human
Thankful heart! The comb restored, Madam Jenks fanned herself.
gpt
Ah well, a difficult time of life I suppose. You have no idea, Mr. Carey, the hours of grief and dismay, I have sought guidance on my knees, the which she'll be the death of me yet considering the palpitations of my heart, nevertheless when the Lord calls me to my long home I shall certainly go.
human
Mama! Faith murmured.
gpt
I'm sure in a few years she'll learn poise and manners. 'Tis only a passing thing. Why, when I was her age I'm sure I was difficult too.
human
Nay, my darling, never intractable, never strange, alway a consolation to me. Faith is my great comfort, Mr. Carey, you've no idea.
gpt
I'm sorry she plagued you, Mr. Cory.
human
But--truly she didn't. Anyway, that picture--
gpt
Art, said Madam Jenks sadly.
human
When I think how Mr. Jenks and I have striven to teach her womanly ways, and all to no purpose, and then such dreadful passion if she be crossed in the lightest particular, even in these trivial childish notions of art, the which she could not have got it from Mr. Jenks or myself, good heavens!
gpt
I heard that.
human
Oh, Charity, Charity--I suppose you never even went near the kitchen to help Clarissa.
gpt
She said she had no need of me. Mama, I brought that picture to Mr. Cory because he did ask to see it.
human
I should have supposed, Charity, that at your years you might have acquired some trace of manners if not of gratitude, the which I do not ask although a child of thirteen is certainly capable, and never no unjust correction nor harsh words if not wholly yielded up to depravity, the which----
gpt
Mama, I am becoming exceedingly wrathful.
human
Charity, said Madam Jenks,
gpt
Don't you bring Papa into it and him lying up there dead to the world!
human
I will go away forever, said Charity in a sudden loud rage of tears.
gpt
Even as Mr. Binyon. I tell you my steps will go down unto the Whore of Babylon!
human
Reuben, I've thought occasionally that the game hath something in common with the course of living. The opening--that's a preparation like youth, and I alway thought, if a chess player might truly understand the opening no other player could defeat him--a'n't that so? Still, it is too complex, the possibilities too near to infinite, for any mind to hold 'em all, and so the best of players will inevitably fumble the opening, at least a little, missing some bright opportunities, the result a compromise with what might have been. Then the middle game--action, struggle, changes of fortune, more opportunities lost, and a few fairly grasped at the just moment.
gpt
I believe I like that, Mr. Welland. And the end game?
human
The end game, if one may arrive at it--some die young, you know, some from a Fool's Mate, or blind chance may overset the board--but if one may arrive--oh dear! Oh dear me! That knight, through my poor wall of pawns--dare say it's all up with me. I will try this. What next?
gpt
This, sir. You left a hole for my Bishop too.
human
So, for my sins, I did. Brrr!... Well, this.
gpt
Check!
human
Blast!... If one may arrive at the end game--as I certainly can't here, my friend--'tis not unlike old age, a time demanding some coolness and precision and the summary of the ending, which is no simple matter of victory or defeat or draw, I think.
gpt
I like the simile, but I'm not sure living is a game.
human
It is not, Reuben. I'm pleased you find the flaw. It will remind you that any simile is a mischancy nag to ride. Ride him easy, perhaps for entertainment only, and be ready to jump off before he blunders into the ditch on the left which is marked _reductio ad absurdum_. If I said, however, that living is a journey, would that be a simile?
gpt
No, sir, I call that a fair description, no flight of rhetoric.
human
Mm-yas.... Let's see what remains for me here. I will try what the poor Pawn can do, creeping into the breach, but I fear little David hath here no slingshot.
gpt
Well.... Well, I'm afraid he did leave it at home, Mr. Welland, for this is checkmate.
human
Ow!
gpt
Ben would say I had scuttled him, nautical language being ever on his lips these days. He plays carelessly--in chess, I mean. And in living, with the carelessness of generosity. But he'll win his end game.
human
So much of what you say this afternoon ends with Ben! He's very close to your heart, is he not?
gpt
Oh, we--were alway close.
human
And went through much trouble together, I know, which it would seem hath strengthened the tie, but with those of a different nature it might have done the opposite. I had two brothers, Reuben. We drifted apart, as they say--one lives now in England, the other died some years ago. After childhood we were--oh, let us say like friends, but with strangely little to say to one another. Cherish what you have--devotion is not quite the commonest thing in the world.
gpt
This noon, sir, I tried to tell him something. It should have been a simple thing to say, but I lost myself in a most wonderful tangle of misunderstanding--yes, and finally gave it up like a fool, though later I thought of a dozen different ways I might have said it plainly.
human
Mm-yas--a little strange. You speak clearly to me, as clearly as anyone I can recall meeting, of any age.
gpt
Well--well, I told him I intended coming here, and he at once supposed that I thought I was ill, and then in reassuring him that it was nothing like that, I somehow lost track of what I had meant to say, which was--which was, sir, that one of my reasons in coming was to tell you that I wish I might study medicine. Or at least hear whatever you might tell me of such an ambition.
human
Oh.... That was only one reason, Reuben?
gpt
Only one of--of many.
human
Continue, Reuben.
gpt
I'm confused about many things.
human
So am I. But it's a good reason, seeing two candles are a trifle brighter than one.
gpt
And you said to me that you and I ought to be friends.