human
It's a devilish mess, do what you will,
gpt
The punishment seems a good deal out of proportion to the cause,
human
Hh! Bobby grunted.
gpt
I think he did well to get off without a genuine case of D. T.
human
I was speaking of your cousin, not of Lorimer.
gpt
Really, Thayer, I can't see any cause that was of Beatrix's making,
human
It was mistaken judgment, to say the least, to have champagne in the house,
gpt
Beatrix had nothing to do with that, Bobby blazed forth angrily.
human
It was that brute of a Lorimer, and he deserves all he got, and more, too. I saw the order to the caterer, made out in Beatrix's handwriting, and there wasn't a pint of champagne on it. Lorimer sent in the order afterwards, just as he invited that serpent of a Lloyd Avalons. Beatrix couldn't help herself.
gpt
She could have countermanded the order.
human
She didn't know it till the guests were there. I was with her when she discovered it, and she took it like a heroine. She was perfectly helpless. She couldn't make a scene in her own house, and she couldn't reasonably be expected to send her guests home. She knew exactly what was bound to happen, what she couldn't help happening, and she kept her head steady and faced the thing as boldly as she could. I never thought you would be the one to go back on her, Thayer.
gpt
I have wronged your cousin, Dane. I am very sorry.
human
So am I, Bobby returned flatly.
gpt
Beatrix has come to where she needs every friend she owns in the world to stand by her. By to-night, the story of that supper will have spread from the Battery to Poughkeepsie bridge. It will be garbled and twisted into all manner of shapes, and it will come boomeranging back at her from every quarter of the town. When it comes to gossip, we find Manhattan Island is a mighty small place; but I suppose Australia is just as bad.
human
How is Lorimer, this morning? You've been to the house, I suppose.
gpt
Yes, I've just come from there. Lorimer is convalescent, which means he is a blamed sight better than he deserves to be. I didn't care to see him; but they assured me he was sitting up and regaling himself on raw oysters and chicken broth. He is probably an edifying spectacle by this time, a mush of maudlin penitence. I've seen him before this in his next-morning mood. Put not your trust in a moral jellyfish! And Bobby, his fists in his pockets, stamped up and down the room to ease his resentment.
human
The next move is to be a radical one, he continued, after a pause.
gpt
They are going into the Adirondacks.
human
They? Who?
gpt
Beatrix and Lorimer.
human
What for?
gpt
Safety; taking to the woods, and all that.
human
What do you mean, Dane? Thayer asked sternly.
gpt
This is no time for joking. Do speak out.
human
I beg your pardon, Thayer. The fact is, I am utterly reckless, this morning, and I don't know nor care what I am saying. If you loved Beatrix as I do--
gpt
Yes, Thayer returned quietly.
human
I understand.
gpt
No; you don't. You can't. We've been such chums. What hurts her, hurts me; and, to my dying day, I shall never forget her as we found her in the dining-room, last night. She knew then it was all over. Bobby's voice broke upon the last words; then he pulled himself up sharply.
human
This morning, we had a council of war, Mrs. Dane and Beatrix and the doctor and I. The doctor says that Beatrix isn't well, and that another such scene would kill her, or worse. I was for shutting Lorimer up in an inebriate asylum; but Beatrix opposed the idea. She was so excited about it that the doctor finally took sides with her, and said that she and Lorimer would better not be separated, at least, not until something else comes up. Do you grasp the pleasant state of things? Lorimer is to be left with her till something does come up; when the something does come, it may kill her. That's what they call an alternative, I suppose.
gpt
But the Adirondacks?