book_id
stringlengths 2
6
| title
stringclasses 1
value | author
stringclasses 1
value | conversations
listlengths 1
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|---|---|---|---|
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Just like the dear old waterfall at Kilanbaggan. You recollect it, Major Campbell?"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I do not, I am ashamed to say,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, you were there a whole summer. Ah! I suppose you thought about nothing but your salmon fishing. If Elsley had been there he would not have forgotten a rock or a pool. Would you, Elsley?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Really, in spite of all salmon, I have not forgotten a rock or a pool about the place which I ever saw: but at the waterfall I never was."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "So he has not forgotten? What cause had he to remember so carefully?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, Elsley, look! What is that exquisite flower, like a ball of gold, hanging just over the water?"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Only a buttercup."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am sure it's not a buttercup! It is three times as large, and a so much paler yellow! Is it a buttercup, now, Major Campbell?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Very nearly one, after all: but its real name is the globe flower. It is common enough here in spring; you may see the leaves in every pasture. But I suppose this plant, hidden from the light, has kept its flowers till the autumn."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And till I came to see it, darling that it is! I should like to reward it by wearing it home."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I daresay it would be very proud of the honour; especially if Mr. Vavasour would embalm it in verse, after it had done service to you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It is doing good enough service where it is, said Elsley."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why pluck out the very eye of that perfect picture?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Strange, said Lucia,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It enjoys itself sufficiently without us, no doubt,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes; but I want to enjoy it. Oh, if you could but get it for me?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Really, my dear, all men are not knight errants enough to endanger their necks for a bit of weed; and I cannot say that such rough _tours de force_ are at all to my fancy."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The fellow was jealous, then, in addition to his other sins!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Major Campbell picked it up for her from the cliff,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ah? at the risk of his neck, I don't doubt. He is the most matchless _cavalier servente_."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I shall leave Mrs. Vavasour to his care, then--that is, for the present,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I assure you, answered she, roused in her turn by his determined bad temper,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am not the least afraid of being left in the charge of so old a friend."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Am I, then, so old a friend, Mrs. Vavasour?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Of course; who older?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I trust I have not offended your--Mr. Vavasour?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh! she said, with a forced gaiety,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am a plain soldier, Mrs. Vavasour, and I only ask because I do not understand. What are poetic fancies?"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why do you ask? Why need you know? You are no poet."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And for that very cause I ask you."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, but, said she, guessing at what was in his mind, and trying, woman-like, to play purposely at cross purposes, and to defend her husband at all risks;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What matter?"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, Major Campbell, is it not a glorious thing to be a poet? And is it not a glorious thing to be a poet's wife? Oh, for the sake of that--if I could but see him honoured, appreciated, famous, as he will be some day! Though I think (and she spoke with all a woman's pride)"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Famous? Yes, answered Campbell, with an abstracted voice, and then rejoined quickly,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If you could but see that, what then?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why then, said she, with a half smile (for she had nearly entrapped herself into an admission of what she was determined to conceal)--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Happy children! said he, after a pause, and half to himself,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Do you really think so? But flattery used not to be one of your sins. Ah, I wish you could give me some advice about how I am to teach them."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "So it is she who has the work of education, not he!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My dear madam, what can a confirmed old bachelor like me know about children?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, don't you know (and she gave one of her pretty Irish laughs)"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "(and she spoke earnestly again)"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where on earth can Mellot and Mr. Vavasour be?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, never mind! Mr. Mellot has gone wandering down the glen with his apparatus, and my Elsley has gone wandering after him, and will find him in due time, with his head in a black bag, and a great bull just going to charge him from behind, like that hapless man in 'Punch.' I always tell Mr. Mellot that will be his end."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, he said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It will be all oracular to me, for I know nothing either;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Did you hurt yourself then? I am sure you are in pain."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I? Never less free from it, with many thanks to you. What made you think so?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I heard you breathe so hard, and quite stamp your feet, I thought. I suppose it was fancy."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The stupid man must have mistaken his orders, and gone home."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Or let his horse go home of itself, while he was asleep inside. He was more than half tipsy when we started."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We shall have plenty of time for our educational lecture,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Plenty of time to waste, then, my clear lady."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, I never talk with you five minutes--I do not know why--without feeling wiser and happier. I envy Valencia for having seen so much of you of late."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "and"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have been impertinent, Miss St. Just, and I beg your pardon."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, you have not, said she, quite hastily."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You were right, too right,--has it not been proved within the last five minutes? My poor sister! What can be done to mend Mr. Vavasour's temper? I wish you could talk to him, Mr. Headley."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He is beyond my art. His age, and his talents, and his--his consciousness of them, said Frank, using the mildest term he could find,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Can it change a man's character, Mr. Headley? It may make good men better--but can it cure temper?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Major Campbell must have told you that it can do anything."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah, yes: with men as wise, and strong, and noble as he is; but with such a weak, vain man--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Miss St. Just, I know one who is neither wise, nor strong, nor noble: but as weak and vain as any man; in whom God has conquered--as He may conquer yet in Mr. Vavasour--all which makes man cling to life."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What all?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "All, I suppose, which it is good for them to have crushed. There are feelings which last on, in spite of all struggles to quench them--I suppose, because they ought to last; because, while they torture, they still ennoble. Death will quench them: or if not, satisfy them: or if not, set them at rest somehow."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Death?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes. Our friend, Major Campbell's friend, Death. We have been seeing a good deal of him together lately, and have come to the conclusion that he is the most useful, pleasant, and instructive of all friends."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, Mr. Headley, do not speak so! Are you in earnest?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "So much in earnest, that I have resolved to go out as an army chaplain, to see in the war somewhat more of my new friend."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Impossible! Mr. Headley; it will kill you!--All that horrible fever and cholera!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And what possible harm can it do me, if it does kill me, Miss St. Just!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Headley, this is madness! I--we cannot allow you to throw away your life thus--so young, and--and such prospects before you! And there is nothing that my brother would not do for you, were it only for your heroism at Aberalva. There is not one of the family who does not love and respect you, and long to see all the world appreciating you as we do; and your poor mother--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have told my mother all, Miss St. Just. And she has said 'Go; it is your only hope.' She has other sons to comfort her. Let us say no more of it. Had I thought that you would have disapproved of it, I would never have mentioned the thing."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Disapprove of--your going to die? You shall not! And for me, too: for I guess all--all is my fault!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "All is mine, said he quietly:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "and at these words his whole voice and manner changed in an instant into wildest passion."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I must speak--now and never more--I love you still, fool that I am! Would God I had never seen you! No, not that. Thank God for that to the last: but would God I had died of that cholera! that I had never come here, conceited fool that I was, fancying that it was possible, after having once--No! Let me go, go anywhere, where I may burden you no more with my absurd dreams!--You, who have had the same thing said to you, and in finer words, a hundred times, by men who would not deign to speak to me!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I never had the same thing said to me!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Never? How often have fine gentlemen, noblemen, sworn that they were dying for you?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They never have said to me what you have done."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No--I am clumsy, I suppose--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Headley, indeed you are unjust to yourself--unjust to me!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I--to you? Never! I know you better than you know yourself--see in you what no one else sees. Oh, what fools they are who say that love is blind! Blind? He sees souls in God's own light; not as they have become: but as they ought to become--can become--are already in the sight of Him who made them!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And what might I become?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How can I tell! Something infinitely too high for me, at least, who even now am not worthy to kiss the dust off your feet."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, do not speak so: little do you know--! No, Mr. Headley, it is you who are too good for me; too noble, single-eyed, self-sacrificing, to endure my vanity and meanness for a day."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Madam, do not speak thus! Give me no word which my folly can distort into a ray of hope, unless you wish to drive me mad. No! it is impossible; and, were it possible, what but ruin to my soul? I should live for you, and not for my work. I should become a schemer, ambitious, intriguing, in the vain hope of proving myself to the world worthy of you. No; let it be. 'Let the dead bury their dead, and follow thou me.'"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Headley, recollect that this conversation has gone too far for us to avoid coming to some definite understanding--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Then it shall, Miss St. Just. Then it shall, once and for all: formally and deliberately, it shall end now. Suppose,--I only say suppose,--that I could, without failing in my own honour, my duty to my calling, make myself such a name among good men that, poor parson though I be, your family need be ashamed of nothing about me, save my poverty? Tell me, now and for ever, could it be possible--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Say no, as a matter of course, and end it!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I cannot--dare not say it."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It? Which of the two? yes, or no?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Say that again, and tell me that I am not dreaming. You? the admired! the worshipped! the luxurious!--and no blame to you that you are what you were born--could you endure a little parsonage, the teaching village school-children, tending dirty old women, and petty cares the whole year round?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Headley, answered she, slowly and calmly, in her turn,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I could endure a cottage,--a prison, I fancy, at moments,--to escape from this world, of which I am tired, which will soon be tired of me: from women who envy me, impute to me ambitions as base as their own; from men who admire--not me, for they do not know me, and never will--but what in me --I hate them!--will give them pleasure. I hate it all, despise it all; despise myself for it all every morning when I wake! What does it do for me, but rouse in me the very parts of my own character which are most despicable, most tormenting? If it goes on, I feel I could become as frivolous, as mean, aye, as wicked as the worst. You do not know--you do not know--. I have envied the nuns their convents. I have envied Selkirk his desert island. I envy now the milkmaids there below: anything to escape and be in earnest, anything for some one to teach me to be of use! Yes, this cholera--and this war--though only, only its coming shadow has passed over me,--and your words too-- cried she, and stopped and hesitated, as if afraid to tell too much--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Have you not Major Campbell?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes--but has he taught me? He is dear, and good, and wise; but he is too wise, too great for me. He plays with me as a lion might with a mouse; he is like a grand angel far above in another planet, who can pity and advise, but who cannot--What am I saying?"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You know that I love you, Valencia St. Just."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Too well! too well!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But you know, too, that you do not love me."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Who told you so? What do you know? What do I know? Only that I long for some one to make me--to make me as good as you are!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Valencia, will you trust me?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes! cried she, looking up at him suddenly:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No--no--no! Would you have me turn traitor and coward to God; and now, of all moments in my life?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Noble creature! said she;"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "So ye see, madam, there's no use defending the drunken loon any-more at all; and here will my leddies have just walked their bonny legs off, all through that carnal sin of drunkenness, which is the curse of your Welsh populaaation."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And not quite unknown north of Tweed either, Bowie, said Valencia, laughing."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There now, say no more about it. We have had a delightful walk, and nobody is the least tired. Don't say any more, Mrs. Lewis: but tell them to get us some supper. Bowie, so my lord has come in?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This half-hour good!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Has he had any sport?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sport! aye, troth! Five fish in the day. That's a river indeed at Bettws! Not a pawky wee burn, like this Aberglaslyn thing."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Only five fish?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Fish, my leddy, not trouts, I said. I thought ye knew better than that by this time."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, salmon? cried Valencia, relieved."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Delightful. I'll go to him this moment."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah! there you are, at a pretty time of night! How beautiful you look, Val! I wish my wife may be half as pretty!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am delighted to hear of my lord's good sport. He will choose to be in a good humour, I suppose."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good humour? _ça va sans dire_! Three stone of fish in three hours!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Then his little sister is going to do a very foolish thing, and wants his leave to do it; which if he will grant, she will let him do as many foolish things as he likes without scolding him, as long as they both shall live."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do it then, I beg. What is it? Do you want to go up Snowdon with Headley to-morrow, to see the sun rise? You'll kill yourself!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, said Valencia very quietly;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I only want to marry him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Marry him?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't try to look majestic, my dear little brother, for you are really not tall enough; as it is, you have only hooked all your flies into your dressing-gown."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'll be shot if you shall!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You may be shot just as surely, whether I do or not, said she softly; and she knelt down before him, and put her arms round him, and laid her head upon his lap."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There, you can't run away now; so you must hear me quietly. And you know it may not be often that we shall be together again thus; and oh, Scoutbush! brother! if anything was to happen to you--I only say if--in this horrid war, you would not like to think that you had refused the last thing your little Val asked for, and that she was miserable and lonely at home."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll be shot if you shall!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, miserable and lonely; you gone away, and mon Saint Père too: and Lucia, she has her children--and I am so wild and weak--I must have some one to guide me and protect me--indeed I must!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, that was what I always said! That was why I wanted you so to marry this season! Why did not you take Chalkclere, or half-a-dozen good matches who were dying for you, and not this confounded black parson, of all birds in the air?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I did not take Lord Chalkclere for the very reason that I do take Mr. Headley. I want a husband who will guide me, not one whom I must guide."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Guide? said Scoutbush bitterly, with one of those little sparks of practical shrewdness which sometimes fell from him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Aye, I see how it is! These intriguing rascals of parsons--they begin as father confessors, like so many popish priests; and one fine morning they blossom out into lovers, and so they get all the pretty women, and all the good fortunes,--the sneaking, ambitious, low-bred--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He is neither! You are unjust, Scoutbush! cried Valencia, looking up."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He is the very soul of honour. He might be rich now, and have had a fine living, if he had not been too conscientious to let his uncle buy him one; and that offended his uncle, and he would allow him nothing. And as for being low-bred, he is a gentleman, as you know; and if his uncle be in business, his mother is a lady, and he will be well enough off one day."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You seem to know a great deal about his affairs."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He told me all, months ago--before there was any dream of this. And, my dear, she went on, relapsing into her usual arch tone,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You scheming little Irish rogue! But I won't! I've said it, and I won't. It's enough to have one sister married to a poor poet, without having another married to a poor parson. Oh! what have I done that I should be bothered in this way? Isn't it bad enough to be a landlord, and to have an estate, and be responsible for a lot of people that will die of the cholera, and have to vote in the house about a lot of things I don't understand, or anybody else, I believe, but that, over and above, I must be the head of the family, and answerable to all the world for whom my mad sisters many? I won't, I say!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Go along, and marry the cat if you like! You are mad; and I am mad; and all the world's mad, I think."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There, she said,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I knew that he would be a good boy at last!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Good gracious, Valencia! do be reasonable! You'll go into a fit, or somebody will hear you! You know how I hate a scene. Do be good, there's a darling! Why didn't you tell me at first how much you wished for it, and I would have said yes in a moment."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Because I didn't know myself, cried she passionately."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There, I will be good, and love you better than all the world, except one. And if you let those horrid Russians hurt you, I will hate you as long as I live, and be miserable all my life afterwards."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, Valencia, do you know, that sounds very like a bull?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Am I not a wild Irish girl?"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Lucia, what is it? Speak to me, Lucia!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, you must not read it. Too dreadful!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Valencia! Valencia! It is false--a mistake--he is dreaming. You know it is false! You will not leave me too!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My Lucia! My own sweet good sister! Base, cowardly,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What have I done? All that flower, that horrid flower: but who would have dreamed--and Major Campbell, too, of all men upon earth! Valencia, it is some horrid delusion of the devil. Why, he was there all the while--and you too. Could he think that I should before his very face? What must he fancy me? Oh, it is a delusion of the devil, and nothing else!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He is a wretch! I will take the letter to my brother; he shall right you!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah no! no! never! Let me tear it to atoms--hide it! It is all a mistake! He did not mean it! He will recollect himself to-morrow and come back."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Let him come back if he dare! cried Valencia, in a tone which said,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I could kill him with my own hands!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, he will come back! He cannot have the heart to leave his poor little Lucia. Oh, cruel, cowardly, not to have said one word--not one word to explain all--but it was all my fault, my wicked, odious temper; and after I had seen how vexed he was, too!--Oh, Elsley, Elsley, come back, only come back, and I will beg your pardon on my knees! anything? Scold me, beat me, if you will! I deserve it all! Only come back, and let me see your face, and hear your voice, instead of leaving me here all alone, and the poor children too! Oh, what shall I say to them to-morrow, when they wake and find no father!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, if I but knew where he was gone! If I could but find him! One word --one word would set all right! It always did, Valencia, always! He was so kind, so dear in a moment, when I put away my naughty, naughty temper, and smiled in his face like a good wife. Wicked creature that I was! and this is my punishment. Oh, Elsley, one word, one word! I must find him if I went barefoot over the mountains--I must go, I must--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I will go, and see about finding him! she said at last as her only resource."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Promise me to be quiet here, and I will."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Quiet? Yes! quiet here!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You will not tell Scoutbush?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why not?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He is so--so hasty. He will kill him! Valencia, he will kill him! Promise me not to tell him, or I shall go mad!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, Valencia, if I dared only scream! but keeping it in kills me. It is like a sword through my brain now!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Let me call Clara."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, no! not Clara. Do not tell her, I will be quiet; indeed I will; only come back soon, soon; for I am all alone, alone!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where is my brother?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Gone to bed, as some one else ought to be; for it is past twelve. Is Vavasour come in yet?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Very odd, said Claude;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I never saw him after I left you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He said certainly that he was going to find you,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There is no need for speculating, said Valencia quietly;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Pen-y-gwryd?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes. Major Campbell, I wish to show it to you."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If you have tampered with my sister's heart, better for you that you were dead!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Fool!--cur!--liar!--she is as pure as God's sunlight."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You need not tell me that,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Fool!--fool!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And fool I; thrice fool! Who am I, to rail on him? Oh God! what have I done?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What have you done?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Nothing that you or man can blame, Miss St. Just! Can you dream that, sinful as I am, I could ever harbour a thought toward her of which I should be ashamed before the angels of God?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, my Saint Père! and she held out both her hands."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Forgive me, if-- only for a moment--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am not your Saint Père, nor any one's! I am a poor, weak, conceited, miserable man, who by his accursed impertinence has broken the heart of the being whom he loves best on earth."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How is she? Tell me only that, this once! Has it killed her? Does she hate him?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Adores him more than ever. Oh, Major Campbell! it is too piteous, too piteous."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thank God! yes, thank God! So it should be. Let her love him to the last, and win her martyr's crown! Now, Valencia St. Just, sit down, if but for five minutes; and listen, once for all, to the last words, perhaps, you will ever hear me speak; unless she wants you--?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, no! Tell me all, Saint Père! said Valencia,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "as the new thought of Headley, and that walk, came over her."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Tell me all at once, while I have wits left to comprehend."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Miss St. Just, said he, in a clear calm voice,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No; I recollect nothing of it."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I never forgot it. I threw up all my prospects, and went into the Line. Whether I won honour there or not I need not tell you. I came back to England years after, not unworthy, as I fancied, to look your sister in the face as an equal. I found her married."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Good. Her choice was sure to be a worthy one, and that was enough for me. You need not doubt that I kept my secret then more sacredly than ever. I returned to India, and tried to die. I dared not kill myself, for I was a soldier and a Christian, and belonged to God and my Queen. The Sikhs would not kill me, do what I would to help them. Then I threw myself into science, that I might stifle passion; and I stifled it. I fancied myself cured, and I was cured; and I returned to England again. I loved your brother for her sake; I loved you at first for her sake, then for your own. But I presumed upon my cure; I accepted your brother's invitation; I caught at the opportunity of seeing her again-- happy--as I fancied; and of proving to myself my own soundness. I considered myself a sort of Melchisedek, neither young nor old, without passions, without purpose on earth--a fakeer who had licence to do and to dare what others might not. But I kept my secret proudly inviolate. I do not believe at this moment she dreams that--Do you?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She does not."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Thank God! I was a most conceited fool, puffed up with spiritual pride, tempting God needlessly. I went, I saw her. Heaven is my witness, that as far as passion goes, my heart is as pure as yours: but I found that I still cared more for her than for any being on earth: and I found too the sort of man upon whom--God forgive me! I must not talk of that--I despised him, hated him, pretended to teach him his duty, by behaving better to her than he did--the spiritual coxcomb that I was! What business had I with it? Why not have left all to God and her good sense? The devil tempted me to-day, in the shape of an angel of courtesy and chivalry; and here the end is come. I must find that man, Miss St. Just, if I travel the world in search of him. I must ask his pardon frankly, humbly, for my impertinence. Perhaps so I may bring him back to her, and not die with a curse on my head for having parted those whom God has joined. And then to the old fighting-trade once more--the only one, I believe, I really understand; and see whether a Russian bullet will not fly straighter than a clumsy Sikh's."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You forgive me, then, all the misery which I have caused!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Do not talk so! Only forgive me having fancied for one moment that you were anything but what you are, an angel out of heaven."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Angel, truly! Azraël, the angel of death, then. Go to her now--go, and leave a humbled penitent man alone with God."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, my Saint Père! cried she, bursting into tears."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This is too wretched--all a horrid dream--and when, too--when I had been counting on telling you something so different!--I cannot now, I have not the heart."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What, more misery?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh no! no! no! You will know all to-morrow. Ask Scoutbush."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I shall be gone in search of that man long before Scoutbush is awake."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Impossible! you do not know whither he is gone."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If I employ every detective in Bow Street, I will find him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wait, only wait, till the post comes in to-morrow. He will surely write, if not to her,--wretch that he is!--at least to some of us."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If he be alive. No. I must go up to Pen-y-gwryd, where he was last seen, and find out what I can."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They will be all in bed at this hour of the night; and if--if anything has happened, it will be over by now,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "God forgive me! It will indeed: but he may write--perhaps to me. He is no coward, I believe: and he may send me a challenge. Yes, I will wait for the post."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Shall you accept it if he does?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, Miss St. Just; you may set your mind at rest upon that point. I have done quite enough harm already to your family. Now, good-bye! I will wait for the post to-morrow: do you go to your sister."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The Rising of the Lark."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Of foreign tongues let scholars brag, With fifteen names for a pudding-bag: Two tongues I know ne'er told a lie; And their wearers be, my dog and I!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That ought to be Harry's song, and the colly's too, eh? said he, pointing to the dear old dog, who sat with his head on Owen's knee--"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Show me a room, and bring me a pen and paper,"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We have no room, sir, unless these gentlemen--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Of course, said Wynd, jumping up, a child under each arm."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Vavasour! we shall be most happy to have your company,--for a week if you will!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ten minutes' solitude is all I ask, sir, if I am not intruding too far."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Two hours, if you like. We'll stay here. Mrs. Owen,--the thicker the merrier."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The party is taken ill with a poem,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "With something worse, Ned. That man's eye and voice had something uncanny in them. Mellot said he would go crazed some day; and be hanged if I don't think he is so now."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The gentleman had drunk the liquor off at one draught, and ran out of the house like a wild man. Harry Owen must go down to Beddgelert instantly with the letter; and there was five shillings to pay for all."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Which way did the gentleman go, Mrs. Owen?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Capel Curig road."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Run to the bridge, Wynd, whispers Naylor."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He may have thrown himself over."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Tally ho!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There is but one thing, Wynd. After him, or he'll drown himself in Llyn Cwn Fynnon."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, he's striking to the right. Can he be going up the Glyder?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We'll see that in five minutes. All in the day's work, my boy. I could go up Mont Blanc with such a dinner in me."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Let us go hence,"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What matter? What fitter guide for such a path as mine than the blue lightning flashes?"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "characters at this moment than Elsley Vavasour, or any dozen of mere verse-writers, because they are hazarding their lives, on an errand of mercy, and all the while have so little notion that they are hazarding their lives, or doing anything dangerous or heroic, that, instead of being touched for a moment by Nature's melodrama, they are jesting at each other's troubles, greeting each interval of darkness with mock shouts of misery and despair, likening the crags to various fogies of their acquaintance, male and female, and only pulling the cutty pipes out of their mouths to chant snatches of jovial songs. They are Wynd and Naylor, the two Cambridge boating-men, in bedrabbled flannel trousers, and shooting-jackets pocketful of water; who are both fully agreed, that hunting a mad poet over the mountains in a thunder-storm is, on the whole,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He must have gone up here somewhere. I saw the poor beggar against the sky as plain as I see you,--which I don't--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where be you, William? says the keeper."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Here I be, sir, says the beater, with my 'eels above my 'ed."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wery well, William; when you get your 'ed above your 'eels, gae on."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But I'm stuck fast between two stones! Hang the stones! And Naylor bursts into an old seventeenth century ditty of the days of"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "So am I! I shall just lie and light a pipe."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Come on, now, and look round the lee side of this crag. We shall find him bundled up under the lee of one of them."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He don't know lee from windward, I dare say."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He'll soon find out the difference by his skin;--if it's half as wet, at least, as mine is."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll tell you what, Naylor, if the poor fellow has crossed the ridge, and tried to go down on the Twll du, he's a dead man by this time."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He'll have funked it, when he comes to the edge, and sees nothing but mist below. But if he has wandered on to the cliffs above Trifaen, he's a dead man, then, at all events. Get out of the way of that flash! A close shave, that! I believe my whiskers are singed."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We may do both, and be none the worse. As for coming to grief, old boy, we're on a good errand, I suppose, and the devil himself can't harm us. Still, shame to him who's ashamed of saying his prayers, as Arnold used to say."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Here's the ordnance cairn, at last; and--here am I astride of a carving-knife, I think! Come and help me off, or I shall be split to the chin!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'm coming! What's this soft under my feet? Who-o-o-oop! Run him to earth at last!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What a swab! Like a piece of wet blotting-paper. Lucky he's not made of salt."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He's dead!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not a bit. I can feel his heart. There's life in the old dog yet."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Leave me, I say! Cannot I be alone if I choose? What right have you to dog me in this way?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My dear sir, we have as much right here as any one else; and if we find a man dying here of cold and fatigue--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What business of yours, if I choose to die?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There is no harm in your dying, sir, says Naylor."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The harm is in our letting you die; I assure you it is entirely to satisfy our own consciences we are troubling you thus;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, sir; nothing from you! You have shown me impertinence enough in the last few weeks, without pressing on me benefits for which I do not wish. Let me go! If you will not leave me, I shall leave you!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You must not go down till it is light; it is as much as your life is worth."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am going to Bangor, sir; and go I will!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I tell you, there is fifteen hundred feet of slippery screes below you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "As steep as a house-roof, and with every tile on it loose. You will roll from top to bottom before you have gone a hundred yards."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What care I? Let me go, I say! Curse you, sir! Do you mean to use force?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I do,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You have assaulted me, sir! The law shall avenge this insult, if there be law in England!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I know nothing about law: but I suppose it will justify me in saving any man's life who is rushing to certain death."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Look here, sir! said Naylor."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Go down, if you will, when it grows light: but from this place you do not stir yet. Whatever you may think of our conduct to-night, you will thank us for it to-morrow morning, when you see where you are."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Steady, sir! said Wynd, springing back, and parrying his outstretched hand."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If you wish us to consider you in your senses, you will be quiet."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And if you don't choose to appear sane, said Naylor,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Really, gentlemen, he said at length,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I believe you are right; I have been very foolish, and you very kind; but you would excuse my absurdities if you knew their provocation."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My dear sir, said Naylor,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You really are too kind; but I believe I must accept your offer, under penalty of being called mad;"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I promised her, and therefore I will break my promise! She has broken hers, and I am free!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If he was running away from his creditors, it was a shame to stop him. If he was running from the police, they would have the more sport the longer the run. At least it was no business of theirs."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If, as I suppose, you expect from me 'the satisfaction of a gentleman,' you will find me at ... Adelphi. I am not escaping from you but from the whole world. If, by shooting me you can quicken my escape, you will do me the first and last favour which I am likely to ask from you."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have news of Vavasour, whispered he."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have a letter from him. Bowie, order me a car instantly for Bangor. I am off to London, Claude. You and Bowie will take care of my things, and send them after me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Major Cawmill has only to command,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Now, Claude, quick; read that and counsel me. I ought to ask Scoutbush's opinion; but the poor dear fellow is out, you see."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Fight him I will not! I detest the notion: a soldier should never fight a duel. His life is the Queen's, and not his own. And yet if the honour of the family has been compromised by my folly, I must pay the penalty, if Scoutbush thinks it proper."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "In the name of all wit and wisdom, what is the meaning of all this?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You do not know, then, what passed last night?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I? I can only guess that Vavasour has had one of his rages."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Then you must know, said Campbell with an effort;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The wretched ape! Campbell, your first thought was the true one: you must not fight that cur. After all, it's a farce: you won't fire at him, and he can't hit you--so leave ill alone. Beside, for Scoutbush's sake, her sake, every one's sake, the thing must be hushed up. If the fellow chooses to duck under into the London mire, let him lie there, and forget him!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, Claude; his pardon I must beg, ere I go out to the war: or I shall die with a sin upon my soul."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My dear, noble creature! if you must go, I go with you. I must see fair play between you and that madman; and give him a piece of my mind, too, while I am about it. He is in my power: or if not quite that, I know one in whose power he is! and to reason he shall be brought."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No; you must stay here. I cannot trust Scoutbush's head, and these poor dear souls will have no one to look to but you. I can trust you with them, I know. Me you will perhaps never see again."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You can trust me!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mind one thing! If that Vavasour shows his teeth, there is a spell will turn him to stone. Use it!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Heaven forbid! Let him show his teeth. It is I who am in the wrong. Why should I make him more my enemy than he is?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Be it so. Only, if the worst comes to the worst, call him not Elsley Vavasour, but plain John Briggs--and see what follows."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The post has come in! Oh, dear Major Campbell, is there a letter?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Thank God that she did not see that I was going! One more pang on earth spared!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A letter? Don't be silent or I shall go mad! Tell me the worst! Is he alive?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where? Why does he not come back to me?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He has gone to London, Lucia. He will think over it all there, and be sorry for it, and then all will be well again."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "To London! To London!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Clara! Clara! have the children had their breakfast?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, ma'am!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Then help me to pack up, quick! Your master is gone to London on business; and we are to follow him immediately."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My dearest Lucia, you are not fit to travel now!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I shall die if I stay here; die if I do nothing! I must find him! whispered she."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't speak loud, or Clara will hear. I can find him, and nobody can but me! Why don't you help me to pack, Valencia?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My dearest! but what will Scoutbush say when he comes home, and finds you gone?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What right has he to interfere? I am Elsley's wife, am I not? and may follow my husband if I like:"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I will go and get you some breakfast,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I want none. I am too busy to eat. Why don't you help me?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I will bring you some breakfast, and you must try; then I will help to pack: and utterly bewildered she went out; and the thought uppermost in her mind was,--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, that I could find Frank Headley?"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Poor Lucia! thank God that I have some one who will never treat me so! who will lift me up and shield me, instead of crushing me!--dear creature!--Oh that I may find him!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Is this, then, love?"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah! thought she;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are tired,--ill? What a night you must have had! Mellot has told me all."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, my poor sister!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This is a sad dawning for the day of my triumph!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh! it would he intolerable, if I had not through it all the thought"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sit down, sit down, or you will fall! said Frank, leading her to a chair; and as he led her, he whispered with fluttering heart, new to its own happiness, and longing to make assurance sure--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What thought?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The thought of me?"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, guide me! counsel me! pray for me! sobbed she."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am all alone, and my poor sister, she is going mad, I think, and I have no one to trust but you; and you--you will leave me to go to those dreadful wars; and then, what will become of me? Oh, stay! only a few days!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Tell me, said he, at last, trying to awaken himself to action."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Tell me! Is she really going to seek him?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, selfish and forgetful that I am! You must help me! she will go to London, nothing can stop her;--and it will kill her!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It may drive her mad to keep her here."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It will! and that drives me mad also. What can I choose!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Follow where God leads. It is she, after all, who must reclaim him. Leave her in God's hands, and go with her to London."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But my brother?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mellot or I will see him. Let it be me. Mellot shall go with you to London."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh that you were going!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh that I were! I will follow, though. Do you think that I can be long away from you?... But I must tell your brother. I had a very different matter on which to speak to him this morning, said he, with a sad smile:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And yet you go and leave me?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Valencia! Because God has given us to each other, shall our thank-offering be to shrink cowardly from His work?"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Forgive me! he cried;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I was too harsh, Valencia!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No! she cried, looking up at him with a glorious smile."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Scold me! Be harsh to me! It is so delicious now to be reproved by you!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You will find Scoutbush, then!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This moment. I will order the car now, if you will only eat. You must!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Get a car instantly,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "For Mrs. Vavasour, my lady? She has ordered hers already."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No; for Mr. Headley. He is going to find my lord. Frank, pour me out a cup of tea for Lucia."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's no concern of mine; but better tak' up wi' a godly meenister than a godless pawet,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You see that I am asserting our rights already before all the world,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I see you are not ashamed of me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ashamed of you?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And now I must go to Lucia."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And to London."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Must I go? and before you come back, too?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is she determined to start instantly?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I cannot stop her. You see she has ordered the car."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Then go, my darling! My own! my Valencia! Oh, a thousand things to ask you, and no time to ask them in! I can write?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Write? Yes; every day,--twice a day. I shall live upon those letters. Good-bye!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The car, sir."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Which? Who?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The car, sir."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ye'll pardon me, sir, said he in a low voice;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Or you'll shoot me yourself, Bowie? said Frank, half amused, half awed, too, by the stern tone of the guardsman."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'll give you leave to do it if I deserve it"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's no my duty, either as a soldier or as a valet. And, indeed, I've that opeenion of you, sir, that I don't think it'll need to be any one's else's duty either."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'm sure I don't know why we're moving. I don't believe it's business. Some of his tantrums, I daresay. I heard her walking up and down the room all last night, I'll swear. Neither she nor Miss Valencia have been to bed. He'll kill her at last, the brute!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's no concern of either of us, that. Have ye got another trunk to bring down?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No concern? Just like your hard-heartedness, Mr. Bowie. And as soon as I'm gone, of course you will be flirting with these impudent Welshwomen, in their horrid hats."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Maybe, yes; maybe, no. But flirting's no marrying, Mrs. Clara."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "True for you, sir! Men were deceivers ever,"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Dinna fash, lassie. Mind your lady and the poor bairns like a godly handmaiden, and I'll buy the ring when the sawmon fishing's over, and we'll just be married ere I start for the Crimee"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The sawmon! cried Clara."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll see you turned into a mermaid first, and married to a sawmon!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And ye won't do anything o' the kind,"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Devonian slate, where the deep chocolate soil is lodged on the top of the upright strata, and a thick coat of moss and wood sedge clusters about the oak-scrub roots, round which the delicate and rare oak-fern mingles its fronds with great blue campanulas; while the"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "and silver-washed"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "flit round every bramble bed, and the great"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "come down to drink in the road puddles, and sit, fearless flashing off their velvet wings a blue as of that empyrean which is"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, and what right have you to crow over us on that score? I suppose, if you could hire a man in America for eighteen-pence a day instead of a dollar and a half, you would do it? You Americans are not accustomed to give more for a thing than it's worth in the market, are you?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But, Stangrave had answered,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And therefore makes slaves of the niggers instead? I'll tell you what, I'm sick of that shallow fallacy--the glory of America! Do you mean by America, the country, or the people? You boast, all of you, of your country, as if you had made it yourselves; and quite forget that God made America, and America has made you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Made us, sir?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Made you! replied Thurnall, exaggerating his half truth from anger."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "To what is your comfort, your high feeding, your very education, owing, but to your having a thin population, a virgin soil, and unlimited means of emigration? What credit to you if you need no poor laws, when you pack off your children, as fast as they grow up, to clear more ground westward? What credit to your yeomen that they have read more books than our clods have, while they can earn more in four hours than our poor fellows in twelve? It all depends on the mere physical fact of your being in a new country, and we in an old one: and as for moral superiority, I shan't believe in that while I see the whole of the northern states so utterly given up to the 'almighty dollar,' that they leave the honour of their country to be made ducks and drakes of by a few southern slaveholders. Moral superiority? We hold in England that an honest man is a match for three rogues. If the same law holds good in the United States, I leave you to settle whether Northerners or Southerners are the honester men."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And what have we done?--what have even I done? We have steadily, deliberately cringed at the feet of the wrong-doer, even while we boasted our superiority to him at every point, and at last, for the sake of our own selfish ease, helped him to forge new chains for his victims, and received as our only reward fresh insults. White slaves! We, perhaps, and not the English peasant, are the white slaves! At least, if the Irishman emigrates to England, or the Englishman to Canada, he is not hunted out with blood-hounds, and delivered back to his landlord to be scourged and chained. He is not practically out of the pale of law, unrepresented, forbidden even the use of books; and even if he were, there is an excuse for the old country; for she was founded on no political principles, but discovered what she knows step by step, a sort of political Topsy, as Claude Mellot calls her, who has 'kinder growed,' doing from hand to mouth what seemed best. But that we, who profess to start as an ideal nation, on fixed ideas of justice, freedom, and equality--that we should have been stultifying ever since every great principle of which we so loudly boast!--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The old Jew used to say of his nation, 'It is God that hath made us, and not we ourselves.' We say, 'It is we that have made ourselves, while God--?'--Ah, yes; I recollect. God's work is to save a soul here and a soul there, and to leave America to be saved by the Americans who made it. We must have a broader and deeper creed than that if we are to work out our destiny. The battle against Middle Age slavery was fought by the old Catholic Church, which held the Jewish notion, and looked on the Deity as the actual King of Christendom, and every man in it as God's own child. I see now!--No wonder that the battle in America has as yet been fought by the Quakers, who believe that there is a divine light and voice in every man; while the Calvinist preachers, with their isolating and individualising creed, have looked on with folded hands, content to save a negro's soul here and there, whatsoever might become of the bodies and the national future of the whole negro race. No wonder, while such men have the teaching of the people, that it is necessary still in the nineteenth century, in a Protestant country, amid sane human beings, for such a man as Mr. Sumner to rebut, in sober earnest, the argument that the negro was the descendant of Canaan, doomed to eternal slavery by Noah's curse!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes; one thing at least I have learnt, in all my experiments on poor humanity;--never to see a man do a wrong thing, without feeling that I could do the same in his place. I used to pride myself on that once, fool that I was, and call it comprehensiveness. I used to make it an excuse for sitting by, and seeing the devil have it all his own way, and call that toleration. I will see now whether I cannot turn the said knowledge to a better account, as common sense, patience, and charity; and yet do work of which neither I nor my country need be ashamed."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ten thousand pardons!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are excused, dear sir, you are excused, says the good-natured German, with a wicked smile, which raises a blush on Stangrave's cheek."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Your eyes were dazzled; why not? it is not often that one sees two such suns together in the same sky. But calm yourself; the boat stops at Coblentz."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah, my dear, dear friend! and you would pass me! Whither the hangman so fast are you running in the mud!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My dear Salomon! But let me go, I beseech you; I am in search--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "In search? cries the jolly Jew banker,--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My dearest fellow, I am looking for two ladies!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Two? ah, rogue! shall not one suffice?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Don't, my dearest fellow! I am looking for two English ladies."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Potz! You shall find two hundred in the hotels, ugly and fair; but the two fairest are gone this two hours."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "When?--which?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sabina Mellot, and a Sultana--I thought her of The Nation, and would have offered my hand on the spot: but Madame Mellot says she is a Gentile."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Gone? And you have seen them! Where?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "To Bertrich. They had luncheon with my mother, and then started by private post."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I must follow."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What matter?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But you shall find them to-morrow, just as well as to-day. They stay at Bertrich for a fortnight more. They have been there now a month, and only left it last week for a pleasure tour, across to the Ahrthal, and so back by Andernach."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why did they leave Coblentz, then, in such hot haste?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ah, the ladies never give reasons. There were letters waiting for them at our house; and no sooner read, but they leaped up, and would forth. Come home now, and go by the steamer to-morrow morning."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Impossible! most hospitable of Israelites."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "To go to-night,--for see the clouds!--Not a postilion will dare to leave Coblentz, under that quick-coming _allgemein und ungeheuer henker-hund-und-teufel's-gewitter_."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They will be caught in it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No. They are far beyond its path by now; while you shall endure the whole visitation; and if you try to proceed, pass the night in a flea-pestered post-house, or in a ditch of water."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What news to-day?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "As well as can be expected, sir, and as quiet as a lamb now, they say. But it has been a bad time, and a bad man is he that caused it."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A bad time, and a bad man. How is Miss St. Just?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Just gone to lie down, sir. Mrs. Clara is on the stairs, if you'd like to see her."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No; tell Miss St. Just that I have no news yet."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am sure you have had no breakfast, sir: and you look so ill and worn. And Miss St. Just will be so vexed not to see you. She will get up the moment she hears you are here."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, my good Miss Clara, says Campbell, looking down with a weary smile."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I should only make gloom more gloomy. Bowie, tell his lordship that I shall be at the afternoon train to-morrow, let what will happen."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ay, ay, sir. We're a' ready to march. The Major looks very ill, Miss Clara. I wish he'd have taken your counsel. And I wish ye'd take mine, and marry me ere I march, just to try what it's like."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I must mind my mistress, Mr. Bowie,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And how should I interfere with that, as I've said twenty times, when I'm safe in the Crimea? I'll get the licence this day, say what ye will: and then you would not have the heart to let me spend two pounds twelve and sixpence for nothing."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She is safe, at least, then! One burden off my mind. And yet had it not been better if that pure spirit had returned to Him who gave it, instead of waking again to fresh misery? I must find that man! Why, I have been saying so to myself for seven days past, and yet no ray of light. Can the coward have given me a wrong address? Yet why give me an address at all if he meant to hide from me? Why, I have been saying that too, to myself every day for the last week? Over and over again the same dreary round of possibilities and suspicions. However, I must be quiet now, if I am a man. I can hear nothing before the detective comes at two. How to pass the weary, weary time? For I am past thinking--almost past praying --though not quite, thank God!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But I never have seen its like; it had just like a painter's easel in its stomach yesterday!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, it's an Echinus Larva: a sucking sea-urchin! Hang it, if I had known you hadn't seen one, I'd have brought up half-a-dozen of them!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "May I look, sir? asked the Major;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I, too, never have seen an Echinus Larva."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Major Campbell!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mr. Thurnall! I thought I could not be mistaken in the voice."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This is too pleasant, sir, to renew our watery loves together here, said Tom: but a second look at the Major's face showed him that he was in no jesting mood."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How is the party at Beddgelert? I fancied you with them still."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They are all in London, at Lord Scoutbush's house, in Eaton Square."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "In London, at this dull time? I trust nothing unpleasant has brought them here."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mrs. Vavasour is very ill. We had thoughts of sending for you, as the family physician was out of town: but she was out of danger, thank God, in a few hours. Now let me ask in turn after you. I hope no unpleasant business brings you up three hundred miles from your practice?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Nothing, I assure you. Only I have given up my Aberalva practice. I am going to the East."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Like the rest of the world."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not exactly. You go as a dignified soldier of her Majesty's; I as an undignified Abel Drugger, to dose Bashi-bazouks."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Impossible! and with such an opening as you had there! You must excuse me; but my opinion of your prudence must not be so rudely shaken."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why do you not ask the question which Balzac's old Tourangeois judge asks, whenever a culprit is brought before him,--'Who is she?'"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Taking for granted that there was a woman at the bottom of every mishap? I understand you, said the Major, with a sad smile."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Now let you and me walk a little together, and look at the Echinoid another day --or when I return from Sevastopol--"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You knew Elsley Vavasour well?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No man better."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Did you think that there was any tendency to madness in him?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No more than in any other selfish, vain, irritable man, with a strong imagination left to run riot."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Humph! you seem to have divined his character. May I ask you if you knew him before you met him at Aberalva?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You would ask, what cause I have for inquiring? I will tell you presently. Meanwhile I may say, that Mellot told me frankly that you had some power over him; and mentioned, mysteriously, a name--John Briggs, I think--which it appears that he once assumed."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If Mellot thought fit to tell you anything, I may frankly tell you all. John Briggs is his real name. I have known him from childhood."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You have kept your secret mercifully, and used it wisely, sir; and I and others shall be always your debtors for it. Now I dare tell you in turn, in strictest confidence of course--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am far too poor to afford the luxury of babbling."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I expected as much, said he drily."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now, I suppose that you wish me to exert myself in finding the man?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I do."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Were Mrs. Vavasour only concerned, I should say--Not I! Better that she should never set eyes on him again."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Better, indeed! said he bitterly:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Major Campbell's wish is a command. Where have you searched for him?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "At his address, at his publisher's, at the houses of various literary friends of his, and yet no trace."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Has he gone to the Continent?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Heaven knows! I have inquired at every passport office for news of any one answering his description; indeed, I have two detectives, I may tell you, at this moment, watching every possible place. There is but one hope, if he be alive. Can he have gone home to his native town?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Never! Anywhere but there."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Is there any old friend of the lower class with whom he may have taken lodgings?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There was a fellow, a noisy blackguard, whom Briggs was asking after this very summer--a fellow who went off from Whitbury with some players. I know Briggs used to go to the theatre with him as a boy--what was his name? He tried acting, but did not succeed; and then became a scene-shifter, or something of the kind, at the Adelphi. He has some complaint, I forget what, which made him an out-patient at St. Mumpsimus's, some months every year. I know that he was there this summer, for I wrote to ask, at Briggs's request, and Briggs sent him a sovereign through me."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But what makes you fancy that he can have taken shelter with such a man, and one who knows his secret?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is but a chance: but he may have done it from the mere feeling of loneliness--just to hold by some one whom he knows in this great wilderness; especially a man in whose eyes he will be a great man, and to whom he has done a kindness; still, it is the merest chance."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We will take it, nevertheless, forlorn hope though it be."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Does John Barker live here? asks Thurnall, putting his head in cautiously for fear of drunken Irishmen, who might be seized with the national impulse to"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What's that to you?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Here is a gentleman wants to speak to him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "So do a many as won't have that pleasure, and would be little the better for it if they had. Get along with you, I knows your lay."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We really want to speak to him, and to pay him, if he will--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Go along! I'm up to the something to your advantage dodge, and to the mustachio dodge too. Do you fancy I don't know a bailiff, because he's dressed like a swell?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But, my good woman!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You put your crocodile foot in here, and I'll hit the hot water over the both of you!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My dear soul! I am a doctor belonging to the hospital which your husband goes to; and have known him since he was a boy, down in Berkshire."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My name is Thurnall. I was a medical man once in Whitbury, where your husband was born."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You? said she again, in a softened tone,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I knows that name well enough."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You do? What was your name, then?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Never you mind: I'm no credit to it, so I'll let it be. But come in, for the old county's sake. Can't offer you a chair, he's pawned 'em all. Pleasant old place it was down there, when I was a young girl; they say it's grow'd a grand place now, wi' a railroad. I think many times I'd like to go down and die there."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My good woman, said Major Campbell, a little impatiently,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why then?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If he will answer a few questions, I will give him five shillings. If he can find out for me what I want, I will give him five pounds."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Shouldn't I do as well? If you gi' it he, it's little out of it I shall see, but he coming home tipsy when it's spent. Ah, dear! it was a sad day for me when I first fell in with they play-goers!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why should she not do it as well? said Thurnall."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mrs. Barker, do you know anything of a person named Briggs--John Briggs, the apothecary's son, at Whitbury?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Know he? yes, and too much reason. That was where it all begun, along of that play-going of he's and my master's."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Have you seen him lately?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I seen 'un? I'd hit this water over the fellow, and all his play-acting merryandrews, if ever he sot a foot here!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But have you heard of him?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ees-- said she carelessly;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My good woman, said Campbell, panting for breath,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Five pounds is a sight to me: but it's a sight more than the sight of he's worth,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's the gentleman's concern, said Tom."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The money's yours. I suppose you know the worth of it by now?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ees, none better. But I don't want he to get hold of it; he's made away with enough already;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Curiously impassive people, we Wessex worthies, when we are a little ground down with trouble. You must give her time, and she will do our work. She wants the money, but she is long past being excited at the prospect of it."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What's that you're whispering?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You don't trust us yet, eh?--then, there! and he took five sovereigns from his pocket, and tossed them on the table."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There's your money! I trust you to do the work, as you've been paid beforehand."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sally, you go down with these gentlemen to the Jonson's Head, and if he ben't there, go to the Fighting Cocks; and if he ben't there, go to the Duke of Wellington; and tell he there's two gentlemen has heard of his poetry, and wants to hear 'un excite. And then you give he a glass of liquor, and praise up his nonsense, and he'll tell you all he knows, and a sight more. Gi' un plenty to drink. It'll be a saving and a charity, for if he don't get it out of you, he will out of me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Can't I do anything for you? asked Tom, whose heart always yearned over a Berkshire soul."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have plenty of friends down at Whitbury still."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "More than I have. No, sir, said she sadly, and with the first touch of sweetness they had yet heard in her voice."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I've cured my own bacon, and I must eat it. There's none down there minds me, but them that would be ashamed of me. And I couldn't go without he, and they wouldn't take he in; so I must just bide."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "God help her!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Misery breeds that temper, and only misery, in our people. I can show you as thorough gentlemen and ladies, people round Whitbury, living on ten shillings a week, as you will show me in Belgravia living on five thousand a year."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don't doubt it, said Campbell...."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "So 'she couldn't go without he,' drunken dog as he is! Thus it is with them all the world over."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "So much the worse for them, said Tom cynically,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I fancy sometimes that they were all meant to be the mates of angels, and stooped to men as a _pis aller_; reversing the old story of the sons of heaven and the daughters of men."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And accounting for the present degeneracy. When the sons of heaven married the daughters of men, their offspring were giants and men of renown. Now the sons of men marry the daughters of heaven, and the offspring is Wiggle, Waggle, Windbag, and Redtape."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors: A man of war, and eke a man of peace-- That is, if you come peaceful; and if not, Have we not Hiren here?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We come in peace, my good sir, said Tom;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "To listen, and to drink? The muse is dry, And Pegasus doth thirst for Hippocrene, And fain would paint--imbibe the vulgar call-- Or hot or cold, or long or short--Attendant!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Glasses all round--these noble knights will pay-- Of hottest hot, and stiffest stiff. Thou mark'st me? Now to your quest!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do you know Mr. Briggs?"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My benefactor! Were the world a waste, A thistle-waste, ass-nibbled, goldfinch-pecked, And all the men and women merely asses, I still could lay this hand upon this heart, And cry, 'Not yet alone! I know a man-- A man Jove-fronted, and Hyperion-curled-- A gushing, flushing, blushing human heart!'"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "As sure as you live, sir, said Tom,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Base is the slave who pays, and baser prose-- Hang uninspired patter! 'Tis in verse That angels praise, and fiends in Limbo curse."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And asses bray, I think, said Tom, in despair."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do you know where Mr. Briggs is now?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And why the devil do you want to know? For that's a verse, sir, although somewhat slow."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Better tell the fellow the plain truth,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Come out with us, and I will tell you."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What? leave the nepenthe untasted?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The fact is, sir,--I speak to you, of course, in confidence, as one gentleman to another--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That his family are exceedingly distressed at his absence, and his wife, who, as you may know, is a lady of high family, dangerously ill; and he cannot be aware of the fact. This gentleman is the medical man of her family, and I--I am an intimate friend. We should esteem it therefore the very greatest service if you would give us any information which--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Weep no more, gentle shepherds, weep no more; For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead, Sunk though he be upon a garret floor, With fumes of Morpheus' crown about his head."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Fumes of Morpheus' crown?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That crimson flower which crowns the sleepy god, And sweeps the soul aloft, though flesh may nod."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He has taken to opium! said Thurnall to the bewildered Major."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What I should have expected."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "God help him! we must save him out of that last lowest deep! cried Campbell."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Where is he, sir?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A vow! a vow! I have a vow in heaven! Why guide the hounds toward the trembling hare? Our Adonais hath drunk poison; Oh! What deaf and viperous murderer could crown Life's early cup with such a draught of woe?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "As I live, sir, cried Campbell, losing his self-possession in disgust at the fool;"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Barker, said Tom blandly,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sir, sputtered he, speaking prose at last,"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This is too vexations! To have kept half-an-hour's company with such an animal, and then to have him escape me after all! A just punishment on me for pandering to his drunkenness."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Pay for his liquor, Major, and follow. Keep a few yards behind me; there will be less chance of his recognising us than if he saw us both together."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, where do you think he's going?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not home, I can see. Ten to one that he will go raging off straight to Briggs, to put him on his guard against us. Just like a drunkard's cunning it would be. There, he has turned up that side street. Now follow me quick. Oh that he may only keep his legs!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He is not man enough for a second shot, thought Tom quietly,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I beg your pardon, Mr. Vavasour, he heard the Major say, in a gentle unmoved voice,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am glad the beggar fired at him, thought Tom."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "One spice of danger, and he's himself again, and will overawe the poor cur by mere civility. I was afraid of some abject methodist parson humility, which would give the other party a handle."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I assure you, sir, on the word of a Christian and a soldier, that you are labouring under an entire misapprehension. For God's sake and Mrs. Vavasour's sake, come back, sir, to those who will receive you with nothing but affection! Your wife has been all but dead; she thinks of no one but you, asks for no one but you. In God's name, sir, what are you doing here, while a wife who adores you is dying from your--I do not wish to be rude, sir, but let me say at least--neglect?"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Miserable ass! thought Tom,"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, my dear Jack, whispered he quietly,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not for him, Tom, for myself!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "For neither, dear lad! Let bygones be bygones, and do you be a new man, and go home to Mrs. Vavasour."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Never, never, never, never, never, never!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This is a case for me, Major Campbell. I think you had better go now."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You will not leave him?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, sir. It is a very curious psychological study, and he is a Whitbury man."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mr. Vavasour, I am going to the war, from which I expect never to return. If you believe me, give me your hand before I go."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wish to die at peace with you and all the world. I am innocent in word, in thought. I shall not insult another person by saying that she is so. If you believe me, give me your hand."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Is he gone?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Does she--does she care for him?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good heavens! How did you ever dream such an absurdity?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "She has been ill?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is ill. She has lost her child."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Which?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A boy whom she should have had."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Give me the bottle, Tom!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What bottle?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The laudanum;--there in the cupboard."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I shall do no such thing. You are poisoning yourself."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Let me then! I must, I tell you! I can live on nothing else. I shall go mad if I do not have it. I should have been mad by now. Nothing else keeps off these fits;--I feel one coming now. Curse you! give me the bottle!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What fits?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How do I know? Agony and torture--ever since I got wet on that mountain."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I tell you it turns every bone to red-hot iron!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Neuralgia; rheumatic, I suppose, said Tom to himself."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, this is not the thing to cure you: but you shall have it to keep you quiet."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "More, I tell you, more!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not more while you are with me."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "With you! Who the devil sent you here?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "John Briggs, John Briggs, if I did not mean you good, should I be here now? Now do, like a reasonable man, tell me what you intend to do."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What is that to you, or any man?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No concern of mine, of course: but your poor wife--you must see her."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I can't, I won't!--that is, not yet! I tell you I cannot face the thought of her, much less the sight of her, and her family,--that Valencia! I'd rather the earth should open and swallow me! Don't talk to me, I say!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am better now; quite well! said he, as the laudanum began to work."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes! I'll go--that will be it--go to ---- at once. He'll give me an order for a magazine article; I'll earn ten pounds, and then off to Italy."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If you want ten pounds, my good fellow, you can have them without racking your brains over an article."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I do not borrow, sir!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well--I'll give you five for those pistols. They are of no use to you, and I shall want a spare brace for the East."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ah! I forgot them. I spent my last money on them, said he with a shudder;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Very good. I'll go with you, if you like. I fancy I may get you a better price for them than you would yourself: being rather a knowing one about the pretty little barkers."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If you ever go up those kennel-stairs again, friend, said he to himself,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now then let's go into 333, and get a mutton chop."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Come to my rooms, then, in the Adelphi, and have a wash and a shave. It will make you as fresh as a lark again, and then we'll send out for the eatables, and have a quiet chat."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "By Jove! said Tom,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I may perhaps,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And if it comes to that, why not come to the war, and see it for yourself? A new country--one of the finest in the world. New scenery, new actors,--Why, Constantinople itself is a poem! Yes, there is another 'Revolt of Islam' to be written yet. Why don't you become our war poet? Come and see the fighting; for there'll be plenty of it, let them say what they will. The old bear is not going to drop his dead donkey without a snap and a hug. Come along, and tell people what it's all really like. There will be a dozen Cockneys writing battle songs, I'll warrant, who never saw a man shot in their lives, not even a hare. Come and give us the real genuine grit of it,--for if you can't, who can?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It is a grand thought! The true war poets, after all, have been warriors themselves. Körner and Alcaeus fought as well as sang, and sang because they fought. Old Homer, too,--who can believe that he had not hewn his way through the very battles which he describes, and seen every wound, every shape of agony? A noble thought, to go out with that army against the northern Anarch, singing in the van of battle, as Taillefer sang the song of Roland before William's knights, and to die like him, the proto-martyr of the Crusade, with the melody yet upon one's lips!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What a handsome fellow he is, after all, if there were but more of him? said Tom to himself."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I wonder if he'd fight, though, when the singing-fever was off him."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The notion has taken: he's composing a war song already, I believe."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well? asked Tom smilingly, not noticing the tears;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Do you know, Thurnall, I fancy at moments that my mind is not what it was. Fancies flit from me as quickly as they come. I had twenty verses five minutes ago, and now I cannot recollect one."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No wonder, thought Tom to himself."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My clear fellow, recollect all that you have suffered with this neuralgia. Believe me all you want is animal strength. Chops and porter will bring all the verses back, or better ones instead of them."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sold am I? said Tom to himself."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He must have hidden the bottle as he came out of the room with me. Oh, the cunning of those opium-eaters? However, it will keep him quiet just now, and to Eaton Square I must go."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You had better be quiet now, my dear fellow, after your dose; talking will only excite you. Settle yourself on my bed, and I'll be back in an hour."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What will you do with the unhappy man, Mr. Thurnall?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Keep him under my eye, day and night, till he is either rational again, or--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do you think that he may?--Oh my poor sister!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think that he may yet end very sadly, madam. There is no use concealing the truth from you. All I can promise is, that I will treat him as my own brother."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am not worthy of such an honour, madam. I shall study to deserve it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "However, that fellow I must see to, come what will: business first and pleasure afterwards. If I make him all right-- if I even get him out of the world decently, I get the Scoutbush interest on my side--though I believe I have it already. Still, it's as well to lay people under as heavy an obligation as possible. I wish Miss Valencia had asked me whether Elsley wanted any money: it's expensive keeping him myself. However, poor thing, she has other matters to think of: and I dare say, never knew the pleasures of an empty purse. Here we are! Three-and-sixpence--eh, cabman? I suppose you think I was born Saturday night? There's three shillings. Now, don't chaff me, my excellent friend, or you will find you have met your match, and a leetle more!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thurnall! said he;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have been a long journey. I have been to Whitbury once more, and followed my father about his garden, and sat upon my mother's knee. And she taught me one text, and no more. Over and over again she said it, as she looked down at me with still sad eyes, the same text which she spoke the day I left her for London. I never saw her again. 'By this, my son, be admonished; of making of books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.'.... Yes, I will go down to Whitbury, and he a little child once more. I will take poor lodgings, and crawl out day by day, down the old lanes, along the old river-banks, where I fed my soul with fair and mad dreams, and reconsider it all from the beginning;--and then die. No one need know me; and if they do, they need not be ashamed of me, I trust--ashamed that a poet has risen up among them, to speak words which have been heard across the globe. At least, they need never know my shame--never know that I have broken the heart of an angel, who gave herself to me, body and soul--attempted the life of a man whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose--never know that I have killed my own child!--that a blacker brand than Cain's is on my brow!--Never know--Oh, my God, what care I? Let them know all, as long as I can have done with shams and affectations, dreams, and vain ambitions, and he just my own self once more, for one day, and then die!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, Tom, do not comfort me! I ought to die, and I shall die. I cannot face her again; let her forget me, and find a husband who will--and be a father to the children whom I neglected! Oh, my darlings, my darlings! If I could but see you once again: but no! you too would ask me where I had been so long. You too would ask me--your innocent faces at least would--why I had killed your little brother!--Let me weep it out, Thurnall; let me face it all! This very misery is a comfort, for it will kill me all the sooner."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If you really mean to go to Whitbury, my poor dear fellow, said Tom at last,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I will start with you to-morrow morning. For I too must go; I must see my father."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You will really?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I will indeed. Believe me, you are right; you will find friends there, and admirers too. I know one."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You do?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mary Armsworth, the banker's daughter."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What! That purse-proud, vulgar man?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't be afraid of him. A truer and more delicate heart don't beat. No one has more cause to say so than I. He will receive you with open arms, and need be told no more than is necessary; while, as his friend, you may defy gossip, and do just what you like."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am no officer: but I have been in many a battle, and I know the Russians well, and have seen how they fight; and there is many a brave man killed, and many a one more will be."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, does it hurt them much?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not often,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Thank God, thank God!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are strange creatures, women, women! thought Tom:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The better the day, the better the deed, quoth he."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When a man is travelling to a better world, he need not be afraid of starting on a Sunday."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now, tell me, tell me, while Jane gets you something to eat. No, Jane, you mustn't talk to Master Tom yet, to bother about how much he's grown;--nonsense, I must have him all to myself, Jane. Go and get him some dinner. Now, Tom, as if he was afraid of losing a moment;"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You seem to know more about Australia than I do, father,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, child; but Mary Armsworth, God bless her! comes down here almost every evening to read your letters to me; and she has been reading to me a book of Mrs. Lee's Adventures in Australia, which reads like a novel; delicious book--to me at least. Why, there is her step outside, I do believe, and her father's with her!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hillo, ho! who have we here? Our prodigal son returned, with his pockets full of nuggets from the diggings. Oh, mum's the word, is it? as Tom laid his finger on his lips."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Come here, then, and let's have a look at you! and he catches both Tom's hands in his, and almost shakes them off."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I knew you were coming, old boy! Mary told me--she's in all the old man's secrets. Come along, Mary, and see your old playfellow. She has got a little fruit for the old gentleman. Mary, where are you I always colloguing with Jane."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "says Mary;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A little bit of fruit from her greenhouse, says the old man in a disparaging tone:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Aha! my young rover; Old Mark's right hand hasn't forgot its cunning, eh? And this is the month for them; fish all quiet now. When fools go a-shooting, wise men go a-fishing! Eh? Come here, and look me over. How do I wear, eh? As like a Muscovy duck as ever, you young rogue? Do you recollect asking me, at the Club dinner, why I was like a Muscovy duck? Because I was a fat thing in green velveteen, with a bald red head, that was always waddling about the river bank. Ah, those were days! We'll have some more of them. Come up to-night and try the old '21 bin."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I must have him myself to-night; indeed I must, Mark,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "All to yourself you selfish old rogue?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why--no--"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Old Mark wears well, body and soul,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He is a noble, generous fellow, and as delicate-hearted as a woman withal, in spite of his conceit and roughness. Fifty and odd years now, Tom, have we been brothers, and I never found him change. And brothers we shall be, I trust, a few years more, till I see you back again from the East, comfortably settled. And then--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't talk of that, sir, please! said Tom, quite quickly and sharply."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How ill poor Mary looks!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "So they say, poor child; and one hears it in her voice. Ah, Tom, that girl is an angel; she has been to me daughter, doctor, clergyman, eyes and library; and would have been nurse too, if it had not been for making old Jane jealous. But she is ill. Some love affair, I suppose--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How quaint it is, that the father has kept all the animal vigour to himself, and transmitted none to the daughter."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He has not kept the soul to himself, Tom, or the eyes either. She will bring me in wild flowers, and talk to me about them, till I fancy I can see them as well as ever. Ah, well! It is a sweet world still, Tom, and there are sweet souls in it. A sweet world: I was too fond of looking at it once, I suppose, so God took away my sight, that I might learn to look at Him."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There is a poor sick man whom I brought down with me, sir, if you could spare me half-an-hour. It really is a professional case; he is under my charge, I may say."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What is it, boy?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, laudanum and a broken heart."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Exercise and ammonia for the first. For the second, God's grace and the grave: and those latter medicines you can't exhibit, my dear boy. Well, as it is professional duty, I suppose you must: but don't exceed the hour; I shall lie awake till you return, and then you must talk me to sleep."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Poor fool! said Mark, who listened in silence to the end."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why didn't he mind his bottles, and just do what Heaven sent him to do? Is he in want of the rhino, Tom?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He had not five shillings left after he had paid his fare; and he refuses to ask his wife for a farthing."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Quite right--very proper spirit."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I say, Tom, a fool and his money are soon parted. There's a five-pound note for him, you begging, insinuating dog, and be hanged to you both! I shall die in the workhouse at this rate."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh father, you will never miss--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Who told you I thought I should, pray? Don't you go giving another five pounds out of your pocket-money behind my back, ma'am. I know your tricks of old. Tom, I'll come and see the poor beggar to-morrow with you, and call him Mr. Vavasour--Lord Vavasour, if he likes--if you'll warrant me against laughing in his face."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, father, father, don't be so cruel. Remember how wretched the poor man is."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I can't think of anything but old Bolus's boy turned poet. Why did you tell me, Tom, you bad fellow? It's too much for a man at my time of life, and after his dinner too."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Won't come in, boy, and have one more cigar?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I promised my father to be back as quickly as possible."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That dear Miss Mary, pity she is so plain! Such a match as she might have made! But she'll be handsome enough, when she is a blessed angel in heaven."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll butter him, trust me. Nothing comforts a poor beggar like a bit of praise when he's down; and all fellows that take to writing are as greedy after it as trout after the drake, even if they only scribble in county newspapers. I've watched them when I've been electioneering, my boy!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Only, said Tom,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Poh! quarrel with him? whom did I ever quarrel with? If he barks, I'll stop his mouth with a good dinner. I suppose he's gentleman enough, to invite?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "As much a gentleman as you and I; not of the very first water, of course. Still he eats like other people, and don't break many glasses during a sitting. Think! he couldn't have been a very great cad to marry a nobleman's daughter!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, no. Speaks well for him, that, considering his breeding. He must be a very clever fellow to have caught the trick of the thing so soon."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And so he is, a very clever fellow; too clever by half; and a very fine-hearted fellow, too, in spite of his conceit and his temper. But that don't prevent his being an awful fool!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You speak like a book, Tom! said old Mark, clapping him on the back."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Look at me! no one can say I was ever troubled with genius: but I can show my money, pay my way, eat my dinner, kill my trout, hunt my hounds, help a lame dog over a stile (which was Mark's phrase for doing a generous thing),"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Come to do myself the honour of calling on you, Mr. Vavasour. I am sorry to see you so poorly; I hope our Whitbury air will set all right."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You mistake me, sir; my name is Briggs!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Armsworth? I beg your pardon, sir; but what brings you here? Are you come, sir, to use the rich successful man's right, and lecture me in my misery?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "ran on the banker, seeing that Elsley was preparing a peevish answer,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Would that you had never sent me!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ah, sir, that's matter of opinion! You would never have been heard of down here, never have had justice done you, I mean; for heard of you have been. There's my daughter has read your poems again and again-- always quoting them; and very pretty they sound too. Poetry is not in my line, of course; still, it's a credit to a man to do anything well, if he has the gift; and she tells me that you have it, and plenty of it. And though she's no fine lady, thank Heaven, I'll back her for good sense against any woman. Come up, sir, and judge for yourself if I don't speak the truth; she will be delighted to meet you, and bade me say so."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "His nerves were so weak, and his spirits so broken with late troubles."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My dear sir, that's the very reason I want you to come. A bottle of port will cure the nerves, and a pleasant chat the spirits. Nothing like forgetting all for a little time; and then to it again with a fresh lease of strength, and beat it at last like a man."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Too late, my dear sir; I must pay the penalty of my own folly,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Never too late, sir, while there's life left in us. And, he went on in a gentler tone,"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You too are somewhat of a poet in your way, I see, sir!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I never thought to live to hear that, sir. I can't doubt now that you are cleverer than your neighbours, for you have found out something which they never did. But you will come?--for that's my business."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You have given me so much new and good advice in a few minutes, sir, that I must really do myself the pleasure of coming and hearing more."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well done, our side! cried old Mark."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Dinner at half-past five. No London late hours here, sir. Miss Armsworth will be out of her mind when she hears you're coming."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Do you think he'll come up to the scratch, Tom?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am very much afraid his courage will fail him. I will see him again, and bring him up with me: but now, my dear Mr. Armsworth, do remember one thing; that if you go on with him at your usual rate of hospitality, the man will as surely be drunk, as his nerves and brain are all but ruined; and if he is so, he will most probably destroy himself to-morrow morning."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Destroy himself?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He will. The shame of making a fool of himself just now before you will be more than he could bear. So be stingy for once. He will not wish for it unless you press him; but if he talks (and he will talk after the first half-hour), he will forget himself, and half a bottle will make him mad; and then I won't answer for the consequences."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Good gracious! why, these poets want as tender handling as a bag of gunpowder over the fire."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You speak like a book there in your turn."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll tell her. She will manage it somehow, if she is a woman; much more if she is an angel, as my father says."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Come in, while I go and see my father. He came into the smart drawing-room, which he could see was seldom used; for Mary lived in her own room, her father in his counting-house, or in his"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have settled it. Poor unhappy man! We will talk of something more pleasant. Tell me about your shipwreck, and that place,--Aberalva, is it not? What a pretty name!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How has the old lion been tamed? thought Tom."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The two greatest affronts you could offer him in old times were, to break an engagement, and to despise his good cheer."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Please, sir, is Mr. Vavasour here?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Here? Who wants him?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mrs. Brown, sir, in Hemmelford Street. Says he lodges with her, and has been to seek for him at Dr. Thurnall's."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think you had better go, Mr. Thurnall,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Indeed you had, boy. Bother poets, and the day they first began to breed in Whitbury! Such an evening spoilt! Have a cup of coffee? No? then a glass of sherry?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Seemed, sir, just like my nevy's wife's brother, Will Ford, before he made away with hes'self."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The Angler's Arms;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Did a gentleman call here just now, in a long cloak, with a felt wide-awake?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And you sold him laudanum?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why--ah--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And you had sold him laudanum already this afternoon, you young rascal? How dare you, twice in six hours? I'll hold you responsible for the man's life!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You dare call me a rascal?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am a member of the College of Surgeons, says Tom, recovering his coolness,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh sir, what shall I do?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You're in a very neat scrape; you could not have feathered your nest better, says Tom, quietly filling his pipe, and thinking."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "As you behave now, I will get you out of it, or leave you to--you know what, as well as I. Get your hat."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The wild beast goes home to his lair to die, and so may he; for I fear it's life and death now. I'll try the house where he was born. Somewhere in Water Lane it is I know."
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Pray, sir, did a medical man named Briggs ever live here?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What do you want to know for?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why --Tom thought matters were too serious for delicacy--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am looking for a gentleman, and thought he might have come here."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And so he did, if you mean one in a queer hat and a cloak."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How long since?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, he came up our garden an hour or more ago; walked right into the parlour without with your leave, or by your leave, and stared at us all round like one out of his mind; and so away, as soon as ever I asked him what he was at--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Which way?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "To the river, I expect: I ran out, and saw him go down the lane, but I was not going far by night alone with any such strange customers."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Lend me a lanthorn then, for Heaven's sake!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "As usual! Here am I getting wet, dirty, and miserable, about matters which are not the slightest concern of mine! I believe I shall end by getting hanged or shot in somebody else's place, with this confounded spirit of meddling. Yah! how cold the water is!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Armsworth, does the telegraph work at this time of night?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'll make it, if it is wanted. But what's the matter?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You will indeed?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That if poor Mrs. Vavasour wishes to see her husband alive, she must be here in four-and-twenty hours. I'll tell you all presently--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mary, my coat and comforter!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And, Mary, a pen and ink to write the message,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh! cannot I be of any use?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, you angel."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You must not call me an angel, Mr. Thurnall. After all, what can I do which you have not done already?"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah! if Grace had Mary's fortune, or Mary Grace's face!"
}
] |
10995
|
Unknown Title
|
Unknown Author
|
[
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Are either of these ladies Mrs. Vavasour?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes! I!--I!--is he alive?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Alive, and better! and expecting you--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Better?--expecting me?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Are you not coming too?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, thank you, madam; I am going to take a walk. John, you know where to drive these ladies."
}
] |
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