human
Well, sir, we can hardly permit the French Louis to become master of all Europe, so to harry us and drive us out of this land too, as his forces in Canada have attempted continually.
gpt
Canada, the way I hear, is a handful of frightened papists in a wilderness. As for the Sun King Louis, I saw him once. Six years past, before the war was renewed--the Treaty of Ryswick accomplished nothing, you'll understand, a patching-up, a pause for the licking of wounds, and so you may say 'tis all one war, and I happening to be in Paris when his solar bloody Majesty made a gracious appearance unto the multitude, I beheld a trembling dried-up monkey in velvet. That minikin shivering old man, that homunculus, that thing, master of Europe and the West? Don't they tell he's not even master of his own bowels? Faith, when he dies his empire will be crumbling like a child's mud castle in the rain as others have done before, and England would do better to wait for it, but not so, the armies and navies must be employed and good men die to no purpose, anyway that's the opinion of one mad Irishman, said Shawn, and smiled with sudden brilliance. A twist of the knife gave the mermaid a pretty navel; he held her away for admiration.
human
O the anatomical enigmas of the mermaid!--hey? I wonder could there be word of her in Physiologus?... Will you be in haste to return home?
gpt
No great haste.
human
Would you dine with me, Ben?--that is, he asked again,
gpt
Of course, Mr. Shawn.
human
That's kind. I dread a lonely evening, now that's no lie.
gpt
The Lion they call it, nothing so fine, but I fear, Beneen, I am not dressed for a finer place. Hi!--that wind's pure easterly, and will that be meaning rain by morning in this part of the world?
human
Sometimes,
gpt
Let us go....