human
May I ask you a question, and will you pardon me for its plainness?
gpt
The creature is never going to confide in me! He will win me over if he do, he looks so like his mother! And what shall I say to Adeliza!
human
Is your niece engaged to Goodwood or not?
gpt
Besides, if not engaged to Goodwood actually to-night, Val would be, if she liked, to-morrow, or the next day, or before the week was over at the furthest--would it be such a falsehood after all? She colored, she fidgeted her fan, she longed for the little fib!--how terribly tempting it looked! But Lady Marabout is a bad hand at prevarication, and she hates a lie, and she answered bravely, with a regretful twinge,
human
Engaged? No; not----
gpt
Not yet! Thank God!
human
Really, Major Cardonnel, I do not see why you----
gpt
Should thank Heaven for it? Yet I do--it is a reprieve. Lady Marabout, you and my mother were close friends; will you listen to me for a second, while we are not overheard? That I have loved your niece--had the madness to love her, if you will--you cannot but have seen; that she has given me some reasonable encouragement it is no coxcombry to say, though I have known from the first what a powerful rival I had against me; but that Valencia loves me and does not love him, I believe--nay, I _know_. I have said nothing decided to her; when all hangs on a single die we shrink from hazarding the throw. But I must know my fate to-night. If she come to you--as girls will, I believe, sometimes--for countenance and counsel, will you stand my friend?--will you, for the sake of my friendship with your son, your friendship with my mother, support my cause, and uphold what I believe Valencia's heart will say in my favor?