human
was going to be a goose again. That would be a bore; but still she might make use of the friendly condition of mind which such susceptibility would produce. When her guests began to leave her, she spoke a word aside to him. She wanted his advice. Would he stay for a few minutes after the rest of the company? He did stay, and when all the others were gone she asked her daughter to leave them.
gpt
Hetta, she said,
human
I have something of business to communicate to Mr. Broune.
gpt
I'm afraid you didn't make much of Mr. Melmotte, she said smiling. He had seated himself on the end of a sofa, close to the arm-chair which she occupied. In reply, he only shook his head and laughed.
human
I saw how it was, and I was sorry for it; for he certainly is a wonderful man.
gpt
I suppose he is, but he is one of those men whose powers do not lie, I should say, chiefly in conversation. Though, indeed, there is no reason why he should not say the same of me;--for if he said little, I said less.
human
It didn't just come off, Lady Carbury suggested with her sweetest smile.
gpt
But now I want to tell you something. I think I am justified in regarding you as a real friend.
human
Certainly,
gpt
Stupid old goose! she said to herself.
human
And now to my story. You know my boy, Felix? The editor nodded his head.
gpt
He is engaged to marry that man's daughter.
human
Engaged to marry Miss Melmotte? Then Lady Carbury nodded her head.
gpt
Why, she is said to be the greatest heiress that the world has ever produced. I thought she was to marry Lord Nidderdale.
human
She has engaged herself to Felix. She is desperately in love with him,--as is he with her. She tried to tell her story truly, knowing that no advice can be worth anything that is not based on a true story;--but lying had become her nature.
gpt
Melmotte naturally wants her to marry the lord. He came here to tell me that if his daughter married Felix she should not have a penny.
human
Do you mean that he volunteered that,--as a threat?
gpt
Just so;--and he told me that he had come here simply with the object of saying so. It was more candid than civil, but we must take it as we get it.
human
He would be sure to make some such threat.
gpt
Exactly. That is just what I feel. And in these days young people are not often kept from marrying simply by a father's fantasy. But I must tell you something else. He told me that if Felix would desist, he would enable him to make a fortune in the city.
human
That's bosh,
gpt
Do you think it must be so;--certainly?
human
Yes, I do. Such an undertaking, if intended by Melmotte, would give me a worse opinion of him than I have ever held.
gpt
He did make it.
human
Then he did very wrong. He must have spoken with the purpose of deceiving.
gpt
You know my son is one of the Directors of that great American Railway. It was not just as though the promise were made to a young man who was altogether unconnected with him.
human
Sir Felix's name was put there, in a hurry, merely because he has a title, and because Melmotte thought he, as a young man, would not be likely to interfere with him. It may be that he will be able to sell a few shares at a profit; but, if I understand the matter rightly, he has no capital to go into such a business.
gpt
No;--he has no capital.
human
Dear Lady Carbury, I would place no dependence at all on such a promise as that.
gpt
You think he should marry the girl then in spite of the father?
human
Perhaps I should have begun by saying that Felix is all but prepared to take her off. She is quite ready to go. She is devoted to him. Do you think he would be wrong?
gpt
That is a question very hard to answer.
human
People do it every day. Lionel Goldsheiner ran away the other day with Lady Julia Start, and everybody visits them.
gpt
Oh yes, people do run away, and it all comes right. It was the gentleman had the money then, and it is said you know that old Lady Catchboy, Lady Julia's mother, had arranged the elopement herself as offering the safest way of securing the rich prize. The young lord didn't like it, so the mother had it done in that fashion.
human
There would be nothing disgraceful.
gpt
I didn't say there would;--but nevertheless it is one of those things a man hardly ventures to advise. If you ask me whether I think that Melmotte would forgive her, and make her an allowance afterwards,--I think he would.
human
I am so glad to hear you say that.
gpt
And I feel quite certain that no dependence whatever should be placed on that promise of assistance.
human
I quite agree with you. I am so much obliged to you, said Lady Carbury, who was now determined that Felix should run off with the girl.
gpt
You have been so very kind.
human
And now, he said,
gpt
I also have something to say to you.
human
And now I have something to say to you. Mr. Broune as he thus spoke to Lady Carbury rose up to his feet and then sat down again. There was an air of perturbation about him which was very manifest to the lady, and the cause and coming result of which she thought that she understood.
gpt
The susceptible old goose is going to do something highly ridiculous and very disagreeable. It was thus that she spoke to herself of the scene that she saw was prepared for her, but she did not foresee accurately the shape in which the susceptibility of the
human
would declare itself.
gpt
Lady Carbury, said Mr. Broune, standing up a second time,
human
No, indeed;--and therefore it is that we can afford to ourselves the luxury of being friends. Nothing but age enables men and women to know each other intimately.
gpt
I hope we know each other intimately at any rate,
human
Oh, yes;--and it is for that reason that I have come to you for advice. Had I been a young woman I should not have dared to ask you.
gpt
I don't see that. I don't quite understand that. But it has nothing to do with my present purpose. When I said that we were neither of us so young as we once were, I uttered what was a stupid platitude,--a foolish truism.
human
I did not think so,
gpt
Or would have been, only that I intended something further. Mr. Broune had got himself into a difficulty and hardly knew how to get out of it.
human
I was going on to say that I hoped we were not too old to--love.
gpt
Morning Breakfast Table intended to make her an offer of marriage. She knew, or thought she knew, that middle-aged men are fond of prating about love, and getting up sensational scenes. The falseness of the thing, and the injury which may come of it, did not shock her at all. Had she known that the editor professed to be in love with some lady in the next street, she would have been quite ready to enlist the lady in the next street among her friends that she might thus strengthen her own influence with Mr. Broune. For herself such make-belief of an improper passion would be inconvenient, and therefore to be avoided. But that any man, placed as Mr. Broune was in the world,--blessed with power, with a large income, with influence throughout all the world around him, courted, fÛted, feared and almost worshipped,--that he should desire to share her fortunes, her misfortunes, her struggles, her poverty and her obscurity, was not within the scope of her imagination. There was a homage in it, of which she did not believe any man to be capable,--and which to her would be the more wonderful as being paid to herself. She thought so badly of men and women generally, and of Mr. Broune and herself as a man and a woman individually, that she was unable to conceive the possibility of such a sacrifice.
human
Mr. Broune, she said,
gpt
I did not think that you would take advantage of the confidence I have placed in you to annoy me in this way.
human
To annoy you, Lady Carbury! The phrase at any rate is singular. After much thought I have determined to ask you to be my wife. That I should be--annoyed, and more than annoyed by your refusal, is a matter of course. That I ought to expect such annoyance is perhaps too true. But you can extricate yourself from the dilemma only too easily.
gpt
came upon her like a thunder-clap. It at once changed all her feelings towards him. She did not dream of loving him. She felt sure that she never could love him. Had it been on the cards with her to love any man as a lover, it would have been some handsome spendthrift who would have hung from her neck like a nether millstone. This man was a friend to be used,--to be used because he knew the world. And now he gave her this clear testimony that he knew as little of the world as any other man. Mr. Broune of the
human
Daily Breakfast Table