Do you suppose this eternal shallow cynicism of yours has any real bearing on a nature like hers?
TANNER.
Hm! Did she say anything else?
OCTAVIUS.
Yes; and that is why I expose myself and her to your ridicule by telling you what passed.
TANNER. [remorsefully] No, dear Tavy, not ridicule, on my honor!
However, no matter.
Go on.
OCTAVIUS.
Her sense of duty is so devout, so perfect, so—
TANNER.
Yes: I know.
Go on.
OCTAVIUS.
You see, under this new arrangement, you and Ramsden are her guardians; and she considers that all her duty to her father is now transferred to you.
She said she thought I ought to have spoken to you both in the first instance.
Of course she is right; but somehow it seems rather absurd that I am to come to you and formally ask to be received as a suitor for your ward's hand.
TANNER.
I am glad that love has not totally extinguished your sense of humor, Tavy.
OCTAVIUS.
That answer won't satisfy her.
TANNER.
My official answer is, obviously, Bless you, my children: may you be happy!
OCTAVIUS.
I wish you would stop playing the fool about this.
If it is not serious to you, it is to me, and to her.
TANNER.
You know very well that she is as free to choose as you. She does not think so.
OCTAVIUS.She does not think so.
TANNER.
Oh, doesn't she! just!
However, say what you want me to do.
OCTAVIUS.
I want you to tell her sincerely and earnestly what you think about me.
I want you to tell her that you can trust her to me—that is, if you feel you can.
TANNER.
I have no doubt that I can trust her to you.
What worries me is the idea of trusting you to her.
Have you read Maeterlinck's book about the bee?
OCTAVIUS. [keeping his temper with difficulty] I am not discussing literature at present.
TANNER.
Be just a little patient with me.
I am not discussing literature: the book about the bee is natural history.
It's an awful lesson to mankind.
You think that you are Ann's suitor; that you are the pursuer and she the pursued; that it is your part to woo, to persuade, to prevail, to overcome.
Fool: it is you who are the pursued, the marked down quarry, the destined prey.
You need not sit looking longingly at the bait through the wires of the trap: the door is open, and will remain so until it shuts behind you for ever.
OCTAVIUS.
I wish I could believe that, vilely as you put it.
TANNER.