human
Sweet flowers, thought she,
gpt
--Her eye presently fell upon the spot on which, till the day before, had stood her aviary. Poor Kate had sent it, as a present, to Lady De la Zouch, and it was then at Fotheringham Castle. What a flutter there used to be among the beautiful little creatures, when they perceived Kate's approach! She turned her head away. She felt oppressed, and attributed it to the closeness of the conservatory--the strength of the odors given out by the numerous flowers; but it was sorrow that oppressed her; and she was in a state at once of mental excitement and physical exhaustion. The last few weeks had been an interval of exquisite suffering. She could not be happy alone, nor yet bear the company of her brother and sister-in-law, or their innocent and lovely children. Quitting the conservatory with a look of lingering fondness, she passed along into the house with a hurried step, and escaped, unobserved, to her chamber--the very chamber in which the reader obtained his first distant and shadowy glimpse of her; and in which, now entering it silently and suddenly, the door being only closed, not shut, she observed her faithful little maid Harriet, sitting in tears before a melancholy heap of packages prepared for travelling on the morrow. She rose as Miss Aubrey entered, and presently exclaimed passionately, bursting afresh into tears,
human
Ma'am, I _can't_ leave you--indeed I can't! I know all your ways; I won't go to any one else! I shall hate service! and I know they'll hate _me_ too; for I shall cry myself to death!
gpt
Come, come, Harriet, faltered Miss Aubrey,
human
Oh, ma'am, if you _did_ but know how I love you! How I'd go on my knees to serve you all the rest of the days of my life!
gpt
Don't talk in that way, Harriet; that's a good girl, said Miss Aubrey, rather faintly, and, sinking into the chair, she buried her face in her handkerchief,
human
I know it, ma'am, I do; and that's why I can't _bear_ to leave you! She sank on her knees beside Miss Aubrey.
gpt
Oh, ma'am, if you would but let me stay with you! I've been trying, ever since you first told me, to make up my mind to part with you, and, now it's coming to the time, I _can't_, ma'am--indeed, I can't! If you did but know, ma'am, what my thoughts have been, while I've been folding and packing up your dresses here! To think that I sha'n't be with you to unpack them! It's very hard, ma'am, that Madam's maid is to go with her, and I'm not to go with _you_!
human
We were obliged to make a choice, Harriet,
gpt
Yes, ma'am; but why didn't you choose us both? Because we've both always done our best; and, as for me, you've never spoke an unkind word to me in your life
human
Harriet, Harriet, said Miss Aubrey, tremulously,
gpt
I've several times explained to you that we cannot any longer afford each to have our own maid; and Mrs. Aubrey's maid is older than you, and knows how to manage children
human
What signifies _affording_, ma'am? Neither she nor I will ever take a shilling of wages; I'd really rather serve you for nothing, ma'am, than any other lady for a hundred pounds a-year! Oh, so happy as I've been in your service, ma'am!
gpt
Don't, Harriet!--You would not, if you knew the pain you give me,