human
My mother's not very well--she's not strong, you know. I must go to my people's.
gpt
Of course you must, Godfrey. But--without me?
human
Yes. Passing her on his way to the mantelpiece, he pressed her hand for a moment. Then he stood with his back to her, as he filled his pipe with fingers unusually clumsy.
gpt
Oh, I've tried! They've been at me for weeks--you probably guessed--and I've been back at them--letter after letter. It's no use! And yesterday father wrote that mother was really seriously upset. He turned round, and spoke almost fiercely.
human
Don't you see I must go, Winnie?
gpt
Of course you must, she said again.
human
And I can't come if they--if they won't let me in! She managed a smile.
gpt
It's all right. I'll have a walk by myself.
human
I may have a better chance of convincing them, if I go. I'm no good at letters. And mother is very fond of me.
gpt
Of course you must go,
human
I haven't seen any of them for--oh, it must be three months--and I used to go every Sunday, when I was in town.
gpt
Well, you're going to-day, dear. That's all settled! She went up to him and kissed him daintily.
human
And we won't despair of them, will we? When do you go?
gpt
I--I generally used to go to lunch. They want me to. And come away after tea.
human
Well, do just what you used to. I hope I shall be doing it with you in a few weeks.
gpt
Oh, I hope so, dearest.
human
I have done wrong --but not to say,
gpt
You--or your interpreters--have been wrong.
human
along by Rotten Row and the Serpentine. But, as she walked, her thoughts were not so much on autumn tints as on Woburn Square--on that family so nearly related to her life, yet so unspeakably remote, to whom she was worse than a menace--she was a present and active curse--who to her were something wrong-headed, almost ridiculous, yet intensely formidable--really the concrete embodiment of all she had to struggle against, the thing through which the great world would most probably hit at her, wound her, and kill her if it could. And both the family and Winnie thought themselves so absolutely, so demonstrably, right! Right or wrong, she knew very well, as she walked on towards the Serpentine, that now--this instant--in Woburn Square they were trying to get her man away from her; to make him ashamed of her (he had sworn never to be), to make him throw her over, to leave her stranded, to the ridicule and ruin of her experiment. With a sudden catch in the breath she added,
gpt
And the breaking of my heart!