human
I'm very, very glad, dear, Ellen said warmly.
gpt
It's a real triumph of faith over jealousy, and I don't wonder you are proud of such a commission. I know you will bring him through.
human
If I don't--but that's not to be thought of. It's a case that calls for extremely delicate surgery and a sure hand, but the ground is plainly mapped out and only some absolutely unforeseen complication is to be dreaded. And when it comes to those complications--well, Len, sometimes I think it must be the good Lord who works a man's brain for him at such crises, and makes it pretty nearly superhuman. It's hard to account any other way, sometimes, for the success of the quick decisions you make under necessity that would take a lot of time to work out if you had the time. Oh, it's a great game, Len, no doubt of that--when you win. And when you lose --he stopped short, staring into the shadows where a row of dark-leaved laurel bushes shut away the garden in a soft seclusion--
gpt
But--this isn't going to be a story of that kind. Van Horn has a big place in the city and he's going to keep it. And I'm going to spend the rest of this evening making a bit of a tool I've had in mind for some time--that there's a remote chance I shall need in this case. But if that remote chance should come--well, there's nothing like a state of preparedness, as the military men say.
human
That's why you succeed, Red; you always are prepared.
gpt
Not always. And it's in the emergency you can't foresee that heaven comes to the rescue. You can't expect it to come to the rescue when you might have foreseen. 'Trust the Lord and keep your powder dry' is a pretty good maxim for the surgical firing line, too--eh?