human
I wish that I smoked,
gpt
Here will be an opportunity, returned Clover.
human
You will be offered cigarettes at every turn in Java.
gpt
I want you to believe that I would give it up if you asked me.
human
Isn’t it a pity that I shall have to remain incredulous? then she hastened on, vaguely afraid of her companion.
gpt
Don’t misunderstand me, please. I was not criticising your brother a minute ago. Do you know you have formed a shocking habit of frankness in me? You have searched out my thoughts and opinions so many times that now you have only to suggest a subject and I pour out my ideas. I think I ought to have kept my observations to myself on this topic; but since I have said so much, I don’t wish to leave you with the notion that I think your brother and men like him monsters of selfishness. A woman makes an absurd mistake to marry a smoking man, and then to be grieved because he refuses when she artlessly requests him to give up the habit; but a girl nearly always thinks that all she need do is to marry a man in order to make him over into anything she likes. I tell you, Mr. Page, it is the result of my observations that all the voluntary changes a man makes at the request of his beloved are made before—before he catches the horse-car.
human
But I don’t think Robert ought to smoke, since Hilda
gpt
Pardon me. I am going to defend the absent. Did he smoke while they were engaged?
human
Yes.
gpt
Very well. Now, do you wish to hear some words of wisdom?
human
Yes, indeed.
gpt
Here they are. If Hilda disliked tobacco, she should have said so, then; and she probably did. When she found Mr. Page would not give up the habit, she should have weighed the question in her mind as to whether the matter of smoking were going to affect her happiness seriously. If she thought it would, she should have broken her engagement. The great point is, that if she decided to marry him she should have realized that she took him as he was, tobacco and all, and would be likely to have rather more than less of it for the rest of her life.
human
A man is a selfish brute,
gpt
Sometimes; but he has the same right a woman has to choose between his habit and his love; that is, if the woman speaks in time.
human
Hilda does not particularly dislike cigar smoke, said Page,
gpt
Yes, indeed; so long as there were plenty more to be had.
human
No, Mrs. Van Tassel, be serious; and for the moment pardon personalities. If Jack were engaged to you
gpt
Well, if Jack were engaged to me?
human
And you should earnestly ask him not to smoke, can you doubt the result?
gpt
No, I am afraid I can’t. Jack is a gentleman, and such an impulsive, affectionate fellow, I know pretty well what he would do, supposing of course that he were very earnestly and deeply in love with me.
human
Which he is, of course.
gpt
Oh no, he isn’t,
human
What!
gpt
No, indeed. Jack and I always were good comrades, and always will be, I hope.
human
Pardon me, he said, sobering suddenly.
gpt
I was forgetting where we were. He drew her hand within his arm and they started to walk.
human
Pretty little light things these bamboo houses are, he continued.
gpt
What a gentle life they suggest. I don’t know exactly why I am so glad to hear what you tell me, Mrs. Van Tassel. I was under a mistaken idea that you and Jack were—and it is no reflection upon Jack that I am relieved. He is a fine fellow. There is no man I like better; so it is—it is really difficult for me to explain why—why
human
Never mind trying, Mr. Page, returned Clover, smiling softly at a cage of doves outside a cottage door.
gpt
It isn’t necessary, she added demurely,
human
It is a sort of habit of mine, he returned apologetically.
gpt
What is this long straw building?
human
The theatre.
gpt
Will you come in?
human
Yes; I have not visited it, but I hear it is interesting.