human
You do but echo my own thoughts,
gpt
Which merely serves to prove still more clearly the affinity that exists between us.
human
Ah, but have you sufficiently considered what you are doing--what risks you may be running in proffering to marry a nameless girl--for how can I be sure what my name really is?--about whose parentage and antecedents you know absolutely nothing? For aught you or I can tell to the contrary, there may be some dreadful disgrace hanging over my birth, or attaching itself in some way to those who have thought well to cast me off. Think what it would be if, after your marriage, something should come to light which would make you ashamed of your wife, something which would cause you to wish you had never met her! That would be enough to make her sorry she had ever been born, while, as for you----
gpt
My dearest, are you not making a mountain out of a molehill? he said.
human
It is a way your sex sometimes has. For my own part, I do not for one moment suppose that there is any disgrace, as you choose to term it, connected with your birth or parentage, or any secret which, if made known to the world to-morrow, you would have the slightest cause to be ashamed of. Such cases as yours are by no means so infrequent as you seem to think, and the explanation, when one is forthcoming, is usually of a very commonplace kind indeed. My advice to you is, to think as little as may be about that which Mr. Brancker has deemed it his duty to tell you--in fact, to treat it as though you had never heard it. You shake your head. Well, then, to adopt for the moment your own extreme view of the matter, do you, can you think that whatever may happen, whatever secret the future may bring to light, such a revelation can or will influence my love in the slightest degree, or make me care for you one jot less than I care for you now? If you do think so, you must indeed have a contemptible opinion of me.
gpt
No, no, protested Hermia;
human
The greatest treasure a woman can bestow on a man, said Clem, as if he knew exactly what she would have said.
gpt
No, it is not likely--indeed, quite the reverse. All which merely brings us round to the point we started from. As I said at first, it would have mattered little or nothing, as far as I am concerned, if you had never told me all this. So now, to change the subject----
human
But about the money, said Hermia, two or three minutes later, as she stood before the chimney-glass, trying to put her hair to rights, which, owing to some accident, had become considerably disarranged--
gpt
My dearest and best, it was out of the question that you should have acted otherwise. Whatever your uncle may choose to say, the money is not yours, but his. If it pleases him to let it accumulate in your name, well and good; no one can hinder him from doing as he likes in the matter, but his doing so in nowise alters the facts of the case. The money remains his just the same; he cannot give you what you are not willing to take, and this is a kind of gift, or so it seems to me, which it is impossible for you to accept.
human
I was sure you would say so; I was sure you would think exactly as I do in the matter, said Hermia, with shining eyes.
gpt
What will uncle and aunt say now?
human
Which reminds me that I have not yet had my little interview with your uncle, said Clem.
gpt
But as I can't stay much longer--for a doctor's time is never his own--and as one should never omit to gather honey while one has the chance, he added artfully,
human
Indeed, sir, but you will do no such thing, cried Hermia.
gpt
I begin to discern a certain selfishness of disposition about you, which I trust you will do your utmost to check while it is yet in the bud. I will ask Uncle John to come at once, in case any of your poor patients should fancy you are neglecting them,
human
There is no one in the wide world, she said, with fervor,
gpt
On that point I am quite sure, replied Clem, earnestly,