human
Oh! dear, exclaimed the lord,
gpt
Pretty well. But upon my word, I don't know how to tell you what I've got to say.
human
Has anything gone wrong with Rachel?
gpt
Not with her illness,--which, however, does not seem to improve. The poor girl! But you'll say she's gone mad.
human
What do you mean by that?
gpt
I really hardly know how I ought to break it. You must have learned by this time that Rachel is a girl determined to have her own way.
human
Well; well; well!
gpt
And, upon my word, when I think of myself, I feel that I have nothing to do but what she bids me.
human
It's more than you do for the Speaker, Mr. O'Mahony.
gpt
Yes, it is; I admit that. But Rachel, though she is inclined to be tyrannical, is not such a downright positive old blue-bottle nincompoop as that white-wigged king of kings. Rachel is bad; but even you can't say that she is bad enough to be Speaker of the House of Commons. My belief is, that he'll come to be locked up yet.
human
We have all the highest opinion of him.
gpt
It's because you like to be sat upon. You don't want to be allowed to say bo to a goose. I have often heard in my own country--
human
But you call yourself an Irishman, Mr. O'Mahony.
gpt
Never did so in my life. They called me so over there when they wanted to return me to hold my tongue in that House of Torment; but I guess it will puzzle the best Englishman going to find out whether I'm an American or an Irishman. They did something over there to make me an American; but they did nothing to unmake me as an Irishman. And there I am, member for Cavan; and it will go hard with me if I don't break that Speaker's heart before I've done with him. What! I ain't to say that he goes wrong when he never goes right by any chance?
human
Have you come here this morning, Mr. O'Mahony, to abuse the Speaker?
gpt
By no means. It was you who threw the Speaker in my teeth.
human
I came here to tell you about my daughter, and upon my word I shall find it more difficult than anything I may have to say to the Speaker. I have the most profound contempt for the Speaker.
gpt
Perhaps he returns it.
human
I don't believe he does, or he wouldn't make so much of me as to turn me out of the House. When a man finds it necessary to remove an enemy, let the cause be what it may, he cannot be said to despise that enemy. Now, I wouldn't give a puff of breath to turn him out of the House. In truth, I despise him too much.
gpt
He is to be pitied,
human
I'll tell you what, Lord Castlewell--
gpt
Don't go on about the Speaker, Mr. O'Mahony,--pray don't.
human
You always begin,--but I won't. I didn't come here to speak about him at all. And the Chairman of Committees is positively worse. You know there's a creature called Chairman of Committees?
gpt
Now, Mr. O'Mahony, I really must beg that you will fight your political battles anywhere but here. I'm not a politician. How is your charming daughter this morning?
human
She is anything but charming. I hardly know what to make of her, but I find that I am always obliged to do what she tells me. There was another allusion to the Speaker on the lord's tongue, but he restrained himself.
gpt
She has sent me here to say that she wants the marriage to be broken off.
human
Good Heavens!
gpt
She does. She says that you intend to marry her because she's a singing girl;--and now she can't sing.
human
Not exactly that,
gpt
And she thinks she oughtn't to have accepted you at all,--that's the truth. The lord's face became very long.
human
I think myself that it was a little too hurried. I don't suppose you quite knew your own minds.
gpt
If Miss O'Mahony repents--
human
Well, Miss O'Mahony does repent. She has got something into her head that I can't quite explain. She thought that she'd do for a countess very well as long as she was on the boards of a theatre. But now that she's to be relegated to private life she begins to feel that she ought to look after someone about her own age.
gpt
Oh, indeed! Is this her message?
human
Well; yes. It is her message. I shouldn't in such a matter invent it all if she hadn't sent me. I don't know, now I think of it, that she did say anything about her own age. But yet she did,