human
Why do you play with that silly thing?
gpt
This? She stroked the idol.
human
It is rather lovely, Father got it in Benares. The carving is very cunningly done. Look at the nose and mouth. The rank Hinduism of the thing amuses me. Perhaps it was cruel to bring it up here where there are no other gods for it to play with. But it's all I've got. They had to sell everything, you know. When I get stronger, I'll send it back to New York and sell it too.
gpt
Why did you keep it out of all the things you had?
human
I don't know. I think it was the first thing we ever bought in India. And I remember Benares with so much pleasure. Wasn't it a pity we couldn't have been there when everything happened?
gpt
Much better not, I should think. You needed surgeons.
human
Just what I didn't need! I should have liked to die in a country that had something to say for itself. I don't feel as though this place had ever existed, except in some hideous dream.
gpt
It's not hideous. It's even very beautiful--so wild and untouched; such lovely contours to the mountains.
human
Yes, it's very untouched. She spoke of it with just the same scorn I had in old days heard her use for certain novelists.
gpt
Scarcely worth the trouble of touching I should think--shouldn't you?
human
The beauty of it last night and this morning has knocked me over,
gpt
Oh, really! How very interesting!
human
You mean that you would like it landscape-gardened?