human
Am I to understand, said Mr. Rugge, in a whisper, when Waife had drawn him to the farthest end of the inner room, with the bed-curtains between their position and the door, deadening the sound of their voices,--
gpt
Mr. Rugge, replied Waife, deprecatingly,
human
I have no engagement with you beyond an experimental trial. We were free on both sides for three months,--you to dismiss us any day, we to leave you. The experiment does not please its: we thank you and depart.
gpt
That is not the truth. I said I was free to dismiss you both, if the child did not suit. You, poor helpless creature, could be of no use. But I never heard you say you were to be free too. Stands to reason not! Put my engage ments at a Waife's mercy! I, Lorenzo Rugge! --stuff! But I am a just man, and a liberal man, and if you think you ought to have a higher salary, if this ungrateful proceeding is only, as I take it, a strike for wages, I will meet you. Juliet Araminta does play better than I could have supposed; and I'll conclude an engagement on good terms, as we were to have done if the experiment answered, for three years. Waife shook his head.
human
You are very good, Mr. Rugge, but it is not a strike. My little girl does not like the life at any price; and, since she supports me, I am bound to please her. Besides, said the actor, with a stiffer manner,
gpt
Oh, don't you? No more do I. But I am a Briton, and I have the spirit of one. You had better not make an enemy of me.
human
I am above the necessity of making enemies. I have an enemy ready made in myself.
gpt
I dare say you have! A bad conscience, sir. How would you like your past life looked into, and blabbed out?
human
The last four years of it have been spent in your service, Mr. Rugge. If their record had been blabbed out for my benefit, there would not have been a dry eye in the house.
gpt
I disdain your sneer. When a scorpion nursed at my bosom sneers at me, I leave it to its own reflections. But I don't speak of the years in which that scorpion has been enjoying a salary and smoking canaster at my expense. I refer to an earlier dodge in its checkered existence. Ha, sir, you wince! I suspect I can find out something about you which would--
human
Would what?
gpt
Oh, lower your tone, sir; no bullying me. I suspect! I have good reason for suspicion; and if you sneak off in this way, and cheat me out of my property in Juliet Araminta, I will leave no stone unturned to prove what I suspect: look to it, slight man! Come, I don't wish to quarrel; make it up, and (drawing out his pocket-book)
human
And hang me; sir, if you shall have the girl!