human
Jim, do you remember that girl that Alice Lindsay discovered up in Canada?
gpt
The little Moses?
human
What?
gpt
Oh! wasn’t that the girl that some woman said she had adopted out of a Home?
human
Yes. What of it?
gpt
Only a joke, Andy. You remember Pharaoh’s daughter _said_ she took Moses out of the bulrushes. Don’t scowl, Andy; you don’t look pretty.
human
Listen to this letter, Jim, and don’t be ribald.
gpt
What are you going to do, Andy?
human
As soon as I can I’m going up there, and take a look at things.
gpt
You are going to help the girl?
human
Yes, if I can.
gpt
After all, Andy, can you? Could Alice? The girl would have to be rather large-sized to overcome her handicaps, wouldn’t she?
human
Alice had faith.
gpt
I know, but a man might muddle things.
human
I shall run up, however.
gpt
How’s Helen?
human
Her body grows stronger, her mind——
gpt
Andy, can’t you be just to yourself? Have the years taught you nothing? There can be but one end for Helen and if you see to her comfort, you have every right to your freedom.
human
Jim, I cannot do it! God, Man! I’ve had my temptations. When I saw her so ill, I saw—Jim, I saw hope; but while she lives I cannot cast her off. It would be like stealing something when she wasn’t looking.
gpt
But Lord, Andy! Helen can never come back. They all tell you that.
human
It seems so, but while life remains she might. She loved me, Jim. The woman I loved in her died when our child came but I cannot forget. I’m a fool, but when I’ve been most tempted the thought has always come: how could I go on living if she _did_ recover and found that I had deserted her?
gpt
You’re worn to the edge, Andy, better chuck the whole thing and come off for a vacation with me. But first look at this, tell me what you think.
human
Umph!
gpt
Another, eh?
human
Yes.
gpt
Jim, what in thunder ails you to let a woman play the devil with you?
human
You ask that, Andy?
gpt
Yes. Our cases are quite different, Helen’s dead, but Katherine knows damned well what she is doing.
human
She doesn’t, Andy. In one way she’s as dead as Helen, she hasn’t waked up.
gpt
And you think she will? You think the time will come when she can see your genius and get her little carcass out of the way?
human
Hold up, Andy! I came to have you criticise my picture, not my wife.
gpt
She ought to leave you alone, if she cannot understand. No human being has a right to twist another one out of shape.
human
After all, he said,
gpt
Only, her husband happened to be a genius and Katherine doesn’t know a genius when she sees one. From the best intentions she’s driving you to hell, Jim.
human
Oh! well, I may be able to get the best of it, Andy, and paint even if I do keep to the well-trodden paths of husbands. A fellow can’t call himself a genius to his own wife, you know, especially when he hasn’t proved it. One hates to be an ass. You see, Andy, when all’s said and done, I can wring a thing or two out. This is good, isn’t it?
gpt
It’s devilish good, but it has been wrung out! Jim, it’s no use. The home-loving, society-trotting, movie-show husband role will be the end of you.
human
Well, if I slam my studio door in Katherine’s face and leave her to go about alone, or sit by herself, that would be the end of her. Andy, the worst of it is that when she puts it up to me, I see she’s right. We’re married and she only wants her share.
gpt
I suppose this meant, Law was gravely contemplating the picture,
human
Something like that, and all the while Katherine was entertaining and I’d promised to help. I didn’t go near them once.
gpt
Umph!
human
So you see, Testy, it isn’t Katherine’s fault. The two roles don’t jibe, that’s the long and short of it.
gpt
And your love, Law was thinking aloud.
human
Your love and sense of right——
gpt
I’m not a cad, Andy.
human
Leave this thing here for a day or two, Jim, Law raised the picture and carried it to the window.
gpt
I never saw such live light, he said.
human
Where did you get it.
gpt
I—I was lying under the Palisades one night and just at daybreak I saw it. It’s a home product, though it looks Oriental, doesn’t it?
human
Yes, it does.
gpt
And you won’t come away for a clip, Andy?
human
Not until autumn, Jim, then I’m going to run up into Canada.
gpt
All right. Having got the—the live light out of my system, and if you won’t play with me, I’m going to coax Katherine to take me to any summer orgy she wants to. I owe it to her, she hasn’t had a good dance for ages.
human
Jim, you’re a fool or——
gpt
A modest reflection of yourself, Testy.