human
Mr. Broune had said.
gpt
I should go, if it were only for the sake of showing that you did not consider yourself to be implicated in the matter. Lady Carbury did as she was advised, and took her daughter with her.
human
Nonsense, said the mother, when Hetta objected;
gpt
Mr. Broune sees it quite in the right light. This is a grand demonstration in honour of the Emperor, rather than a private party;--and we have done nothing to offend the Melmottes. You know you wish to see the Emperor. A few minutes before they started from Welbeck Street a note came from Mr. Broune, written in pencil and sent from Melmotte's house by a Commissioner.
human
Don't mind what you hear; but come. I am here and as far as I can see it is all right. The E. is beautiful, and P.'s are as thick as blackberries.
gpt
I hope you won't be angry with me for speaking to you. Hetta smiled more graciously. She could not be angry with the girl for speaking to her, feeling that she was there as the guest of the girl's mother.
human
I suppose you know about your brother,
gpt
I have heard about it, said Hetta.
human
He never told me himself.
gpt
Oh, I do so wish that I knew the truth. I know nothing. Of course, Miss Carbury, I love him. I do love him so dearly! I hope you don't think I would have done it if I hadn't loved him better than anybody in the world. Don't you think that if a girl loves a man,--really loves him,--that ought to go before everything?
human
I don't quite know. It is so hard to say,
gpt
I do. What's the good of anything if you're to be broken-hearted? I don't care what they say of me, or what they do to me, if he would only be true to me. Why doesn't he--let me know--something about it? This also was a question difficult to be answered. Since that horrid morning on which Sir Felix had stumbled home drunk,--which was now four days since,--he had not left the house in Welbeck Street till this evening. He had gone out a few minutes before Lady Carbury had started, but up to that time he had almost kept his bed. He would not get up till dinner-time, would come down after some half-dressed fashion, and then get back to his bedroom, where he would smoke and drink brandy-and-water and complain of headache. The theory was that he was ill;--but he was in fact utterly cowed and did not dare to show himself at his usual haunts. He was aware that he had quarrelled at the club, aware that all the world knew of his intended journey to Liverpool, aware that he had tumbled about the streets intoxicated. He had not dared to show himself, and the feeling had grown upon him from day to day. Now, fairly worn out by his confinement, he had crept out intending, if possible, to find consolation with Ruby Ruggles.
human
Do tell me. Where is he?
gpt
He has not been very well lately.
human
Is he ill? Oh, Miss Carbury, do tell me. You can understand what it is to love him as I do;--can't you?
gpt
He has been ill. I think he is better now.
human
Why does he not come to me, or send to me; or let me know something? It is cruel, is it not? Tell me,--you must know,--does he really care for me?
gpt
Felix hardly ever talks about himself to me,
human
If he doesn't care for me, there shall be an end of it, Marie said very gravely.
gpt
If I only knew! If I thought that he loved me, I'd go through,--oh,--all the world for him. Nothing that papa could say should stop me. That's my feeling about it. I have never talked to any one but you about it. Isn't that strange? I haven't a person to talk to. That's my feeling, and I'm not a bit ashamed of it. There's no disgrace in being in love. But it's very bad to get married without being in love. That's what I think.
human
It is bad,
gpt
But if Felix doesn't care for me! continued Marie, sinking her voice to a low whisper, but still making her words quite audible to her companion. Now Hetta was strongly of opinion that her brother did not in the least
human
Marie Melmotte, and that it would be very much for the best that Marie Melmotte should know the truth. But she had not that sort of strength which would have enabled her to tell it.
gpt
Tell me just what you think, said Marie. Hetta was still silent.
human
Ah,--I see. Then I must give him up? Eh?
gpt
What can I say, Miss Melmotte? Felix never tells me. He is my brother,--and of course I love you for loving him.
human
Do you? Oh! I wish you did. I should so like to be loved by you. Nobody loves me, I think. That man there wants to marry me. Do you know him? He is Lord Nidderdale. He is very nice; but he does not love me any more than he loves you. That's the way with men. It isn't the way with me. I would go with Felix and slave for him if he were poor. Is it all to be over then? You will give him a message from me? Hetta, doubting as to the propriety of the promise, promised that she would.
gpt
Just tell him I want to know; that's all. I want to know. You'll understand. I want to know the real truth. I suppose I do know it now. Then I shall not care what happens to me. It will be all the same. I suppose I shall marry that young man, though it will be very bad. I shall just be as if I hadn't any self of my own at all. But he ought to send me word after all that has passed. Do not you think he ought to send me word?
human
Yes, indeed.
gpt
You tell him, then,
human
in this matter, it would be such an awful cropper!
gpt
How do you like the party?
human
I don't like it at all, my lord. How do you like it?
gpt
Very much, indeed. I think the Emperor is the greatest fun I ever saw. Prince Frederic, --one of the German princes who was staying at the time among his English cousins,--
human
Prince Frederic says that he's stuffed with hay, and that he's made up fresh every morning at a shop in the Haymarket.
gpt
I've seen him talk.
human
He opens his mouth, of course. There is machinery as well as hay. I think he's the grandest old buffer out, and I'm awfully glad that I've dined with him. I couldn't make out whether he really put anything to eat into his jolly old mouth.
gpt
Of course he did.
human
Have you been thinking about what we were talking about the other day?
gpt
No, my lord,--I haven't thought about it since. Why should I?
human
Well;--it's a sort of thing that people do think about, you know.
gpt
You don't think about it.
human
Don't I? I've been thinking about nothing else the last three months.
gpt
You've been thinking whether you'd get married or not.
human
That's what I mean,
gpt
It isn't what I mean, then.
human
I'll be shot if I can understand you.
gpt
Perhaps not. And you never will understand me. Oh, goodness;--they're all going, and we must get out of the way. Is that Prince Frederic, who told you about the hay? He is handsome; isn't he? And who is that in the violet dress;--with all the pearls?
human
That's the Princess Dwarza.
gpt
Dear me;--isn't it odd, having a lot of people in one's own house, and not being able to speak a word to them? I don't think it's at all nice. Good night, my lord. I'm glad you like the Emperor.
human
I only wish it could have been done a little cheaper, he said laughing. Then he went back into the house, and up into the drawing-rooms which were now utterly deserted. Some of the lights had been put out, but the men were busy in the rooms below, and he threw himself into the chair in which the Emperor had sat. It was wonderful that he should come to such a fate as this;--that he, the boy out of the gutter, should entertain at his own house, in London, a Chinese Emperor and English and German Royalty,--and that he should do so almost with a rope round his neck. Even if this were to be the end of it all, men would at any rate remember him. The grand dinner which he had given before he was put into prison would live in history. And it would be remembered, too, that he had been the Conservative candidate for the great borough of Westminster,--perhaps, even, the elected member. He, too, in his manner, assured himself that a great part of him would escape Oblivion.
gpt
Non omnis moriar,