human
My pet, she said to her elder sister, as they were standing together at the kitchen dresser,
gpt
I know he means to speak to you to-day.
human
What nonsense, Edith!
gpt
It has to be done some day, you know. And he is just the man to come upon one in the time of one's dire distress. Of course we haven't got a halfpenny now belonging to us. I was thinking only the other day how comfortable it is that we never go out of the house because we haven't the means to buy boots. Now Captain Clayton is just the man to be doubly attracted by such penury.
human
I don't know why a man is to make an offer to a girl just because he finds her working like a housemaid.
gpt
I do. I can see it all. He is just the man to take you in his arms because he found you peeling potatoes.
human
I beg he will do nothing of the kind, said Ada.
gpt
He has never said a word to me, or I to him, to justify such a proceeding. I should at once hit him over the head with my brush.
human
Here he comes, and now we will see how far I understand such matters.
gpt
Don't go, Edith, said Ada.
human
Pray don't go. If you go I shall go with you. These things ought always to come naturally,--that is if they come at all.
gpt
at that moment, for Edith was so far mistaken that Captain Clayton, after saying a few words to the girls, passed on out of the back-door, intent on special business.
human
What a wretched individual he is, said Edith.
gpt
Fancy pinning one's character on the doings of such a man as that. However, he will be back again to dinner, and you will not be so hard upon him then with your dusting-brush.
human
There you have it, sir,
gpt
I see, said he.
human
It will make a very good dinner,--or a very bad one, according to circumstances, as they may fall out before the dinner leaves the kitchen.
gpt
Then they will have to fall out very quickly, said Edith. But the colour had flown to her face, and in that moment she had learned to suspect the truth. And her mind flew back rapidly over all her doings and sayings for the last three months. If it was so, she could never forgive herself. If it was so, Ada would never forgive her. If it was so, they two and Captain Yorke Clayton must be separated for ever.
human
Well; what is it?