human
I know what a lot there is against me, he said quietly,
gpt
My dear boy, Grafton said,
human
I've got to trust you. She does. It's all I want of you, that you should make her happy, all her life. I've made her happy up till now. But a father can't complete his daughter's life, however much he loves her. Only a husband can do that. She believes you're the one man in the world who can give her all she wants, and because she believes it, I'm bound to believe it too. Tell me the course of life you have in your mind for yourselves. I know you've talked it over together, but I told her I'd rather have it from you. I want to get into complete sympathy with you as well as with her.
gpt
I know it must be difficult for you, Mr. Grafton, the boy said.
human
We are both very grateful to you for the way you have treated me. I didn't expect you'd be so kind about it. She said you would be, but I think I can see more clearly than she does what a difference there is between us. In the way you'd look at it, I think I see it just as clearly as you do.
gpt
Well, I'm glad you've said that, Maurice. I suppose a father is apt to think about the material side of marriage for his daughters more than the other. I think he's right to do it, because with the experience he has reached he knows well enough that the material side of a marriage is a lot more important than two young people who have fallen in love with one another are likely to see for themselves. It mustn't be left out of account with you two. That's why I want to know what your ideas are--as to the way you've planned it out for yourselves.
human
We look at it like this, he answered at once.
gpt
A very simple life, in the country, will give both of us what we most want. It's easy enough for me, because it's more than I've ever had. Even the way I live with Mr. Worthing, and coming here, and going to other houses like this, is more than I've had. I should expect to be able to get to that by what I can earn, by and bye, but of course it's much less than Caroline has been used to. I've thought about it a great deal, and tried to take into account everything that she would be losing by marrying me--to see whether she ought not to lose any of it.
human
Well, what do you think she will be losing?
gpt
The biggest thing, which would trouble me greatly if I thought she would lose it because of me, would be the way you and her own family would look upon her. If it wouldn't make any difference--
human
Well, it won't make any difference to me. I've assured you of that already.
gpt
I'm rather afraid of how Beatrix will take it.
human
Beatrix won't like it, Maurice. We'd better look it all in the face. I don't know how her life will turn out, but it will never be so free of the world as Caroline's will. She isn't built on the same lines, and they won't come together on the deepest things in Caroline's life. She won't understand them. But they love one another, and they'll go on loving one another.
gpt
Yes, I think so. It was you I thought most about. Then her other relations, and all the people she has lived among, and I haven't. She will be cut off from them. Not entirely, where they are real friends; but she will no longer be living their life, and I'm not fitted to live it. She won't be able to see so much even of those who would want her, and she would like to see. She won't be able to pay many visits, or go much to London. She will miss all the clever interesting people she has constantly met, and being in the world, and part of it, as she has been.
human
She'll have told you that she has already reconciled herself to not living much in the world,
gpt
Yes, she has. But I had to ask myself for her whether she wouldn't miss it more than she thinks. She has a great deal of it still--here. She wouldn't have nearly so much. And of course all that it means living in a house like this she would lose,--what she has grown used to, and doesn't think about, because she has always had it. I can see how different her life would be.
human
I think you've faced it all pretty straight, Maurice, except that she'll lose consideration in the world. How does that strike you?
gpt
I don't think it matters,
human
Perhaps it doesn't. But why don't you think it matters?
gpt
Because nothing that she will be if she marries me will be less than what she has been. Everybody whose opinion she would value would know that.
human
Well, I think you've got that right too. And as for all the rest--there's a certain way of living that one wouldn't like to see one's daughter fall below; but it doesn't depend upon big houses, or a lot of money. There's no reason why she shouldn't have it. I do think myself, that with a girl like Caroline, so suited to take her place in the best sort of society that the world has to offer, it's a pity she shouldn't have it. But we've had that out together and she says she doesn't want it. She wants something else, which she thinks is better. I wish she could have had both; but if not, she's made her choice, with her eyes open, and I'm not going to say that I think she's wrong. She won't be losing everything that she has been brought up to either. What are your ideas about getting married?
gpt
We haven't talked about it much yet. It's for the future, when we can see ourselves settled somewhere.
human
Well, I expect you'll want to see Caroline now, he said.
gpt
I must go down and write some letters.