human
I can only say that if you and I fall out it won't be my fault, he said.
gpt
It's quite true that the people round here--your sort of people, I mean--are a cantankerous lot.
human
Well, I don't find them so, Mercer. I don't find them so.
gpt
I'm afraid we must agree to differ on that point then,
human
It's the _whole_ point, Mercer. It isn't only one or two you've managed to fall out with; that might happen to anybody, though if sensible people manage to fall out with their neighbours they generally manage to fall in again sooner or later. It's the whole lot. When we first came here you warned me against every single family about here we were likely to make friends with, except two. And you've fallen out with them since.
gpt
This is a most unwarrantable attack, he said.
human
Did you ask me to come here to receive a lecture from you, Mr. Grafton?
gpt
I asked you to come here to see if we couldn't come to some mutual understanding that needn't reflect upon you if we can do so. My reasons for wanting a change made are likely to be painful to you, I know, and probably surprising as well. But I must state them if anything is to come of it. So I do so as directly as possible. If you'll accept them, and talk it over on the grounds that I should like a change made, so much the better. Then we needn't go over the reasons any more.
human
You'd like a change made. He understood it now, and summoned all his powers of resistance, and resentment.
gpt
And you really think, Mr. Grafton, that because you've bought this property, and live in the biggest house on it, you can order things in that way. Let me tell you that there is one house in this parish that you have _not_ bought, and that is my humble Vicarage. You have no more right to dispose of that than you have of--of the Bishop's Palace at Medchester. You--
human
Can't we talk over things reasonably, Mercer? If I thought I had that sort of power, I should make some attempt to exercise it, shouldn't I? I shouldn't be asking you if we can't come to some understanding.
gpt
And what understanding on such a subject is possible, I should like to know. You want me to go; that's the plain truth of the matter. Do you think I'm not a fit person to exercise my duties here, may I ask?
human
For my own satisfaction this must be cleared up, said the Vicar, speaking with dignified restraint.
gpt
If you have any charges to bring against me I must know what they are, so that I can meet them in the open.
human
There are no charges, Mercer, to be met in that way. I've told you already why I should like a change made, if you can bring yourself to consider it. It isn't only the people of our own sort, as you say, that you don't get on with. You're at loggerheads with half your parishioners at one time or another. My girls are always coming across it, wherever they go. They're keen--Caroline is especially--to make friends with the people in the place, and for us who live here in a certain relation with them to do what we can for them. It's one of the pleasures of landholding to be given that sort of opportunity. We've all of us come to see that. I believe we should be as happy and contented a community as you'd find anywhere, if--well, if it weren't for you, Mercer. I don't want to be offensive, but that's what it comes to.
gpt
But this is outrageous,
human
Oh, I don't think so, said Grafton easily.
gpt
I've no wish to offend you, but it seems to me that the state of things I want here is worth taking that risk for. I tell you plainly that you seem to me such a difficulty in the way of it that if you go on here I can't continue to offer you the friendship of myself and my family. In ordinary life, if a man you know is continually acting in a way you don't like, you drop his acquaintance, or if it's necessary you fight him. I don't want to fight you, and I don't suppose you want to fight me. I've said enough to show you that I've reasons which seem to me important for wanting to come to the understanding with you that I've indicated. I don't want to argue about them, or to push them in. They're there. I'll ask you to think over what I've said. Anything I can do to make it advantageous and agreeable to you to find some other place to work in, I will do; and if you decide to go, well, as far as people outside will be able to see, you and we will part as friends, and you'll be going, of course, of your own free will.