human
Has George told you that you think about yourself too much?
gpt
Oh, if you want a list of my bad qualities, go to your niece. I'm not such a success with serious people, and Yolande talks about 'Ministers,' when she means 'the Government,' and '25 George II,' when she wants to quote some musty old law; and she considers herself a political hostess because she once bribed the Committee of the Aborigines Protection Society to meet the Governor of the Seychelles at dinner. Yolande would start a salon on one poet and two private secretaries! Oh, I know she's your niece, but you can't help that. She paused to draw breath.
human
George only thinks that I'm second-rate.
gpt
I think that you're deliberately second-rate, I said.
human
Which is a pity. If you'd ever got to grips with life, if you'd suffered or been in love----
gpt
D'you mean that I'm not in love with David?
human
You're still trying on emotions in a room full of mirrors. By the way, we went through all this candour and self-absorption in the 'nineties, and I think people did it better then. If you'll take advice from a comparative stranger, twice your age, drop all this patter about this man and that being in love with you.
gpt
You mean I'm behaving disloyally to David?
human
My dear young lady, if you must try these airs and graces, don't try them on me,
gpt
The Sanctuary.