human
We were all alarmed, of course, when you went away without telling anybody where you were going.
gpt
Grandfather 'd been that cruel to me that I couldn't tell him.
human
He wanted you to keep your word to an old friend of yours.
gpt
To pull me all about by the hairs of my head wasn't the way to make a girl keep her word;--was it, Mr. Carbury? That's what he did, then;--and Sally Hockett, who is there, heard it. I've been good to grandfather, whatever I may have been to John Crumb; and he shouldn't have treated me like that. No girl 'd like to be pulled about the room by the hairs of her head, and she with her things all off, just getting into bed.
human
as he would say himself, if she did not go back.
gpt
As you found yourself obliged to run away, said Roger,
human
I'm glad that you should be here; but you don't mean to stay here always?
gpt
I don't know,
human
You must think of your future life. You don't want to be always your aunt's maid.
gpt
Oh dear, no.
human
It would be very odd if you did, when you may be the wife of such a man as Mr. Crumb.
gpt
Oh, Mr. Crumb! Everybody is going on about Mr. Crumb. I don't like Mr. Crumb, and I never will like him.
human
Now look here, Ruby; I have come to speak to you very seriously, and I expect you to hear me. Nobody can make you marry Mr. Crumb, unless you please.
gpt
Nobody can't, of course, sir.
human
But I fear you have given him up for somebody else, who certainly won't marry you, and who can only mean to ruin you.
gpt
Nobody won't ruin me, said Ruby.
human
A girl has to look to herself, and I mean to look to myself.
gpt
I'm glad to hear you say so, but being out at night with such a one as Sir Felix Carbury is not looking to yourself. That means going to the devil head foremost.
human
I ain't a going to the devil,
gpt
But you will, if you put yourself into the hands of that young man. He's as bad as bad can be. He's my own cousin, and yet I'm obliged to tell you so. He has no more idea of marrying you than I have; but were he to marry you, he could not support you. He is ruined himself, and would ruin any young woman who trusted him. I'm almost old enough to be your father, and in all my experience I never came across so vile a young man as he is. He would ruin you and cast you from him without a pang of remorse. He has no heart in his bosom;--none. Ruby had now given way altogether, and was sobbing with her apron to her eyes in one corner of the room.
human
That's what Sir Felix Carbury is, said the Squire, standing up so that he might speak with the more energy, and talk her down more thoroughly.
gpt
And if I understand it rightly, he continued,
human
I don't care about any man's coat, said Ruby;
gpt
I don't care about any man's coat.
human
Words to say! what do words matter? He loves you. He loves you after that fashion that he wants to make you happy and respectable, not to make you a bye-word and a disgrace. Ruby struggled hard to make some opposition to the suggestion, but found herself to be incapable of speech at the moment.
gpt
He thinks more of you than of himself, and would give you all that he has. What would that other man give you? If you were once married to John Crumb, would any one then pull you by the hairs of your head? Would there be any want then, or any disgrace?
human
There ain't no disgrace, Mr. Carbury.
gpt
No disgrace in going about at midnight with such a one as Felix Carbury? You are not a fool, and you know that it is disgraceful. If you are not unfit to be an honest man's wife, go back and beg that man's pardon.
human
John Crumb's pardon! No!
gpt
Oh, Ruby, if you knew how highly I respect that man, and how lowly I think of the other; how I look on the one as a noble fellow, and regard the other as dust beneath my feet, you would perhaps change your mind a little.