human
You see, I teach them to get through a difficulty one way or the other. Between you and me, he added seriously,
gpt
I perceive a very different world rising round the next generation from that in which I first went forth and took my pleasure. I shall rear my boys accordingly. Rich noblemen must nowadays be useful men; and if they can't leap over briers, they must scramble through them. Don't you agree with me?
human
Yes, heartily.
gpt
Marriage makes a man much wiser, said the marquis, after a pause.
human
I smile now to think how often I sighed at the thought of growing old. Now I reconcile myself to the gray hairs without dreams of a wig, and enjoy youth still; for, pointing to his sons,
gpt
He has very nearly found out the secret of the saffron bag now, said my father, pleased and rubbing his hands, when I repeated this talk with Lord Castleton.
human
But I fear poor Trevanion, he added, with a compassionate change of countenance,
gpt
You must talk to her, sir.
human
I will, said my father, angrily,
gpt
What was that, sir?
human
Only to throw a baby into the River Maldon because it had sucked dry five wet-nurses besides the mother, and must therefore be a changeling. Why, that ambition of hers would suck dry all the mother's milk in the genus mammalian. And such a withered, rickety, malign little changeling too! She shall fling it into the river, by all that is holy! cried my father; and, suiting the action to the word, away into the pond went the spectacles he had been rubbing indignantly for the last three minutes.
gpt
Papoe! faltered my father, aghast, while the Cyprinidae, mistaking the dip of the spectacles for an invitation to dinner, came scudding up to the bank.
human
It is all your fault, said Mr. Caxton, recovering himself.
gpt
Get me the new tortoise-shell spectacles and a large slice of bread. You see that when fish are reduced to a pond they recognize a benefactor, which they never do when rising at flies or groping for worms in the waste world of a river. Hem!--a hint for the Ulverstones. Besides the bread and the spectacles, just look out and bring me the old black-letter copy of Saint Anthony's 'Sermon to Fishes.'