human
One would wonder why you put up with so much hardship. Wasn't it a little inconsequent?
gpt
Well, he said,
human
Still, could it not be done a little more easily?
gpt
I don't know that it is, under any circumstances, a remarkably simple thing, but that is not quite the question, and, since you seem to insist, I'll answer you candidly. In my case, it was almost astonishingly inconsequent--that is, as I expect you mean, about the last thing any one would naturally have expected from me. Still, I felt that, after what I had done, I had a good deal to pull up, you see; though that is a motive with which, as I noticed when I mentioned it once before, you apparently can scarcely credit me.
human
It was your own actions that made it difficult.
gpt
I admitted on another occasion that I am not exactly proud of them, but there was some slight excuse. There usually is, you see.
human
Of course! said Barbara.
gpt
You need not be diffident. In your case there were the dollars of which my brother-in-law plundered you.
human
You, he said, slowly,
gpt
Well, said Barbara, who met his gaze with quiet composure,
human
I might have been less so had I not expected quite so much from you. After all, it does not greatly matter--and here is the tea.
gpt
I think it matters a good deal, but perhaps we needn't go into that, said Brooke, who took the cup she handed him.
human
You have poured out tea for me on several occasions now, but still, each one recalls the first time you did it at the Quatomac ranch.
gpt
It, presumably, made no difference to the tea, and yours runs some risk of getting cold.
human
I really do not remember that it tasted any the worse, he said.
gpt
Perhaps you can remember how the sound of the river came in through the open door that night, and the light flickered in the draughts. It showed up your face in profile, and I can still picture Jimmy sitting by the stove, with his mouth wide open, watching you. He had evidently never seen anything of the kind before.