book_id
stringlengths 2
6
| title
stringclasses 1
value | author
stringclasses 1
value | conversations
listlengths 1
5.07k
|
|---|---|---|---|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Any one can do what we do"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There is absolutely no reason, he would say, in tones which carried absolute conviction to his hearer at the moment,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's very true. What Toftrees says is absolutely true,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Here you are at my house. For the first time you have been admitted to the Dining Room. I have taken you up, I am going to publish a book of yours and see what you are made of. Gather honey while you may, young Dickson Ingworth!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, sir,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "R.S.V.P. expression"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I mean it, Toftrees said in his resonant, and yet quiet voice."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There really is no reason, Mr. Ingworth, why you should not be making an income of at least eight or nine hundred a year in twelve months' time."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Herbert has helped such a lot of boys, said Mrs. Toftrees, confidentially, to her host, although there was a slight weariness in her voice, the suggestion of a set phrase."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But who is Mr. Dickson Ingworth? What has he done?--he is quite good-looking, don't you think?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, a boy, a mere boy! the big red-faced publisher purred in an undertone."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Lothian brought him to me first in Hanover Square. In fact, Lothian asked if he might bring him here to-night. We are doing a little book of his--the first novel he will have had published."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, really, she said, in genuine surprise."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Rather unusual for you, isn't it? Is the boy a genius then?"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not at all. Not at all, he murmured into a pretty ear."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We are not paying the lad any advance upon royalties! He laughed a well-fed laugh."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ince and Amberley's list, he continued,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "she murmured."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But I wasn't thinking of the financial side of it. Why? . . . why are you departing from your usual traditions and throwing the shadow of your cloak over this fortunate boy?--if I may ask, of course!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, Amberley answered, and her keen ear detected--or thought that she detected--a slight reluctance in his voice. . . ."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, Lothian brought him to me, you know."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Lothian's work is very wonderful, she said--and there was a question in her voice"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I certainly do, Mrs. Toftrees,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Won't you have another cigarette, Miss Wallace? he said, pushing a silver box towards her."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "They are supposed to be rather wonderful. My cousin Eustace Amberley is in the Egyptian Army and an aide-de-camp to the Khedive. The Khedive receives the officers every month and every one takes away a box of five hundred when they leave the palace--His Highness' own peculiar brand. These are some of them, which Eustace sent me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "May I? she answered, a rounded, white arm stretched out to the box."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "They certainly are wonderful. I have to be content with Virginian at home. I buy fifty at a time, and a tin costs one and threepence."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "At any rate, he said, while these thoughts were flashing through his mind"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, no, she answered."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Men know so little about girls! You think we're so different from you in lots of things, but we aren't really. Muriel and I always used to smoke at school--it doesn't matter about telling now, does it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Good heavens! he said,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You couldn't have, Mr. Amberley, she answered, and her smile was more provocative than ever, and delightfully naughty."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We used to do it in the bathroom. The hot vapour from the bath took all the smell of tobacco away. I discovered that!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Tell me some more, my dear. What other iniquities did you all perpetrate--and I thought Muriel such a pattern girl."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, we did lots of things, Mr. Amberley, but it wouldn't be fair to give them away. We were little devils, nearly all of us!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Muriel! Mr. Amberley said to his daughter,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Miss Wallace has been telling me dreadful things about your schooldays. I am grieved and pained!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't be a wretch, Cupid!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Cupid? Why Cupid?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, it's a name we gave her at school,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You have done some literary work, have you not?"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You can't call it _that_, Mr. Amberley, she replied in a voice pitched to his own key."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I've written a few stories which have been published and I've had three articles in the Saturday edition of the _Westminster_--that's nearly everything. But I can't say how I love it all! It is delightful to have my work among books--at the Podley Library you know. I learned typewriting and shorthand and was afraid that I should have to go into a city office--and then this turned up."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't say that, my dear. Never depreciate yourself or belittle what you have done. I suppose you are about Muriel's age, twenty-one or two--yes?--then let me tell you that you have done excellently well."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That is kind of you."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, it is sincere. No man knows how hard--or how easy--it is to succeed by writing to-day."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Only the other day, Mr. Amberley, she said,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I read Stevenson's 'Letter to a young gentleman who proposes to embrace the career of Art.' And if I _could_ write feeble things to tickle feeble minds I wouldn't even try. It seems so, so low!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Keep such an ideal, my dear. Whether you do small or great things, it will bring you peace of mind and dignity of conscience. But don't despise or condemn merely popular writers. In the Kingdom of Art there are many mansions you know."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But I _am_ mad, crazy, she said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, he answered, following the direction of her glance,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I did so want to see him, she said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I've hardly ever met any literary people at all before, certainly never any one who mattered. Muriel told me that Mr. Lothian was coming; she loves his poems as much as I do. And when she wrote and asked me I was terribly excited. It's so good of you to have me, Mr. Amberley."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I hope, my dear, he said,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thank you, no, he said, after a second's consideration, and in a voice that was slightly high-pitched but instinct with personality--it could never have been mistaken for any one else's voice, for instance--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think I will have a whiskey and soda."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Surgit Amari"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "One should not always take after-dinner amenities au pied de la lettre."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That's not the voice of a man who's done himself too well,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "than these were able to suggest. Certainly no one looked less like a poet, though this did not surprise the popular novelist, in an age when literary men looked exactly like every one else. But there was not the slightest trace of idealism, of the"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "that were ever the clear watchwords of his song."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A man who wears a mask,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "D'you know, I'm told that so and so--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Are you in town for long, Mr. Lothian? he asked."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You don't come to town often, do you?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, I don't, Lothian answered."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I hate London. A damnable place I always think."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I knew too much of London when I was a young man, he went on with an unnecessarily confidential and intimate manner."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "When I came down from Oxford first, I was caught up into the 'new' movement. It all seemed very wonderful to me then. It did to all of us. We divorced art from morals, we lived extraordinary lives, we sipped honey from every flower. Most of the men of that period are dead. One or two are insane, others have gone quite under and are living dreadful larva-like lives in obscene hells of the body and soul, of which you can have no conception. But, thank God, I got out of it in time--just in time! If it hadn't been for my dear wife . . ."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I like you, Lothian was trying to say to him--the acquaintance of ten minutes!--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I can open my heart to you. You've had a peep at the Poet's Holy of Holies. But we're men of the world--you and I!--enough of this. We're in society. We're dining at the Amberleys'. Our confidences are over!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "So you see, the _actual_ voice said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't like London. It's no place for a gentleman!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If it hadn't been for my dear wife!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Lothian was saying with precision, and a certain high air which sat well upon him--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't think that you quite see it in all its bearings. There must be a rough and ready standard for ordinary work-a-day life--that I grant. But when you penetrate to the springs of action----"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When you do that, Amberley interrupted,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's specious, he replied,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It _is_ difficult, Lothian said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "King David has a great deal to answer for, he said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don't know what the unorthodox and the 'live-your-own-life' school would do without him. But let us go into the drawing room."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There are two girls dying to talk to the poet! he said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That I happen to know! My daughter Muriel reads your books in bed, I believe! and her friend Miss Wallace was saying all sorts of nice things about you at dinner. Come along, come along, my dear boy."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I say, Mr. Toftrees, isn't Gilbert splendid? I could listen to him all night. He talks like that to me sometimes, when he's in the mood. It's like Walter Pater and Dr. Johnson rolled into one. And then he sort of punctuates it with something dry and brown and freakish--like Heine in the 'Florentine Nights'!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You know Mr. Lothian very well, I suppose?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, yes. I go and stay with Gilbert in the country a lot. I'm nearly always there! I am like a brother to him--he was an only child, you know. But isn't he wonderful?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Marvellous!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, and I know him so well! Hardly any one knows him so well as I do. Every one in town is crying out to find out all about him, and I'm really the only one who knows . . ."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'm going to have a liqueur brandy, Toftrees said hastily--he had taken nothing the whole evening--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now you'd never think, Ingworth said, sipping from his tiny glass,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's a fact though, Mr. Toftrees. We had the devil of a time. He'd been out all day--it was bovril with lots of salt in it that put him right. As a matter of fact--of course, this is quite between you and me--I was in a bit of a funk that it was coming over him again at dinner. Stale drunk. You know! I saw he was paying a lot of compliments to Mrs. Amberley. At first she didn't seem to understand, and then she didn't quite seem to like it. But I was glad when I heard him ask the man for a whiskey and soda just now. I know his programme so well. I was sure that it would pull him together all right--or at least that number two would. I suppose you saw he was rather off when the ladies had gone and you were talking to him?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, I wasn't sure of course."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I was, I know him so well. Gilbert's father was my father's solicitor--one of the old three bottle men. But when Gilbert collared number two just now I realised that it would be quite all right. You heard him with Mr. Amberley just now? Splendid!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes. And now suppose we go and see how he's getting on in the drawing room,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, he'll be as right as rain, you'll find. It comes off and on in waves, you know,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, it doesn't seem to trouble you much,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Gilbert's quite different from any one else, he said lightly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He is a genius. Keats taking pepper before claret, don't you know! One must not measure him by ordinary standards."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I suppose not, Toftrees answered drily, reflecting that among the disciples of a great man it was generally the Judas who wrote the biography--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Let's go to the drawing room."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Surgit Amari"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, thank you! _Thank you!_ he said in a high, fervent voice."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How wonderful that is! And you played it as Crouchmann plays it--the _only_ interpretation! I know him quite well. We had supper together the other night after his concert, and he told me--no, that won't interest you. I'll tell you another time, remind me! Now, _do_ play something else!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah! here we are! he cried, and there was an insistent note of familiarity in his voice."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The book of Valses! You know the twelfth of course? Tempo giusto! It goes like this . . ."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don't think my daughter will play any more, Mr. Lothian,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I do hope that I shall have the pleasure of hearing you play some more Chopin before long, Miss Amberley! Thank you so much Mrs. Amberley--I'm going to write a poem about your beautiful Dining Room. I suppose we shall meet at the Authors' Club dinner on Saturday, Mr. Toftrees?--so interested to have met you at last."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "So Mr. Gilbert Lothian has gone,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, dear,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We can never have him here again,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Very unfortunate, extremely unfortunate,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I cannot understand it. Such a thing has never happened here before. Now I understand why Mr. Lothian hides himself in the country and never goes about. _Il y avait raison!_"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't say that genius is any _excuse_ for this sort of thing, Amberley replied uneasily,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't you think so, Toftrees?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But let us put his talent aside, he said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Think of him as an ordinary person in our own rank of life--Mrs. Amberley's guest. Certainly he could not have taken anything here to have made him in the strange state he is in. Surely he must have known that he was not fit to come to a decent house."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I shall give his poems away, Muriel Amberley said with a little shudder."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I can never read them again. And I did love them so! I wish you hadn't asked Mr. Lothian to come here, Father."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There is one consolation, said Mrs. Toftrees in a hard voice;"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It seems rather dreadful, Mrs. Amberley, he said, quite thinking that he was committing literary suicide as he did so."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It is dreadful of course. But Gilbert _is_ such a fine chap when he's--when he's, all right! You can't think! And then, 'Surgit Amari'! Don't let's forget he wrote 'The Loom'--'Delicate Threads! O fairest in life's tissue,'"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He is great, she said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He is manifesting himself in his own way. That is all. To me, at any rate, the meeting with Mr. Lothian has been wonderful."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Let's forget all about it, she said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mrs. Toftrees, help me to make my husband sing. He can only sing one song but he sings it excellently--'In cellar cool'--just the thing for a hot night. Joseph! do as I tell you!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Le metier de poëte laisse a désirer,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "THE ROARING GALLANT TOWN"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is it for this I have given away Mine ancient wisdom and austere control?"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Was I very far gone?"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes! damn the fellow! He _lived_ on poets and men of letters--privileged people, the salt of the earth, the real forces of life!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Like the fellow's cheek,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "At this moment, as I stand here, he said to himself,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "not in the least understanding that when he spoke of his own"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "or"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What shall I do now?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Where shall I go now?"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Central-one"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where shall I go? he asked himself again, and immediately his eye fell upon another, the brilliant illumination upon the façade of a well-known"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Theatre of Varieties."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes! he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I will revisit the 'Kingdom.' There is still two thirds of an hour before the performance will be over. How well I used to know it! What a nightly haunt it used to be. Surely, even now, there will be some people I know there? . . . I'll go in and see!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good heavens! said a huge man with a blood red face, startling in its menace, like a bully looking into an empty room,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, here's old Lothian! Where in the world have _you_ sprung from, my dear boy?"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah, Lothian, he said, as one or two other people came up and some one gave a copious order for drinks,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You've kept the colour, Edgar, he said, looking into the little creature's face, but the words stabbed through him, nevertheless. How true they were--superficially--how they expressed--and must express--the view of his old disreputable companions. They envied him his cunning--as they thought it--they would have given their ears to have possessed the same power of profitable hypocrisy--as they thought it. Meanwhile they spoke virtuously to each other about him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Gilbert Lothian the author of 'Surgit Amari'!--it would make a cat laugh!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I ought never to be seen in these places,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If I can only help you in any way, old chap--"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It will be perfectly all right, said Prince."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I haven't done for Mr. Lothian for all these years without understanding his ways. Drunk or sober, sir, Mr. Gilbert is always a gentleman. He's the most pleasant country member in the club, sir! I understand his habits thoroughly, and he would bear me out in that at any time. I'm sure of that! His bowl of soup is being kept hot in the kitchens now. The small flask of cognac and the bottle of Worcester sauce are waiting on his dressing table. And there's a half bottle of champagne, which he takes to put him right when I call him in the morning, already on the ice!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I know he appreciates it, Prince. He can't say enough about how you look after him when he's in London."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I thoroughly believe it, sir, said the valet,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You take off his boots, Prince, and I'll manage his collar."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, sir."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Managed it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A little difficulty with the left boot, sir. The instep is a trifle swelled."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good heavens! I do hope he's not going to have another attack of gout!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I hope not, sir. But you can't ever tell. It comes very sudden. Like a thief in the night, as you may say."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There! I've broken the stud, but that doesn't matter. His neck's free."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And his boots are off. There's some one knocking. It's his soup. Would you mind putting his bed-room slippers on, sir? I don't like the cold for his feet."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Another few minutes, said Prince, as he poured the brandy and measured the Worcester sauce into the silver-plated tureen;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Here's your soup, Gilbert!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When Mr. Gilbert really have copped the brewer--excuse the expression, sir--he generally says a few words without much meaning. Leave him to me if you please."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What? What? My soup?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yessir, your soup."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thank you, Prince, he said, in his clear and sweet voice,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Will you require me any more, sir?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, thank you, Prince."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Very good, sir. I have made the morning arrangements."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Good-night, Prince."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, Dicker? he said--and suddenly his whole face was transformed. Ten years fell away. The smile was sweet and simple, there was a freakish humour in the eyes,--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, Dicker?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How are you, Gilbert?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Very tired. Horrible indigestion and heartburn, legs like lumps of brass and a nasty feeling as if an imprisoned black-bird were fluttering at the base of my spine! But quite sober, Dicker, now!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Nor were you ever anything else, in Bryanstone Square, the young man said hotly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It _was_ such a mistake for you to go away, Gilbert. So unnecessary!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I had my reasons. Was there much comment? Now tell me honestly, was it very noticeable?--what did they say?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No one said anything at all, Ingworth answered, lying bravely."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The evening didn't last long after you went. Every one left together--I say you ought to have seen the Toftrees' motor!--and I drove Miss Wallace home, and then came on here."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A beautiful girl, Lothian said sleepily."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I only talked to her for a minute or two and she seemed clever and sympathetic. Certainly she is lovely."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, I'm off, old chap, he said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "As far as Miss Wallace goes, she's absolutely gone on you! She was quoting your verses all the way in the cab. She lives in a tiny flat with another girl, and I had to wait outside while she did up that parcel there! It's 'Surgit Amari,' she wants you to sign it for her, and there's a note as well, I believe. Good-night."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Good-night, Dicker. I can't talk now. I'm beautifully drunk to-night . . . Look me up in the morning. Then we'll talk."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Surgit Amari"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mary! Mary! he said aloud,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I want you, I want you!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Darling! there is no one else in the world but you."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Father help me! Jesus help me!--forgive me!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Father, help me! Help me _now_. Let me go to bed without phantoms and torturing ghosts round me! Do not look into the Temple to-night. I will cleanse it to-morrow. I swear it! Father! Help me!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's there! he said at last to himself."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, it is there! I'm sure of it, quite apart from what I've heard in the village since I came."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Surgit Amari"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Jesus!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I only knew one poet in my life: And this, or something like it, was his way."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Pleasant Sunday Afternoons."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The Sabbath"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sabbath observance and total abstinence were his watchwords, and he also took a great interest in"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Literature"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Very unsettling"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Pilgrim's Progress was written down immediately in his flowing clerkly hand. Then came the novels of Mrs. Henry Wood."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Get all of this line was the pencilled note in the margin. Memories of his youth reasserted themselves, so"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Jessica's First Prayer,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ministering Children and"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A Peep Behind the Scenes"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Milton, Shakespeare and the Bible? said Mrs. Podley, when consulted."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They're pure enough, I'm sure! and the pin-maker who had never been to a theatre, nor read a line of the great poets, wrote them down at once. As for the Bible, it was God's word, and so"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I see that Bunyan wrote another book, the 'Holy War,' said Mr. Podley to his wife."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I never heard of it and I'm a bit doubtful. I don't like the name, shall I enter it up or not?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not knowing, can't say, she remarked."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But if it is the same man who wrote 'Pilgrim's Progress' then it's sure to be pure."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's the 'Holy' that puzzles me, he answered,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Then I should leave it out. But I tell you what, my dear, choosing these books'll take up a lot of your valuable time, especially if each one's got to be chose separate. You might have to read a lot of them yourself, there's no knowing! And why should you?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, indeed? said Mr. Podley."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But I don't see how----"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, I do then, John. It's as simple as A. B. C. You want to establish a library in which there shan't be any wicked books."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That is so?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, my dear. Pure, absolutely pure!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, then, have them bought for you by an expert--like you do the metal for the pins. You don't buy metal yourself any more. You pay high wages to your buyers to do it. Treat the books the same!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There's a good deal in that, dear. But I want to take a _personal_ interest in the thing."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Now don't you worry, John. 'Tis right that we should all be conscientious in what we do, but them as has risen to the head of great businesses haven't any further call to trouble about minor details. I've heard you say it many a time. And so with this library. You're putting down the money for it. You've bought the land and the building is being erected. You've got to pay, and if that isn't taking a personal interest then I'm sure I don't know what is!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You advise me?--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "To go to the best book shop in London--there's that place opposite the Royal Academy that is the King's booksellers. See one of the partners. Explain that you want the library furnished with pure books, state the number you want, and get an estimate of the cost. It's their business to know what books are pure and what aren't--and, besides, at a shop like that, they wouldn't sell any wicked books. It would be beneath them."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now look here, Lewis, the director said, to one of his assistants, an Oxford man who translated Flaubert and wrote introductions to English editions of Gautier in his spare time,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Funny thing they should come to us, he said;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I should have thought they would have bought them by the yard, in the Strand. What is it, American millionaire? question of bindings and wall-space?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, not quite, said the director."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's Mr. Podley, the pin millionaire and philanthropist. He's founding a public library of 'pure literature' in Kensington. The only books he has ever read, apparently, are the books of the Old Testament. He was with me for an hour this morning. Take a week and make a list. He wants ten thousand volumes for a start."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Certainly! he said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It will be quite delightful. It seems almost too good to be true. But will the list be scrutinised before the books are actually bought? Won't this Podley man take another opinion?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He doesn't know any one who could give him one, he answered."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It would only mean engaging another expert, and he's quite satisfied with our credentials. 'Pure books'! Good Lord! I wonder what he thinks he means. I should like to get inside that man's head and poke about for an hour. It would be interesting."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It won't matter, that shrewd woman had pointed out,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Miss Rita."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If that there Hands could be got rid of, she would say,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "In the first place he never comes here. In the second place he's not a gentleman himself, so that don't mean nothing to him,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Now if it was Lord Charles what had started this--'--Magneta--' library, then _'e_ could 'a' been spoke to--Podley!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, you darling! Rita said, thinking of summer and the outside world. She would go to Kensington Palace Gardens where there were trees, green grass and flowers."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, you darling! You're a little jewel with a voice, a bit of the real country! I believe you've actually been droning over the hop-fields of Kent!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How do you do, he said, with the half-shy deference that came into his voice when he spoke to women."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It was such a lovely afternoon that I thought I might venture to bring back your copy of 'Surgit Amari' myself."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wanted to see you again,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is very kind of you to take so much trouble, she said in a voice as sweet as singing."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I was so disappointed when you had to go away so early from the Amberleys' last night."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, here's the book, he said, putting it down upon Rita's table."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And I've written in it as you asked. Do you collect autographs then?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, dear me no, she answered."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think it's silly to collect anything that isn't beautiful. But, in a book one values, and with which one has been happy, the author's autograph seems to add to the book's personality. But I hate crazes. There are lots of girls that wait outside stage doors to make popular actors write in their books. Did you know that, Mr. Lothian?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, I didn't! Little donkeys! Hard lines on the actors. Even I get a few albums now and then, and it's a fearful nuisance. I put off writing in them and they lie about my study until they get quite a battered and dissipated look."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And then?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, I write in them. It would be impolite not to, you know. I have an invaluable formula. I write, 'Dear Madam, I am very sorry to say that I cannot accede to your kind request for an autograph. The practice is one with which I am not in sympathy. Yours very truly, Gilbert Lothian!'"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That's splendid, Mr. Lothian, better than sending a telegram, as some one did the other day to an importunate girl. They were talking about it last night at the Amberleys' after you left. I suppose that's really what gave me courage to send 'Surgit Amari' by Mr. Dickson Ingworth. Mr. and Mrs. Toftrees said that they always write passages from their novels when they are asked."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Perhaps that's a good plan, Lothian answered, listening to the"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I _did_ so dislike Mr. Toftrees and his wife,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Did you? he asked in surprise."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They seemed very pleasant people I thought."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I expect that was because you thought nothing whatever about them, Mr. Lothian,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But why did you dislike poor Mr. Toftrees?"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He is pompous and insincere, she replied."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He tries to draw attention to his great success, or rather his notoriety, by pretending to despise it. Surely, it would be far more manly to accept the fact frankly, and not to hint that he could be a great artist if he could bring himself to do without a lot of money!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's such dreadful appalling treacle they write! I saw a little flapper in the Tube two days ago, with the Toftrees' latest book--'Milly Mine.' Her expression was ecstatic!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "For my part I think that's something to have done, do you know, to have taken that flapper out of the daily tube of her life into Romance. Heaven with electric lights and plush fittings is better than none at all. I couldn't grudge the flapper her ecstasy, nor Mr. Toftrees his big cheques. I should very much like to see the people in Tubes reading my books--it would be good for them--and to pouch enormous cheques myself--would be good for me! But there must be Toftrees sort of persons now that every one knows how to read!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, I'll let his work alone, she answered,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, that's it, she cried."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He did all he could."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Did he? Confound him! I wonder why?"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "their heroines"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "and that compared to even"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "and"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I wonder why? he said again."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don't know the man. I've never done him any harm that I know of. But of course he has a right to his own opinions, and no doubt he really thinks----"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He knows nothing whatever about it, Rita answered."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If a man like that reads poetry at all he has to do it in a prose translation! But I can tell you why--Addison puts it far better than I can. I found the passage the other day. I'll show you."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thank you very much, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How kind of you! My bruised vanity is now at rest. I am healed of my grievous wound! But this seems quite a good library. Are you here all alone, does nobody ever come here? I always heard that the Podley Library was where the bad books went when they died. Tell me all about it."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do smoke, she said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No one minds--there never is any one to mind, and I smoke here myself. Mr. Hands, the head librarian, didn't like it at first but he does what I tell him now. I'm the assistant librarian."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Delicious! she exclaimed with pretty greediness."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How perfectly sweet to be a man and able to afford Ben Ezra's Number 5."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How perfectly sweet!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And now what are you going to do?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I must go home, Mr. Lothian, she said with a little sigh."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It has been so kind of you to come and see me. I was going to sit in Kensington Palace Gardens for a little while, but I think I shall go back to the flat now. How hot it is! Oh, for the sea, now, just think of it!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wonder,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What are you wondering, Mr. Lothian?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If you realise how easy it is to be by the sea. I know it's cheek to ask you--or at least I suppose it is, but let's go!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How do you mean, Mr. Lothian?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Let's motor down to Brighton now, at once. Let's dine at the Metropole, and go and sit on the pier afterwards, and then rush home under the stars whenever we feel inclined. Will you!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How splendid! she cried,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, now. I am to be the fairy godmother. You have only to say the magic word, and I will wave my wand. The blue heat mists of evening will be over the ripe Sussex cornfields, and we shall see the poppies drinking in the blood of the sinking sun with their burnt red mouths. And then, when we have dined, the moon will wash the sea with silver, the stars will come out like golden rain and the Queen Moon will be upon her throne! We shall see the long, lit front of Brighton like a horned crescent of topaz against the black velvet of the downs. And while we watch it under the moon, the breeze shall bring us faint echoes of the fairy flutes from Prospero's enchanted Island--'But doth suffer a sea-change into something rich and strange--' And then the sea will take up the burthen 'Ding-dong, ding-dong bell.' Now say the magic word!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There is magic in the Magician's voice already, and I needs must answer. Yes! and oh, yes, YES a thousand times!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The commandments of convention mean nothing to you?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "They are the Upper Ten Commandments, not mine."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Then I will go and command my dragon. I know where you live. Be ready in an hour!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How perfectly, _perfectly_ sweet! And may we, oh, may we have a lobster mayonnaise for dinner?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "FOR THE FIRST TIME, HE WAS GOING TO HAVE A GIRL FRIEND"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Across the hills, and far away Beyond their utmost purple rim, And deep into the dying day The happy princess followed him."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "All going splendidly, too busy to write,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My darling!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Inshallah Bukra! --"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Please God, to-morrow!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Milk that one cannot get in London,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Men have died, trying to find this place which we have found,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Magician! half an hour ago we were in London!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are happy?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I can't find anything to say--yet. It is perfect."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now are the flowers confest Of slumber; sleep as they! Come hither, Child! and rest."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Come! she said gaily,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes! on into the sunset. You are right. We must go before we are satisfied. That's the whole art of living--Miranda!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How old you have grown all of a sudden,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Next stop Brighton, sir,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good heavens! he said,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Didn't you know?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How could I possibly?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, you couldn't of course, but I never thought it of _you_."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Nor I of you, he answered."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll test you. 'The cow is in the garden.'"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's your turn to suppose now, Mr. Lothian."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well--wait a minute--oh, let's suppose that Mr. Podley once wrote a moral poem--you to play!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am only a whelk, Sir, Though if you but knew, Although I'm a whelk, Sir, The Lord made me too!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Magnificent!--your turn."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, what will the title of the Toftrees' next novel be?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Tell me quickly!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Florimond awoke from a deep sleep. There was nobody there but the Dog Trust."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are wonderful. I see it, of course. It's style itself! And how would you end the story? Have you studied the end yet?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes. I worked at it all the time I was in Italy last year. You shall hear that too. Mr. Florimond sank into a deep sleep. There was nobody there but the Dog Trust."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We lived the most delightful freakish lives you can imagine, he said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When we came into breakfast from our respective bedrooms we had a ritual which never varied. We neither looked at each other nor spoke, but sat down opposite at the table. We each had our newspaper put in our place by the man who looked after us. We opened the papers and pretended to read for a moment. Then Basil looked over the top of his at me, very gravely. 'We live in stirring times, Mr. Lothian!' he would say, and I used to answer, 'Indeed, Mr. Passhe, we do!' Then we became as usual."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How perfectly sweet! I must do that with Ethel--that's the girl I live with, you know--only we don't have the papers. It runs up so!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We're here, Mr. Lothian! Look at the lights! Brighton at last!"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I can soon pull myself together, he thought."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "She won't know. I'll tell the fellow to bring it in a decanter."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is difficult to realise, she said, as much to herself as to her host,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, he said a trifle bitterly, as his eye fell upon a party of Jews who had motored down from London,--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Those people seem happy, she said, not understanding his sudden mood,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, but people don't always laugh because they are amused. Slow-witted, obese brained people--like those Israelites there--laugh very often on the chance that there is something funny which eludes them. They don't want to betray themselves. When I see people like that I feel as if my mind ought to be sprinkled with some disinfecting fluid."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How I wanted that! he said with a frank smile."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I was talking nonsense, Miranda, but I was tired. And I'm afraid that when I get tired I'm cross. I've been working very hard lately and am a little run down,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, I _am_ enjoying myself! she said with a sigh of pleasure,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, didn't you know? It's iced consommé, awfully good in hot weather."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, I didn't, she said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I've never been anywhere or seen anything, you know. When Ethel and I feel frightfully rich, we have dinner at Lyons, but I've never been to a swagger restaurant before."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And you like it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's heavenly! How good this soup is. But what a waste it seems to put all that ice round the champagne. Ice is so dreadfully expensive. You get hardly any for fourpence at our fishmongers."
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, what a pig I am! she said, after her second helping, with her flashing, radiant smile,"
}
]
|
41139 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Nothing else I have ever read produces the same impression,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There are very few writers in prose that can."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is magic."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But to be understood. You see, some of his chapters--the passages on Leonardo da Vinci for instance, are intended to be musical compositions as it were, in which words have to take the place and perform the functions of notes. It has been pointed out that they are impassioned, not so much in the sense of expressing any very definite sentiment, but because, from the combination and structure of the sentences, they harmonise with certain phases of emotion."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "In telling me of your reading just now, you spoke of that progress of the soul that each new horizon in literature seems to stimulate and ensure for you. And you quoted some hackneyed and beautiful lines of Longfellow. Cling always to that idea of progress, but remember that we don't really rise to higher things upon the stepping stones of our dead selves so much as on the stepping stones of our dead opinions. That is Progress. _Progress means the capability of seeing new forms of beauty._"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But there are places where one wants to linger."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I know, but it's dangerous. You were splendidly right when you bade me move from that garden just now. The road was waiting. It is so with states of the soul. The limpet is the lowest of organisms. Movement is everything. One life may seem to be like sunlight moving over sombre ground and another like the shadow of a cloud traversing a sunlit space. But both have meaning and value. Never strike an average and imagine you have found content. The average life is nothing but a pudding in a fog!"
}
]
|
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