human
I can't do it, Joe; and I won't. So don't ask me.
gpt
Wait a bit--wait a bit, Lotty, my love. Don't be in a hurry, now. Don't say rash things, there's a good girl. Joe spoke quite softly, as if he were not the least angry, but, perhaps, a little hurt.
human
There's not a bit of a hurry. You needn't decide to-day, nor yet to-morrow.
gpt
I couldn't do it, she said.
human
Oh, it's a dreadful, wicked thing even to ask me. And only five weeks to-morrow since we married!
gpt
Lotty, my dear, let us be reasonable. He still spoke quite softly.
human
If we are not to go on like other people; if we are to be continually bothering our heads about honesty, and that rubbish, we shall be always down in the world. How do other people make money and get on? By humbug, my dear. By humbug. As for you, a little play-acting is nothing.
gpt
But I am not the man's daughter, and my own father's alive and well.
human
Look here, Lotty. You are always grumbling about the music-halls.
gpt
Well, and good reason to grumble. If you heard those ballet girls talk, and see how they go on at the back, you'd grumble. As for the music-- She laughed, as if against her will.
human
If anybody had told me six months ago--me, that used to go to the Cathedral Service every afternoon--that I should be a Lion Masher at a music-hall and go on dressed in tights, I should have boxed his ears for impudence.
gpt
Why, you don't mean to tell me, Lotty, that you wish you had stuck to the moldy old place, and gone on selling music over the counter?
human
Well, then, perhaps I do.
gpt
No, no, Lotty; your husband cannot let you say that.
human
My husband can laugh and talk with barmaids. That makes him happy.
gpt
Lotty, he said,
human
Applaud! As if that did any good! And me in tights!
gpt
As for the tights, Joe replied with dignity,
human
My husband's approval!
gpt
Of course, he went on,
human
I should like to sing sometimes, to sing good music, at the great concerts. That's what I thought I was going to do.
gpt
You shall; you shall sing as little or as often as you like. 'A sailor's wife a sailor's star should be.' You shall be a great lady, Lotty, and you shall just command your own line. Wait a bit, and you shall have your own carriage, and your own beautiful house, and go to as many balls as you like among the countesses and the swells.
human
Oh, Joe! she laughed.
gpt
Why, if we were as rich as anything, I should never get ladies to call upon me. And as for you, no one would ever take you to be a gentleman, you know.
human
Why, what do you call me, now?
gpt
Never mind. I know a gentleman when I see one. Go on with your nonsense about being rich.
human
I shall make you rich, Lotty, whether you like it or not,
gpt
Not by wickedness,
human
I've got there, he pulled a bundle of papers out of his pockets,
gpt
I'm not the rightful heiress, and I'm not the woman to step forward, Joe; so don't you think it.
human
I've been to-day, Joe continued,
gpt
What does it matter, Joe, how much it is, if it is neither yours nor mine?
human
It matters this: that it ought all to be mine.
gpt
How can that be, if it was not left to you?
human
The money was left to a certain man and to his heirs. That man is dead. His heiress should have succeeded, but she was kept out of her rights. She is dead, and I am her cousin, and entitled to all her property, because she made no will.
gpt
Is that gospel truth, Joe? Is she dead? Are you sure?
human
Quite sure, he replied.
gpt
Dead as a door-nail.
human
Is that the way you got the papers?
gpt
That's the way, Lotty.
human
Then why not go to a lawyer and make him take up the case for you, and honestly get your own?
gpt
You don't know law, my dear, or you wouldn't talk nonsense about lawyers. There are two ways. One is to go myself to the present unlawful possessor and claim the whole. It's a woman; she would be certain to refuse, and then we should go to law, and very likely lose it all, although the right is on our side. The other way is for some one--say you--to go to her and say: 'I am that man's daughter. Here are my proofs. Here are all his papers. Give me back my own.' That you could do in the interests of justice, though I own it is not the exact truth.
human
And if she refuses then?
gpt
She can't refuse, with the man's daughter actually standing before her. She might make a fuss for a bit. But she would have to give in at last.
human
Joe, consider. You have got some papers, whatever they may contain. Suppose that it is all true that you have told me--
gpt
Lotty, my dear, when did I ever tell you an untruth?
human
When did you ever tell me the truth, my dear? Don't talk wild. Suppose it is all true, how are you going to make out where your heiress has been all this time, and what she has been doing?
gpt
Trust me for that.
human
I trust you for making up something or other, but--oh, Joe, you little think, you clever people, how seldom you succeed in deceiving any one.
gpt
I've got such a story for you, Lotty, as would deceive anybody. Listen now. It's part truth, and part--the other thing. Your father--
human
My father, poor dear man, Lotty interrupted,
gpt
Hang it! the girl's father, then. He died in America, where he went under another name, and you were picked up by strangers and reared under that name, in complete ignorance of your own family. All which is true and can be proved.
human
Who brought her up?
gpt
People in America. I'm one of 'em.
human
Who is to prove that?
gpt
I am. I am come to England on purpose. I am her guardian.
human
Who is to prove that you are the girl's guardian?
gpt
I shall find somebody to prove that.
human
And suppose they ask me questions?
gpt
Don't answer 'em. You know very little. The papers were only found the other day. You are not expected to know anything.
human
Where was the real girl?
gpt
With her grandfather.
human
Where was the grandfather?
gpt
What does that matter? he replied;
human
I will tell you afterward.
gpt
When did the real girl die?
human
That, too, I will tell you afterward.
gpt
Let us be plain, Joe.
human
You can never be plain, my dear, he replied with the smile of a lover, not a husband;
gpt
Fine words, she said,
human
A very good sort of a man, he said.
gpt
You've got a jolly sailor--an officer and a gentleman. Come now, what have you got to say to this? Can't you be satisfied with an officer and a gentleman?
human
Good looks and fine words, his wife went on.
gpt
Well, and now I've got to keep you, and if you could make me sing in a dozen halls every night, you would, and spend the money on yourself--joyfully you would.
human
We would spend it together, my dear. Don't turn rusty, Lotty.