human
Excuse me, ma'am, but when you say I've done nothing for my gel here I suppose you'll allow I've kept her and educated her?
gpt
You've kept and educated your dogs and horses, also, I dare say, but do you claim the same rights over a human being?
human
I do, ma'am--I think I do. And when the human being happens to be my own daughter I don't allow that anybody else has anything to say.
gpt
If her mother were alive would _she_ have nothing to say?
human
Her mother would agree to anything I thought best.
gpt
Her mother, so far as I can see, was a most unselfish, most submissive, most unhappy woman,
human
I'm obliged to you, ma'am, much obliged. But as I'm not a man to throw words away I'll ask you to tell me what all this means. Does it mean that you've made plans of your own for my daughter without consulting me?
gpt
No, sir.
human
Then perhaps it means that the gel herself . . .
gpt
That may be so or not--I cannot say. But when you sent your daughter to a convent-school . . .
human
Wrong, ma'am, wrong for once. It was my wife's sister--who thinks the gel disobedient and rebellious and unruly . . .
gpt
Then your wife's sister is either a very stupid or a very bad-hearted woman.
human
Ma'am?
gpt
I have known your daughter longer than she has, and there isn't a word of truth in what she says.
human
May be so, ma'am, may be no, said my father.
gpt
But when you talk about my sending my daughter to a convent-school I would have you know that I've been so busy with my business . . .
human
That you haven't had time to take care of the most precious thing God gave you.
gpt
Ma'am, said my father, rising to his feet,
human
The right of one who for ten years has been a mother to your motherless child, sir, while you have neglected and forgotten her.
gpt
Bishop, he said,
human
But aren't we crossing the river before we reach the bridge? The girl herself may have no such objections. Have you?
gpt
Don't you wish to go back home with your father?
human
No, sir,
gpt
And why not, please?
human
Because my father's home is no home to me--because my aunt has always been unkind to me, and because my father has never cared for me or protected me, and because . . .
gpt
Well, what else?
human
Because . . . because I wish to become a nun.
gpt
So that's it, is it? I thought as much. You want to go into partnership with the Mother in the nun business, eh?
human
My mother wished me to become a nun, and I wish it myself, sir.
gpt
Your mother was a baby--that's what she was.
human
My mother was an angel, sir, I said, bridling up,
gpt
Bah!
human
Hark here, ma'am. There's an easy way and a hard way in most everything. I take the easy way first, and if it won't work I take the hard way next, and then it's stiff pulling for the people who pull against me. I came to Rome to take my daughter home. I don't feel called upon to explain why I want to take her home, or what I'm going to do with her when I get her there. I believe I've got the rights of a father to do what I mean to do, and that it will be an ugly business for anybody who aids and abets my daughter in resisting her father's will. So I'll leave her here a week longer, and when I come back, I'll expect her to be ready and waiting and willing--ready and waiting and willing, mind you--to go along with me.