human
I shall speak to Mr. Kenny, said Amadeus Welland.
gpt
Perhaps an apprenticeship? Or better a year or so of preparation, to determine for yourself if this be really what you wish, in such time as may be allowed from your other studies--which are not to be neglected, Reuben, not ever, you understand? Show me a man of medicine who hath found himself too busy for other fields of learning, and you will have shown me an educated damned fool.
human
I can't----
gpt
Reuben, if thanks be appropriate, let them wait. I may have done thee no service. I have only pointed out one or two signposts on a most heartbreaking journey. But if that is the way you will go--I am fifty-three, Reuben, not very successful and not at all loved here in Roxbury--if that is the way you will go, I'll go with you as far as I may.
human
Any friend of yours, Mr. Shawn--ooh, look at the great gray eyes of him! Mistress Gundy patted the pleat of her lips every moment or two, maybe enjoying a silent burp.
gpt
What do I call you, dearie? She trotted away with small bobbing steps, to plump into an armchair and smile and sigh.
human
Cat's got his tongue, la. So he loseth nothing else, no harm done, ha, Mr. Shawn? What do I call the pretty young gentleman that's lost his pretty tongue, Mr. Shawn? Won't have anything lost in _my_ place, and me trying so hard to keep everything agreeable, ha, Mr. Shawn?
gpt
Just Benjamin, said Shawn, and straddled a chair, watching the old woman with somber upturned eyes, a darkness in him. Ben thought, with alcoholic irrelevance, that if Shawn were to reach out and squash poor Mistress Gundy with a twist of a sailor's thumb, she would pop like any defenseless bug, but none of them need be astonished, Mistress Gundy least of all. But at one time she had been a child, a growing maid....
human
Just Benjamin will do,
gpt
Oh, marry will he, I'm sure.
human
Anything new here, Nanny?
gpt
A'n't it alway new, Mr. Shawn?
human
That it is not, and never was unless maybe for Adam, the poor sod, and for a boy the first time but not the second. Nanny, I'm wanting Laura for the boy. For meself I don't care--anything that'll bear me weight a moment.
gpt
He only looked at her.
human
Well, Master Just Benjamin, dearie, Laura it shall be, and she so fresh and lovely, I'm sure, you'll be most content, I'm sure.
gpt
Would you wish something to drink, Mistress Gundy, that we might have sent up from next door?
human
Nay, I knew he'd find it, and with pleasant speech! She cut her eyes at Shawn to make that a reproach, but he was remote, observing only the embers, or the South Pacific.
gpt
Well, dearie, 'tis early on in the evening for it, but since you speak of it and so pleasantly, a trifle to wet the whistle would not go amiss. She patted her lips.
human
For my part, sir, ever since I resided in London I have been partial to a bit of hot buttered rum of a chilly evening, to settle the rifting-up and keep out the cold. It's the Boston air, sir. Never do I grow accustomed to it, that I never.
gpt
Yes,
human
I'll send the servant,
gpt
Do you send him, said Shawn to the embers,
human
Mr. Shawn, sir, one day your tongue'll turn and bite you, sir.
gpt
Then I'll have thee kiss the place, old woman. She sidled for the doorway, out of reach of his lazy hand.
human
But wait till I bleed.
gpt
I marvel the sweet young gentleman ever took up with you, sir, you that come in with a smile and stay with a curse.
human
Took up with me to see a bit of the world, Nanny, the way the world's a troublesome thing for a boy to see at all and I'm part of it. Come give us a kiss!
gpt
You leave me tell you this: you mark one of my poor girls on the face just once, just once, Mr. Shawn----
human
And you'll have law on me belike?
gpt
Though it be the ruin o' me I'll say it: I think you're a wicked man, Mr. Shawn.
human
But not on the face is well enough?
gpt
Mr. Shawn!
human
Come now, give us a kiss and be friends!
gpt
Don't, Mr. Shawn! Leave her alone!
human
I don't suppose he means too much by his talk, Mistress Gundy.
gpt
Eh? Known him long?
human
Not long, not very well.... I was astonished he should speak so.
gpt
Let it go. In spite of the small gust of tears she was alert and brisk.
human
Be you paying or him?
gpt
I am. How--how much?
human
Ho, and if he's not, how comes he to lay about him so? She broke off, laughing indulgently.
gpt
Never thee mind, Master Just Benjamin. Two such lovely girls! Well now, if you're a-mind to buy us a wee trifle of rum--so pleasant with a dab of butter, don't you think?--and the girls....