human
I wish, he went on, with a slow, heavy calm,
gpt
Why I believe you hate us!
human
Why I really believe I do,
gpt
That's not the thing! You're not going to set the world right by hating the world. You're not going to make it right for some people by hating other people. What good thing can come of hate?
human
The greatest things have come of hate. Of a divine hate that transcends love.
gpt
Why no they haven't! The greatest things have come of love. What the world needs is more love. You can't bring love by hating.
human
What a lot of things you and I would find to talk about.
gpt
We must-- Katie began impetuously, but halted and flushed.
human
We must go on with our story,
gpt
I haven't any story, except just the story of that look. Though it holds the story of love and hate and a hundred other things you and I would disagree about. And I don't know that I can convey to you--you of the sunny paths--what the look conveyed to me. But imagine a crowd, a crazed crowd, all pushing to the center, and then in the center a face thrown back so you can see it for just an instant before it sinks to suffocation. If you can fancy that look--the last gasp for breath of one caught--squeezed--just going down--a hatred of the crowd that got her there, just to suffocate her--and perhaps one last wild look at the hills out beyond the crowd. If you can get _that_--that fear, suffocation, terror--and don't forget the hate--yet like the dog you've kicked that grieved--'How could you--when it was a pat I wanted!'--
human
I know it in the dog language,
gpt
Then imagine the dog crazed with thirst tied just out of reach of a leaping, dancing brook--
human
Oh--please. That's too plain.
gpt
It hurts when applied to dogs, does it?
human
But they're so helpless--and they love us so!
gpt
And _they're_ so helpless--and they hate because they weren't let love.
human
But surely there aren't many--such looks. Not many who feel they're--going down. Why such things couldn't _be_--in this beautiful world.
gpt
Such, he said smilingly,
human
You needn't talk to me like that! she retorted angrily.
gpt
I guess I saw the look as well as you did--and did a little more to banish it than you did, too.
human
True. I was just coming to that thing of my not having done anything. Perhaps it was a case of fools rushing in where angels feared to tread. You mustn't mind being called a fool in any sentence so preposterous as to call me an angel. You see one who had never been in the crowd would say--'Why don't you get out?' It would be droll, wouldn't it, to have some one on a far hill call--'But why don't you come over here?' Don't you see how that must appeal to the sense of humor of the one about to go down?
gpt
You see I've been in the crowd, he said more simply and less bitterly.
human
I don't suppose men who have been most burned to death ever say--'The fire can't hurt you.'
gpt
And do they never try to rescue others from fires? asked Katie scornfully.
human
Do they let them burn--just because they know fire for a dangerous thing?
gpt
Rescue them for what? More fires? It's a question whether it's very sane, or so very humane, either, to rescue a man from one fire just to have him on hand for another.
human
I don't think I ever in my life heard anything more farfetched, pronounced Katie.
gpt
How do you know there'll be another?
human
Because there are people for whom there's nothing else. If you can't offer a safe place, why rescue at all? Though it's true, he laughed,
gpt
There was a light in his eyes spoke for
human
I saw her making straight across the Island, he went back to his story.
gpt
I _knew_. And I knew that on the other side she might find things very conveniently arranged for her purpose. I turned the boat and went at its best speed around the head of the Island. Hugged the shore on your side. Pulled into a little cove. Waited.
human
I saw you sitting up there in the sun--on the bunker. Just having received the last will and testament, as it were, of this other human soul, can't you fancy how I hated you--sitting there so serenely in the sun?
gpt
But why hate me? she demanded passionately.
human
That's where you're small and unjust! I don't make the crazed crowds, do I?
gpt
Yes; that's just what you do. There'd be no crowds if it weren't for you. You take up too much room.
human
I don't see why you want to--hurt me like that, she said unevenly.
gpt
Don't you want me to enjoy my place any more? Will it do any good for me to get in the crowd? What can I do about it?
human
Do you want to know what I honestly think about you?
gpt
I think you're in for it!
human
In for what?
gpt
I don't think you've the ghost of a chance to escape!
human
Escape--what?
gpt
Seeing. And when you do--!