human
You mean that you don't want to take my--necessities--into consideration.
gpt
I mean that when I see the one thing right to do, I don't have to look any further.
human
The one thing right to do--for you?--or for me?
gpt
There's no reason why I should intervene at all. I look to you to save me from the necessity.
human
By giving up Evie and--clearing out,
gpt
I shouldn't lay stress on your--clearing out.
human
But you would on my giving up Evie?
gpt
Don't you see, she began, in an explanatory tone,
human
I, in my own person, have nothing to do with it? It isn't for me to say this should be done or that. You can't imagine how hard it is for me to say anything at all; and if I speak, it isn't as myself--it's as the voice of a situation. You must understand as well as I do what that situation imposes.
gpt
But I don't intend that a situation shall impose anything--on me. I mean to act as master--
human
But I'm neither so independent nor so strong--nor is Evie. You don't consider her.
gpt
I don't have to consider any one. When I make Evie happy I do all that can be asked of me.
human
No, you would be called on to _keep_ her happy. And she couldn't remain happy if she were married to you. It isn't possible. She couldn't live with you any more than--than a humming-bird could live with a hawk.
gpt
But I'm not a hawk, he insisted.
human
I'm much more a humming-bird than you imagine. You think me some sort of creature of prey because you believe--that I did--what I was accused of--
gpt
I don't attach any importance to that, she said, with a tranquillity that startled him.
human
I suppose I ought to, but I never have. If you killed your uncle, it seems to me--very natural. He provoked you. He deserved it. My father would have done it certainly.
gpt
But I didn't, you see. That puts another color on the case.
human
It doesn't for me. And it doesn't, as it affects Evie. Whether you're innocent or guilty--and I don't say I think you to be guilty--I've never thought much about it--but whether you're guilty or not, your life is the kind of tragedy Evie couldn't share. It would kill her.
gpt
It wouldn't kill her, if she didn't know anything about it.
human
But she would know. You can't keep that sort of thing from a wife. She wouldn't be married to you a year before she had discovered that you were--a--
gpt
An escaped convict. Why not say it?
human
I wasn't going to say it. But at least she would know that you were a man who was pretending to be--something that he wasn't.
gpt
You mean an impostor. Well, I've already explained to you that I'm an impostor only because Society itself has made me one, I'm not to blame--
human
I quite see the force of that. But Evie wouldn't. Don't you understand? That's my point. She would only see the horror of it, and she would be overwhelmed. It wouldn't matter to her that you could bring forward arguments in your own defence. She wouldn't be capable of understanding them. You must see for yourself that mentally--and spiritually--just as bodily--she's as fragile as a butterfly. She couldn't withstand a storm. She'd be crushed by it.
gpt
I don't think you do her justice. If she were to discover--I mean, if the worst were to come to the worst--well, you can see how it's been with yourself. You've known from the beginning all there is to know--and yet--
human
I'm different.
gpt
I'd rather go on waiting for him--uselessly, he was listening to a silvery voice, as it lisped the words,
human
Dear mamma used to think she was in love with some one; we didn't know anything about it. Each reverted to the memory of the lakeside scene in which he had said,
gpt
My life will belong to you ... a thing for you to dispose of ...