human
Ah! you can never know, Wilfrid, what I have suffered--what I am suffering now, she said in a deep intense voice, as we stood there together in the gardens.
gpt
You have thought me gay and careless, and you've often told me that I was like a butterfly. Yes, I admit it--I admit all my defects. When I was old enough to leave the schoolroom, society attracted me. I saw Cynthia, the centre of a smart set, courted, flattered, and admired, and like every other girl, I was envious. I vied with her successes, until I, too, became popular. And yet what did popularity and smartness mean? Ah! I can only think of the past with disgust. Then, with a sigh, she added,
human
You, of course, cannot believe it, Wilfrid, but I am now a changed woman.
gpt
I do believe you, Tibbie,
human
Yes, she went on,
gpt
I see the folly of it all now, the emptiness, the soul-killing wear and tear, the disgraceful shams and mean subterfuges. The woman who has success in our set stands alone, friendless, with a dozen others constantly trying to hurl her from her pedestal, and ever ready with bitter tongues to propagate grave insinuations and scandal. It is woman to woman; and the feuds are always deadly. I'm tired of it all, and have left it, I hope, for ever.
human
Then it was some adventure in that gay circle, I take it, that is responsible for your present position?
gpt
Ah! she sighed in a low, hoarse voice,
human
I--I never dreamed of the pitfalls set for me, and in my inexperience believed in the honesty of everyone. But surely I was not alone! Beneath a dress shirt beats the heart of many a blackguard, and in our London drawing-rooms are to be found persons whose careers, if exposed, would startle the world. There are men with world-famous names who ought to be in the criminal dock, but whose very social position is their safeguard; and women with titles who pose as charity patrons, but are mere adventuresses. Our little world, Wilfrid, is, indeed, a strange one, a circle of class and criminality utterly inconceivable by the public who only know of us through the newspapers. I had success because, I suppose, of what people are pleased to call my good looks, but--but, alas! I fell a victim--I fell into a trap ingeniously set for me, and when I struggled to set myself free I only fell deeper and deeper into the blackguardly intrigue. You see me now! she cried after a brief pause,
gpt
There is no other way! she added in a faint, desperate voice, her trembling hand closing upon my wrist.
human
You must leave me to myself. Go back to London and remain silent. And when they discover me dead you will still remain in ignorance--but sometimes you will think of me-- think of me, Wilfrid, she sobbed,
gpt
But this is madness! I cried.
human
You surely will not admit yourself vanquished now?
gpt
No, not madness, only foresight. You, too, are in deadly peril, and must leave me. With me, hope is now dead--there is only the grave.