wallace! Why?
human
They ate a man I detested. I fear he disagreed with them in death, as he always disagreed with me in life.
gpt
Is there any one here you would like to make a side-dish of?
human
No; I am a complete stranger in London. It is the one place I have not explored. But Mrs. Saracen has told me the past of many here, and I can give you histories, if you like.
gpt
Go on, then. Only don't give me dates, else the women here might scratch. I don't know these creatures myself, she went on, with the calm insolence of a great lady;
human
I agree, Lady James--only less civilised.
gpt
In what way?
human
Niggers wear no clothes, and, therefore, are more modest.
gpt
I can quite imagine it. That thin lady over there is evidently of your opinion
human
Miss Fastine? She's a Naturopath, and is trying to revert to primitive simplicity.
gpt
With such a figure she might stop short of the Garden of Eden, said Lady Jim, dryly.
human
I never heard of a Naturopath. What is it?
gpt
An American sect, which needs solitude to carry out its theories. The members sleep in the open, cover themselves with earth when they feel sick, and advocate the altogether.
human
You are joking, Mr. Wallace.
gpt
Upon my word, Lady James, I am in earnest. The sect really does exist. That stout man talking to Mrs. Saracen belongs to another queer lot. Calls himself an Osteopath.
human
What on earth is that?
gpt
One who cures by vitalising the nerves.
human
I am as wise as I was before. Any more freaks?
gpt
Yonder is a Christian Scientist. And the man on the left advocates Mahomedanism as the State religion in England.
human
While the dressmakers charge so ruinously, he'll never induce men to take four wives. And the woman in the red dress?
gpt
Lady Tansey--a believer in spirits.
human
So I should imagine,
gpt
No, no! I talk of heavenly spirits. Lady Tansey has a large circle of departed friends, who rap.
human
What a bore! As if one didn't get enough of friends in this world, without worrying them to knock out bad grammar from the next. Really, Mr. Wallace, I begin to think Mrs. Saracen must keep a lunatic asylum.
gpt
Oh dear no, he answered, chuckling.
human
It is the sane people that are usually shut up.
gpt
Certainly not the disagreeable people,
human
Oh, if you go to those lengths, there would be no society,