human
Why should you be so bent on seeing your father follow Jack Berrington, when it could be avoided?
gpt
Why should you care? What difference does it make to you? If you'd only explain that--
human
It explains itself. If I saw a woman leap into the river there I should pull her out. The more she insisted on being drowned, the more I should try to save her.
gpt
But, you see, I'm not leaping into a river. On the contrary, I'm getting out of one. It seems to me that you'd be only forcing me back and making my last state worse than the first.
human
That would depend, of course, on the point of view. As a matter of fact, it's something with which I've nothing to do. It concerns you, and it concerns Mr. Guion, but it doesn't concern me. For me the whole thing is very simple. I've offered to lend Mr. Guion a sum of money. It's for him to take or to leave. If he refuses it, I sha'n't be offended; and if he doesn't refuse it--
gpt
You'd let him have it, just the same?
human
Of course. Why not?
gpt
In spite of all I've said as to what I should feel?
human
But I'm not supposed to know anything about that, you know. I repeat that it isn't my affair. If Mr. Guion should accept my loan against your wishes--well, that's something you'd have to fix up with him.
gpt
If you urged it on him, she said at last,
human
I think he'd take it.
gpt
Then so much the better, from my point of view.
human
Precisely; but then your point of view is a mystery. Not that it makes any difference, she hastened to add.
gpt
If my father accepts your loan, it will be for me to pay it back, in one way or another--if I ever can.
human
We could talk of that, he smiled, trying to be reassuring,
gpt
There wouldn't be anything more important--for me.
human
Oh, you wouldn't find me an importunate creditor.
gpt
That wouldn't help matters--so long as I owed the debt. After all, we belong to that old-fashioned, rather narrow-minded class of New England people to whom debt of any kind is the source of something like anguish. At least, she corrected herself,
human
I belong to that class.