human
It's funny we're such friends, when you think me so wicked,
gpt
You're not wicked, though you may do a wicked thing--through wrong-headedness.
human
You can't understand that I look on myself as Godfrey's wife for all my life or his.
gpt
Didn't you once think the same about Mr. Maxon?
human
Oh, you really are----!
gpt
And you ran away from him. What happens if Master Godfrey runs away from you?
human
Because, Dennehy continued,
gpt
How you try to pin people down! she complained.
human
You and your principles! I know what I should like to see happen, Mr. Dennehy.
gpt
Ah, now--'Dick'--as a mere matter of fairness, Winnie!
human
Well, Dick, what I should just love to see is you in love with somebody who was married, or had been divorced, or something of that sort, and see how you'd like your principles yourself.
gpt
We're all miserable sinners. But I don't believe I'd do it.
human
What, fall in love, or give way to it?
gpt
The latter. The former's out of any man's power, I think.
human
What would you do?
gpt
Emigrate to America.
human
Out of the frying-pan into the fire! It's full of divorced people, isn't it?
gpt
Not the best Irish society. He laughed.
human
Well, you're chaffing me.
gpt
Oh no, I'm not. I'm serious. I should like to see the experiment. Dick, if Godfrey does run away, as you kindly suggest, give me a wide berth! Oh, is it quite impossible that, if I tried, I might--make you miserable?
human
If you'll flirt with me after this fashion every time we meet, I'll not be miserable--I'll be very happy.
gpt
Ah, but that's only the beginning! The beginning's always happy.
human
You poor dear! You've had bad luck, and you've fallen among evil counsellors, in which term, heaven forgive me, I include my dear friends here at Shaylor's Patch.
gpt
I'll try your principles another way. If you were Godfrey, would you leave me--now?
human
Well, there you have me, he admitted at last.
gpt
If a man does what he did, as a gentleman he must stand to be damned for it.
human
Godfrey's free to go, of course--that's our bargain. But you wouldn't have made a bargain like that?
gpt
I would not, Winnie. To do me justice, I believe I'd think it enough to be ruining one woman, without providing for my liberty to ruin another as soon as I wanted to.
human
How pleasantly we quarrel!
gpt
And why wouldn't we? he asked, with native surprise that a quarrel should be considered a thing inherently unpleasant.
human
Ah, here come Stephen and Alice, back from church! I'll go and run races with her, and get an appetite for lunch.
gpt
Stephen, how is it that this old world gets on at all, with everybody at loggerheads with everybody else?
human
I've often considered that. The solution is economic--purely economic, Winnie. You see, people must eat.
gpt
So far the Court is with you, Stephen.
human
And in anything except a rudimentary state of society they must feed one another. Because no man has the genius to make for himself all the things he wants to eat. Consequently--I put the argument summarily--you will find that, broadly speaking, all the burning and bludgeoning and fighting, all the killing in short, and equally all the refraining from killing, are in the end determined by the consideration whether your action one way or the other will seriously affect your supply of food--to which, in civilized society, you may add clothes, and so on.
gpt
Does that apply to the persecution of opinions?
human
Certainly it does--usually by way of limitation of killing, though an exception must be made for human sacrifice. There have been temporary aberrations of judgment, but, generally speaking, they never killed more than a decent minimum of any useful heretics--not, anyhow, where secular statesmen had the last word. They had to make some kind of a show, of course, to satisfy, as they supposed, their superior officers. Still--they left a good many Jews, Winnie!
gpt
Wasn't that the spread of toleration?
human
Certainly--toleration based on food, originally, and afterwards perhaps reinforced by doubt. He broke into a laugh.
gpt
But even to-day I'm hanged if I'd trust to the doubt without the food! He beamed on her.
human
I'll tell you a secret--religion's all food, Winnie.
gpt
It seems to follow that we oughtn't to keep lunch waiting, she said, laughing, as she put her arm through his.
human
I do love Shaylor's Patch, she went on, gently patting his arm.
gpt
You can always forget yourself and your troubles by talking nonsense--or sense--about something or other. If I come to grief again --her voice shook for an instant--
human
My poor house is thine, and all that is in it,
gpt
Yes, in a way I know it is--and so I needn't quite starve,