human
Lady Dudgeon is curious to know my motive for doing that which I am said to have done. Her curiosity shall be satisfied. My motive was my love for Matthew Kelvin. He loved me once, or I dreamt that he did. A passing fancy on his part, perhaps--soon forgotten by him, but never by me. I have never ceased to love him, I would give my life for him at this moment. When I found how persistently his heart was set on Miss Lloyd, I thought--foolishly enough, no doubt--that if I could have him all to myself--if I could see him daily, hourly--if he were ill and I could nurse him--I might perhaps succeed in winning back the love which I could not believe had ever been wholly lost to me. He was taken ill, and I nursed him. But to think that I would have let him die--the man whom I loved with my whole heart and soul--is utterly absurd! I understood too well what I was about to fear any such catastrophe. I could bear to see him suffer, simply because I loved him so much, and wanted him so wholly and entirely to myself. But I would not have let him die. Your ladyship looks horrified. Be thankful, madam, that your affections move in a less erratic orbit--that yours is a heart whose equable pulsations could never be quickened as mine have been. But I--I was not born in the frigid zone. Love to me is existence itself--for what is life without love?
gpt
What a dreadful person! We might all have been murdered in our beds!
human
Matthew! said Olive, passionately, advancing a step nearer her cousin,