human
Harry, she asked, in rather metallic voice,
gpt
I must say, Katie, he said stiffly,
human
I don't see what it has to do with this.
gpt
Why, I should think it might have something to do with it. Isn't there a popular notion that our pasts have something to do with our futures?
human
It's all over,
gpt
Then you would say, Harry, that when things are over they're over. That they needn't tie up the future.
human
Certainly not, said he, making it clear that he wanted that phase of the conversation
gpt
It's my own theory, said Katie.
human
But I didn't know whether or not it was yours. Now if I had had a past, and it was, as you say yours is, all over, I shouldn't think it was any man's business to go poking around in it.
gpt
That, he said,
human
What's a different matter?
gpt
A woman's past. That would be a man's business.
human
Though a man's past is not a woman's business?
gpt
Oh, we certainly needn't argue that old nonsense. You're too much the girl of the world to take any such absurd position, Katie.
human
Of course, being what you call a 'girl of the world' it's absurd I should question the man's point of view, but I can't quite get the logic of it. You wouldn't marry a woman with a past, and yet the woman who marries you is marrying a man with one.
gpt
I've lived a man's life,
human
And perhaps she's lived a woman's life,
gpt
It's this way, Katie, he explained to her.
human
This is the difference. A woman's past doesn't stay in the past. It marks her. Why I can tell a woman with a past every time,
gpt
Now look here, Katie, surely you--a girl of the world--the good sort--aren't going to be so melodramatic as to dig up a 'past' for me, are you?
human
No, said Katie,
gpt
I don't want to be melodramatic. I'll try to dig up no pasts.