human
Has it gone off well? she asked, with a careful lightness, a careful carelessness which she hoped was deceiving.
gpt
Were you able to put my husband in the way of seeing and hearing everything that could help him with his music?
human
Oh, yes, madame! He saw, heard everything.
gpt
Then the expedition was a success?
human
Who knows, madame?
gpt
Who knows? Why, how do you mean?
human
Madame, since I have been away with your husband I confess I begin to have certain doubts.
gpt
Doubts! said Charmian, in a changed and almost challenging voice.
human
I don't quite understand.
gpt
That your husband is a clever man, I realize. He has evidently much knowledge of the technique of music, much imagination. He is an original, though he seldom shows it, and wishes to conceal it.
human
Then--
gpt
A moment, madame! You will say, 'That is good for the opera!'
human
Naturally!
gpt
That depends. I do not know whether his sort of originality is what the public will appreciate. But I do know very well that your husband and I will never get on together.
human
Why not?
gpt
He is not my sort. I don't understand him. And I confess that I feel anxious.
human
Anxious? What about, monsieur?
gpt
Madame, I have written a great libretto. I want a great opera made of it. It is my nature to speak frankly; perhaps you may call it brutally, but I am not _homme du monde_. I am not a little man of the salons. I am not accustomed to live in kid gloves. I have sweated. I have seen life. I have been, and I still am, poor--poor, madame! But, madame, I do not intend to remain sunk to my neck in poverty for ever. No!
human
Of course not--with your talent!
gpt
Ah, that is just it!
human
That is just it! My talent for the stage is great, I have always known that. Even when my work was refused once, a second, a third time, I knew it. 'The day will come,' I thought, 'when those who now refuse my work will come crawling to me to get me to write for them. Now I am told to go! Then they will seek me.' Yes --he paused, finished his glass of brandy, and continued, more quietly, as if he were making a great effort after self-control--
gpt
Why do you doubt it? exclaimed Charmian warmly.
human
What reason have you to doubt it? You have not heard my husband's music to your libretto yet, not a note of it.
gpt
No. And that enables me--
human
Enables you to do what? Why didn't you finish your sentence, Monsieur Gillier?
gpt
Madame, if you are going to be angry with me--
human
Angry! My dear Monsieur Gillier, I am not angry! What can you be thinking of?
gpt
I feared by your words, your manner--
human
I assure you--besides, what is there to be angry about? But do finish what you were saying.
gpt
I was about to say that the fact that I have not yet heard any of your husband's music to my libretto enables me, without any offense--personal offense--pronouncing any sort of judgment--to approach you--
human
Yes?
gpt
Madame?
human
Please tell me what it is you want of me, or my husband, or of both of us.
gpt
I do not--I have not said I want anything. But it is true I want success. I want it for this work of mine. Since I have been in Constantine with Monsieur Heath I have--very reluctantly, madame, believe me!--come to the conclusion that he and I are not suited to be associated together in the production of a work of art. We are too different the one from the other. I am an Algerian ex-soldier, a man who has gone into the depths of life. He is an English Puritan who never has lived, and never will live. I have done all I could to make him understand something of the life not merely in, but that underlies--_underlies_--my libretto. My efforts--well, what can I say?
human
It is only the difference between the French and English temperaments.
gpt
No, madame. It is the difference between the man who is and the man who is not afraid to live.
human
I don't agree with you, said Charmian coldly.
gpt
But really it is not a matter which I can discuss with you.
human
I have no wish to discuss it. All I wish to say is this --he looked down, hesitated, then with a sort of dogged obstinacy continued,
gpt
Have you spoken to my husband of this?
human
No, madame.
gpt
You have asked me a question--
human
I have asked no question, madame!
gpt
Do you mean to say you are not asking me if we will resell the libretto?
human
My answer is that the libretto is our property and that we intend to keep it. If you offered us five times what we gave you for it the answer would be the same.