human
Josephine, the devil never bid so high for me before in his life as he's bidding for me now. And there's only one thing in the way; he's bid too late.
gpt
Ah, you! you dawn't know not'n'--
human
Stop, I don't mean more than just what I say. Six years ago--six and a half--I met a man of a kind I'd never met, to know it, before. You know who' I mean, don't you?
gpt
Bonaventure?
human
Yes. That meeting made a turning-point in my life. You've told me that whatever is best in you, you owe to him. Well, knowing him as I do, I can believe it; and if it's true, then it's the same with me; for first he, and then you, have made another man out of me.
gpt
Ah, naw! Bonaventure, may_be_; but not me; ah, naw!
human
But I tell you, yes! you, Josephine! I'm poor sort enough yet; but I could have done things once that I can't do now. There was a time when if some miserable outlaw stood, or even seemed, maybe, to stand between me and my chances for happiness, I could have handed him over to human justice, so called, as easy as wink; but now? No, never any more! Josephine, I know that man whose picture I've just looked at. I could see you avenged. I could lay my hands, and the hands of the law, on him inside of twenty-four hours. You say you can't marry till the law has laid its penalties on him, or at least while he lives and escapes them. Is that right?
gpt
Yass, _'tis_ so. 'Tis ri-ght!
human
No, Josephine. I know you _feel_ as if it were; but you don't _think_ so. No, you don't; I know you better in this matter than you know yourself, and you don't think it's right. You know justice belongs to the State, and that when you talk to yourself about what _you_ owe to justice, it means something else that you're too sweet and good to give the right name to, and still want it. You don't want it; you don't want revenge, and here's the proof; for, Josephine, you know, and I know, that if I--even without speaking--with no more than one look of the eye--should offer to buy your favor at that price, even ever so lawfully, you'd thank me for one minute, and then loathe me to the end of your days.
gpt
I di'n' mean--I di'n' mean--Ah!
human
What? private revenge? No, of course you didn't! But what else would it be? O Josephine! don't I know you didn't mean it? Didn't I tell you so? But I want you to go farther. I want you to put away forever the _feeling_. I want to move and stand between you and it, and say--whatever it costs me to say it--'God forbid!' I do say it; I say it now. I can't say more; I can't say less; and somehow,--I don't know how--wherever you learned it--I've learned it from you.