human
Oh, it is only the moonlight that has got into my head,
gpt
But I think it matters very much whether one's task is done well or ill, she said,
human
I tell you, the moonlight.
gpt
And something else.
human
Well, it struck me, as I stood there with my head full of what we have been discussing, that the conditions of a girl's life of our own class are pleasant enough, but they are stifling, absolutely _stifling_; and not all the Emersons in the world will convince me to the contrary. Emerson never was a girl!
gpt
No; but he was a great man,
human
Then he must have had something of the girl in him!
gpt
I didn't mean that, but perhaps it is true.
human
If he had been a girl, he would have known that conditions _do_ count hideously in one's life. I think that there are more 'destroyers' to be carried about and pampered in this department of existence than in any other (material conditions being equal).
gpt
Do you mean that a girl would have more difficulty in bringing her power to maturity and getting it recognized than a man would have?
human
Yes; the odds are too heavy.
gpt
A second-rate talent perhaps, Ernest admitted,
human
I should exactly reverse that statement, said Hadria.
gpt
The greater the power and the finer its quality, the greater the inharmony between the nature and the conditions; therefore the more powerful the leverage against it. A small comfortable talent might hold its own, where a larger one would succumb. That is where I think you make your big mistake, in forgetting that the greatness of the power may serve to make the greatness of the obstacles.
human
So much the better for me then, said Algitha, with a touch of satire;
gpt
Surely it only wants a little force of will to enable you to occupy your life in the manner you think best,
human
That is often impossible for a girl, because prejudice and custom are against her.
gpt
But she ought to despise prejudice and custom,
human
So she often would; but then she has to tear through so many living ties that restrain her freedom.
gpt
If one is unjustly restrained, she said,
human
But what a frightful piece of circumstance _that_ is to encounter, cried Hadria,