human
This is the confession that I have to make, he began at last.
gpt
The news you have heard to-day respecting Miss Lloyd, has been in my possession not for a few days only, as you probably imagine, but for five long months.
human
Oh, Mr. Kelvin!
gpt
Dear me, Mr. Kelvin, what a very strange person you must be! cried her ladyship.
human
Are we to understand that this secret has been in your possession for five months, and that you have never spoken of it till now?
gpt
That is what I wish your ladyship to understand.
human
But what could your motive possibly be for keeping a piece of information of that kind to yourself for so long a time?
gpt
I will tell you what my motive was--tell you all. Eighteen months ago I made Miss Lloyd an offer of marriage.
human
Bless my heart! now who would have thought that?
gpt
Miss Lloyd rejected me. Six months later I tried my fortune again, but with no better result. It seemed to me--but I may have been mistaken--that in the second rejection there was an amount of disdain, of--of contempt almost--that stung me to the quick, and I vowed that if the opportunity were ever given me I would be revenged.
human
Oh, Mr. Kelvin, how you misunderstood me--misread me!
gpt
To seek revenge on a woman because she rejected you! That was very despicable, Mr. Kelvin.
human
I know it and feel it now. I did not know it or feel it at the time. My mind must have been warped by its own bitterness. So when an opportunity came, as I thought it had come when this secret respecting Miss Lloyd found its way into my keeping, I did not fail to seize it.
gpt
And I certainly fail to see in what way the keeping to yourself of this information respecting Miss Lloyd could avenge a fancied slight in times gone by.
human
There stands the temptress --pointing to Olive Deane--