human
Robert, I insist upon your conducting yourself like a gentleman! If you will not show me the respect which is due to your mother, you at least shall not behave in a stranger's house in a way which is unbecoming to my son.
gpt
Mother, I trust that you are not forgetting that there is a respect which a mother owes to her son. Why do you object to my having any conversation with my affianced wife?
human
Don't you know that her father is dead?
gpt
Certainly I know it; just dead, and just buried; it is on that account that I feel so strongly that my place is with her.
human
Don't talk nonsense!
gpt
Mother, when you were alone in the world, didn't you feel that my father's place was with you?
human
Robert, your brothers have behaved like fools, but I hope you won't; you are all the hope I have left; it will break my heart if you do. This girl's father has turned out to be an impostor!
gpt
An impostor? Mother, in saying what you have to say to me will you please remember you are speaking of the woman who is to be my wife, and your daughter, and so choose language which does not convey more than you intend?
human
Don't presume to lecture me! that is going too far. I say he has turned out to be an impostor--and he has!
gpt
In what sense?
human
He told your father he was going to give his girl a house and furniture and five thousand a year, besides leaving her a rich woman when he died; and now he hasn't left enough to pay his debts; if that isn't being an impostor I don't know what is!
gpt
A good deal of water has gone over the mill since he said that; he may have had money then, and yet have lost every penny of it since.
human
Then he ought to have told you.
gpt
Why?
human
Why! you know perfectly well why. I believe it is your wish to irritate me, when I'm very far from well, as your father here will tell you. That man knew that you were not in a position to marry a poor woman, and that we should never have given our consent if it had not been for this distinct assurance that his daughter would be amply provided for.
gpt
Well?
human
Well! it's not well; there's nothing well about it! You shan't speak to me like this--I won't have it! Robert, I want you to promise that all shall be at an end between Miss Lindsay and you; she herself sees the matter in the proper light----
gpt
Does that mean that you have been talking: to her?
human
Certainly I have been talking to her; and I will say this, that she did not take long to see where her duty lay.
gpt
Is it possible that she took it for granted that I should behave like a blackguard--at my mother's bidding?
human
Robert, how dare you!
gpt
It is not I, mother, who dare; I dare not. I asked Miss Lindsay to be my wife when her father was alive, and a rich man and all was well with her. If, now that all is not well with her, I attempt to repudiate the solemn engagements into which I then entered----
human
Fiddle-de-dee! solemn engagements indeed! You entered into no solemn engagements, and I'll take care you don't. Robert, you are the only creature I have left to love.
gpt
I don't see how that can be, since you have eight other children and a husband.
human
My boy, my boy, don't you be so cruel as to pretend that you don't understand! You're my youngest born, the child of my old age, my baby--you're dear to me in a special sense, as you know very well. If you marry this girl, who is not only penniless, but who is in honour bound to pay her father's debts, and who'll drag you down into the gutter, because your aunt will never give you another penny when she knows the facts, on the day of your marriage I'll commit suicide.
gpt
Mother!
human
I will, so now you're warned; and she shall know why I do it. I'll not live to be mocked by all my children; I've had nine of them, as you say, and if not one of them will try to please his mother--then God help us mothers.
gpt
Do you associate yourself, sir, with my mother in this matter?
human
Certainly I do--most distinctly I do; with what she says respecting this young woman most emphatically I do; I can't conceive of a rational creature doing anything else. As matters have turned out the girl's impossible--absolutely out of the question. If you can't see it, Robert, you're a fool.
gpt
Thank you, sir. The young man regarded his plain-speaking sire with a wry little smile.
human
I think it probable that when you have thought things over, sir, you will modify your views; but while you hold them so warmly, plainly it is desirable that I should restrict myself to a bare announcement of the fact that they are not mine.
gpt
Robert, where are you going? You will return with us. We came in the landau; there is plenty of room. I beg you will give us your company; indeed, if it is not sufficient for a mother to beg of her son, then I insist upon your doing so.
human
Pardon me, mother, but I am not going to Holtye; I have taken a room at the 'Unicorn.'
gpt
The 'Unicorn!' Robert! Harold, will you be so good as to ask him what he means?
human
Robert, what do you mean by saying that you have taken a room at the 'Unicorn'?--an inn!--a mere tavern! at the gate of your father's house!
gpt
The 'Unicorn' can hardly be said to be at the gate of Holtye, since it is at a distance of a good five miles.
human
Stuff, sir! Five miles or fifty, what does it matter? Holtye is your home, and you will be so good as to come home; we've been expecting you; we've been looking forward to your return; I trust that the day is far distant on which you will cease to regard Holtye as your home.
gpt
Unless he wishes to break his mother's heart.
human
So no nonsense, sir; get into the carriage and we'll drive you home.
gpt
You are very kind; permit me, sir, to finish. It is plain that my mother and you have made up your minds that Miss Lindsay shall not become my wife; you will probably leave no stone unturned which will keep us apart. I appreciate your motives, and though I think them unworthy, I know you think they're for my good; but I have made up my mind that she shall be my wife, and I will stop at nothing which will bring about that desirable consummation. Under these conditions obviously the more we are together the more friction there will be; and therefore, equally obviously, it is desirable that, for the present at least, I should not come to Holtye. But I promise you this, that when she's my wife I'll come--and I'll bring her with me.
human
You'll do nothing of the kind; if you ever do marry her you'll never set foot inside the door again.
gpt
You hear my mother, sir! Isn't that conclusive?
human
Jemima, what on earth was the use of saying a thing like that? Don't you know him better than to threaten?
gpt
What am I to say? what am I to do? Who'd have children!--they're the cause of suffering and sorrow to their mothers from their cradles to their graves! I wish I'd never had one!
human
My dear Jemima, I dare say, also, you wish you had two heads, but you haven't. For my part, I don't know that I regret the line he's taken up.
gpt
Harold! Do you wish to see him ruined?
human
Not at all; quite the other way; that's exactly it. In cases of this sort, when the man throws over the woman there's a certain amount of odium attached to his conduct--I realize that as clearly as he does; but when she throws him over that's another thing. Robert's pig-headed----
gpt
Like his father!
human
And his mother! he's no worse on that account, Jemima, not in the sense in which I use the word. You'll not move him, but you will the girl; there's your objective. In her way, unless I'm mistaken, she's as pig-headed as he is. He may use all the eloquence he has at his command, but, after what you said to her, and the way in which you put things, I doubt if she'll marry him though he pleads till he is dumb--they are a pair of Quixotes; when it comes to rank, downright Quixotry, she'll beat him on his own ground.
gpt
I shouldn't be surprised, she admitted,
human
I know I'm right, he said.
gpt
I haven't come to my time of life without being a student of human nature.