human
You ask me what I should do? I retorted savagely.
gpt
I shall tell you first what I _will_ do if you continue your refusal. I will _take_ you with me, and so keep my agreement with my chief. Keep away from the bell rope! Remain silent! Do not move! You should go if I had to carry you there in a sack--because that is my errand!
human
Oh, listen at him threaten! she laughed still.
gpt
And he despises my poor little castle here in the side street, where half the time I am so lonely! What would Monsieur do if Monsieur were in my place--and if I were in Monsieur's place? But, bah! you would not have me following _you_ in the first hour we met, boy!
human
Madam may discontinue the thought of my boyhood; I am older than she. But if you ask me what I would do with a woman if I followed her, or if she followed me, then I shall tell you. If I owned this place and all in it, I would tear down every picture from these walls, every silken cover from yonder couches! I would rip out these walls and put back the ones that once were here! You, Madam, should be taken out of luxury and daintiness--
gpt
Go on! She clapped her hands, for the first time kindling, and dropping her annoying air of patronizing me.
human
Go on! I like you now. Tell me what Americans do with women that they love! I have heard they are savages.
gpt
A house of logs far out in the countries that I know would do for you, Madam! I went on hotly.
human
You should forget the touch of silk and lace. No neighbor you should know until I was willing. Any man who followed you should meet _me_. Until you loved me all you could, and said so, and proved it, I would wring your neck with my hands, if necessary, until you loved me!
gpt
Excellent! What then?
human
Then, Madam the Baroness, I would in turn build you a palace, one of logs, and would make you a most excellent couch of the husks of corn. You should cook at my fireplace, and for _me!_
gpt
Pray, be seated, she said.
human
You interest me.
gpt
It is late, I reiterated.
human
Come! Must I do some of these things--force you into obedience--carry you away in a sack? My master can not wait.
gpt
Don Yturrio of Mexico, on the other hand, she mused,
human
Indeed! I rejoined, in contempt.
gpt
An American savage would give you but one gown, and that of your own weave; you could make it up as you liked. But come, now; I have no more time to lose.
human
Ah, also, idiot! she murmured.
gpt
Do you not see that I must reclothe myself before I could go with you--that is to say, if I choose to go with you? Now, as I was saying, my ardent Mexican promises thus and so. My lord of England--ah, well, they may be pardoned. Suppose I might listen to such suits--might there not be some life for me--some life with events? On the other hand, what of interest could America offer?
human
I have told you what life America could give you.
gpt
I imagined men were but men, wherever found, she went on;
human
Quite true, I answered.
gpt
Better that than part of the world to one--or two? And the opposite of it is yet more true. When a woman is all the world to a man, she despises him.
human
But yes, I should like that experience of being a cook in a cabin, and being bruised and broken and choked! She smiled, lazily extending her flawless arms and looking down at them, at all of her splendid figure, as though in interested examination.
gpt
I am alone so much--so bored! she went on.
human
And Sir Richard Pakenham is so very, very fat. Ah, God! You can not guess how fat he is. But you, you are not fat.
gpt
All the more reason for doing as I have suggested, Madam; for Mr. Calhoun is not even so fat as I am. This little interview with my chief, I doubt not, will prove of interest. Indeed --I went on seriously and intently--
human
I venture to say this much without presuming on my station: the talk which you will have with my chief to-night will show you things you have never known, give you an interest in living which perhaps you have not felt. If I am not mistaken, you will find much in common between you and my master. I speak not to the agent of England, but to the lady Helena von Ritz.
gpt
He is old, she went on.
human
He is very old. His face is thin and bloodless and fleshless. He is old.
gpt
Madam, I said,