human
I _did_ want to see you, Lawrence, she murmured.
gpt
Can you not understand why?
human
My name is Colquhoun, Mrs. Cassilis. And I cannot understand why----
gpt
My name, Lawrence, is Victoria. Have you forgotten that?
human
I have forgotten everything, Mrs. Cassilis. It is best to forget everything.
gpt
But if you cannot! O Lawrence! she looked up in his face--
human
O Lawrence, if you cannot!
gpt
This is mere foolishness, Mrs. Cassilis. As a stranger, a perfect stranger, may I ask why you call me by my Christian name, and why these tears?
human
Strangers! it is ridiculous! she cried, starting up and standing before him.
gpt
It is ridiculous, when all the world knows that we were once friends, and half the world thought that we were going to be something--nearer.
human
Nearer--and dearer, Mrs. Cassilis? What a foolish world it was! Suppose we had become nearer, and therefore very much less dear.
gpt
Be kind to me, Lawrence.
human
I will be whatever you like, Mrs. Cassilis--except what I was--provided you do not call me Lawrence any more. Come, let us be reasonable. The past is gone; in deference to your wishes I removed myself from the scene; I went abroad; I transported myself for four years; then I saw the announcement of your marriage in the paper by accident. And I came home again, because of your own free will and accord you had given me my release. Is this true?
gpt
Yes,
human
Then, in the name of Heaven, why seek to revive the past? Believe me, I have forgotten the few days of madness and repentance. They are gone. Some ghosts of the past come to me, but they do not take the shape of Victoria Pengelley.
gpt
Suppose we cannot forget?
human
Then we _must_ forget. Victoria--Mrs. Cassilis, rouse yourself. Think of what you are--what you have made yourself.
gpt
I do think. I think every day.
human
You have a husband and a child; you have your position in the world. Mrs. Cassilis, you have your honour.
gpt
My honour! she echoed.
human
What honour? And if all were known! Lawrence, don't you even pity me?
gpt
What is the good of pity? he asked rudely.
human
Pity cannot alter things. Pity cannot make things which are as if they are not. You seem to me to have done what you have done knowing well what you were doing, and knowing what you were going to get by it. You have got one of the very best houses in London; you have got a rich husband; you have got an excellent position; and you have got--Mrs. Cassilis, you have got a child, whose future happiness depends upon your reticence.
gpt
I will tell you what I have besides, she burst in, with passion.
human
I have the most intolerable husband, the most maddening and exasperating man in all the world!
gpt
Is he cruel to you?
human
No; he is kind to me. If he were cruel I should know how to treat him. But he is kind.
gpt
Heroics, Mrs. Cassilis. Most women could very well endure a kind husband. Are you not overdoing it? You almost make me remember a scene--call it a dream--which took place in a certain Glasgow hotel about four years and a half ago.
human
In the City he is the greatest financier living, I am told. In the house he is the King of Littleness.
gpt
I think there was--or is--a bishop, said Lawrence meditatively,
human
Very well, Lawrence. I suppose you think you have a right to laugh at me?
gpt
Right! Good God, Mrs. Cassilis, he cried, in the greatest alarm,
human
Yes, Lawrence, she repeated, with a hard smile on her lips,