human
Ada, she said,
gpt
Who is it from?
human
You must guess,
gpt
I am bad at guessing, I cannot guess. Is it Mr. Blake of Carnlough?
human
A great deal more interesting than that.
gpt
It can't be Captain Clayton,
human
Out of the full heart the mouth speaks. It is Captain Clayton.
gpt
What does he say, and what is the card? Give it me. It looks like an invitation.
human
Then it tells no story, because it is an invitation. It is from the officers of the West Bromwich regiment; and it asks us to a dance on the 20th of May.
gpt
But that's not from Captain Clayton.
human
Captain Clayton has written,--to me and not to you at all. You will be awfully jealous; and he says that I have twice as much courage as you.
gpt
That's true, at any rate,
human
Yes; and as the officers want all the girls at the ball to be at any rate as brave as themselves, that's a matter of great importance. He has asked me to go with a pair of pistols at my belt; but he is afraid that you would not shoot anybody.
gpt
May I not look at his letter?
human
Oh, no! That would not be at all proper. The letter is addressed to me, Miss Edith Jones. And as it has come from such a very dashing young man, and pays me particular compliments as to my courage, I don't think I shall let anybody else see it. It doesn't say anything special about beauty, which I think uncivil. If he had been writing to you, it would all have been about feminine loveliness of course.
gpt
What nonsense you do talk, Edith.
human
Well, there it is. As you will read it, you must. You'll be awfully disappointed, because there is not a word about you in it.
gpt
He says he hopes we shall both come.
human
Well, yes! Your existence is certainly implied in those words.
gpt
He explains why he writes to you instead of me.
human
Another actual reference to yourself, no doubt. But then he goes on to talk of my pluck.
gpt
He says it's a little higher than mine,
human
So it is; only a little higher pluck! Of course he means that I can't come near himself.
gpt
You wouldn't pretend to?
human
What! to be shot at like him, and to like it. I don't know any girl that can come quite up to that. Only if one becomes quite cock-sure, as he is, that one won't be hit, I don't see the courage.
gpt
Oh, I do!
human
But now about this ball? said Edith.
gpt
Here we are, lone damsels, making butter in our father's halls, and turning down the beds in the lady's chamber, unable to buy anything because we are boycotted, and with no money to buy it if we were not. And we can't stir out of the house lest we should be shot, and I don't suppose that such a thing as a pair of gloves is to be got anywhere.
human
I've got gloves for both of us,
gpt
Put by for a rainy day. What a girl you are for providing for difficulties! And you've got silk stockings too, I shouldn't wonder.
human
Of course I have.
gpt
And two ball dresses, quite new?
human
Not quite new. They are those we wore at Hacketstown before the flood.
gpt
Good gracious! How were Noah's daughters dressed? Or were they dressed at all?
human
You always turn everything into nonsense,
gpt
To be told I'm to wear a dress that had touched the heart of a patriarch, and had perhaps gone well nigh to make me a patriarch's bride! But taking it for granted that the ball dresses with all their appurtenances are here, fit to win the heart of a modern Captain instead of an old patriarch, is there no other reason why we should not go?
human
What reason?
gpt
There are reasons. You go to papa, and see whether he has not reasons. He will tell you that every shilling should be saved for Florian's school.
human
It won't take many shillings to go to Galway. We couldn't well write to Captain Clayton and tell him that we can't afford it.
gpt
People keep those reasons in the background, said Edith,
human
What have we done amiss?
gpt
Not you or I perhaps, said Edith;