human
Straightforward Miss Moore! said she patronizingly.
gpt
It is like you to understand my question so literally and answer it so simply. _Your_ mind comprehends nothing of intrigue. Strange things might go on around you without your being the wiser; you are not of the class the world calls sharp-witted.
human
I have ever been noted for sagacity and discernment from childhood,
gpt
You never plotted to win a husband, I'll be bound, pursued Mrs. Yorke;
human
Your cousin Hortense is an excellent sister, Miss Helstone. Such ladies as come to try their life's luck here at Hollow's Cottage may, by a very little clever female artifice, cajole the mistress of the house, and have the game all in their own hands. You are fond of your cousin's society, I dare say, miss?
gpt
Of which cousin's?
human
Oh, of the lady's, _of course_.
gpt
Hortense is, and always has been, most kind to me.
human
Every sister with an eligible single brother is considered most kind by her spinster friends.
gpt
Mrs. Yorke, said Caroline, lifting her eyes slowly, their blue orbs at the same time clearing from trouble, and shining steady and full, while the glow of shame left her cheek, and its hue turned pale and settled--
human
Mrs. Yorke, may I ask what you mean?
gpt
To give you a lesson on the cultivation of rectitude, to disgust you with craft and false sentiment.
human
Do I need this lesson?
gpt
Most young ladies of the present day need it. You are quite a modern young lady--morbid, delicate, professing to like retirement; which implies, I suppose, that you find little worthy of your sympathies in the ordinary world. The ordinary world--every-day honest folks--are better than you think them, much better than any bookish, romancing chit of a girl can be who hardly ever puts her nose over her uncle the parson's garden wall.
human
Consequently of whom you know nothing. Excuse me--indeed, it does not matter whether you excuse me or not--you have attacked me without provocation; I shall defend myself without apology. Of my relations with my two cousins you are ignorant. In a fit of ill-humour you have attempted to poison them by gratuitous insinuations, which are far more crafty and false than anything with which you can justly charge me. That I happen to be pale, and sometimes to look diffident, is no business of yours; that I am fond of books, and indisposed for common gossip, is still less your business; that I am a 'romancing chit of a girl' is a mere conjecture on your part. I never romanced to you nor to anybody you know. That I am the parson's niece is not a crime, though you may be narrow-minded enough to think it so. You dislike me. You have no just reason for disliking me; therefore keep the expression of your aversion to yourself. If at any time in future you evince it annoyingly, I shall answer even less scrupulously than I have done now.