human
Why did you speak to me on the stairs last night? she asked, reproachfully, in another hastily-written note upon plain paper.
gpt
You imperil me at every moment. You may love me as fervently as you declare you do, but surely you should do nothing that may imperil my good name!
human
I cannot understand you. Our love has been a very foolish romance. Let us part and agree to forget it. I have been injudicious, and so have you. Let us agree to be friends, and I will, I assure you, do all I can for your interests in the future. Sometimes I think that Mason suspects. She may have seen you speak to me, or overheard you. She looks at me so very strangely sometimes, and I'm sure she watches me.
gpt
We are in deadly peril, both of us--but you more especially. E--knows the truth. Avoid him. He intends to betray you. I met J--in the Bois to-day, and he asked if you were in Paris. I pretended to be ignorant of your very existence, but he told me that E--had explained certain things, and he promised to keep my secret. I send you fifty pounds enclosed. Don't acknowledge it. Burn this letter.
human
You are right when you declared last night that I am very fond of Wilfrid Hughes. It is a pity, perhaps, that I did not marry him three years ago. If I had I should have been spared this awful anxiety and double life that I am now forced to lead. You say that I am giddy and heartless, thoughtless and reckless. Yes. I am all that, I admit. And yet I am only like many women who are seeking to forget. Some take morphia, others drink brandy, and I--well, I try and amuse myself as far as my remnant of a conscience will allow me. Ah! when I look back upon my quiet girlhood down at Ryhall I recollect how happy I was, how easily satisfied, how high were my ideals when I loved Wilfrid Hughes. And now? But will you not give me back my freedom? I ask, I beg, I implore of you to give me liberty--and save my life. You have always said that you loved me, therefore you surely will not continue this cruel persecution of a woman who is defenceless and powerless. I feel that your heart is too noble, and that when we meet to-morrow you will release me from my bond. Up to the present I have been able to close the lips of your enemies, yet how have you repaid me? But I do not reproach you. No. I only crave humbly at your feet.
gpt
If you are absolutely determined that I should see you then, I will keep your appointment. Recollect, however, that I have no fear of you. I have kept my mouth closed until to-day, and it will remain closed unless you compel me to open it.--S.