human
I _wish_ Hadria would not be so reckless! cried Algitha anxiously.
gpt
Have you seen her lately?
human
When last I saw her, said Valeria,
gpt
There is safety in numbers, at any rate, but I am distressed about her. It is all very well what she says, about not allowing her woman's sole weapon to be wrenched from her, but she can't use it in this way, safely. One can't play with human emotions without coming to grief.
human
A man, at any rate, has no idea of being led an emotional dance,
gpt
Hadria has, I believe, at the bottom of her heart, a lurking desire to hurt men, because they have hurt women so terribly,
human
One can understand the impulse, but the worst of it is, that one is certain to pay back the score on the good man, and let the other go free.
gpt
Did Hadria never show this impulse before?
human
Never in my life have I seen her exercise her power so ruthlessly.
gpt
I rather think she is wise after all, said Miss Du Prel reflectively.
human
She might be sorry some day never to have tasted what she is tasting now.
gpt
But it seems to me dreadful. There is not a man who is not influenced by her in the strangest manner; even poor Joseph Fleming, who used to look up to her so. In my opinion, she is acting very wrongly.
human
Perhaps I should,
gpt
I don't say she is doing right, but you must remember that you have not the temperament that prompts to these outbursts. I suppose that is only to say that you are better than Hadria, by nature. I think perhaps you are, but remember you have had the life and the work that you chose above all others--she has not.
human
Heaven knows I don't set myself above Hadria, cried Algitha.
gpt
I have always looked up to her. Don't you know how painful it is when people you respect do things beneath them?
human
Hadria will disappoint us all in some particular, said Miss Du Prel.
gpt
She will not correspond exactly to anybody's theory or standard, not even her own. It is a defect which gives her character a quality of the unexpected, that has for me, infinite attraction.