human
Most people have motives of some sort for their actions.
gpt
She accuses me to my face! I, that have been a parent to her, she charges with bad motives!
human
And now you prevaricate; you have no principles!
gpt
Uncle, you tire me. I want to go away.
human
Go you shall not! I will be answered. What are your intentions, Miss Keeldar?
gpt
In what respect?
human
In respect of matrimony?
gpt
To be quiet, and to do just as I please.
human
Just as you please! The words are to the last degree indecorous.
gpt
Mr. Sympson, I advise you not to become insulting. You know I will not bear that.
human
You read French. Your mind is poisoned with French novels. You have imbibed French principles.
gpt
The ground you are treading now returns a mighty hollow sound under your feet. Beware!
human
It will end in infamy, sooner or later. I have foreseen it all along.
gpt
Do you assert, sir, that something in which _I_ am concerned will end in infamy?
human
That it will--that it will. You said just now you would act as you please. You acknowledge no rules--no limitations.
gpt
Silly stuff, and vulgar as silly!
human
Regardless of decorum, you are prepared to fly in the face of propriety.
gpt
You tire me, uncle.
human
What, madam--_what_ could be your reasons for refusing Sir Philip?
gpt
At last there is another sensible question; I shall be glad to reply to it. Sir Philip is too young for me. I regard him as a boy. All his relations--his mother especially--would be annoyed if he married me. Such a step would embroil him with them. I am not his equal in the world's estimation.
human
Is that all?
gpt
Our dispositions are not compatible.
human
Why, a more amiable gentleman never breathed.
gpt
He is very amiable--very excellent--truly estimable; but _not my master_--not in one point. I could not trust myself with his happiness. I would not undertake the keeping of it for thousands. I will accept no hand which cannot hold me in check.
human
I thought you liked to do as you please. You are vastly inconsistent.
gpt
When I promise to obey, it shall be under the conviction that I can keep that promise. I could not obey a youth like Sir Philip. Besides, he would never command me. He would expect me always to rule--to guide--and I have no taste whatever for the office.
human
Not my husband; only my uncle.
gpt
Where is the difference?
human
There _is_ a slight difference--that is certain. And I know full well any man who wishes to live in decent comfort with me as a husband must be able to control me.
gpt
I wish you had a real tyrant.
human
A tyrant would not hold me for a day, not for an hour. I would rebel--break from him--defy him.
gpt
Are you not enough to bewilder one's brain with your self-contradiction?
human
It is evident I bewilder your brain.
gpt
You talk of Sir Philip being young. He is two-and-twenty.
human
My husband must be thirty, with the sense of forty.
gpt
You had better pick out some old man--some white-headed or bald-headed swain.
human
No, thank you.
gpt
You could lead some doting fool; you might pin him to your apron.
human
I might do that with a boy; but it is not my vocation. Did I not say I prefer a _master_--one in whose presence I shall feel obliged and disposed to be good; one whose control my impatient temper must acknowledge; a man whose approbation can reward, whose displeasure punish me; a man I shall feel it impossible not to love, and very possible to fear?
gpt
What is there to hinder you from doing all this with Sir Philip? He is a baronet--a man of rank, property, connections far above yours. If you talk of intellect, he is a poet--he writes verses; which you, I take it, cannot do, with all your cleverness.
human
Neither his title, wealth, pedigree, nor poetry avail to invest him with the power I describe. These are feather-weights; they want ballast. A measure of sound, solid, practical sense would have stood him in better stead with me.
gpt
You and Henry rave about poetry! You used to catch fire like tinder on the subject when you were a girl.
human
O uncle, there is nothing really valuable in this world, there is nothing glorious in the world to come that is not poetry!
gpt
Marry a poet, then, in God's name!
human
Show him me, and I will.
gpt
Sir Philip.
human
Not at all. You are almost as good a poet as he.
gpt
Madam, you are wandering from the point.
human
Indeed, uncle, I wanted to do so, and I shall be glad to lead you away with me. Do not let us get out of temper with each other; it is not worth while.
gpt
Out of temper, Miss Keeldar! I should be glad to know who is out of temper.
human
If you mean to insinuate that _I_ am, I consider that you are guilty of impertinence.
gpt
You will be soon, if you go on at that rate.
human
There it is! With your pert tongue you would try the patience of a Job.
gpt
I know I should.
human
No levity, miss! This is not a laughing matter. It is an affair I am resolved to probe thoroughly, convinced that there is mischief at the bottom. You described just now, with far too much freedom for your years and sex, the sort of individual you would prefer as a husband. Pray, did you paint from the life?
gpt
I shall have an answer to that question,
human
It was an historical picture, uncle, from several originals.
gpt
Several originals! Bless my heart!
human
I have been in love several times.
gpt
This is cynical.
human
With heroes of many nations.
gpt
What next----
human
And philosophers.
gpt
She is mad----
human
Don't ring the bell, uncle; you will alarm my aunt.
gpt
Your poor dear aunt, what a niece has she!
human
Once I loved Socrates.
gpt
Pooh! no trifling, ma'am.
human
I admired Themistocles, Leonidas, Epaminondas.
gpt
Miss Keeldar----
human
To pass over a few centuries, Washington was a plain man, but I liked him; but to speak of the actual present----
gpt
Ah! the actual present.
human
To quit crude schoolgirl fancies, and come to realities.
gpt
Realities! That is the test to which you shall be brought, ma'am.
human
To avow before what altar I now kneel--to reveal the present idol of my soul----
gpt
You will make haste about it, if you please. It is near luncheon time, and confess _you shall_.
human
Confess I must. My heart is full of the secret. It must be spoken. I only wish you were Mr. Helstone instead of Mr. Sympson; you would sympathize with me better.
gpt
Madam, it is a question of common sense and common prudence, not of sympathy and sentiment, and so on. Did you say it was Mr. Helstone?
human
Not precisely, but as near as may be; they are rather alike.
gpt
I will know the name; I will have particulars.
human
They positively _are_ rather alike. Their very faces are not dissimilar--a pair of human falcons--and dry, direct, decided both. But my hero is the mightier of the two. His mind has the clearness of the deep sea, the patience of its rocks, the force of its billows.
gpt
Rant and fustian!
human
I dare say he can be harsh as a saw-edge and gruff as a hungry raven.
gpt
Miss Keeldar, does the person reside in Briarfield? Answer me that.
human
Uncle, I am going to tell you; his name is trembling on my tongue.
gpt
Speak, girl!
human
That was well said, uncle. 'Speak, girl!' It is quite tragic. England has howled savagely against this man, uncle, and she will one day roar exultingly over him. He has been unscared by the howl, and he will be unelated by the shout.
gpt
I said she was mad. She is.
human
This country will change and change again in her demeanour to him; he will never change in his duty to her. Come, cease to chafe, uncle, I'll tell you his name.
gpt
You shall tell me, or----
human
Listen! Arthur Wellesley, Lord Wellington.
gpt
Ma'am, you _shall_ tell me _this_. Will your principles permit you to marry a man without money--a man below you?
human
Never a man below me.
gpt
Will you, Miss Keeldar, marry a poor man?
human
What right have you, Mr. Sympson, to ask me?
gpt
I insist upon knowing.
human
You don't go the way to know.
gpt
My family respectability shall not be compromised.
human
A good resolution; keep it.
gpt
Madam, it is _you_ who shall keep it.
human
Impossible, sir, since I form no part of your family.
gpt
Do you disown us?
human
I disdain your dictatorship.
gpt
Whom _will_ you marry, Miss Keeldar?
human
Not Mr. Sam Wynne, because I scorn him; not Sir Philip Nunnely, because I _only_ esteem him.
gpt
Whom have you in your eye?
human
Four rejected candidates.
gpt
Such obstinacy could not be unless you were under improper influence.
human
What do you mean? There are certain phrases potent to make my blood boil. Improper influence! What old woman's cackle is that?
gpt
Are you a young lady?
human
I am a thousand times better: I am an honest woman, and as such I will be treated.
gpt
Do you know (leaning mysteriously forward, and speaking with ghastly solemnity)--
human
Does it?
gpt
It does. Your name is in every mouth.
human
It honours the lips it crosses, and I wish to the gods it may purify them.
gpt
Is it _that_ person who has power to influence you?
human
Beyond any whose cause you have advocated.
gpt
Is it he you will marry?
human
He is handsome, and manly, and commanding.
gpt
You declare it to my face! The Flemish knave! the low trader!
human
He is talented, and venturous, and resolute. Prince is on his brow, and ruler in his bearing.
gpt
She glories in it! She conceals nothing! No shame, no fear!
human
When we speak the name of Moore, shame should be forgotten and fear discarded. The Moores know only honour and courage.
gpt
I say she is mad.
human
You have taunted me till my blood is up; you have worried me till I turn again.
gpt
That Moore is the brother of my son's tutor. Would you let the usher call you sister?
human
No, no; not for a province of possession, not for a century of life.
gpt
You cannot separate the husband from his family.
human
What then?
gpt
Mr. Louis Moore's sister you will be.
human
Mr. Sympson, I am sick at heart with all this weak trash; I will bear no more. Your thoughts are not my thoughts, your aims are not my aims, your gods are not my gods. We do not view things in the same light; we do not measure them by the same standard; we hardly speak in the same tongue. Let us part.
gpt
It is not, she resumed, much excited--
human
Another creed! I believe she is an infidel.
gpt
An infidel to _your_ religion, an atheist to _your_ god.
human
Your god, sir, is the world. In my eyes you too, if not an infidel, are an idolater. I conceive that you ignorantly worship; in all things you appear to me too superstitious. Sir, your god, your great Bel, your fish-tailed Dagon, rises before me as a demon. You, and such as you, have raised him to a throne, put on him a crown, given him a sceptre. Behold how hideously he governs! See him busied at the work he likes best--making marriages. He binds the young to the old, the strong to the imbecile. He stretches out the arm of Mezentius, and fetters the dead to the living. In his realm there is hatred--secret hatred; there is disgust--unspoken disgust; there is treachery--family treachery; there is vice--deep, deadly domestic vice. In his dominions children grow unloving between parents who have never loved; infants are nursed on deception from their very birth; they are reared in an atmosphere corrupt with lies. Your god rules at the bridal of kings; look at your royal dynasties! Your deity is the deity of foreign aristocracies; analyze the blue blood of Spain! Your god is the Hymen of France; what is French domestic life? All that surrounds him hastens to decay; all declines and degenerates under his sceptre. _Your_ god is a masked Death.
gpt
This language is terrible! My daughters and you must associate no longer, Miss Keeldar; there is danger in such companionship. Had I known you a little earlier--but, extraordinary as I thought you, I could not have believed----
human
Now, sir, do you begin to be aware that it is useless to scheme for me; that in doing so you but sow the wind to reap the whirlwind? I sweep your cobweb projects from my path, that I may pass on unsullied. I am anchored on a resolve you cannot shake. My heart, my conscience shall dispose of my hand--_they only_. Know this at last.
gpt
Never heard such language! he muttered again and again;
human
You are quite confused, sir. You had better withdraw, or I will.
gpt
We must leave this place; they must pack up at once.
human
Do not hurry my aunt and cousins; give them time.
gpt
No more intercourse; she's not proper.