human
He's been dancing after her, she said;
gpt
Of course you do, darling, said Beatrix.
human
But we should like to know why, all the same.
gpt
You've stuck up your noses at it. Poor dear George, like most men of his age who are in love, is sensitive to ridicule. He never could bring himself up to the point of proposing because he was afraid that he'd look like a fool. That party at the Abbey was the greatest possible mistake. I said so at the time.
human
Who did you say it to, darling? asked Beatrix.
gpt
You told me that it was the very thing to bring it on. But I suppose you thought I was in a delicate state and must be humoured.
human
Yes, it's all very well to treat it like that, said Lady Grafton.
gpt
But if it hadn't been for you it would certainly have been brought to a point then. They were both ready for it, and Ella Carruthers knew perfectly well that she had been asked down there to be proposed to. It was you and Caroline who stopped it, and I'm exceedingly annoyed with you, though I try not to show it.
human
You don't try very hard, dear, said Caroline.
gpt
We expected it, too, and if we weren't quite ready for it at first we had got quite used to it by that time.
human
We both showed it, too, said Beatrix.
gpt
We were as sweet to Ella as only we know how to be; and we took a great deal of pains to show darling Daddy that we were pleased with him. He knew that we knew all right, and were only waiting.
human
Yes, and how did you show it? By hanging round him the whole time, and petting him as if you were children, instead of--
gpt
Instead of great girls of twenty-one and twenty-two, suggested Beatrix.
human
That's how we always have treated him, and always shall.
gpt
Two married women,
human
And one of them soon to become a mother,
gpt
Nobody was ever allowed to forget _that_, retorted Lady Grafton.
human
It was crammed down Ella's throat that she would be a step-grandmamma, and George could never move anywhere without you flopping about him and calling him 'Daddy darling.' There wasn't much 'Daddy darling' when you fell fatuously in love, and treated him as if he counted for about as much as old Jarvis. Then there was Caroline--
gpt
Oh, it's my turn now,
human
Yes, you were almost as bad. You've left his house, but you come up every day to see that his sheets are properly aired, and send out in the middle of dinner to see whether his hot water bottle is filled.
gpt
Oh, Aunt Mary!
human
Well, that's the impression you give everybody. You made him look like an elderly man, when if you'd let him alone he'd have seemed quite like a young one. How would you have liked it yourselves, if you'd been in Ella's place? She's only a year or two older than you. Probably what put her off was that she was afraid you'd be calling her 'Mummy darling!'
gpt
Oh, it was _she_ that was put off! said Caroline.
human
You said at first that it was Dad, because we turned up our noses at it.
gpt
I've no patience with you,
human
No, you don't seem to have much, darling, said Beatrix sweetly.
gpt
You're all wrong though. Caroline and I have been talking it over. We think that she was almost ready to marry him then. She behaved to us as if she were. We can't tell you how, but we both felt the same about it. She wanted to know how we should take it, and we let her know that we should be pleased. We understood each other perfectly, though not a word was said directly.
human
I wish _I'd_ said a word, directly. It only wanted that. One is afraid of interfering, and then one wakes up to find everything has gone wrong.
gpt
If only you'd interfered with us all a little more, darling, how much happier we should have been, said Beatrix.
human
What Caroline and I think is that she never could _quite_ make up her mind, and he wouldn't say anything till he saw that she had.
gpt
That's how it's supposed to have happened with _you_, isn't it? It isn't every man who expects the woman he's in love with to fall down and cuddle his boots.
human
Don't be tart, darling. It doesn't suit you, really, though you think it does.
gpt
She found out after all that she wanted somebody younger,
human
Yes, that's what _you'd_ think. The truth of it is you've both been scratching each other's backs. 'Of course he'd want what Dick wanted in you, _darling_,' and 'Of course she'd want somebody more like Maurice, _dearie_.' To any sensible woman George is worth Dick and Maurice put together. Well, I don't know what has happened. I think she would have had him a month ago, if he'd asked her. I've hardly seen her since. At any rate, it's all over. George won't marry now. This was the only chance. He wouldn't marry for the sake of marrying, and he wouldn't go about looking for somebody to fall in love with. You've stopped his doing either, till it's too late. But with somebody provided for him, so to speak, who would just suit him, and could make him fall in love with her into the bargain--it would have been simply ideal. Now the poor man has got to fly off and forget all about it. Of course he won't forget all about it for a long time. He'll feel himself old all of a sudden, and know that he'll have to go on getting older for the rest of his life. I'm furious about it.