human
Well, we're looking for the best solution, I suggested,
gpt
He's not looking for revenge,
human
Then you'd say--anyone would say--that the kindest and most generous thing he could do would be to divorce her. I'm only uncertain because I know something of Grayle; I presume he'll marry her, but, when the honeymoon period's over, he'll make her supremely unhappy. Perhaps that's no more than she deserves, but, if O'Rane thought she'd be unhappy by marrying Grayle, conceivably he might exercise his power to prevent it.
gpt
Conceivably he might,
human
Well, those are the alternatives--to divorce or not to divorce. I'm amazed to find how well the secret's been kept, but it can't be kept indefinitely. It happened to be me last night, but Tom, Dick or Harry might just as well have made the discovery. Any day now you may have a nauseating scandal. We none of us want that, and O'Rane does nothing to stop it.
gpt
What do you suggest he _can_ do?
human
Have the minor scandal of a divorce--I regard that as less bad than the common knowledge that she's been living for weeks, months, years with a man who's not her husband,--get it over quickly and give people a chance of forgetting it. If he won't do that, let him see if he's got any power to keep them from living together. I don't think he has. Grayle has sufficient money, his position's not big enough to make him susceptible to blackmail----
gpt
You may take it that David's got no power,
human
Well, it's your turn,
gpt
I'll answer your specific question. You know who she's living with and you can tell David or not, as--you--like. It won't make a pennyworth of difference, he added cheerfully.
human
You see, there's one thing you're leaving out, Stornaway, the only thing that matters. David wants her back. I could see that on the day itself, when he'd caught them, when she decamped.... Nothing on earth will make him divorce her--for purely selfish reasons, if you like; he can't and won't let her go. But I don't know that you'll do much good by putting a pistol of that kind at her head. I've known that young woman on and off for about ten years. I don't see her knocking at the door and saying, 'Oh, by the way, as I can't live with the man I want to, I've come back.' Your general question what to do I can't answer. At least, we can only go on waiting----
gpt
And praying that other people won't find out?
human
They will, I'm afraid. Well, Sonia's utterly reckless, I gather; _she_ doesn't care who knows. Grayle _wouldn't_ have cared in the old days. When he was living with her predecessor--you know, the wife of the man in the Brazilian Legation;--Grayle's so untidy in his amours; they always overlap--it was common property, they went almost everywhere together, she took the head of his table. Since those happy, careless times Grayle has discovered political ambitions. From the fact that not more than a handful of people know, I judge that Grayle wants to keep the thing quiet; I'm prepared to bet that Grayle would like best of all to be free of the whole tangle and, if he can't do that, he'd like the divorce to come on as quickly as possible. There's another thing you've left out. Do you suppose Grayle had contemplated a scandal, a divorce, the necessity of marrying the woman?
gpt
I don't suppose anyone in his position sits down and thinks it out in cold blood,
human
Some do, some don't, he answered.
gpt
That's been my experience. I don't much mind your healthy incontinent animal, but I hate your continent calculating man--the creature who regulates his passions by his fears. He's artificial, to start with, and he's dangerous. Now, I sit here like the sailor's parrot. Grayle is becoming the calculating animal, Grayle for the first time in his life feels that he has a reputation to lose, Grayle is combining disreputable tastes with a decorous exterior.
human
Well?
gpt
Well? Everybody seems to leave out one thing in his calculations, and Grayle was no exception. I put it to you a moment ago that he never contemplated the position he's in now; I suggest that Grayle saw a very beautiful young woman and decided, as you'd expect of him, that she was fair prey. He studied her carefully. She wasn't to be bought, because throughout her life she's been receiving everything and giving nothing in return; she wasn't to be drugged, because her head's strong and her nature's cold; she wasn't to be cajoled--Beresford was doing the chivalrous devotion business, and she treated him like a tame cat, which is what he was;--Grayle discovered that the only thing to do was to bully her. He went away, neglected her, snubbed her when they met--enough to mortify her without even suggesting he cared enough to _try_ and hurt her,--shewed her quite plainly that he could get on without her. Down she came with a run and began to make advances to him. He was too busy to waste time on her. She was piqued, she began to throw herself at him until at last he got her into his power.... I don't know who made her think she'd any cause to be jealous of Miss Merryon; it may have been Grayle, she may have evolved it for herself to excuse her leaving her husband; certainly she lashed herself into thinking it was all true, and that was Grayle's opportunity. But, once more, he never thought of anything more than a passing intrigue, which would have been easy enough with the husband away three months at a time. Unfortunately the husband turned up unexpectedly just as the intrigue began, and that lifted everything on to a much higher plane. Grayle cut and ran like a boy caught robbing an orchard--to be followed a couple of hours later by the woman. Once off the subject of O'Rane, Bertrand was enjoying himself prodigiously.
human
I would have given something to see his face when she arrived. Now, in my experience, there are mighty few crimes and cruelties that the female won't commit to protect the male--the male she's interested in;--she'll lie and thieve--and we've probably both of us seen her fixing the blame on the wrong man, letting him be cited as co-respondent to save her lover. Well, Beresford was sacrificed to protect Grayle; Grayle himself, who'd stayed behind in England to carry out the intrigue, used the excuse of his mission to the Front to cover his tracks. For two months and more he's contrived to keep the thing secret. Do you imagine he isn't ready--however much infatuated about her he may be or may have been--to get rid of her and start again unembarrassed? When we talk about lifelong devotion, we none of us expect to be taken at our word.
gpt
I don't see how this helps, I said.
human
Then you don't know David and you've not had much experience of young men in his state of mind, answered Bertrand with assurance.
gpt
In the meantime you can do nothing and you'd better wait till the story begins to get round London. It may be weeks or it may be months, but that little scandal is not going to lie hid for ever.
human
Oh, that was it? I see. Thank you.