human
I _am_ glad to see you, he said, letting her hands go with reluctance.
gpt
I've been thinking about you.
human
How nice! I've been thinking about you--wondering how you came out of it ... if your nose was flattened or one leg shorter than the other. Why, you don't look as if you had been smashed all to pieces.
gpt
I'll try to limp, he suggested,
human
I was afraid, she said.
gpt
I couldn't bear to think you--were not the way you used to be. If you had been crippled--and it was my fault! That's why I came so quickly. I wanted to know. You see, I didn't know anything--except that you were alive.
human
On the whole, I think I benefited,
gpt
Yes, she said,
human
She laughed lightly at her simile.
gpt
You seemed to be pacing up and down and glaring at the world. That is gone.... Yes, and you've been behaving yourself, taking better care of yourself.
human
Yes, he said.
gpt
My address is no longer the Pontchartrain bar--and I've got a job.
human
That satisfies you?
gpt
Yes.
human
Something happened. Something has made a great change in you. What was it? I'm interested, you know.
gpt
The thing that happened was the necessity for filling in several months' time while I lay on my back. It was necessary to think quite a little.
human
What did you think about?
gpt
The United States of America, he said,
human
I don't understand. Are you joking?
gpt
No, he said, so seriously that she knew he spoke of a momentous thing in his life.
human
It was the result of the war, I suppose, and of little things which derived from the war. The first thing I discovered was that I was a sort of Nolan--a man without a country. Have you read that book?
gpt
Yes.
human
I hadn't done what Nolan did. I'd just neglected my country utterly. I hadn't bothered with it. Just before I was hurt a man asked me if I loved my country, and that rather started things.... I don't go around talking this sort of thing to everybody,
gpt
Of course not.
human
Have you ever thought much about it?
gpt
No--I think not. I've rather taken the country for granted, except when Dad has bellowed about the fatherland and that sort of thing. Then I've been stirred up a little. Irritated, I guess the word is. I haven't been an out-and-out American, but I haven't been anything else. That's all.... Like father, for instance. His father was chased out of Germany in 'forty-eight, and you'd think Dad would have a grudge against it. But he hasn't. He gets sentimental about Germany. He isn't an American at all, though he was born here ... and that never seemed right to me.
human
He's not alone, of course, and it is a dangerous condition.... Well, the thing that happened to me was that I learned something about the United States, and the first thing I knew I was mighty strong for it.
gpt
And what are you doing here--with all these drawings and this machinery?
human
Aeroplanes, he said.
gpt
Maybe you can understand what I'm doing. Nobody else seems to.... Doesn't it seem to you that we've _got_ to get into this war?
human
I haven't thought much about that--not a great deal. But nobody seems to want war.
gpt
No. We're smug and satisfied and cocksure. But I think we will be forced into it. We can't stand everything. And if we go in it will be a tremendous thing--for which we won't be ready. We'll be in the position of a man with a hand-saw who is suddenly compelled to cut down a forest. We'll have to do everything after the thing comes--raise an army and equip it. And we'll need aeroplanes by the thousands.... That's what I'm doing--getting ready for the time when we need aeroplanes. That is, I'm doing what I can to help.
human
And you're not getting much help or sympathy,
gpt
But I'm going ahead, just the same. I hope we never need them. Maybe we can stay out of it, and maybe we will stay out of it--but I'm going to stick to this game until I know. Because, he said, with a sudden lighting of the face, a glow of enthusiasm from his eyes,
human
It's fine, she said.
gpt
I think I understand. I'm going to understand better. I guess I'll be an American, too.
human
I beg your pardon, he said.
gpt
I didn't know you were engaged.
human
Come in, Cantor.... This is Miss von Essen. You know her father, I think.
gpt
Yes, indeed, said Cantor, advancing, a graceful, forceful, pleasing figure.
human
I didn't know Miss von Essen had returned. His eyes were fixed upon her boldly, but not offensively--admiringly.
gpt
I have heard much of Miss von Essen, and even saw her once at a distance. Since then I have hoped it might be my privilege to be presented to her.