human
Ah! there you are, at a pretty time of night! How beautiful you look, Val! I wish my wife may be half as pretty!
gpt
I am delighted to hear of my lord's good sport. He will choose to be in a good humour, I suppose.
human
Good humour? _ça va sans dire_! Three stone of fish in three hours!
gpt
Then his little sister is going to do a very foolish thing, and wants his leave to do it; which if he will grant, she will let him do as many foolish things as he likes without scolding him, as long as they both shall live.
human
Do it then, I beg. What is it? Do you want to go up Snowdon with Headley to-morrow, to see the sun rise? You'll kill yourself!
gpt
No, said Valencia very quietly;
human
I only want to marry him.
gpt
Marry him?
human
Don't try to look majestic, my dear little brother, for you are really not tall enough; as it is, you have only hooked all your flies into your dressing-gown.
gpt
I'll be shot if you shall!
human
You may be shot just as surely, whether I do or not, said she softly; and she knelt down before him, and put her arms round him, and laid her head upon his lap.
gpt
There, you can't run away now; so you must hear me quietly. And you know it may not be often that we shall be together again thus; and oh, Scoutbush! brother! if anything was to happen to you--I only say if--in this horrid war, you would not like to think that you had refused the last thing your little Val asked for, and that she was miserable and lonely at home.
human
I'll be shot if you shall!
gpt
Yes, miserable and lonely; you gone away, and mon Saint Père too: and Lucia, she has her children--and I am so wild and weak--I must have some one to guide me and protect me--indeed I must!
human
Why, that was what I always said! That was why I wanted you so to marry this season! Why did not you take Chalkclere, or half-a-dozen good matches who were dying for you, and not this confounded black parson, of all birds in the air?
gpt
I did not take Lord Chalkclere for the very reason that I do take Mr. Headley. I want a husband who will guide me, not one whom I must guide.
human
Guide? said Scoutbush bitterly, with one of those little sparks of practical shrewdness which sometimes fell from him.
gpt
Aye, I see how it is! These intriguing rascals of parsons--they begin as father confessors, like so many popish priests; and one fine morning they blossom out into lovers, and so they get all the pretty women, and all the good fortunes,--the sneaking, ambitious, low-bred--
human
He is neither! You are unjust, Scoutbush! cried Valencia, looking up.
gpt
He is the very soul of honour. He might be rich now, and have had a fine living, if he had not been too conscientious to let his uncle buy him one; and that offended his uncle, and he would allow him nothing. And as for being low-bred, he is a gentleman, as you know; and if his uncle be in business, his mother is a lady, and he will be well enough off one day.
human
You seem to know a great deal about his affairs.
gpt
He told me all, months ago--before there was any dream of this. And, my dear, she went on, relapsing into her usual arch tone,
human
You scheming little Irish rogue! But I won't! I've said it, and I won't. It's enough to have one sister married to a poor poet, without having another married to a poor parson. Oh! what have I done that I should be bothered in this way? Isn't it bad enough to be a landlord, and to have an estate, and be responsible for a lot of people that will die of the cholera, and have to vote in the house about a lot of things I don't understand, or anybody else, I believe, but that, over and above, I must be the head of the family, and answerable to all the world for whom my mad sisters many? I won't, I say!