Soru

The brass key of the telegraph sat silent on the desk, a polished relic under the oil lamp. Alistair kept his hand near it, his fingers twitching in rhythm with some imagined cadence. Across the table, Diana adjusted the spools of the new paper-tape receiver, its metal casing gleaming with a cold, manufactured efficiency.

'It doesn’t listen, Diana,' Alistair said, his voice flat. 'It only records. There is a difference.'

'It records precisely what is sent, Father,' she replied without looking up. 'Without fatigue. Without missing a dot because the wind whistled through the eaves.'

Alistair scoffed, leaning back into his leather chair. 'A sender has a signature. Old Miller at Cape Wrath—he dwells on his dashes, like a man hesitating at a ledge. You can hear his weariness. The machine flattens him into the same neat lines as a clerk in London. It robs the service of its humanity.'

Diana stopped her work, her fingers resting on the brass spool. She looked at him, her eyes carrying a mix of pity and frustration. 'The humanity you speak of is exactly what leaves us in the dark when Miller falls asleep at his key. The shipping company does not care about his hesitation, Father. They care about the tide. We must adapt, or the company will simply bypass this station entirely.'

Which of the following best describes the primary conflict between Alistair and Diana?