human
Was darling mother being tiresome? she asked sympathetically.
gpt
The casual-ward stunt, I suppose?
human
What do you feel about it yourself?
gpt
About David's lame ducks? Oh, he has his friends, and I have mine, and it's no one else's business. She looked round the crowded room and then seemed to decide that she had been too brusque.
human
I don't know--yet, whether it will answer, she went on uncertainly.
gpt
David's always been a freak about money, he'd always give anything to anybody. Now he says that he'd be dishonoured, if he took with one hand and refused with the other.... He's rather absurd, poor darling, because he wouldn't need to take anything from anybody, if he hadn't been so frightfully smashed up in the war. And if I don't mind.... It's really rather fun, however mad it may seem. We've all of us gone mad since the War. Except David. You didn't know him, but he's almost sane compared with what he was before. She abandoned her pose of affected insincerity and turned to me with shining eyes.
human
You do love David, don't you?
gpt
My dear lady, I've only met him twice,
human
Isn't that more than enough? Her expression changed restlessly; and I remembered wondering how long she would retain her looks, if she continued to live on her nerves like this.
gpt
Too many dam' dull Daintons here, you know. I made certain mother would think this sort of thing too Bohemian. She'd like me to have a prim and proper little house in one of the streets about here and entertain the conventional people in the conventional way--simply wagging my tail if I enticed an Under-Secretary here. Mother'd go miles for an Under-Secretary. Well, it's much more fun inviting the amusing people, the people you _like_. I _am_ rather a Bohemian, I've always led my own life. I do now. Darling David never tries to make me do anything or stop me doing anything, he never wants to know what I've been doing.... All the same, David's 'duty to one's neighbour' stunt.... Thank goodness! he doesn't expect me to share my clothes with casual visitors!