human
It is most misleading, she pointed out, to her scoffing brothers.
gpt
One would suppose that marrying was the simplest thing in the world--nothing perilous, nothing to object to about it. A man proposes to you as if he were asking you for the sixth waltz, only his manner is perfervid. And my belief is that half the girls who accept don't realize that they are agreeing to anything much more serious.
human
The more fools they!
gpt
True; but it really is most bewildering. Claims, obligations, all the ugly sides of the affair are hidden away; the man is at his best, full of refinement and courtesy and unselfishness. And if he persuades the girl that he really does care for her, how can she suppose that she cannot trust her future to him--if he loves her? And yet she can't!
human
How can a man suppose that one girl is going to be different from every other girl?
gpt
Different, you mean, from what he _supposes_ every other girl to be, Algitha corrected.
human
It's his own look-out if he's such a fool.
gpt
I believe Hadria married because she was sick of being the family consolation,
human
Well, of course, the hope of escape was very tempting. You boys don't know what she went through. We all regret her marriage to Hubert Temperley--though between ourselves, not more than _he_ regrets it, if I am not much mistaken--but it is very certain that she could not have gone on living at home much longer, as things were.
gpt
I think mother would have died if she had,
human
Hadria _was_ awkwardly placed,
gpt
Do you remember that evening in the garret when we all told her what we thought?
human
She said then that if the worst came to the worst, she would simply run away. What could prevent her?
gpt
That wretched sister of his! cried Algitha.
human
If it hadn't been for her, the marriage would never have taken place. She got the ear of mother after the engagement, and I am certain it was through her influence that mother hurried the wedding on so. If only there had been a little more time, it could have been prevented. And Henriette knew that. She is as _knowing_----!
gpt
I wish we had strangled her.
human
I shall never forget, Algitha went on,
gpt
What made her so anxious for the marriage beats me, cried Ernest.
human
It was not a particularly good match from a mercenary point of view.
gpt
She thought us an interesting family to marry into, suggested Fred,
human
Then she must be greatly disappointed at seeing so little of us!