human
They have come at last, Richard--they have come at last, and will bring relief--do not wish me to check them: they are full of joy and comfort.
gpt
Then weep on, dearest, I said;
human
Oh, this is a happy hour! It is like the clearing away of dark mist; not alone giving back sunshine to the spot where we stand, but opening out bright prospects all around us.
gpt
Then I may tell your uncle that you are mine without doubt or hesitation?
human
Yours, joyfully, gladly, she answered.
gpt
Richard, if ever you thought me a coquette, you shall not think me so now; for you shall find me as ready to own my love as I was formerly to declare I never could love. How you ever came to love me, I cannot tell; but I know right well how I came to love you, and I should hate and despise myself if I did not.
human
I came to love you very easily, dear Bessy, I answered.
gpt
It was simply, as I told you one day, I found you out.
human
And I did not believe you, she replied;
gpt
It is indeed strange, I replied, remembering the extraordinary vehemence of hatred the old man had displayed towards Bessy herself.
human
There may be some mystery in the business; but it were as well not to inquire into it too far, dear Bessy. Let us be content that we have frustrated all their schemes against us, without prying into their motives. There is, they say, a skeleton in every house; and we may as well not open the closet door. Something puzzles me also, I added;
gpt
I do not think he knows anything but what I wrote to him, replied Bessy.
human
At the time the duel was fought, he must have been in Europe; for about that time he travelled with my aunt for three years; and the subject has been carefully avoided ever since. Even dear aunt Bab never gave us any particulars. One day, indeed, when warning me not to fall in love with a duellist, she told me my poor father had been killed in a duel. But that was the only allusion to the facts I ever heard till I received these letters. Even Mr. William Thornton, when he used to come to see me often, 'on business,' as he said, never even approached the subject.
gpt
It must have been a painful--a dreadful one to him, I answered.
human
I do not wonder he abstained.
gpt
Bessy, Bessy! cried the voice of our good old maiden hostess.
human
Sir Richard, if you have had your chat out, will you come in to breakfast? We have a guest here who knows you.