human
You must tell the truth, he said, striving to make his voice gentle.
gpt
You warned me once.... Your warning was true. If you had not known you couldn't have warned me.... You _know_.
human
No!... No!...
gpt
How did you know they were coming to my shop that night?
human
I can't tell you.... I sha'n't tell you.
gpt
You're shielding _him_!
human
No, not him.
gpt
Do you love that man? Is that why you protect him?
human
I hate him! Oh, how I hate him!--more than anything else on earth!
gpt
But you are with him always ... daily. That doesn't look like hate.... A girl doesn't--
human
You don't know.... You don't understand. I can't help myself. I have to be with him. I have to, I tell you. Can't you believe me?
gpt
Why?
human
I can't tell you.
gpt
Do you know what this man is doing? Do you know your country is at war, and this man and his work are more dangerous than an army on the battlefield? Do you know that? Do you know that for years he has plotted and worked against America? That he has burned mills, dynamited bridges, stirred up labor troubles--bought and paid for murders--for Germany? You _do_ know. I know that you know.... And yet you call yourself an American and say you are no traitor.... You're as bad as he.
human
You mustn't say that. Her flaming spirit was awakened to anger, an anger sending her on as headlong a course as his.
gpt
I sha'n't listen to it.... I tell you I hate him.
human
Is he Adolf von Arnheim?
gpt
I don't know.
human
Is he the man who stole Matthews's aeroplane?
gpt
I don't know.
human
Is he the man who plotted to blow up my workshop?
gpt
I don't know.
human
You are not telling the truth.
gpt
I am telling the truth.
human
I loved you.... I could love you. I thought you were everything good and glowing in the world. I worshiped you.... It was never you I loved, but a girl who never existed, some one I mistook for you; ... some one who never could have become what you have become; ... some one who was honest, not a friend and partner of spies; ... some one who could never have been touched by squalid defilement--
gpt
Could I help it? she said, fiercely.
human
Was it my fault? Could I say to God, I will not have this blood in my veins, and force Him to change it?...
gpt
German blood,
human
German blood, she repeated after him.
gpt
Do you think I would keep a drop of it if I could open a vein and let it out? It's there. I can never get rid of it.
human
But it doesn't compel you to this. It's possible to be German and loyal.
gpt
I tell you I am loyal, Potter Waite--as loyal as you.
human
Who is Cantor?
gpt
I don't know,
human
And you call yourself loyal.... This minute, if he is awake, he is plotting to blow up the shops where I am making motors for America's aeroplanes. He's plotting to blow up and destroy other factories that work for the government.... What if he succeeds?... If he could destroy our plant and half a dozen more it would be a greater victory for Germany than the capture of an American army.... You can stop it. You can tell me what you know--all you know. It will show me how to reach him, for I can't reach him now.... I know he's guilty. You can tell me how to prove it.
gpt
I can't. I tell you I don't know.... Suspicion? What is suspicion? You don't know what you are asking.
human
I'm asking what any American girl, who was true to her country, would give gladly ... unless she loved the man.
gpt
If Mr. Cantor were a spy and I could give him to you--if I could give him to you without-- She stopped, bit her lips. She had almost said,
human
She went on, hurriedly,
gpt
I would let them kill me if I could give him to you.
human
I hope, he said, bitterly,
gpt
Potter! she cried.
human
No!...
gpt
Who is Cantor?
human
I can't tell you.
gpt
You see? he said, bitterly. Then his voice changed, became charged with emotion, and the emotion thrilled her, moved her as she had never been moved.
human
Even now I could love you; I could forget--everything but this. You can't be _bad_. Great God! It isn't possible that you can be altogether what you seem to be. Tell me, Hildegarde.... You can tell me what I must know. It's your duty. It's a thing your country demands of you.... It's your chance. Can't you see it is your chance--to keep something of your soul alive? Do this thing; be loyal in this--and I can keep on loving you till the end, with the rest blotted out. I will remember only this.... Think, Hildegarde!... Don't let me go now. Don't leave this thing as it is....