human
And while he has been lying here, said Isbister, with the zest of a life freely spent,
gpt
I have changed my plans in life; married, raised a family, my eldest lad--I hadn't begun to think of sons then--is an American citizen, and looking forward to leaving Harvard. There's a touch of grey in my hair. And this man, not a day older nor wiser (practically) than I was in my downy days. It's curious to think of.
human
And I have grown old too. I played cricket with him when I was still only a boy. And he looks a young man still. Yellow perhaps. But that _is_ a young man nevertheless.
gpt
And there's been the War,
human
From beginning to end.
gpt
And these Martians.
human
I've understood, said Isbister after a pause,
gpt
That is so, said Warming. He coughed primly.
human
As it happens--I have charge of it.
gpt
Ah! Isbister thought, hesitated and spoke:
human
No doubt--his keep here is not expensive--no doubt it will have improved--accumulated?
gpt
It has. He will wake up very much better off--if he wakes--than when he slept.
human
As a business man, said Isbister,
gpt
I doubt if he would have premeditated as much, said Warming.
human
He was not a far-sighted man. In fact--
gpt
Yes?
human
We differed on that point. I stood to him somewhat in the relation of a guardian. You have probably seen enough of affairs to recognise that occasionally a certain friction--. But even if that was the case, there is a doubt whether he will ever wake. This sleep exhausts slowly, but it exhausts. Apparently he is sliding slowly, very slowly and tediously, down a long slope, if you can understand me?
gpt
It will be a pity to lose his surprise. There's been a lot of change these twenty years. It's Rip Van Winkle come real.
human
There has been a lot of change certainly, said Warming.
gpt
And, among other changes, I have changed. I am an old man.
human
I shouldn't have thought it.
gpt
I was forty-three when his bankers--you remember you wired to his bankers--sent on to me.
human
I got their address from the cheque book in his pocket,
gpt
Well, the addition is not difficult,
human
He may go on for years yet, he said, and had a moment of hesitation.
gpt
We have to consider that. His affairs, you know, may fall some day into the hands of--someone else, you know.
human
That, if you will believe me, Mr. Isbister, is one of the problems most constantly before my mind. We happen to be--as a matter of fact, there are no very trustworthy connexions of ours. It is a grotesque and unprecedented position.
gpt
Rather,
human
It seems to me it's a case of some public body, some practically undying guardian. If he really is going on living--as the doctors, some of them, think. As a matter of fact, I have gone to one or two public men about it. But, so far, nothing has been done.
gpt
It wouldn't be a bad idea to hand him over to some public body--the British Museum Trustees, or the Royal College of Physicians. Sounds a bit odd, of course, but the whole situation is odd.
human
The difficulty is to induce them to take him.
gpt
Red tape, I suppose?
human
Partly.
gpt
It's a curious business, certainly, said Isbister.
human
And compound interest has a way of mounting up.
gpt
It has, said Warming.
human
And now the gold supplies are running short there is a tendency towards ... appreciation.
gpt
I've felt that, said Isbister with a grimace.
human
But it makes it better for _him_.
gpt
If he wakes, echoed Isbister.
human
Do you notice the pinched-in look of his nose, and the way in which his eyelids sink?
gpt
I doubt if he will wake,
human
I never properly understood, said Isbister,
gpt
He was a man of considerable gifts, but spasmodic, emotional. He had grave domestic troubles, divorced his wife, in fact, and it was as a relief from that, I think, that he took up politics of the rabid sort. He was a fanatical Radical--a Socialist--or typical Liberal, as they used to call themselves, of the advanced school. Energetic--flighty--undisciplined. Overwork upon a controversy did this for him. I remember the pamphlet he wrote--a curious production. Wild, whirling stuff. There were one or two prophecies. Some of them are already exploded, some of them are established facts. But for the most part to read such a thesis is to realise how full the world is of unanticipated things. He will have much to learn, much to unlearn, when he wakes. If ever a waking comes.
human
I'd give anything to be there, said Isbister,
gpt
So would I, said Warming.
human
Aye! so would I, with an old man's sudden turn to self pity.
gpt
But I shall never see him wake.
human
He will never awake, he said at last. He sighed.
gpt
He will never awake again.