human
You mustn't have just one ideal of woman, or you'll lose the art of painting the sweetest phases of womanhood,
gpt
Oh! if I have such excellent models as you make in that checked apron and dusting cap, I can do nobly.
human
Now, my dear, isn't there something I can do to help arrange the feast?
gpt
Yes, wash the grapes and open the jam while I cut the bread and pour the tea.
human
Quite a difference between our banquet of last night and this, isn't there?
gpt
I should remark there is, but after all, Grace, I believe I am quite content. As I was passing along at the foot of the hill this evening a momentary dissatisfaction came over me that I couldn't have a few advantages _like_ Mrs. Hayden's, not hers of course, but similar ones, with a smile at the distinction,
human
Very wise conclusion, Kate, that's just what I always say, and really who is there with whom we would care to exchange places? There are so many kinds of people and so many things for humanity to contend against, I don't know that I should want to change burdens with anyone.
gpt
Mrs. Dyke, for instance, would you not think yourself fortunate to be like her?
human
Oh, deliver me from that comparison! Why, she carries everybody's sins on her shoulders; I even heard she had taken Robert Elsmere to throw at the world!
gpt
But not his wife; she didn't read about her. Wasn't it too funny to hear her go on last night, and the way she looked at the minister to emphasize her position?
human
Yes, but how many there are like her--read just enough to know there are such and such characters and such and such incidents. Now of course she has heard the minister define Robert's crime, as he would call it I suppose, so she thinks she can use the whole argument,
gpt
Mrs. Hayden interposed just at the right time. I was glad she did, too. It seems she has considered Catherine's position and could speak a good word for her,
human
Well, if she calls her an ideal of wifely love, I don't admire the reality,
gpt
I got positively impatient, she continued,
human
But, Grace, she did what she thought was her religious duty, and it must have been hard for her to withdraw herself so completely when she loved him so much,
gpt
Do you call that love which would let him go tramping off alone, with not even a word of sympathy, and so afraid that her religion would be contaminated she could not even hear him preach? I don't pretend to be religious, but any religion stands on a poor foundation if it can be swept away by anybody's opinions.
human
It wasn't that; it was because she thought it was wrong to listen to heresy, as she supposed it was, and----
gpt
How did she know? Had she taken pains to find out? Did she study it carefully and have a reason for her cruel judgment?
human
Well, she was conscientious and was doing what she had been taught was right.
gpt
Kate, if there is anything that makes me out of patience with people it is when they hang all their actions on what somebody else says, and that excuse is simply barbarous in this case.
human
Remember that in religion one must follow what he thinks to be right, and Catherine Elsmere represents a large class of people; in fact, the majority of religious people.