book_id
stringlengths 2
6
| title
stringclasses 1
value | author
stringclasses 1
value | conversations
listlengths 1
5.07k
|
|---|---|---|---|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "So! Jan grunted like a satisfied hog,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I feex _you_ like that in one meenute, me."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where's my dog? he demanded thickly through his swollen lips."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Where's Kerry? If he's dead--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Your dog's in bed with the baby, and Ma's give him milk with brandy in it, and he drank it and growled at her, and the boys is holding him down now to keep him from coming out to you, and he ain't much hurt nohow,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Get up, you crazy woman! snarled John Flint, his face going brick-red."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Stop licking my hand, and get up!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Here's Doctor Westmoreland! And here comes the po-lice!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What's all this? Who's been fighting here, you people? demanded the town marshal's brisk voice."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Big Jan? And--good Lord! _Mister Flint!_"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'm sure sorry, Mr. Flint, if I have to give you a little trouble for awhile, but--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But you'll be considerably sorrier if you do it, said Dr. Walter Westmoreland savagely."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You take that hulk over there to the jail, until I have time to see him. I can't have him sent home to his wife in that shape. And look here, Marshal: Jan got exactly what he deserved; it's been coming to him this long time. If Inglesby's bunch tries to take a hand in this, _I'll_ try to make Appleboro too hot to hold somebody. Understand?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "All right, Doctor, said he, hastily backing off."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I reckon you're man enough to handle this."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, you _man_, you! crowed Westmoreland."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "John, John, if anything were needed to make me love you, this would clinch it! Prying open nature's fist, John, having butterflies bear your name, working hand in glove with your government, boosting boys, writing books, are all of them fine big grand things. But if along with them one's man enough to stand up, John, with the odds against him, and punish a bully and a scoundrel, the only way a bully and a scoundrel can feel punishment, that's a heart-stirring thing, John! It gets to the core of my heart. It isn't so much the fight itself, it's being able to take care of oneself and others when one has to. Yes, yes, yes. A fight like that is worth a million dollars to the man who wins it!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Gad, suh, he behaved like one of Stonewall Jackson's men! said Major Cartwright, pridefully."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No yellow in _him_; he's one of _us_!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I just come by and see how you make to feel, Meester."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, I feel fine, Joe, thank you."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Baby better now?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That beeg doctor, he oil heem an' make heem well all right."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I mebbe go now, Meester."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Good-night,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Those cheeldren, they make to get you the leetle bug. You mebbe like that, Meester, yes? They make to get you plenty much bug, those cheeldren. We _all_ make to get you the bug, Meester, thank you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That's mighty nice of you folks."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hell, no. We _like_ to do that for you, Meester. Thank you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "They don't need to be so allfired grateful, said John Flint frankly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Parson, I'm the guy to be grateful. I got a whole heap more out of that shindy than a black eye and a pretty mouth. I was bluemolding for a man-tussle, and that scrap set me up again. You see--I wasn't sure of myself any more, and it was souring on my stomach. Now I know I haven't lost out, I feel like a white man. Yep, it gives a fellow the holiday-heart to be dead sure he's plenty able to use his fists if he's got to. Westmoreland's right about that."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Here, said he one morning."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ask Madame to give this to Jan's wife. And say, beg her for heaven's sake to buy some salve for her eyelids, will you?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This was a small roll of bills."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I owe it to Jan,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Cheer up! urged Laurence, who was watching this turn of affairs with unfeeling mirth."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The worst is yet to come. These are only the chickens: wait until the hens get on your trail!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Flint, said Mary Virginia one afternoon, rubbing salt into his smarting wounds,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mr. Flint, I am so glad all the girls like you so much. You fascinate them. They say you are such a profoundly clever and interesting man, Mr. Flint! Why, some of those girls are perfectly demented about you!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Demented, said he, darkly,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I feel like making the greatest sort of a fuss about you myself, she said honestly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Anyhow, I'm mighty glad girls like you. It's a good sign."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If they do--though God knows I can't see why--I'm obliged to them, seeing it pleases _you_! said Flint, without, however, showing much gratitude in eyes or voice."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "To tell you the truth, it looks to me at times as if they were wished on me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If I could only make any of them understand anything! said the Butterfly Man desperately,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Bugs! said he, inelegantly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's what's intended to get you, you old duffer!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mr. Flint, said Mary Virginia, with dancing eyes."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don't blame those girls one single solitary bit for wanting to know all about--butterflies."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But they don't want to know, I tell you!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My dear creature, I'd be stuck on you myself if I were a girl, said Laurence sweetly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Padre, prepare yourself to say, 'Bless you, my children!' I see this innocent's finish."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now you're married you must obey, You must be true to all you say, Live together all your life--"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't mind Laurence and me, we're a pair of sillies. You and the Padre are too good to put up with us the way you do, she said, coaxingly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And--we girls do like you, Mr. Flint, whether we're wished on you or not."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's better than I deserve, he said, gently enough."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And it isn't I'm not grateful to the rest of them for liking me,--if they do. It's that I want to box their ears when they pretend to like my insects, and don't."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Being a gentleman has its drawbacks,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Believe _me_! he spoke with great feeling."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's nothing short of doing a life-stretch!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What I came over to tell you, is that Madame says you're to stay home this evening, Mr. Flint, said Mary Virginia, comfortably."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'm spending the night with Madame, you're to know, and we're planning a nice folksy informal sort of a time; and you're to be home."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Orders from headquarters,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "All right,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I've got to get back to the office--mean case I'm working on, complained Laurence."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mary Virginia, walk a little way with me, won't you? Do, child! It will sweeten all my afternoon and make my work easier."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You haven't grown up a bit--thank goodness!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mrs. Eustis, he remarked,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, naturally, Mrs. Eustis would like to see the child well settled in life,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, you don't have to be a Christian _all_ the time, said he calmly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I know Mrs. Eustis, too. She talked to me for an hour and a half without stopping, one night last week. See here, parson: Inglesby's got a roll that outweighs his record. Suppose he wants to settle down and reform--with a young wife to help him do it--wouldn't it be a real Christian job to lady's-aid him?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Now there's Laurence, went on the Butterfly Man, speculatively."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Laurence is making plenty of trouble, but not so much money. No, Mrs. Eustis wouldn't faint at the notion of Inglesby, but she'd keel over like a perfect lady at the bare thought of Laurence."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't see, said I, crossly,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That didn't keep either of them from growing up a man and a woman. Looks to me as if they were beginning to find it out, parson."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It would be ideal,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Her mother wouldn't agree with you, though her father might,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ever had a hunch?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A presentiment, you mean?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No; a hunch. Well, I've got one. I've got a hunch there's trouble ahead for that girl."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, if there should be,--here are you and I to stand by."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sure, said he, laconically,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Are you writing something new? Have you found another butterfly?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Because, said Dabney,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Whenever a real teacher appears, always the common people hear him gladly,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Only, said Mary Virginia, quickly,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mary Virginia, said he, eagerly and huskily and passionately and timidly and hopefully and despairingly,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mary Virginia, are you going to marry anybody?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, yes, I hope I am, said she lightly enough, but one saw she had been startled."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What a funny boy you are, Laurence, to be sure! You don't expect me to remain a spinster, do you?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are going to be married?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I most certainly am! said Mary Virginia stoutly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, I confided _that_ to you years and years and years ago! Don't you remember I always insisted he should have golden hair, and sea-blue eyes, and a classic brow, and a beautiful willingness to go away somewhere and die of a broken heart if I ordered him to?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Who is it?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Who is who?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The chap you're going to marry?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Laurence, said she."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'm going to tell you the truth. The truth is, Laurence, that I simply hate to have to tell you the truth."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mary Virginia! he stammered wretchedly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You hate to have to tell _me_ the truth? Oh, my dear, why? Why?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Because."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But because why?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Because, said the dear hussy, demurely,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't know."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mary Virginia!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's really none of your business, you know, she explained sweetly;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No: it makes you miserable,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But I'm not miserable at all!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You're not, because you don't have to be. But I am!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You? Why, Laurence! Why should _you_ be miserable? Her voice lost its blithe lightness; it was a little faint. She said hastily, without waiting for his reply:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I guess I'd better run in. It was silly of me to walk to the gate with you at this hour. I think Madame's calling me. Goodnight, Laurence."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mary Virginia, I reckon you're just about the most beautiful girl in the world. You've been run after and courted and flattered and followed until it was enough to turn any girl's head, and it would have turned any girl's head but yours. You could say to almost any man alive, Come, and he'd come--oh, yes, he'd come quick. You've got the earth to pick and choose from--but I'm asking you to pick and choose _me_. I haven't got as much to offer you as I shall have some of these days, but I've got me myself, body and brain and heart and soul, sound to the core, and all of me yours, and I think that counts most, if you care as I do. Mary Virginia, will you marry me?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, but, Laurence! Why--Laurence--I--indeed, I didn't know--I didn't think-- stammered the girl."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "At least, I didn't dream you cared--like that."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Didn't you? Well, all I can say is, you've been mighty blind, then. For I do care. I guess I've always cared like that, only, somehow, it's taken this one short winter to drive home what I'd been learning all my life? said he, soberly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I reckon I've been just like other fool-boys, Mary Virginia. That is, I spooned a bit around every good looking girl I ran up against, but I soon found out it wasn't the real thing, and I quit. Something in me knew all along I belonged to somebody else. To you. I believe now--Mary Virginia, I believe with all my heart--that I cared for you when you were squalling in your cradle."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh! ... Did I squall, really?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It was very, very noble of you to mind me--under the circumstances,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Believe me, it was, agreed Laurence."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I didn't know it, of course, but even at that tender age my fate was upon me, for I _liked_ to mind you. Even the bawling didn't daunt me, and I adored you when you resembled a squab. Yes, I was in love with you then. I'm in love with you now. My girl, my own girl, I'll go out of this world and into the next one loving you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Then why, she asked reproachfully,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why haven't I said what?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, you know. That you--loved me, Laurence."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good Lord, haven't I been saying it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, you haven't! You've been merely asking me to marry you. But you haven't said a word about loving me, until this very minute!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But you must know perfectly well that I'm crazy about you, Mary Virginia! said the boy, and his voice trembled with bewilderment as well as passion."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How in heaven's name could I help being crazy about you? Why, from the beginning of things, there's never been anybody else, but just you. I never even pretended to care for anybody else. No, there's nobody but you. Not for me. You're everything and all, where I'm concerned. And--please, please look up, beautiful, and tell me the truth: look at me, Mary Virginia!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do I really mean that to you, Laurence? All that, really and truly?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes! And more. And more!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll be the unhappiest girl in the world: I'll be the most miserable woman alive--if you ever change your mind, Laurence,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You care? asked the boy, almost breathlessly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mary Virginia, you care?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Laurence! said Mary Virginia, with a tremulous, half-tearful laugh,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Laurence, it's taken this one short winter to teach me, too. And--you were mistaken, utterly mistaken about those symptoms of mine. It wasn't tummy, Laurence. And it wasn't temper. I think--I am sure--that what I was trying so hard to squall to you in my cradle was--that I cared, Laurence."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Armand, said my mother, sleepily,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My goodness, said she, half an hour later."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What on earth can that child mean? Hadn't you better call her in, Armand?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Padre, and p'tite Madame, began Laurence,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And we thought you ought to know,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My children! cried my mother, ecstatically,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But it's a great secret: it's not to be _breathed_, yet,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Except, of course, my father--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And the Butterfly Man,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "As for me, said my mother, gloriously reckless,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I shall open one of the two bottles of our great-grandfather's wine! The last time that wine had been opened was the day I was ordained."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Armand, go and bring John Flint."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Are you hurt? sick? John, John, my son, what is it? What is it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, no, I'm all right. I--was just a little shaky for the minute. There, there, don't you be scared, father."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My son, my dear son, what is wrong with you?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, I've been a little off my feed of late, father, that's all. See, I'm perfectly all right, now."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My mother wanted you to come over for a few minutes, there's something you're to know. But if you don't feel well enough--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Maybe I know it already. However, I'm quite able to walk over and hear--anything I'm to be told,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is to our great, great happiness we wish you to drink, old friend,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You'll understand, said the Butterfly Man,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Parson, he asked, abruptly,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We all want to know that, John Flint. And the West says Yes, and the East, No."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I've been reading a bit, said he, slowly and thoughtfully."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I wanted to hear what both sides had to say. Paul is pretty plain, on his side of the fence. But, parson, some chaps that talk as if they knew quite as much as Paul does, say you don't get anything in this universe for nothing; you have to pay for what you get. As near as I can figure it out, you land here with a chance to earn yourself. You can quit or you can go on--it's all up to you. If you're a sport and play the game straight, why, you stand to win yourself a water-tight fire-proof soul. Because, you see, you've earned and paid for it, parson. That sounded like good sense to me. Looked to me as if I was sort of doing it myself. But when I began to go deeper into the thing, why, I got stuck. For I can't deny I'd been doing it more because I had to than because I wanted to. But--which-ever way it is, I'm paying! Oh, yes, I'm paying!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah, but so is everybody else, my son, said I, sadly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't know, said he."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's where I'm stuck. Is the whole show a skin game or is it worth while? But, parson, whatever it is, you pay a hell of a price when you buy yourself on the instalment plan, believe me! his voice broke, as if on a suppressed groan."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If I could get it over and done with, pay for my damned little soul in one big gob, I wouldn't mind. But to have to buy what I'm buying, to have to pay what I'm paying--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are ill, said I, deeply concerned."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I was afraid of this."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sure I'm sick. I'm sick to the core of me, but you and Westmoreland can't dose me. Nobody can do anything for me, I have to do it myself or go under. That's part of paying on the instalment plan, too, parson."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't think I exactly understand--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, you wouldn't. _You_ paid in a lump sum, you see. And you got what you got. Whatever it was that got _you_, parson, got the best of the bargain."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are talking in parables,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But I'm not paying in parables, parson. I'm paying in _me_,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I--can't always can the squeal,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If only I could help you!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You do, said he, quickly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You do, by being you. I hang on to you, parson. And say, look here! Don't you think I'm such a hog I can't find time to be glad other folks are happy even if I'm not. If there's one thing that could make me feel any sort of way good, it's to know those two who were made for each other have found it out. It sort of makes it look as if some things do come right, even if others are rotten wrong. I'm glad till it hurts me. I'd like you to believe that."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I do believe it. And, my son! if you can find time to be glad of others' happiness, without envy, why, you're bound to come right, because you're sound at the core."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You reckon I'm worth my price, then, parson?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I reckon you're worth your price, whatever it is. I don't worry about you, John Flint."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The Lord hath given, the Lord hath taken away"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There must be, said the Doctor, as if to himself,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But when all is said and done, he muttered,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There is nothing to do but leave that everlasting Why to God,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Parson, said he, grimly,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "--and he looked at his small friend with her doll on her arm--"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She looks up with that quick smile o' her'n. Yes, suh, Mr. Flint, she ups and smiles. 'You don't belong to be sorry any, ma,' says she, comfortin'. 'Don't you mind none at all. Why, ma, darlin', _I just love naked bread without no butter on it_!' says she. My God, Mr. Flint, I bust out a-cryin' in her face. Seemed like I natchelly couldn't stand no mo'!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When all the rest of 'em had went, her pa he sort o' sot his heart on Louisa here. 'For we ain't got nothin' else, ma,' says he. 'An' please the good Lord, we're a-goin' to give this one book-learnin' an' sich, an' so be she'll miss them mills,' he says. 'Ma, less us aim to make a lady o' our Louisa. Not that the Lord ain't done it a'ready,' says her pa, 'but we got to he'p Him keep on an' finish the job thorough.' An' here's him an' her both gone, an' me without a God's soul belongin' to me this day! My God, Mr. Flint, ain't it something turrible the things happens to us pore folks?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It ain't I ain't grateful to you-all, said she."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "God knows I be. You was good to Louisa. Doctor, you remember that day you give her a ride in your ottermobile an' forgot to bring her home for more 'n a hour? My, but that child was happy!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "she drawled,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "From the first day you give her that doll, Mr. Flint--which she named Loujaney, for her an' me both--that child ain't been parted from it."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Flint, suh, seein' Louisa liked you so much, an' it's you she'd want to have it--"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Flint, suh, _I_ ain't got a God's thing any more to wish for, but you bein' the sort o' man you are, I'd rather 'twas you had Louisa's wishin' curl, to remember her by."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I ain't got nothin' else,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My God! he choked."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My--God!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Father, said he, earnestly,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And he gripped me heartily with his big gloved hand."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Tell John Flint, he added,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Angels, John Flint had said more than once,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't apologize, Padre, said Mary Virginia, for it was she."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It was my fault--I wasn't looking where I was going."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Are you by any chance bound for the Parish House? Because my mother will be on her way to a poor thing that's just lost her only child. Where have you been these past weeks? I haven't seen you for ages."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, I've been rather busy, too, Padre. And I haven't been quite well--"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Parson, the Butterfly Man asked me that night,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I saw her to-day."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I saw her to-day, too. She looked worried. She hasn't been here lately, has she?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No. She hasn't been feeling well. I hear Mrs. Eustis has been very outspoken about the engagement, and I suppose that's what worries Mary Virginia."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don't think so. She knew she had to go up against that, from the first. She's more than a match for her mother. There's something else. Didn't I tell you I had a hunch there was going to be trouble? Well, I've got a hunch it's here."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Nonsense!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I know, said he, stubbornly. And he added, irrelevantly:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's generally known, parson, that Eustis will be nominated. Inglesby's managed to gain considerable ground, thanks to Hunter, and folks say if it wasn't for Eustis he'd win. As it is, he'll be swamped. I hear he was thunderstruck when he got wind of what Mayne was going to play against him--for he knows Laurence brought Eustis out. Inglesby's mighty sore. He's the sort that hates to have to admit he can't get what he wants."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Then he'd better save himself the trouble of having to put it to the test,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'm wondering, said John Flint."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wish I hadn't got that hunch!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Padre, said he by way of greeting,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, except for a chance meeting one morning on the street. But she has been sending me help right along, bless her."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Has Madame heard anything from her, Padre?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, I don't think so. But we've been frightfully busy of late, you understand."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, neither of you know, said Laurence, in a low voice."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You wouldn't know. Padre, I--don't look at me like that, please; I'm not ill. But, without reason--swear to you before God, without any reason whatever, that I can conjure up--she has thrown me over, jilted me--Mary Virginia, Padre! And I'm to forget her. _I'm to forget her, you understand?_ Because she can't marry me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now tell me, said I,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wanted to know why. I was within my rights in asking that, was I not? And she wouldn't let me get close to her, Padre. She waved me away. I got out of her that there were reasons: no, she wouldn't say what those reasons were; but there were reasons. Her reasons, of course. When I began to talk, to plead with her, she begged me not to make things harder for her, but to be generous and go away. She just couldn't marry me, didn't I understand? So I must release her."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And you said--?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, Laurence, be generous and spare me the torment of questions. So far you have not reproached me; spare me that, too! Don't you understand? I cannot marry you. Accept the inevitable as I do. Forgive me and forget me. M.V.E."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If _she's_ a liar and a jilt, who and what am I to believe? Why should she do it, Padre--to me that love her? Oh, my God, think of it: to be betrayed by the best beloved! No, I can't think it. This isn't just any light girl: this is Mary Virginia!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Here I come like a whining kid, Padre, said he, remorsefully,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I shouldn't be able to forgive you if you didn't come,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Didn't I hear Laurence talking?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What's wrong with her?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What do you make of it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Trouble, said he, curtly; and he asked, reproachfully,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't you know her, both of you, by this time?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I know, said Laurence,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Because she wants to, or because she thinks she has to?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why should she do so unless it pleased her?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, she's _herself!_ A girl like her couldn't play anybody false because there's no falseness in her to do it with. What are you going to do about it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There is nothing to do, said Laurence,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Release her? I'd hang on till hell froze over and caught me in the ice! I'd wait. I'd write and tell her she didn't need to make herself unhappy about me, I was unhappy enough about her for the two of us, because she didn't trust me enough to tell me what her trouble was, so I could help her. That first and always I was her friend, right here, whenever she needed me and whatever she needed me for. And I'd stand by. What else is a man good for?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I believe, said I,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There isn't any question of my being faithful to her, Padre. And I couldn't make myself believe that she's less so than I. What Flint says tallies with my own intuition. I'll write her to-night. He laid his hand on John Flint's arm."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You're all right, Bughunter, said he, earnestly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do you think, said John Flint, when he had rejected every conjecture his mind presented as the possible cause of Mary Virginia's action,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think, said I,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's what I'm wondering. Well, then, who is it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Perhaps, said I, unwillingly,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Forget it! She's not that sort."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "She is a woman."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ain't it the truth, though? he jeered."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What a peach of a reason for not acting like herself, looking like herself, being like herself! She's a woman! So are all the rest of the folks that weren't born men, if you'll notice. They're women; we're men: and both of us are people. Get it?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I get it, said I, annoyed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Your attitude, John Flint, is a vulgar platitude. And permit me to--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll permit you to do anything except get cross, said he, quickly. The ghost of a smile touched his face."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Being bad-tempered, parson, suits you just about as well as plaid pants and a Hello Bill button."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am a human being,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And I'm another. And so is Mary Virginia. And there we are, parson. I'm troubled. I don't like the looks of things. It's no use telling myself this is none of my business; it is very much my business. You remember ... when I came here ... he hesitated, for this is a subject we do not like to discuss,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But, said I, perplexed,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I see there's something wrong,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Perhaps. But that doesn't give one the right to pry into something she evidently doesn't wish to reveal,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I suppose, said he, heavily,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I quarreled with her, argued with her, pleaded with her. I cried and cried. But she's James Eustis to the life--you might as well try to move the Rock of Gibraltar. Then one morning she came to my room and told me she found she couldn't marry Laurence! And she had already told him so, and broken her engagement, and I wasn't to ask her any questions. I didn't. I was too glad."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And--Laurence--?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Laurence? Laurence is a _man_. Men get over that sort of thing. I've known a man to be perfectly mad over his wife--and marry, six months after her death. They're like that. They always get over it. It's their nature."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Let us hope, then, for Laurence's peace of mind, said my mother,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He is a very fine boy. I always liked him myself and James adores him. If I had two or three daughters, I'd be willing to let one of them marry Laurence--after awhile. But having only one I must say I want her to do better."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I see,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And yet, Armand, although I condemn it, I can quite appreciate Mrs. Eustis's point of view. I was somewhat like that myself, once upon a time."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You? Never!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah, but you never offered me a daughter-in-law I did not relish. It was much easier for me to bear the Church!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Purely Original Verse of James Gordon Coogler,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Look at this. He laid his finger on a verse of the nineteenth:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Some of us are the life-everlasting kind, the kind that used to make old man Solomon wall his eyes and throw fits and then get busy and hatch out proverbs with stings in their tails. A lot of us are half-the-day fools; and all the rest are fools for a little while. There's nobody born that hasn't got his times and seasons for being a fool for a while. But that's the sort of simple the testimony slams some sense into. Like _me_,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The Relation of Insect Life to Human Society,' I read,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "By John Flint and Rev. Armand Jean De Rancé. With notes and drawings by Father De Rancé."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You suggested it more than once, said John Flint."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Off and on, these two years, I've been working on it. All the notes I particularly asked you for were for this. Mighty fine and acute notes they are, too--you'd never have been willing to do it if you'd known they were for publication--I know you. And I saved the drawings. I'm vain of those illustrations. Abbot's weren't in it, next to yours."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do you like it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am most horribly proud of it,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sure, parson? Hand on your heart?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sure. Hand on my heart."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "All right, then,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Here's your share of the loot,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But nothing. Blow it in. Say, I'm curious. What are you going to do with yours?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What are you going to do with yours?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I figure it, parson, that by way of that rag-doll I'm kin to Louisa's ma. As near as I can get to it, Louisa's ma's my widow. It's a devil of a responsibility for a live man to have a widow. It worries him. Just to get her off my mind I'm going to invest my share of this book for her. She'll at least be sure of a roof and fire and shoes and clothes and bread with butter on it and staying home sometimes. She'll have to work, of course; anyway you looked at it, it wouldn't be right to take work away from her. She'll work, then; but she won't be worked. Louisa's managed to pull something out of her wishin' curl for her ma, after all. I'm sure I hope they'll let the child know."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "As a matter of fact, parson, he explained,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And all this, said I,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But what else could I do? he wondered,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Now what are you going to do with yours?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You want to know what I am going to do with mine? said I, airily."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well; as for me, the very first thing I am going to do is to purchase, in perpetuity, a fine new lamp for St. Stanislaus!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's not tainted money, said the major,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And did you see how they fell for him? rejoiced the Butterfly Man, afterward."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "From the kid in a middy up to the great old girl with three chins and a prow like an ocean liner, they were with him. When you're in dead earnest, can the ladies; just go after women as women and they're with you every time. They know."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, then, said Laurence, smiling,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And louder:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The Butterfly Man!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You! Appleboro County settled back with rustles of satisfaction."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Speech! Speech!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, marmar, look! It's the Butterfly Man, marmar!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A-a-h! Talk weeth us, Meester Fleent! For the first time a"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Instead of having to listen to me you'd better just look at this, said the Butterfly Man."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Because this can talk louder and say more in a minute than I could between now and Judgment. And he held out Louisa's dear fair whimsy of a curl; the sort of curl mothers tuck behind a rosy ear of nights, and fathers lean to and kiss."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "said the Butterfly Man."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The best I can do is just to wish for the children all that Louisa pretended to pull out of her wishin' curl--and never got. I wish on it that all the kids get a square deal--their chance to grow and play and be healthy and happy and make good. And I wish again, said the Butterfly Man, looking at his hearers with his steady eyes,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wish that you folks, every God-blessed one of you, will help to make that wish come true, so far as lies in your power, from now until you die!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You'd think being chivalrous would be enough for him, wouldn't you? continued the Butterfly Man, bitterly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Nix! What's he been working the heavy charity lay for, except that it's his turn to be a misunderstood Christian? Doesn't charity cover a multitude of skins, though? And doesn't it beat a jimmy when it comes to breaking into society!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Would you better accept it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I can't afford not to, said he resolutely."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The time's come for me to get out in the open, and I might just as well face the music, and Do it Now. Risks? I hardly think so. I never hunted in couples, remember--I always went by my lonesome and got away with it. Besides, who's remembering Slippy? Nobody. He's drowned and dead and done with. But, however, and nevertheless, and because, I shall go."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The pipe-dreams I've had about slipping back into little old New York! But if anybody had told me I'd go back like I'm going, with the sort of folks waiting for me that will be waiting now, I'd have passed it up. Well, you never can tell, can you? And in a way it's funny--now isn't it?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, you never can tell, said I, soberly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But I do not think it at all funny. Quite the contrary."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't you get cold feet, parson, he counseled kindly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Be a sport! Besides, it's all in the Game, you know."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sure!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And worth while, John?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Believe me! It's the worthwhilest thing under the sun to sit in the Game, with a sport's interest in the hands dealt out, taking yours as it comes to you, bluffing all you can when you've got to, playing your cards for all they're worth when it's your turn. No reneging. No squealing when you lose. No boasting how you did it when you win. There's nothing in the whole universe so intensely and immensely worth while as being _you_ and alive, with yourself the whole kitty and the sky your limit! It's one great old Game, and I'm for thanking the Big Dealer that I'da whack at playing it."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And you are really willing to--to stake yourself now, my son?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Lord, parson, you ought to know! And you a dead ringer for the real thing in a classy sport yourself!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My _dear_ son--!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Would _you_ back down if this was your call? Why, you're the sort that would tackle the biggest noise in the ring, even if you knew you'd be dragged out on your pantry in the first half of the first round, if you thought you'd got holy orders to do it! If you saw me getting jellyfish of the spine now, you'd curl up and die--wouldn't you, honest Injun?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, I admitted cautiously,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You're willing for me to go, then?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You'd go anyhow, would you not?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Forget it! said he roughly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If you think I'd do anything I knew would cause you uneasiness, you've got another thing coming to you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, go, for heaven's sake!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Suppose I say that after they've run everything down to that plasma they're so fond of beginning and ending with, there is still something behind it all their theories can't explain away? Protoplasm doesn't explain Life any more than the battery explains electricity. Instinct? Evolution? The survival of the fittest? Well, nothing is tagged for fair, and I'm more than willing to be shown. For the more I find out from the living things themselves,--you can't get truth from death, you've got to get it from life--the more self-evident it seems to me that to exist at all insects must have arrived on the scene complete, handfinished, with the union label of the Great Workshop on them by way of a trade-mark."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, one God, world without end, Amen!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wish I _knew_, said he, wistfully."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You're satisfied to believe, but I have got to know. Oh, great Power behind Things, I want to know! I want to _know_!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I declare to goodness, I don't know what to believe any more! She's got money enough in her own right, hasn't she? For heaven's sake, then, why should she marry for more money? But you never really know people, do you? Why, folks say--"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Get up! said he in an intense whisper."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And come. Come!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, what in the name of heaven--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Don't make a row! he snarled, and brought his face close."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Here--let me help you. Heaven, man, how slow you are!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Easy there--careful of that step!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But what is the matter?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "In my rooms,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Padre, Padre!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She'll be able to talk to you in a few minutes now, parson. He was so perfectly unconscious of himself that he had no idea he had just made mute confession. He added, doubtfully:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "She said she had to come to you, about something--I don't know what. It's up to you to find out--she's got to talk to you, parson."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But--I wanted to talk to you, Padre. That's why I--ran away from home in the middle of the night. She sat suddenly erect."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I just couldn't stand things, any more--by myself--"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I shall leave you with the Padre now, he said evenly,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, don't have too much consideration for my feelings, Mr. Flint! said she, with that oblique and baffling glance, and the smile Old Fitz once likened to the Curve in the Cat's Tail."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Indeed, why should you go? Why don't you stay and find out _why_ I wanted to run to the Padre--to beg him to find some way to help me, since I can't fall like a plum into Mr. Inglesby's hand when Mr. Hunter shakes the Eustis family tree!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Parson! You hear? he slapped his leg with his open palm."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, I knew it, I knew it!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I knew all along it was never in you to be anything but true!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "WILL YOU WALK INTO MY PARLOR"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Here, said she gaily, indicating with a wave of her hand her sulky-eyed young cousin,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You provoke me. You try my patience too much! she was saying, in a tone of suppressed anger."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "People are beginning to say that you have a serious affair with that sugar-candy chit. I want to know if that is true?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You're so suspicious, Evie! he said smilingly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why bother about what can give you no real concern? Why discuss it here, at all? It's not the thing, really."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I will know, and I will know now. I have to know, said she, and her voice shook. Mary Virginia would have coughed then, would have made her presence known had she been able; but something held her silent."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Remember, you're not dealing with a love-sick school-girl now, Howard: you are dealing with _me_. Have you made that little fool think you're in love with her?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, and what then? he asked coolly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I like the child. Of course she is without form and void as yet, but there's quite a lot to that girl."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, yes! Quite a lot! said she, with sarcasm."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That's what made me take notice. James Eustis's girl--and barrels of money. She'll be a catch. You are clever, Howard! But what of _me_?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, well, there's nothing definite yet, Evie, said he soothingly. A hint of impatience was betrayed in his voice. Plainly, it irked him to be held up and questioned point-blank, at such a time and place. Just as plainly, he wished to conciliate his jealous questioner."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My dear girl, it would be all of two or three years before the affair could be considered. Let well enough alone, Evie. Let's talk about something else."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No. We will talk about this. You are offering me a two or three years' reprieve, are you not? Well, and then?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, and then suppose I do marry the little thing,--if she hasn't changed her little mind? said he, exasperated into punishing her."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It wouldn't be a bad thing for me, remember, and she's temptingly easy to deal with--that girl has more faith than the twelve apostles. Heavens, Evie, don't look like that! My dearest girl, _you_ don't have to worry, anyhow. If your--er--impediment hasn't stood in my way, why should mine in yours?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Come into the conservatory."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I was on the stairs. I heard you--and that woman, said she with the directness that was sometimes so appalling."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And I _know_."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I hate to have to say it--but the lady is jealous,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, she need not be afraid--of me! said the girl, with white-hot scorn."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'd rather die by inches of leprosy than belong to you now. You are clever, though. And I _was_ easy to deal with, wasn't I? And I cared so much! I dare say it was really your hair and beard, but I honestly thought you a sort of Archangel! Well, you're not. You're not anything I thought you--not good nor kind nor honorable nor truthful--not anything but just a rather paltry sort of liar. You're not even loyal to _her_. I think I could respect you more if you were. But I _am_ James Eustis's girl--and that's my salvation, Mr. Hunter. Please take your letters. You will send me back mine to-morrow."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, you game little angel! he said delightedly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Gad, I never thought you had it in you--never. I begin to adore you, Mary Virginia, upon my soul I do! Now listen to reason, my too-good child, and don't be so puritanical. You've got to take folks as they are and not as you'd like them to be, you know. Men are not angels, no, nor women, either. You must learn to be charitable--a virtue very good people seldom practice and never properly appreciate. And he added, leaning lower:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mary Virginia! Give me another chance ... you won't be sorry, Ladybird."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Very unsafe thing to do, Hunter. Very."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wonder, he questioned,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Miss Eustis-- he paused to bow and smile to some passing girls who plainly envied Mary Virginia,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Miss Eustis, you must come to my office, say to-morrow afternoon. We must have a heart-to-heart talk. I have something you will find it to your interest to discuss with me."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do you know, he smiled,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Instead of wasting time in idle persiflage, he said when he had handed her a chair,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The whirligig of time does bring in its revenges, doesn't it?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I do not follow you, she said coldly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am not even sure you have the letters--that is why I am here. I must see them with my own eyes before I agree to pay for them. That is what you expect me to do, is it not?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "As to his ever persuading you to become Mrs. Inglesby, without some--ah--moral suasion, why, you know what his chance would be better than I do. As to his persuading the state to send him to Washington, it would have been a certainty, a sure thing, if our zealous young friend Mayne hadn't egged your father into the game. How Mayne managed that, heaven knows, particularly with your father's affairs in the condition they are. Now, Eustis is a fine man. Far too fine to be lost in the shuffle at Washington, where he'd be a condemned nuisance--just as he sometimes is here at home. Do you begin to comprehend?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, no, said she, blankly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And I certainly fail to see where my silly letters--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Let me make it plainer. You and your silly letters put the game into Mr. Inglesby's hands, swing the balance in his favor. _You_ pay _me_? Heavens, no! _We_ pay _you_--and a thumping price at that!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My dear Miss Eustis, he put the tips of his fine fingers together, bent forward over them, and favored her with a white-toothed smile,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am no longer seventeen, Mr. Hunter. What, do you honestly think you can frighten a grown woman into believing that a handful of silly letters could possibly be worth all that? Well, you can't. And--let me remind you that blackmailing women isn't smiled upon in Carolina. A hint of this and you'd be ostracized."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "So would you. And why use such an extreme term as blackmailing for what really is a very fair offer? said he, equably."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The letters are not the only arrows in my quiver, Miss Eustis. But as you are more interested in them than anything else just now, suppose we run over a few, just to remind you of their amazing nature?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well? said the lazy, pleasant voice,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I must have been stark mad! said she, twisting her fingers."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How could I ever have done it? Oh, how?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, we all have our moments of genius!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If my father--or Mr. Mayne--knew this, you would undoubtedly be shot!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Unwritten law, chivalry, all the rest of that rot? I am well aware that the Southern trigger-finger is none too steady, where lovely woman is concerned, he admitted, with a faint sneer."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But when one plays for high stakes, Miss Eustis, one runs the risks. Granted I do get shot? That wouldn't give you the letters: it would simply hand them over to prosecuting attorneys and the public press, and they'd be damning with blood upon them. No, I don't think there'll be any fireworks--just a sensible deal, in which everybody benefits and nobody loses."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The thing is impossible, perfectly impossible."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don't see why. Everything has its price and I'm offering you a pretty stiff one."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I would rather be burned alive. Marry Mr. Inglesby? _I_? Why, he is impossible, perfectly impossible!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He is nothing of the kind. And he is very much in love with you--you amount to a grand passion with Inglesby. Also, he has twenty millions. He added dryly:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are hard to please."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Even if I were weak and silly enough to take you seriously, do you imagine my father would ever consent? He would despise me. He would rather see me dead."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, no, he wouldn't. Nobody can afford to despise a woman with twenty millions. It isn't in human nature. Particularly when you save Mr. James Eustis himself from coming a breakneck cropper, to say the very least."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I repeat that I would rather be burned alive. I despise the man!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, no, you wouldn't. His manner was a bit contemptuous."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And you'd soon get used to him. Women and cats are like that. They may squall and scratch a bit at first, but the saucer of cream reconciles them, and presently they are quite at home and purring, the sensible creatures! You'll end by liking him very well."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What shall I say to my father? she asked directly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Tell him you kept the foolish letters written you by an ignorant child--and the price is either his or my selling out to Mr. Inglesby?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That is your lookout. You can't expect us to let your side whip us, hands down, can you? Mr. Inglesby does not propose to submit tamely to _everything_. His face hardened, a glacial glint snapped into his eyes."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Inglesby's no worse than anybody else would be that had to hold down his job. He's got virtues, plenty of solid good-citizen, church-member, father-of-a-family virtues, little as you seem to realize it. Also, let me repeat--he has twenty millions. To buy up a handful of letters for twenty million dollars looks to me about the biggest price ever paid since the world began. Don't be a fool!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I refuse. I refuse absolutely and unconditionally. I shall immediately send for my father--and for Mr. Mayne--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I give you credit for better sense, said he, with a razor-edged smile."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Eustis is honorable and Mayne is in love with you, and when you spring this they'll swear they believe you: _but will they_? Do men ever believe women, without the leaven of a little doubt? Speaking as a man for men, I wouldn't put them to the test. No, dear lady, I hardly think you are going to be so silly. Now let us pass on to something of greater moment than the letters. Did you think I had nothing else to urge upon you?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What, more? said she, derisively."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't think I understand."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am sure you don't. Permit me, then, to enlighten you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Hitherto, Miss Eustis, you have had the very button on Fortune's cap, he told her."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Suppose, however, that fickle goddess chose to whisk herself off bodily, and left you--_you_, mind you! to face the ugly realities of poverty, and poverty under a cloud? And while she stared at him blankly, he asked:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What do you know of your father's affairs?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What do you mean, Mr. Hunter?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do you realize what it would mean if Eustis went under? A smash to shake the state! Consider, too, the effect of failure upon the man himself! He can't fail, though--_if Mr. Inglesby chooses to lend a hand_. Now do you begin to comprehend?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, but that just simply couldn't happen!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It could very easily happen. It may happen shortly, he contradicted politely."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Heavens, girl, don't you know that the Eustis house is mortgaged to the roof, that Rosemount Plantation is mortgaged from the front fences to the back ditches? No, I suppose he wouldn't want his women-folks to know. He thinks he can tide it over. They always believe they can tide it over, those one-idea chaps. And he could, too, for he's a born winner, is Eustis. Give him time and a good season and he'd be up again, stronger than ever. While he spoke he was taking from a drawer a handful of papers, which he spread out on the desk. She could see upon all of them a bold clear"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "One place mortgaged to prop up another, and that in turn mortgaged to save a third. Like links in a chain. Any chain is only as strong as its weakest link, remember. And we've got the links. Look at these, please."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "These, explained Hunter,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh! And _he_ had to do that?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now, promissory notes are dangerous instruments should a holder desire to use them dangerously. Mr. Inglesby could give Eustis an extension of time, or he could demand full payment and immediately foreclose. You see, it's entirely optional with Mr. Inglesby."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You could do that--anybody could do that--to my father?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I assure you we can send him under--with a lot of other men's money tied around his neck to keep him down."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But even you would hesitate to do a thing like that!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "All is fair, said Hunter,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Legitimate, then."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But if he is in Mr. Inglesby's way and in his power at the same time, why not remove him in the ordinary course of business? Why drag in me and my letters?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why? Because it's the letters that enable us to reach _you_. My dear girl, Mr. Inglesby doesn't really give a hang whether Eustis sinks or swims. He'd as lief back him as not, for in the long run it's good business to back a winner. But it's _you_ he's playing for, and on that count all is fish that comes to his net. _Now_ do you begin to see?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And what do _you_ get out of this? she asked, unexpectedly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mr. Inglesby is to get me, I am to get his money and a package of letters, my father is to get time to save himself; well then, what do _you_ get? The pleasure of doing something wrong? Revenge?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You surprise me, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You talk as if you'd been going to see too many of those insufferable screen-plays that make the proletariat sniffle and the intelligent swear. I am merely a business man, Miss Eustis, and attending to this particular affair for my employer is all in the course of the day's work. I--er--am not in a position to refuse to obey orders or to be captious, particularly since Mr. Inglesby has agreed to double my present salary. That in itself is no light inducement--but I get more. I get Mr. Inglesby's personal backing, which means an assured future to me; as it will mean to you and your father, if you have got the sense you were born with. This is business. Kindly omit melodrama--crude, and not at all your style, really,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This is nothing short of villainy. And not at all too crude for _your_ style,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Bad temper is vastly becoming to you, he told her."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It gives you a magnificent color."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I suggest, said Hunter, rising,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And to think that to-morrow night I shall have the right to openly claim you as my promised wife! he exulted."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You can't realize what it means to a man to be able to say to the world that the most beautiful woman in it is his!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Here--don't you stand there staring at me as if I'd tried to slit your throat just because I've kissed your hand. Suppose I did? Why shouldn't I kiss your hand if I want to? It's my hand, when all's said and done, and I'll kiss it again if I feel like it. No, no, beauty, I won't, not if it's going to make you look at me like that! Why, queen, I wouldn't frighten you for worlds! I love you too much to want to do anything but please you. I'd do anything, everything, just to please you, to make you like me! You'll believe that, won't you?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You don't know all I mean to do for you, beauty! I'm going to give you this little old world to play with. Nothing's too good for _you_. Look at me! I'm not an old man yet--I've only just _begun_ to make money for you. Now be a little kind to me. You've got to marry me, you know. Look here: you kiss me good-night, just once, of your own free will, and I swear you shall have anything under the sky you ask me for. Do you want a string of pearls that will make yours look like a child's playpretty? I'll hang a million dollars around that white throat of yours!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No? said he thickly, and his jaw hardened, and his eyes narrowed under his square forehead."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No? You won't, eh? Too fine and proud? My lady, you'll learn to kiss me when I tell you to, and glad enough of the chance, before you and I finish with each other! Why, you--I--Oh, good God! Why do you rouse the devil in me, when I only want to be friends with you?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't be alarmed, it is I, Flint, he said in his quiet voice. And then he asked directly:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why are you out alone at this hour? Where are you going?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "To--to the Parish House,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Exactly,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But what is to be done?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Call Madame. Tell her to bring some extra wraps. I am going to take Mary Virginia home, and Madame will go with us."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But why shouldn't she stay here?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Because she'd better be at home to-morrow morning, parson. We're not supposed to know anything of her affairs, and I'd rather she didn't appear at the Parish House. Also, she needs sleep right now more than she needs anything else, and one sleeps better in one's own bed. Madame will see that she goes to hers and stays there."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No. I want to stay here! I don't want to go home, Padre."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'm sorry, he said mildly,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, all right, Mr. Flint, I'll go, said she."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What difference does it make? I'll even go to bed--as I'm told. And she added in a tone of indescribable bitterness:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have read that men lie down and sleep peacefully the night before they are hanged. Well, I suppose they could: they hadn't anything but death to face on the morrow, but I--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why not take it for granted to-night that you'll be looked after to-morrow? suggested Flint."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mary Virginia, nothing's ever so bad as it's going to be."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, yes, I'll be looked after to-morrow! said she, bitingly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Inglesby will see to that!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, I don't know! The Butterfly Man shut his mouth on the words like a knife."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Inglesby may think he's going to, but somehow _I_ think he won't."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ah! said she scornfully."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Perhaps _you'll_ be able to stop him?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Perhaps, he agreed."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If I don't, somebody or something else will. It's very unlucky to be too lucky too long. You see, everybody's got to get what's coming to them, and it generally comes hardest when they've tied themselves up to the notion they're It. Somehow I fancy Mr. Inglesby's due to come considerable of a cropper around about now."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Between now and to-morrow night?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why not? Anything can happen between a night and a night. He looked at her with shrewd appreciation:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You have taken yourself so seriously, said he,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What things?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't know, yet, he admitted,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But I do know there is always a way out of everything except the grave. The thing is to find the right way. That's up to the Padre and me. Parson, would you mind going after Madame now, please? The sooner we go the better."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She is in great trouble, and she needs you. Hurry."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Wait in the hall, Armand; I will be with you in ten minutes."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My child, have you told John Flint and my son what this trouble of yours is?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes; I had to, I had to!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thank the good God for that! said my mother piously."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Now we will go home, dearest, and you can sleep in peace--you have nothing more to worry about!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I think you will forgive me any trouble I may cause you, because I am sure all of you love me. And whatever comes, I will be brave enough to face and to bear it. Padre, dear Padre, you understand, don't you?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My child, my darling child, I understand."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll be back in half an hour, parson,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Honest to God, skypilot, I can open any box made, easy as easy!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If he has thought of this himself, then I will help. But if he has not, I will not suggest it, no, no matter what happens."
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If ever you prayed for mortals in peril, pray, for the love of God, for all of us this night!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Didn't meet a soul. And they got in without waking anybody in the house, said he complacently, rubbing his hands before the fire."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I waited until they showed a light upstairs. She's all right, now Madame's with her."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Have you--have you thought of anything--any way, John?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, I've thought that she's got until to-morrow night to come to terms, said he, and turned to face me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And she can't accept them. Nobody could--that is, not a girl like her. As for Inglesby, he might push Eustis under, but he wouldn't have been so cocksure of _her_ if it wasn't for those letters. She's been afraid of what might happen if Eustis or Laurence found out about them--somebody ran the risk of being put to bed with a shovel. There's where they had her. A bit unbearable to think of, isn't it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, said I, ruefully,"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When I got my reason on straight, I went back to the starting point--the letters, parson, the letter in the safe in Hunter's office. Given the letters she'd be free--the one thing Inglesby doesn't want to happen. We've got to have those letters."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't know, he went on,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "in a dry whisper."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Tools. Kit. Layout. You had them. Could you put your hand on them in a hurry to-night? Don't stare so, man! And for the Lord's love don't you tell me you destroyed them! What did you do with my tools?"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They were in the crook of St. Stanislaus' arm. I tried to keep my voice steady."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I was praying--when you were gone. Somehow, I did not find it easy to explain to him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And ... I remembered.... And I brought them with me ... so in case you also ... remembered-- I could go no further. I broke into a sort of groaning cry:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, John, John! My son, my son!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Steady! said he."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Of course you remembered, parson. It's the only way. Didn't I tell her there's always a way out? Well, here it is!"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I prayed, said I, almost sobbing,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I prayed. And, John, there stood St. Stanislaus--"
}
]
|
15843 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The best I could get. All made to order. Tested blue steel. I never kicked at the price, and you wouldn't believe me if I told you what this layout cost in cold cash. But they paid. Good stuff always pays in the long run. It was lucky I winded the cops on that last job, or I'd have had to leave them. As it was, I just had time to grab them up before I hit the trail for the skyline. They don't need anything but a little rubbing--a saint's elbow must be a snug berth. I wish I had some juice, though."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Juice?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Nitroglycerine, very gently, as to a child."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It does not make very much noise and it saves time when you're in a hurry--as you generally are, in this business, he smiled at me quizzically."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not that one can't get along without it. The swift fingers paused for a fraction of a second to give a steel drill an affectionate pat."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I used to know one of the best ever, who never used anything but a particular drill, a pet bit, and his ear. Somebody snitched though, so the last I heard of him he was doing a twenty-year stretch. Pity, too. He was an artist in his line, that fellow. And his taste in neckties I have never seen equaled."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wonder if that safe is a side-bolt? he mused."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Most likely. I dare say it's only the average combination. A one-armed yegg could open most of the boxes in this town with a tin button-hook. Anyhow, it would have to be a new-laid lock _I_ couldn't open. If he's left the letters in the safe we're all right--so here's hoping he has. I certainly don't want to go to his room unless I have to. Hunter's not the sort to sit on his hands, and I'm not feeling what you'd call real amiable."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, no, no, no, no, that would never do! God forbid that you should go to his rooms! He must have left them in the safe! He had to leave them in the safe!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sure he's left them in the safe: why shouldn't he? he made light of my palpable fears. Slipping into his gray overcoat, he pulled on his felt hat, thrust his hands into his wellworn dogskin gloves, and picked up the package. Nobody in the world ever looked less like a criminal than this brown-faced, keen-eyed man with his pleasant bearing. Why, this was John Flint, the kindly bug-hunter all Appleboro loved,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now, don't you worry any at all, parson, he was saying."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There's nothing to be afraid of. I'll take care of myself, and I'll get those letters if they're in existence. I've got to get them. What else was I born for, I'd like to know?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You were born, I said violently,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "said he simply."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If I can do that, what the devil does it matter what happens to _me_? You talk about name and career! Man, man, what could anything be worth to me if I had to know she was unhappy?"
}
]
|
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