human
Does this mean that you're through playing with me?
gpt
I have never played with you,
human
You have pretended to consider my offer of marriage.
gpt
I have considered it.
human
And your answer.
gpt
I can give you no answer--yet. I--You know I do not love you. But--
human
Marry me and I'll attend to the love, he said, grimly.
gpt
You suppose you are in love with that lunatic Waite.... Let me tell you that you may as well forget him first as last. If you were the last woman in the world, he would never marry you.
human
It wouldn't matter who or what I was, she said,
gpt
Potter Waite would marry me to-morrow. What do you know about it? You know nothing about such a man as Potter; you have no standards to judge him by.... He's real, he's honest. He loves me....
human
He's a fool.
gpt
Then you could profit by losing your wits, she said, sharply.
human
Suppose we omit Potter Waite from our talk. It gets us nowhere.
gpt
If you'll omit him from your thoughts--
human
If only I could.
gpt
You sent for me, he said, after a pause.
human
Why?
gpt
Because I'm tired of being shut up in a cage.
human
Suppose I refuse to take you out of it--without something more definite in the way of promises?
gpt
Then I'll stay shut up.... You may as well understand me one time as another. If I marry you I'll marry you when I'm ready, and not until I'm ready. I don't want to marry you. I don't want to marry anybody.... But there are limits to what one can endure. To marry you might be more endurable than not to marry you.... I've seen enough of life to realize that. I couldn't have realized it a year ago. I'm talking frankly to you, Mr. Cantor.
human
I agree with you,
gpt
You seem to think I am desirable as a wife. But you don't love me. You have your reasons for wanting me.
human
Undoubtedly.
gpt
Would you care to tell me what they are?
human
I like excitement, he said, with a grim laugh.
gpt
With you as my wife I would never have to seek it.
human
My father is wealthy. I have social position here.... I suppose, if we are to think about this as barter and sale, that you have something to offset that--besides your presence and--abilities.
gpt
I-- he began, and checked himself. He had been on the point of a disclosure, she knew, driven by vanity. He shrugged his shoulders.
human
You would not be the loser,
gpt
In case you ever leave America,
human
What do you mean?
gpt
In war-times, she said,
human
I have read that spies are shot.
gpt
You have that silly idea yet? Well, so long as you don't prattle about it, no harm is done.... And I'll see to it you don't prattle.
human
I've thought of offering to marry you if you would release my father. But that idea didn't appeal. I knew you wouldn't keep your promise ... so long as he was useful to you.
gpt
The American family system is a puzzle to me,
human
You arrange these things better--in Germany?
gpt
You would be impossible in Germany or France or Russia.
human
Yes, she said.
gpt
I am American.... That's the terrible truth. I'm American, and I have a traitor for a father and a spy of the enemy for a possible husband. Oh, she said, with a sudden flux of despair,
human
Anyhow, he said,
gpt
His eyes glowed as they rested upon her, perceiving her slender, ardent youth, the fire, the ability to live, the reckless charm of her.
human
Let it rest so. We will go on as before.