human
Please listen. I hadn't any idea of mortifying you by explaining that you are not qualified by nature to interest the modern woman in----
gpt
Do you suppose such a condemnation--such a total ostracism--is agreeable to a man? . . . Is there anything worse you can say about a man than to inform him that no woman could possibly take the slightest interest in him?
human
I didn't say that. I said the modern woman----
gpt
You're all modern.
human
It is reported that there are still a few women sufficiently old-fashioned to----
gpt
They don't interest me. He looked up at her.
human
What _you've_ said has--simply--and completely--spoiled--my life,
gpt
What _I_ said?
human
Yes.
gpt
What have--what could--what I--how--where--who is----
human
Yes, he repeated with a curious sort of satisfaction,
gpt
What an utterly--what a wildly absurd and impossible----
human
And you _know_ it!
gpt
Know what?
human
That you've spoiled----
gpt
Stop! Will you explain to me how----
human
Is it necessary?
gpt
Necessary? Of course it is! You have made a most grave and serious and--and heartless charge against a woman----
human
Yes, a heartless one--against you!
gpt
I? _Heartless?_
human
Cold, deliberate, cruel, unfeeling, merciless, remorseless----
gpt
Mr. Langdon!
human
Didn't you practically tell me that no woman could endure the sight of a face and figure like mine?
gpt
No, I did not. What a--a cruel accusation!
human
What _did_ you mean, then?
gpt
That--that you are not exactly--qualified to--to become an ancestor of the physically perfect race which----
human
What _is_ wrong with me, then?
gpt
What do you mean?
human
I mean where am I below proof? Where am I lacking? What points count me out?
gpt
I--I don't want to criticise you----
human
Please do. I beg of you. There are beauty doctors in town, he added earnestly.
gpt
They can fix up a fellow--and I can go to a gymnasium, and take up deep-breathing and----
human
But, Mr. Langdon, do _you_ want to--to be--captured----
gpt
Yes, he said.
human
I'd like to give you another chance at me.
gpt
Me? After what I did to you?
human
Will you?
gpt
Why, what a perfectly astonishing----
human
Not very. Look me over and tell me what points count against me. I know I'm not good-looking, but I'd like to go into training for the bench--I mean----
gpt
Mr. Langdon, she said slowly,
human
Yes, I would. I wish to become superficially monotonous. I'm too varied; I realise that. I want to resemble that make-up I wore----
gpt
That! Goodness! What a horrid idea----
human
Horrid? Didn't you like it well enough to net me?
gpt
I--there was nothing expressive of my personal taste in my capturing you--I mean the kind of a man you appeared to be. It was my duty--a purely scientific matter----
human
I don't care what it was. You went after me. You wouldn't go after me as I now appear. I want you to tell me what is lacking in me which would prevent you going after me again--from a purely scientific standpoint.