human
Not very attractive, she grimly thought.
gpt
This has got to be done by brains, my dear.
human
He wasn't to blame for the way he acted, it was his wretched nerves, she thought.
gpt
He'll have a break-down after this.
human
Well, Ethel!
gpt
Oh, Joe, I'm so glad you're here. All at once she felt herself change. She had meant to be so firm with him; but now, after one quick anxious look, in a low eager voice she said,
human
I'm not going to talk much of myself. It won't do any good--I'm sure it won't. I love you, Joe, and I can see you still love me. We need each other. And if we can just be sensible now--and you can only believe in me--
gpt
God knows I want to, Ethel! His tone was low, but so sharp and tense that she drew suddenly closer. He turned from her and sank into a chair, with his hands for a moment pressed to his eyes.
human
I'm sick of this--I'm not myself. Maybe I acted like a fool. . . . Some of that stuff from Fanny Carr doesn't hold together--it's too thin. He looked up at her.
gpt
But some of it does. And what you'll have to clear up now is why you never let me know.
human
The reason I didn't, she answered quickly,
gpt
She stopped and her throat contracted. She set her teeth.
human
We must talk about Amy for a while.
gpt
Why!
human
Because we never have before. We've--gone two years without speaking her name. I had no idea how bad that might be. She broke off, for her voice was trembling so.
gpt
I don't know how much you've learned in that time--about Amy, I mean--but I've learned a lot, and--I think I'd better tell you. I must, you see, or you won't understand what I've been doing lately. I couldn't have explained before, without speaking of her--and I didn't do that. But I should have, Joe, and I will now--if only you'll be patient and let me do the talking.
human
Well!
gpt
Some of it goes so very far back. She leaned forward with a queer little smile:
human
Amy was good to me when I came--and I had always worshipped her--I thought she was nearly everything. She made me feel how she--loved you, Joe--she had ambition, urged you on. But--oh, I've got to try to be clear. What kind of ambition was it, Joe! What did you have before you met her? How did you used to look at your work! You were coming up to do big things--but you married her and your work all changed. You threw over ideals to make money for her. And when your partner tried to hold you, Amy tried to break up the firm. Didn't she? Don't you remember? She waited, but he did not speak.
gpt
How hard it is for him, she thought,
human
So Bill has been talking, has he,
gpt
Yes, I made him. She went on.
human
Amy set herself against him--and against all your other old friends. Not at first--I want to be fair to her, Joe--don't think I'm blaming just her for all this. I'm sure that at first she was different--she wanted your friends to take her in. Remember those dinners you took her to, and that week-end party up in Vermont!
gpt
Who told you that?
human
Sally Crothers, said Ethel.
gpt
She was there.
human
Sally Crothers? You know her!
gpt
Why, yes, she replied
human
You see I've been hunting so hard for you, Joe, among those friends you used to have. And I did it without ever letting you know. Dwight, too--he was only one of them. She frowned, and added briskly,
gpt
Just incidental, so to speak. But I don't care to talk of him now--I'm speaking only of Amy. And from what Sally Crothers has told me, poor Amy must have had some hard times. They weren't fair to her. If they'd given her time and a real chance, everything might have been different. But they didn't, they turned her down. And feeling hurt and angry--and feeling besides how she'd have to grow--in her mind, I mean, and her interests, to take any place among people like that--I think she hesitated. You might have helped her then, perhaps--but you didn't--and Amy was lazy, Joe--that had always been a part of her. So she wouldn't make the effort. Instead of coming up to you, she made up her mind to pull you down!
human
That isn't true! he said harshly.
gpt
And if you've been taking for God's own truth what Sally Crothers told you--
human
Stop! Please! cried Ethel eagerly.
gpt
I didn't mean what I said just then--I put it badly--oh, so wrong! She didn't say, 'I'll pull him down.' She told herself your friends were snobs! And she said, 'I have friends who are human, and they're quite good enough for me!' So she went on with Fanny Carr. And others came, the circle grew. And it was all done day by day, and week by week. It happened--and you never knew. Nor did she. It was all so natural. But within a year she was going with people, and so were you, who cared for nothing you had wanted--women with no growth at all. They were all--oh, so common, Joe!
human
That's a bit snobbish, isn't it?
gpt
You can call it what you like! But I say you can find them all over town--richer and poorer, better and worse--women who want only common things--just clothes and food and what they call love--with not a wish that I can see except for money to live like that! I'm no prig, Joe! I want pretty clothes, and I want to be gay and have nice things. But you can get all I want of that and still get what is so much more! Her voice dropped; she hurried eagerly on:
human
Real work you love and which makes you grow, and friends that keep you growing! Ideas and things to know about--and beauty, music, pictures--the opera--books and people, plays--and buildings! The new library--the station--the--the tower down on Madison Square! Your work, Joe! And your old friends! Men and women who really think and feel--not just alive in their bodies! I don't know much about all that. Do you, these days! Mighty little! Because she kept you away from it!
gpt
No!
human
Are you so sure? Why didn't she ever go to Paris? She must have been dying to go there and shop, but she never let you take her there. She was afraid to let you go near it again--the Beaux Arts work, the student life--afraid that you'd get thinking! So she kept you here and away from your friends. She even kept Crothers out of your firm. You partner fought her hard on that--and you held out--until one day Crothers came to your office and told you he had changed his mind. You remember?
gpt
Yes--
human
Did he give you his reason!
gpt
Yes--he did--
human
Did he bring Amy into it!
gpt
He did not--
human
He should have, Joe. For just the afternoon before, Amy had made a call on his wife--and had said things insulting enough so that her husband had to break off!
gpt
Sally told you that!