human
No; we won't--we won't! Dear Mrs. Richie, I love you. David! Speak to her.
gpt
You are worn out, he said in a dazed way,
human
You'll come up-stairs now? Elizabeth, make her go up-stairs.
gpt
Elizabeth and I will take the noon train, David.
human
Yes, I will have a carriage here.
gpt
Good-by, David.
human
No, because I didn't mean . . . it is different with us; quite different! The thought, whatever it was, must have persisted, for it stung him into restless movement. He began to walk about; once or twice he stumbled over a footstool, that his eyes, looking blindly at the floor, apparently did not see. Once he stood stock-still, the blood surging in his ears, his face darkly red. But his mind was ruthlessly clear. He was remembering; he was putting two and two together. She was a widow; he knew that. Her marriage had been unhappy; he knew that. There had been a man--he dimly remembered a man. He had not thought of him for twenty years! . . .
gpt
Damn him, David said, and the tears stood in his eyes. Then again that thought must have come to him, for he said to himself, violently,
human
But I _love_ Elizabeth, it is different with me! Perhaps that persistent inner voice said,
gpt
In what way? for he said again,
human
Entirely different! It is the only way to make him divorce her so we can be married. Again he stood still and stared blindly at the floor. That a man could live who would be base enough to take advantage of--_Materna!_ Between rage and pity, and confusion he almost forgot Elizabeth, until suddenly the whirl of his thoughts was pierced by the poignant realization that his outcry of dismay at his mother's confession had practically told Elizabeth that he was willing to let her do what he found unthinkable in his mother. His whole body winced with mortification. It was the first prick of the sword of shame--that sword of the Lord! Even while he reddened to his forehead the sword-thrust came again in a flash of memory. It was only a single sentence; neither argument nor entreaty nor remonstrance; merely the statement of a fact:
gpt
At the time those ironical words were spoken they had scarcely any meaning to him, and what meaning they had was instantly extinguished by anger. Now abruptly they reverberated in his ears. He forgot his mother; he forgot the
human
who was, after all, only the same kind of a beast that he was himself.
gpt
You, who could not accept a girl's money could take her good name; could urge her to a course which in your mother overwhelms you with horror; could ask her to give you that which ranks a man who accepted it from your mother as a 'beast.'