human
Well, Dragon, what do you think of it all?
gpt
I think you have been very wise, and very kind,
human
It had to be--eh?
gpt
Yes, I think it had to be, under the circumstances.
human
What do you mean by the circumstances?
gpt
When two young people are brought together in the way they have been, I think love is likely to come of it.
human
That's what the world will say, he said.
gpt
If it were only that, it wouldn't be very satisfactory, would it? Don't you see a deeper suitability in it than there is on the surface? It's what I have to look for, to make it bearable.
human
I think there is what you call a deeper suitability. I think Caroline will be happy in her marriage, when the time comes for it.
gpt
You're not very enthusiastic, Dragon. Is _she_ satisfied with your view of it?
human
I was the only person who knew anything until you came home. I sympathised with her. I saw how deep her love was. But I couldn't be enthusiastic until I knew how you would take it. I couldn't have said that you would have been wrong in asking at least for a term of probation, as you did in Beatrix's case.
gpt
But I didn't ask for it--because I trusted Caroline to have faced all the objections she would know I should feel, and just exactly _not_ to have allowed herself to fall in love owing to what you call the circumstances. She would know what she wanted, I said to myself. And she wouldn't change, whatever I did or said. It wouldn't have come to an end of itself, as Beatrix's affair did. I hope you're not going to say that my reasoning was wrong. It hasn't been very easy to sink all my own ideas--of fitness--of what one would expect in marriage for a girl like Caroline.
human
I think you've been entirely right; more right than if you'd stood out, or even questioned it. It would have made no difference, and you'd have had to give way in the end. Nothing you could have done or said would have so added to dear Caroline's happiness as what you have said and done. She was dreading more than anything a separation in spirit from you. I know that, though she said little about it. Now that fear is removed she is blissfully happy. Nothing that anybody else says will matter to her at all.
gpt
And yet you don't seem to think I reached my conclusions in the right way.
human
What I think is that she couldn't have reasoned it out in the way you thought she had. A woman doesn't reason like that--or at least she doesn't. It was just her heart that guided her.
gpt
But she did reason. She told me that if he hadn't been what she has found out for herself that he is, and she'd been inclined to fall in love with him--just in the way you say she has, with gratitude, and pity, working in her--I suppose that's what you mean--she'd have resisted it.
human
I think she couldn't have fallen in love with him, unless he'd shown himself to her as he has. There wouldn't be anything, for _her_, to fall in love with. It was her heart prompted her all the time. But of course she has tried hard to see it all in the light that you have taught her to follow. She would want to satisfy you that she hadn't given her love lightly. She wouldn't have wanted to satisfy herself. She would have known that she was right.
gpt
Do you think she's right, Dragon?
human
Yes, I do.
gpt
And you're not disappointed that this has come about?
human
Not for her sake. I am for yours. You would have expected her to shine in the world you belong to, and that she has belonged to. You must suffer somewhat in your just pride in her. But it's a far bigger thing to be able to sink that, and to want only her happiness, and to trust her to know where it lies. You'll certainly have your reward, though it may take some time to get over the disappointment. She'll love and trust you, as she couldn't have done if you had stood out ever so little.
gpt
Well, you're very comforting, Dragon. Stimulating too. I told Worthing something of what I'd gone through about it, last night, and said that I shouldn't say as much to anybody else. But you're different. I shall have to stick up to Katharine Handsworth and Mary Grafton, and all the rest of them, when my own feeling will be much the same as theirs. I want something to support me.
human
Yes. But I think it will all die down sooner than you think. All women are at heart sympathetic with a love match, you know. And they love Caroline. They won't want to make _her_ feel that she is lowering herself.
gpt
What about B?
human
Caroline has written to her, and to Barbara and Bunting. Whatever B has to say will be said to you, not to Caroline.
gpt
B has been more critical of Maurice than anybody, you know.
human
She will want that forgotten.
gpt
What are Caroline's ideas about getting married? She hasn't said anything to me about that yet.
human
She has said very little to me. Having her engagement just on the right footing has been enough for her.
gpt
Has she said anything at all?
human
She would expect to wait, I think, until he got some sort of place; then she would not mind in how small a way they began.
gpt
Well, there's no reason why they should begin in such a very small way. If I accept Maurice as the right husband for her, I should naturally do for her what I did for B.
human
They could marry at any time on that, she said.
gpt
And he will be earning something in a few months. Do you want them to marry soon?
human
Well now, I'll make a clean breast of it to you, my dear Dragon. As long as they are not married, I shan't be able to prevent myself having a sort of hope that they won't be, after all.
gpt
You will have more pleasure of her now, she said,
human
That's what I've told myself. She will be very careful, I know, to let it make as little difference between her and me as possible. But it can't be quite the same as it has been. She has given her love to him, and I must be second where I've been first. But when she's once married he'll have his place and I shall have mine. We shan't clash in any way. I'm happier about B now than I was for the month or two before she was married.
gpt
I think B was selfish, she said at once.
human
Caroline won't be like that. Her love is as deep as B's--deeper, for she has a deeper nature--but it will not carry her away in the same way. She will never hurt others who love her.
gpt
I should like to see her happily married, you know. She'll be more than she's ever been. It will complete her. She's one of the _right_ people, Dragon. The deeper you go down, the more you find.
human
Yes, she's like that, the dear child. And she has gained greatly in character since we came to live here.
gpt
You've seen that, have you?
human
Oh, yes. It's the good simplicity in her.
gpt
That's what she says she sees in him; it's where they come together. Well, he'll have his regular job here, next year. It won't be much, but with what I shall give her they could begin. They could have Stone Cottage. Do you think Caroline has thought of that at all?
human
She hasn't said anything about it. But it would be just the right beginning for them; and it would be delightful for us to have her so near.
gpt
We should have to think of it as having _them_ so near, shouldn't we? It would mean a lot to me, and to you too, and the children, to have her here; but--. Well, I've said nothing about it to her or to him yet. They may have some idea that they ought to wait till he can do it all, or most of it, for her. I don't want to claim more than is my right in her, Dragon. I've had a bit of a lesson about that with B, you know.
human
I think he would have no right to object to her doing more to support their home than he can at first. It is just where the difference, that you can't get over, comes in. Caroline ought not to be kept waiting because he is not the sort of young man she would have been expected to marry. What you would give her would help in any case, as it helps with Beatrix. It is only that in this case it would help much more. It would be just one of the many things she would bring him that he is very fortunate to get with her. It would be a test of the large simplicity she sees in him if he took it gratefully, and without question.
gpt
Why, Dragon, he said.
human
I believe, after all, you take Worthing's view of it--that it's infernal impudence of him to expect to get Caroline at all.
gpt
I have every hope that he will prove worthy of her,
human
Darling old Daddy, you _are_ good to us, she said.
gpt
I do want to begin soon, but I didn't know whether it would be possible. Stone Cottage will be just perfect for us; we shall be near you, which will be lovely. I must go and tell Maurice at once.
human
You've given me Caroline, he said,