human
I beg your pardon, Mr. Lorimer,--you were saying?
gpt
Want to walk up the coast, Skipper? and Honor said,
human
Yes,--just as soon as I've put these things away,
gpt
I--don't you feel like a stroll, too, Mr. Lorimer? After that enormous lunch, I----
human
Well, I don't feel like a stroll in that direction, Carter. Let 'em alone,--shan't we? He included him in the attitude of affectionate indulgence.
gpt
I've been there myself, and you will be there--if you haven't been already. He patted the sand beside him.
human
Sit down, old man. This editorial sounds promising.
gpt
Mr. Lorimer, you don't consider it--_serious_, do you?
human
About the most serious matter in the world, I should say, Carter.
gpt
I mean, between Honor and Jimsy? He was visibly expecting a negative answer.
human
I know that Mrs. Lorimer doesn't.
gpt
Well, I disagree with her. I should say, with average youngsters of their age that it was as transient as--as the measles. But they aren't average, Carter.
human
I know that. At least, Honor isn't.
gpt
Nor Jimsy. I sometimes think, Carter, that fellows of our type, yours and mine, he was not looking at him now, he was running his long fingers lazily through the hot and shining sand,
human
this was calculated cruelty; Carter might as well face things; there would be a girl, waiting now somewhere, no doubt, who wouldn't mind his limp, but Honor must have a mate of her own vigorous breed,--Honor who had always and would always
gpt
--
human
And--and how about his blood--his heredity? Isn't he one of the 'Wild Kings'?
gpt
You know, Stephen lighted a cigarette,
human
I don't believe he is! He's got their looks and their charm, but I'm convinced he's two-thirds Scotch mother,--that sturdy soul who would have saved his father if death hadn't tricked her. And I'm rather a radical about heredity, anyway, Carter. It's gruesomely overrated, I think. What is it?--Clammy hands reaching out from the grave to clutch at warm young flesh--and pollute it? Not while there are living hands to beat them off! He began to get vehement and warm. There was to be a chapter on heredity in that book of his, one day.
gpt
It's a bogy. It goes down before environment as the dark before the dawn. Why, environment's a vital, flesh and blood thing, fighting with and for us every instant! I could take the offspring of Philip the Second and Great Catherine and make a--a Frances Willard or a Jane Addams of her,--_if_ people didn't sit about like crows, cawing about her parents and her blood and her heritage. Even dry, statistical scientists are beginning----