human
Julia, I did think that you would at any rate have asked me to your second ball.
gpt
Of course you would have been asked if you had been up in Bruton Street. You know that as well as I do. It would have been a matter of course.
human
What difference does a house make?
gpt
But the people in a house make a great deal of difference, my dear. I don't want to quarrel with you, my dear; but I can't know the Melmottes.
human
Who asks you?
gpt
You are with them.
human
Do you mean to say that you can't ask anybody to your house without asking everybody that lives with that person? It's done every day.
gpt
Somebody must have brought you.
human
I would have come with the Primeros, Julia.
gpt
I couldn't do it. I asked Damask and he wouldn't have it. When that great affair was going on in February, we didn't know much about the people. I was told that everybody was going and therefore I got Sir Damask to let me go. He says now that he won't let me know them; and after having been at their house I can't ask you out of it, without asking them too.
human
I don't see it at all, Julia.
gpt
I'm very sorry, my dear, but I can't go against my husband.
human
Everybody goes to their house, said Georgiana, pleading her cause to the best of her ability.
gpt
The Duchess of Stevenage has dined in Grosvenor Square since I have been there.
human
We all know what that means,
gpt
And people are giving their eyes to be asked to the dinner party which he is to give to the Emperor in July;--and even to the reception afterwards.
human
To hear you talk, Georgiana, one would think that you didn't understand anything, said Lady Monogram.
gpt
People are going to see the Emperor, not to see the Melmottes. I dare say we might have gone,--only I suppose we shan't now because of this row.
human
I don't know what you mean by a row, Julia.
gpt
Well;--it is a row, and I hate rows. Going there when the Emperor of China is there, or anything of that kind, is no more than going to the play. Somebody chooses to get all London into his house, and all London chooses to go. But it isn't understood that that means acquaintance. I should meet Madame Melmotte in the park afterwards and not think of bowing to her.
human
I should call that rude.
gpt
Very well. Then we differ. But really it does seem to me that you ought to understand these things as well as anybody. I don't find any fault with you for going to the Melmottes,--though I was very sorry to hear it; but when you have done it, I don't think you should complain of people because they won't have the Melmottes crammed down their throats.
human
Nobody has wanted it, said Georgiana sobbing. At this moment the door was opened, and Sir Damask came in.
gpt
I'm talking to your wife about the Melmottes, she continued, determined to take the bull by the horns.
human
I'm staying there, and--I think it--unkind that Julia--hasn't been--to see me. That's all.
gpt
How'd you do, Miss Longestaffe? She doesn't know them.