human
I believe I was to tell you the result of my experiment,
gpt
You wished it; I did not ask it.
human
The experiment has succeeded, he said, deliberately.
gpt
I find myself often thinking of you; I like to be with you; I feel when with you a sort of satisfied content. What I want to ask is--I may as well say it at once--Will not this do as the basis of a better understanding between us?
human
It might,
gpt
I shall be quite frank, he continued;
human
I shall have but little from my aunt, was her answer, her eyes still fixed upon the mountain.
gpt
I am not her heiress, as you suppose.
human
You mean that to be severe; but it falls harmless. It is true that I did suppose you were her heiress; but the fact that you are not makes no difference in my request. We shall not be rich, but we can live; it shall be my pleasure to make you comfortable.
gpt
I do not quite see why you ask this, she said, with the same slow utterance and her eyes turned away.
human
You do not love me; I am not beautiful; I have no fortune. What, then, do you gain?
gpt
I gain, he said--
human
I gain-- Then he paused.
gpt
You would not like me to tell you,
human
I beg you to tell me.
gpt
I gain, Margaret, he said,
human
I was but waiting for this, she said, her words rushing forth, one upon the other, with the unheeding rapidity of passion.
gpt
I felt sure that it would come. With the deeply-rooted egotism of a man you believe that I love you; you have believed it from the beginning. It was because I knew this that I allowed this experiment of yours to go on. I resisted the temptation at first, but it was too strong for me; you yourself made it so. It was a chance to make you conscious of your supreme error; a chance to have my revenge. And I yielded. You said, not long ago, that I was even. I answered that one was even when one was-- You said 'indifferent,' and I did not contradict you. But the real sentence was that one was even when one was pursuing a purpose. I have pursued a purpose. This was mine: to make you put into words your egregious vanity, to make you stand convicted of your dense and vast mistake. But towards the end a better impulse rose, and the game did not seem worth the candle. I said to myself that I would go away without giving you, after all, the chance to stultify yourself, the chance to exhibit clearly your insufferable and amazing conceit. But you insisted, and the impulse vanished; I allowed you to go on to the end. I love you! _You!_