human
Shall we sit here?
gpt
Yes. Why not?
human
Do you feel better?
gpt
I shall.
human
It must be dreadful being ill at sea. I never am.
gpt
And you have travelled a great deal, haven't you?
human
Yes, I have. I often go with Adelaide. Once we went to India.
gpt
Was it there you became a Theosophist?
human
That had something to do with it, I suppose. When we were at Benares Adelaide thought she would like to live there. The day after she thought so she found we must go away.
gpt
Isn't it--
human
Yes?
gpt
I don't know what I was going to say.
human
Perhaps a great bore not to be one's own mistress?
gpt
Something of that sort perhaps.
human
Oh, no! I'm accustomed to it. Freedom is a phrase. I'm quite as free as Adelaide. It's usually a great mistake to pity servants.
gpt
And oneself? I suppose you would say it was a great mistake to pity oneself?
human
I never do it,
gpt
Perhaps you haven't great desires? Perhaps you don't want many things?
human
I suppose I've been like most women in that respect. But I shall be fifty almost directly.
gpt
How frightful!
human
No, it isn't.
gpt
Isn't what?
human
It isn't at all awful to be fifty, or any other age, if you accept it quietly as inevitable. But everything one kicks against hurts one, of course. I expect to pass a very pleasant day on my fiftieth birthday.
gpt
How did you know what I thought?
human
A girl of your age would be almost certain to think something of that kind.
gpt
Yes, I suppose so.
human
But surely I need not be exactly like every other girl of twenty-one!
gpt
You aren't. No girl is. But you all think it must be dreadful to be a moneyless spinster of fifty. I believe, for my part, that there's many a _vieille fille_ who is not particularly sorry for herself or for the man who didn't want to marry her.
human
But I'm not a pessimist as regards marriage, she added.
gpt
And I think men are quite as good as women, and quite as bad.
human
How calm you are!
gpt
Why not?
human
I could never be like that.
gpt
Perhaps when you are fifty.
human
Not if I'm unmarried!
gpt
I don't think you will be, unless you go on before you are fifty.
human
before she was fifty! What a horror in that idea! To
gpt
When am I going to be here again?
human
Do you ever feel you have lived before in some place when you visit it for the first time?
gpt
I did once.
human
Do you ever feel you will live in a place that's new to you, that you have no connection with, and that you have only come to for a day or two?
gpt
I can't say I do.
human
I suppose we all have lots of absurd fancies.
gpt
I don't think I do,
human
I--I wish you'd tell me where you got that coat and skirt,
gpt
I will. I got it at Folkestone. I'll give you the address when we go on board again. My mother lives at Folkestone. She is a companion to a dear old Mrs. Simpkins, so I go down there whenever I have time.
human
And I get really well-cut things for a very small price there, so I'm lucky.
gpt
I think you are lucky in another way,
human
Yes?
gpt
To be as you are.