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5485 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What! civil words after what has now happened?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Nay, nay, say what you mean, shrieked the old woman."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If such a thing had occurred to your father he would have fallen on the strange builder with a good thrashing."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And his son Keraunus will not let him off,"
}
]
|
5485 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This, Pontius, is really a first-rate man, said Hadrian, pointing to a tapestry hanging across the narrow end of the room."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This hanging was copied from a fruit-piece that I painted some time since, and had executed here in mosaic. Yesterday this room was not even intended for my use, thus the hanging must have been put up between our arrival and this morning. And how many other beautiful things I see around me! The whole place looks habitable, and the eye finds an abundance of objects on which it can rest with pleasure."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Have you examined that magnificent cushion? asked Antinous;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "They are admirable works, said Hadrian."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Still, I would do without them with pleasure rather than miss this window. Which is the bluer, the sky or the sea? And what a delicious spring breeze fans us here, in the middle of December. Which are the more delightful to contemplate, the innumerable ships in the harbor, which communicate between this flowery land and other countries, and bless it with wealth, or the buildings which attract the eye in whichever direction it turns. It is difficult to know whether most to admire their stately dimensions or the beauty of their forms."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And what is that long, huge dyke, which connects the island with the mainland? Only look! There is a huge trireme passing under one of the wide arches, on which it is supported--and there comes another."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That is the great viaduct, called by the Alexandrians the Heptastadion, because it is said to be seven stadia in length; and in the upper portion it carries a stone water-course--as an elder tree has in it a vein of pith-which supplies water to the island of Pharos."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What a pity it is, said Antinous,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But they serve to vary the picture, replied the Emperor."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Cleopatra often dwelt in the little castle on the island with its harbor, and in that tall tower on the northern side of the peninsula, round which, just now, the blue waves are playing, while the gulls and pigeons fly happily over it--there Antony retreated after the fight of Actium."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "To forget his disgrace!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He named it his Timonareum, because he hoped there to remain unmolested by other human beings, like the wise misanthrope of Athens. How would it be if I called Lochias my Timonareum?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No man need try to hide fame and greatness."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Who told you that it was shame that led Antony to hide himself in that place? asked the imperial sophist;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Then do you excuse his conduct?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I only seek to account for it, and never, for a moment, could allow myself to believe that shame ever prompted a single act in Antony. I-- do you suppose I could ever blush? Nay, we cease to feel shame when we have lived to feel such profound contempt for the world."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But why then should Marc Antony have shut himself up, in yonder sea- washed prison?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Because, to every true man, who has dissipated whole years of his life with women, jesters and flatterers, a moment comes of satiety and loathing. In such an hour he feels that of all the men under the lights of heaven, he, himself, is the only one with whom it is worth his while to commune. After Actium, this was what Antony felt, and he quitted the society of men in order to find himself for once in good company."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is that, no doubt, which drives you now and again into solitude."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No doubt-but you are always allowed to follow me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Then you regard me as better than others,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "As more beautiful at any rate, replied Hadrian kindly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ask me some more questions."
}
]
|
5485 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The Great--We may well envy the young Macedonian; not the mere name of Great, for many of small worth have had it bestowed on them, but because he really earned it!"
}
]
|
5485 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How perfectly well you know this place--and yet you never were here before."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It is one of the greatest pleasures of travelling, replied Hadrian,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "To be sure I do. We hear of a thing, and when we afterwards see it we ask ourselves whether we have conceived of it rightly. But I always picture people or places which I hear much praised, as much more beautiful than I ever find the reality."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The balance of difference, which is to the disadvantage of reality, answered Hadrian,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "and the Emperor stroked his beard and gazed out into the distance."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I learn by experience that the older I grow, the more often I find it possible so to imagine men, places, and things that I have not seen as that when I meet them in real life for the first time, I feel justified in fancying that I have known them long since, visited them, and beheld them with my bodily eyes. Here, for instance, I feel as if I saw nothing new, but only gazed once more at what has long been familiar. But that is no wonder, for I know my Strabo, and have heard and read a hundred accounts of this city. Still there are many things which are quite strange to me, and yet as they come before me make me feel as if I had seen or known them long ago."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Favorinus once told me that some great philosopher, Plato, I think, asserts that before we are born our souls are wafted about in the firmament that they may contemplate the earth on which they are destined subsequently to dwell. Favorinus says too--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Favorinus! cried Hadrian, evasively."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That graceful elocutionist has plenty of skill in giving new and captivating forms to the thoughts of the great philosophers; but he has not been able to surprise the secret of his own soul--besides, he talks too much, and he cannot dispense with the excitement of life."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Still you have recognized the phenomenon, but you disapprove of Favorinus' explanation of it?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, for I have met men and things as old acquaintances which never saw the light till long after I was born. Possibly my own interpretation may not adapt itself to the consciousness of all--but in myself, I know for certain, there dwells a mysterious something which stirs and works in me independently of myself, which enters into me, and takes its departure at its will. Call it as you will, my Daimon, or even my Genius--the name matters not. Nor will this 'something' always come at my bidding, while it often possesses me when I least expect it. In those moments when it stirs within me, I am master of much which is peculiar to the experience and potentiality of that hour. What is known to that Daimon always appears to me the very same when I actually meet it. Thus Alexandria is not unknown to me, because my Genius has seen it in his flights. It has learnt and done much, both in me and for me; a hundred times, face to face with my own finished works I have asked myself: 'Is it possible that you--Hadrian--your mother's son-can have achieved this? What then is the mysterious power that aided you to do it?' Now I also recognize it, and can see it work in others. The man in whom it dwells soon excels his fellows, and it is most manifest in artists. Or is it that mere common men become great artists simply because the Genius selects them as his temple to dwell in? Do you follow me, boy?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not altogether, replied Antinous, and his large eyes which had sparkled brightly so long as he gazed with the Emperor on the city, were now cast down and fixed wearily on the ground."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do not be angry with me, my Lord, but I shall never understand such things as these, for there is no man with whom your Genius, as you term it, has less concern than with me. Thoughts of my own have I none, and it is difficult to me to follow the thoughts of others; indeed I should like to know how I am ever to do anything right. When I want to work, to work something out, no Daimon helps my soul; no--it feels quite helpless, and drifts into dreaminess. And if I ever do complete anything, I am obliged to own to myself that I certainly might have been able to do it better."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Self-knowledge, laughed Hadrian,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "For, while he was speaking, the hound had risen, and had gone snarling to the door. In spite of his master's orders he broke into a loud bark when he heard a steady knock at the door. Hadrian looked round in bewilderment, and asked:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Where is Mastor?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He generally is always at hand, and as brisk as a lark, but to-day he looked as if in a dream, and while he was dressing me he first let my shoe fall out of his hand and then my brooch."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I read him yesterday a letter from Rome. His young wife has gone away with a ship's captain."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We may wish him joy of being free again."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It does not seem to afford him any satisfaction."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh! a handsome lad like my body-slave can find as many substitutes as he likes."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But he has not done so. For the present he is still smarting under his loss."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How wise! There, some one is knocking again. Just see who ventures-- but to be sure any one has a right to knock, for at Lochias I am not the Emperor, but a simple private gentleman. Lie down Argus, are you crazy, old fellow? Why the dog maintains my dignity better than I do, and he does not seem altogether to like the architect's part I am playing."
}
]
|
5485 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well! what do you want, fellow?"
}
]
|
5485 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, repeated Hadrian, in a tone which was anything rather than encouraging, as he relaxed his hold on the hound's collar in a somewhat suspicious manner. The slave's bent knees began to quake, and holding out his broad palm to the grey-bearded gentleman, who seemed to him hardly less alarming than the dog, he began to stammer out in fearfully- mutilated Greek the speech which his master had repeated to him several times, and which set forth that he had come"
}
]
|
5485 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Tell your master he may come in."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This is a delicious joke! What will the Jupiter be like, when the eagle is such a bird as this!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He may come in."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He may come in--was what he said,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Open the door."
}
]
|
5485 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Am I standing before the new visitor to Lochias, the architect Claudius Venator of Rome?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are--standing--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You have met with a friendly reception to this palace. Like my fathers, who have enjoyed the stewardship of it for centuries, I know how to exercise the sacred duties of hospitality."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am surprised to hear of the high antiquity of your family and bow to your pious sentiments, answered Hadrian, in the same tone as the steward."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What farther may I learn from you?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I did not come here to relate history, said Keraunus, whose gall rose as he thought he detected a mocking smile on the stranger's lips."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I did not come here to tell stories, but to complain that you, as a warmly- welcomed guest, show so little anxiety to protect your host from injury."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How is that?"
}
]
|
5485 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is that dangerous dog, gnashing its teeth there, your property?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I heard of that misadventure, said Hadrian,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I beg you not to add insult to the injury, we have suffered by your fault. A father whose daughter has been knocked down and hurt--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Then, Argus actually bit her?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, Keraunus replied."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But as she fell her head and foot have been injured, and she is suffering much pain."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That is very sad, said Hadrian,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I pay a professional leech, who attends me and mine, replied the steward, in a repellant tone,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "First, that my pardon shall be asked."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That, the artist, Claudius Venator, is always ready to do when any one has suffered damage by his fault. What has happened--I repeat it-- grieves me sincerely, and I beg you tell the maiden to whom the accident happened, that her pain is mine. What more do you desire?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I must request you to chain up your dog, or to shut it up, or in some way to keep it from mischief."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That is pretty strong!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is only a reasonable demand, and I must stand by it, replied Keraunus decidedly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Neither I--nor my children's lives are safe, so long as this wild beast is prowling about at pleasure."
}
]
|
5485 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Folly!--the dog shall be watched, but nothing farther."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You will chain him up, replied Keraunus, with an angry, glare,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That will be an evil attempt for the cowardly murderer! cried Hadrian."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Eh! Argus, what do you think?"
}
]
|
5485 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And am I--I too, to be hunted down by a dog, in this house? he cried defiantly, setting his left fist on his hip."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Every thing has its limits, and so has my patience with a guest who, in spite of his ripe age forgets due consideration. I will inform the prefect Titianus of your proceedings here, and when the Emperor arrives he shall know--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The way you behave to me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Till then the dog shall stay where it is, and really under due restraint. But I can tell you man, that Hadrian is as much a friend of dogs as I am--and fonder of me than even of dogs."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We will see, growled Keraunus,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I or the dog!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am afraid it will be the dog then."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And Rome will see a fresh revolt, cried Keraunus, rolling his eyes."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You took Egypt from the Ptolemies."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And with very good reason--besides that is a stale old story."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Justice is never stale, like a bad debt."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "At any rate it perishes with persons it concerns; there have been no Lagides left here--how many years?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "So you believe, because it suits your ends to believe it, replied the steward."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "In the man who stands before you flows the blood of the Macedonian rulers of this country. My eldest son bears the name of Ptolemaeus Helios--that borne by the last of the Lagides, who perished as you pretend."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Dear, good, blind Helios!"
}
]
|
5485 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Then the last descendant of the Ptolemies is blind! laughed the Emperor."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Rome may ignore his claims. But I will inform the Emperor how dangerous a pretender this roof yet harbors."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Denounce me, accuse me, calumniate me! cried the steward, contemptuously."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But I will not let myself be trodden on. Patience-- patience! you will live to know me yet."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And you, the blood-hound, replied Hadrian,"
}
]
|
5485 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Rely upon this, I shall complain to the Council and write to Caesar how you presume to behave to a Macedonian citizen."
}
]
|
5485 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A perfect monster of a man! to the last degree ridiculous, and at the same time repulsive. How his rage seethed in him, and yet could not break out fairly and thoroughly. I am always on my guard with such obstinate fools. Pay attention to my Argus, and remember, we are in Egypt, the land of poison, as Homer long since said. Mastor must keep his eyes open--Here he is at last."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You touched me last night, and, when I turned my head, you would not speak. Why do you follow me like a silent ghost?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It was not, returned the lady, in a low voice,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What do you want of me? I have never done you any harm?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Never."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do I know you?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Then what can you want of me?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Here are two guineas in this paper. Take my poor little present, and I will tell you."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There is neither grown person nor child in all the large establishment that I belong to, who hasn't a good word for Sally. I am Sally. Could I be so well thought of, if I was to be bought?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I do not mean to buy you; I mean only to reward you very slightly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If there is anything I can do for you, ma'am, that I will not do for its own sake, you are much mistaken in me if you think that I will do it for money. What is it you want?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are one of the nurses or attendants at the Hospital; I saw you leave to-night and last night."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, I am. I am Sally."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There is a pleasant patience in your face which makes me believe that very young children would take readily to you."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "God bless 'em! So they do."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am the miserable mother of a baby lately received under your care. I have a prayer to make to you."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You will listen to my prayer? the lady urges."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You will not be deaf to the agonised entreaty of such a broken suppliant as I am?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "O dear, dear, dear! cries Sally."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What shall I say, or can say! Don't talk of prayers. Prayers are to be put up to the Good Father of All, and not to nurses and such. And there! I am only to hold my place for half a year longer, till another young woman can be trained up to it. I am going to be married. I shouldn't have been out last night, and I shouldn't have been out to-night, but that my Dick (he is the young man I am going to be married to) lies ill, and I help his mother and sister to watch him. Don't take on so, don't take on so!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "O good Sally, dear Sally, moans the lady, catching at her dress entreatingly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "As you are hopeful, and I am hopeless; as a fair way in life is before you, which can never, never, be before me; as you can aspire to become a respected wife, and as you can aspire to become a proud mother, as you are a living loving woman, and must die; for GOD'S sake hear my distracted petition!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Deary, deary, deary ME! cries Sally, her desperation culminating in the pronoun,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sally! Hear me, my dear. My entreaty is for no help in the future. It applies to what is past. It is only to be told in two words."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There! This is worse and worse, cries Sally,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You do understand. What are the names they have given my poor baby? I ask no more than that. I have read of the customs of the place. He has been christened in the chapel, and registered by some surname in the book. He was received last Monday evening. What have they called him?"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't! Don't! You make me feel as if I was setting myself up to be good. Let me look in your pretty face again. Put your two hands in mine. Now, promise. You will never ask me anything more than the two words?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Never! Never!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You will never put them to a bad use, if I say them?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Never! Never!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Walter Wilding."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Kiss him for me!"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Which is Walter Wilding?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You know which is Walter Wilding?"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I know which is Walter Wilding, but it is not my place, ma'am, to tell names to visitors."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But you can show me without telling me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am going to pass round the tables, says the lady's interlocutor, without seeming to address her."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Follow me with your eyes. The boy that I stop at and speak to, will not matter to you. But the boy that I touch, will be Walter Wilding. Say nothing more to me, and move a little away."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am twelve, ma'am,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Are you well and happy?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, ma'am."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "May you take these sweetmeats from my hand?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If you please to give them to me."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When a man at five-and-twenty can put his hat on, and can say 'this hat covers the owner of this property and of the business which is transacted on this property,' I consider, Mr. Bintrey, that, without being boastful, he may be allowed to be deeply thankful. I don't know how it may appear to you, but so it appears to me."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, said Mr. Bintrey."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes. Ha, ha!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You like this forty-five year old port-wine?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Like it? repeated Mr. Bintrey."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Rather, sir!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's from the best corner of our best forty-five year old bin,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thank you, sir, said Mr. Bintrey."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's most excellent."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And now, said Wilding, with a childish enjoyment in the discussion of affairs,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think we have got everything straight, Mr. Bintrey."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Everything straight,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A partner secured--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Partner secured,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A housekeeper advertised for--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Housekeeper advertised for, said Bintrey,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My late dear mother's affairs wound up--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wound up,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And all charges paid."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And all charges paid,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The mention of my late dear mother, Mr. Wilding continued, his eyes filling with tears and his pocket-handkerchief drying them,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I know the story."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My late dear mother, Mr. Bintrey, pursued the wine-merchant,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She had made up her mind, said Mr. Bintrey, again turning his wine on his palate,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "An amused twinkle in his eyes pretty plainly added--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A devilish deal better than _you_ ever will!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "said Mr. Wilding, sobbing as he quoted from the Commandments,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "pursued Wilding, still with the same innocent catching in his breath, and the same unabashed tears,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "with a fresh burst of honest affection,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sad. But the common lot, Mr. Wilding, observed Bintrey."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "At some time or other we must all be no more."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "So now, Mr. Bintrey, pursued Wilding, putting away his pocket-handkerchief, and smoothing his eyelids with his fingers,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "continued Wilding, becoming enthusiastic in his loquacity,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't let your good feelings excite you,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, no. I won't, he returned, looking out of the towel."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I won't. I have not been confused, have I?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not at all. Perfectly clear."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where did I leave off, Mr. Bintrey?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, you left off--but I wouldn't excite myself, if I was you, by taking it up again just yet."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll take care. I'll take care. The singing in my head came on at where, Mr. Bintrey?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "At roast, and boiled, and beer, answered the lawyer,--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah! And one and all singing in the head together--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Do you know, I really _would not_ let my good feelings excite me, if I was you, hinted the lawyer again, anxiously."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Try some more pump."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No occasion, no occasion. All right, Mr. Bintrey. And one and all forming a kind of family! You see, Mr. Bintrey, I was not used in my childhood to that sort of individual existence which most individuals have led, more or less, in their childhood. After that time I became absorbed in my late dear mother. Having lost her, I find that I am more fit for being one of a body than one by myself one. To be that, and at the same time to do my duty to those dependent on me, and attach them to me, has a patriarchal and pleasant air about it. I don't know how it may appear to you, Mr Bintrey, but so it appears to me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is not I who am all-important in the case, but you, returned Bintrey."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Consequently, how it may appear to me is of very small importance."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It appears to me, said Mr. Wilding, in a glow,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Do you know, hinted the lawyer again,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I really would not ex--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am not going to. Then there's Handel."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There's who?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Kent, Purcell, Doctor Arne, Greene, Mendelssohn. I know the choruses to those anthems by heart. Foundling Chapel Collection. Why shouldn't we learn them together?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Who learn them together?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Employer and employed."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ay, ay, returned Bintrey, mollified; as if he had half expected the answer to be, Lawyer and client."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That's another thing."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not another thing, Mr. Bintrey! The same thing. A part of the bond among us. We will form a Choir in some quiet church near the Corner here, and, having sung together of a Sunday with a relish, we will come home and take an early dinner together with a relish. The object that I have at heart now is, to get this system well in action without delay, so that my new partner may find it founded when he enters on his partnership."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I hope so."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wish them all well out of it, returned Bintrey, with much heartiness."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Good-bye, sir."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Respecting this same boarding and lodging, Young Master Wilding,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, Joey?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Speaking for myself, Young Master Wilding--and I never did speak and I never do speak for no one else--_I_ don't want no boarding nor yet no lodging. But if you wish to board me and to lodge me, take me. I can peck as well as most men. Where I peck ain't so high a object with me as What I peck. Nor even so high a object with me as How Much I peck. Is all to live in the house, Young Master Wilding? The two other cellarmen, the three porters, the two 'prentices, and the odd men?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes. I hope we shall all be an united family, Joey."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah! said Joey."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I hope they may be."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They? Rather say we, Joey."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Don't look to me to make we on it, Young Master Wilding, not at my time of life and under the circumstances which has formed my disposition. I have said to Pebbleson Nephew many a time, when they have said to me, 'Put a livelier face upon it, Joey'--I have said to them, 'Gentlemen, it is all wery well for you that has been accustomed to take your wine into your systems by the conwivial channel of your throttles, to put a lively face upon it; but,' I says, 'I have been accustomed to take _my_ wine in at the pores of the skin, and, took that way, it acts different. It acts depressing. It's one thing, gentlemen,' I says to Pebbleson Nephew, 'to charge your glasses in a dining-room with a Hip Hurrah and a Jolly Companions Every One, and it's another thing to be charged yourself, through the pores, in a low dark cellar and a mouldy atmosphere. It makes all the difference betwixt bubbles and wapours,' I tells Pebbleson Nephew. And so it do. I've been a cellarman my life through, with my mind fully given to the business. What's the consequence? I'm as muddled a man as lives--you won't find a muddleder man than me--nor yet you won't find my equal in molloncolly. Sing of Filling the bumper fair, Every drop you sprinkle, O'er the brow of care, Smooths away a wrinkle? Yes. P'raps so. But try filling yourself through the pores, underground, when you don't want to it!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am sorry to hear this, Joey. I had even thought that you might join a singing-class in the house."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Me, sir? No, no, Young Master Wilding, you won't catch Joey Ladle muddling the Armony. A pecking-machine, sir, is all that I am capable of proving myself, out of my cellars; but that you're welcome to, if you think it is worth your while to keep such a thing on your premises."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I do, Joey."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Say no more, sir. The Business's word is my law. And you're a going to take Young Master George Vendale partner into the old Business?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am, Joey."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "More changes, you see! But don't change the name of the Firm again. Don't do it, Young Master Wilding. It was bad luck enough to make it Yourself and Co. Better by far have left it Pebbleson Nephew that good luck always stuck to. You should never change luck when it's good, sir."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "At all events, I have no intention of changing the name of the House again, Joey."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Glad to hear it, and wish you good-day, Young Master Wilding. But you had better by half, muttered Joey Ladle inaudibly, as he closed the door and shook his head,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My mother at five-and-twenty, said Mr. Wilding to himself, as his eyes enthusiastically followed the light to the portrait's face,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I hang up here, in order that visitors may admire my mother in the bloom of her youth and beauty. My mother at fifty I hang in the seclusion of my own chamber, as a remembrance sacred to me. O! It's you, Jarvis!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, sir. I merely wished to mention that it's gone ten, sir, and that there are several females in the Counting-house."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Dear me! said the wine-merchant, deepening in the pink of his complexion and whitening in the white,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What name shall I have the pleasure of noting down? with the words,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My name is Sarah Goldstraw. Mrs. Goldstraw. My husband has been dead many years, and we had no family."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You will excuse my asking you a few questions?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "O, surely, sir. Or I should have no business here."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Have you filled the station of housekeeper before?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Only once. I have lived with the same widow lady for twelve years. Ever since I lost my husband. She was an invalid, and is lately dead: which is the occasion of my now wearing black."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I do not doubt that she has left you the best credentials?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I hope I may say, the very best. I thought it would save trouble, sir, if I wrote down the name and address of her representatives, and brought it with me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You singularly remind me, Mrs. Goldstraw, said Wilding, taking the card beside him,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "At least, I am very glad of that, sir."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, said the wine-merchant, thoughtfully repeating his last phrase, with a momentary glance at his future housekeeper,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "About the meals, sir? said Mrs. Goldstraw."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Have I a large, or a small, number to provide for?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If I can carry out a certain old-fashioned plan of mine, replied Mr. Wilding,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "About breakfast, sir? asked Mrs. Goldstraw."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is there anything particular--?"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Eight o'clock is my breakfast-hour, he resumed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It is one of my virtues to be never tired of broiled bacon, and it is one of my vices to be habitually suspicious of the freshness of eggs. Mrs. Goldstraw looked back at him, still a little divided between her master's chimney- piece and her master."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I take tea, Mr. Wilding went on;"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If your tea stands too long, sir--?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If my tea stands too long, repeated the wine-merchant mechanically, his mind getting farther and farther away from his breakfast, and his eyes fixing themselves more and more inquiringly on his housekeeper's face."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If my tea--Dear, dear me, Mrs. Goldstraw! what _is_ the manner and tone of voice that you remind me of? It strikes me even more strongly to-day, than it did when I saw you yesterday. What can it be?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What can it be?"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My late dear mother, when she was five-and-twenty."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Excuse my asking you a question which has nothing to do with me or my breakfast, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "May I inquire if you have ever occupied any other situation than the situation of housekeeper?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "O yes, sir. I began life as one of the nurses at the Foundling."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, that's it! cried the wine-merchant, pushing back his chair."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "By heaven! Their manner is the manner you remind me of!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What is the matter?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do I understand that you were in the Foundling, sir?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Certainly. I am not ashamed to own it."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Under the name you now bear?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Under the name of Walter Wilding."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And the lady--?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You mean my mother,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Your--mother, repeated the housekeeper, a little constrainedly,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "At between eleven and twelve years old. It's quite a romantic adventure, Mrs. Goldstraw."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My poor mother could never have discovered me, he added,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What does this mean? asked the wine-merchant."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Stop! he cried."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is there something else in the past time which I ought to associate with you? I remember my mother telling me of another person at the Foundling, to whose kindness she owed a debt of gratitude. When she first parted with me, as an infant, one of the nurses informed her of the name that had been given to me in the institution. You were that nurse?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "God forgive me, sir--I was that nurse!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "God forgive you?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We had better get back, sir (if I may make so bold as to say so), to my duties in the house, said Mrs. Goldstraw."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Your breakfast-hour is eight. Do you lunch, or dine, in the middle of the day?"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mrs. Goldstraw, he said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Please to favour me, sir, by saying whether you lunch, or dine, in the middle of the day?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don't know what I do in the middle of the day. I can't enter into my household affairs, Mrs. Goldstraw, till I know why you regret an act of kindness to my mother, which she always spoke of gratefully to the end of her life. You are not doing me a service by your silence. You are agitating me, you are alarming me, you are bringing on the singing in my head."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's hard, sir, on just entering your service, said the housekeeper,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Impossible! he cried out, vehemently."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What are you talking about? What absurd story are you telling me now? There's her portrait! Haven't I told you so already? The portrait of my mother!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When that unhappy lady removed you from the Foundling, in after years, said Mrs. Goldstraw, gently,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The room goes round with me, he said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My head! my head!"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mistake? he said, wildly repeating her last word."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How do I know you are not mistaken yourself?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There is no hope that I am mistaken, sir. I will tell you why, when you are better fit to hear it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Now! now!"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have told you, she said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I was that child! he said to himself, trying helplessly to fix the idea in his mind."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I was that child!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not very long after you had been received into the Institution, sir, pursued Mrs. Goldstraw,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I left my situation there, to be married. If you will remember that, and if you can give your mind to it, you will see for yourself how the mistake happened. Between eleven and twelve years passed before the lady, whom you have believed to be your mother, returned to the Foundling, to find her son, and to remove him to her own home. The lady only knew that her infant had been called 'Walter Wilding.' The matron who took pity on her, could but point out the only 'Walter Wilding' known in the Institution. I, who might have set the matter right, was far away from the Foundling and all that belonged to it. There was nothing--there was really nothing that could prevent this terrible mistake from taking place. I feel for you--I do indeed, sir! You must think--and with reason--that it was in an evil hour that I came here (innocently enough, I'm sure), to apply for your housekeeper's place. I feel as if I was to blame--I feel as if I ought to have had more self-command. If I had only been able to keep my face from showing you what that portrait and what your own words put into my mind, you need never, to your dying day, have known what you know now."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do you mean to say that you would have concealed this from me if you could?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I hope I should always tell the truth, sir, if I was asked, said Mrs. Goldstraw."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And I know it is better for _me_ that I should not have a secret of this sort weighing on my mind. But is it better for _you_? What use can it serve now--?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What use? Why, good Lord! if your story is true--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Should I have told it, sir, as I am now situated, if it had not been true?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I beg your pardon, said the wine-merchant."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You must make allowance for me. This dreadful discovery is something I can't realise even yet. We loved each other so dearly--I felt so fondly that I was her son. She died, Mrs. Goldstraw, in my arms--she died blessing me as only a mother _could_ have blessed me. And now, after all these years, to be told she was _not_ my mother! O me, O me! I don't know what I am saying! he cried, as the impulse of self-control under which he had spoken a moment since, flickered, and died out."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It was not this dreadful grief--it was something else that I had it in my mind to speak of. Yes, yes. You surprised me--you wounded me just now. You talked as if you would have hidden this from me, if you could. Don't talk in that way again. It would have been a crime to have hidden it. You mean well, I know. I don't want to distress you--you are a kind-hearted woman. But you don't remember what my position is. She left me all that I possess, in the firm persuasion that I was her son. I am not her son. I have taken the place, I have innocently got the inheritance of another man. He must be found! How do I know he is not at this moment in misery, without bread to eat? He must be found! My only hope of bearing up against the shock that has fallen on me, is the hope of doing something which _she_ would have approved. You must know more, Mrs. Goldstraw, than you have told me yet. Who was the stranger who adopted the child? You must have heard the lady's name?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I never heard it, sir. I have never seen her, or heard of her, since."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Did she say nothing when she took the child away? Search your memory. She must have said something."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Only one thing, sir, that I can remember. It was a miserably bad season, that year; and many of the children were suffering from it. When she took the baby away, the lady said to me, laughing, 'Don't be alarmed about his health. He will be brought up in a better climate than this--I am going to take him to Switzerland.'"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "To Switzerland? What part of Switzerland?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She didn't say, sir."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Only that faint clue! said Mr. Wilding."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And a quarter of a century has passed since the child was taken away! What am I to do?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I hope you won't take offence at my freedom, sir, said Mrs. Goldstraw;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You don't understand me, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's _because_ I loved her that I feel it a duty--a sacred duty--to do justice to her son. If he is a living man, I must find him: for my own sake, as well as for his. I shall break down under this dreadful trial, unless I employ myself--actively, instantly employ myself--in doing what my conscience tells me ought to be done. I must speak to my lawyer; I must set my lawyer at work before I sleep to-night. He approached a tube in the wall of the room, and called down through it to the office below."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Leave me for a little, Mrs. Goldstraw, he resumed;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I shall be more composed, I shall be better able to speak to you later in the day. We shall get on well--I hope we shall get on well together--in spite of what has happened. It isn't your fault; I know it isn't your fault. There! there! shake hands; and--and do the best you can in the house--I can't talk about it now."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Send for Mr. Bintrey, said the wine-merchant."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Say I want to see him directly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Vendale,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Pray excuse me for one moment, George Vendale, said Wilding."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have a word to say to Jarvis. Send for Mr. Bintrey, he repeated--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "From our correspondents at Neuchatel, I think, sir. The letter has got the Swiss postmark."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The Swiss Postmark,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wilding, he asked hurriedly, and yet stopping short and glancing around as if for some visible cause of his state of mind:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My good George Vendale, returned the wine-merchant, giving his hand with an appealing look, rather as if he wanted help to get over some obstacle, than as if he gave it in welcome or salutation:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not yourself?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not what I supposed myself to be,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What, in the name of wonder, _did_ you suppose yourself to be that you are not? was the rejoinder, delivered with a cheerful frankness, inviting confidence from a more reticent man."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I may ask without impertinence, now that we are partners."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There again! cried Wilding, leaning back in his chair, with a lost look at the other."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Partners! I had no right to come into this business. It was never meant for me. My mother never meant it should be mine. I mean, his mother meant it should be his--if I mean anything--or if I am anybody."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Come, come, urged his partner, after a moment's pause, and taking possession of him with that calm confidence which inspires a strong nature when it honestly desires to aid a weak one."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Whatever has gone wrong, has gone wrong through no fault of yours, I am very sure. I was not in this counting-house with you, under the old _regime_, for three years, to doubt you, Wilding. We were not younger men than we are, together, for that. Let me begin our partnership by being a serviceable partner, and setting right whatever is wrong. Has that letter anything to do with it?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hah! said Wilding, with his hand to his temple."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There again! My head! I was forgetting the coincidence. The Swiss postmark."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "At a second glance I see that the letter is unopened, so it is not very likely to have much to do with the matter, said Vendale, with comforting composure."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Is it for you, or for us?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "For us,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Suppose I open it and read it aloud, to get it out of our way?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thank you, thank you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The letter is only from our champagne-making friends, the house at Neuchatel. 'Dear Sir. We are in receipt of yours of the 28th ult., informing us that you have taken your Mr. Vendale into partnership, whereon we beg you to receive the assurance of our felicitations. Permit us to embrace the occasion of specially commanding to you M. Jules Obenreizer.' Impossible!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Eh?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Impossible sort of name, returned his partner, slightly--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Obenreizer. '--Of specially commanding to you M. Jules Obenreizer, of Soho Square, London (north side), henceforth fully accredited as our agent, and who has already had the honour of making the acquaintance of your Mr. Vendale, in his (said M. Obenreizer's) native country, Switzerland.' To be sure! pooh pooh, what have I been thinking of! I remember now; 'when travelling with his niece.'"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "With his--?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When travelling with his Niece. Obenreizer's Niece, said Vendale, in a somewhat superfluously lucid manner."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Niece of Obenreizer. (I met them in my first Swiss tour, travelled a little with them, and lost them for two years; met them again, my Swiss tour before last, and have lost them ever since.) Obenreizer. Niece of Obenreizer. To be sure! Possible sort of name, after all! 'M. Obenreizer is in possession of our absolute confidence, and we do not doubt you will esteem his merits.' Duly signed by the House, 'Defresnier et Cie.' Very well. I undertake to see M. Obenreizer presently, and clear him out of the way. That clears the Swiss postmark out of the way. So now, my dear Wilding, tell me what I can clear out of _your_ way, and I'll find a way to clear it."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It was on this matter, no doubt, that you were sending for Bintrey when I came in?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It was."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He has experience and a shrewd head; I shall be anxious to know his opinion. It is bold and hazardous in me to give you mine before I know his, but I am not good at holding back. Plainly, then, I do not see these circumstances as you see them. I do not see your position as you see it. As to your being an Impostor, my dear Wilding, that is simply absurd, because no man can be that without being a consenting party to an imposition. Clearly you never were so. As to your enrichment by the lady who believed you to be her son, and whom you were forced to believe, on her showing, to be your mother, consider whether that did not arise out of the personal relations between you. You gradually became much attached to her; she gradually became much attached to you. It was on you, personally you, as I see the case, that she conferred these worldly advantages; it was from her, personally her, that you took them."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "She supposed me, objected Wilding, shaking his head,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I must admit that, replied his partner,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What I think, said Wilding, simply but stoutly holding to the bare fact,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He may be dead,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He may be alive, said Wilding."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And if he is alive, have I not--innocently, I grant you innocently--robbed him of enough? Have I not robbed him of all the happy time that I enjoyed in his stead? Have I not robbed him of the exquisite delight that filled my soul when that dear lady, stretching his hand towards the picture,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Who can tell!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I must try to find out who can tell. I must institute inquiries. I must never desist from prosecuting inquiries. I will live upon the interest of my share--I ought to say his share--in this business, and will lay up the rest for him. When I find him, I may perhaps throw myself upon his generosity; but I will yield up all to him. I will, I swear. As I loved and honoured her, said Wilding, reverently kissing his hand towards the picture, and then covering his eyes with it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "As I loved and honoured her, and have a world of reasons to be grateful to her!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Walter, I knew you before to- day to be an upright man, with a pure conscience and a fine heart. It is very fortunate for me that I have the privilege to travel on in life so near to so trustworthy a man. I am thankful for it. Use me as your right hand, and rely upon me to the death. Don't think the worse of me if I protest to you that my uppermost feeling at present is a confused, you may call it an unreasonable, one. I feel far more pity for the lady and for you, because you did not stand in your supposed relations, than I can feel for the unknown man (if he ever became a man), because he was unconsciously displaced. You have done well in sending for Mr. Bintrey. What I think will be a part of his advice, I know is the whole of mine. Do not move a step in this serious matter precipitately. The secret must be kept among us with great strictness, for to part with it lightly would be to invite fraudulent claims, to encourage a host of knaves, to let loose a flood of perjury and plotting. I have no more to say now, Walter, than to remind you that you sold me a share in your business, expressly to save yourself from more work than your present health is fit for, and that I bought it expressly to do work, and mean to do it."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How do you do? So glad!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I beg your pardon. I didn't hear you come in."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not at all! Sit, please."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are well? So glad!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don't know, said Vendale, after exchange of salutations,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ah, yes!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "In connection with Wilding and Co.?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ah, surely!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is it not odd that I should come to you, in London here, as one of the Firm of Wilding and Co., to pay the Firm's respects?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not at all! What did I always observe when we were on the mountains? We call them vast; but the world is so little. So little is the world, that one cannot keep away from persons. There are so few persons in the world, that they continually cross and re-cross. So very little is the world, that one cannot get rid of a person. Not, touching his elbows again, with an ingratiatory smile,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I hope not, M. Obenreizer."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Please call me, in your country, Mr. I call myself so, for I love your country. If I _could_ be English! But I am born. And you? Though descended from so fine a family, you have had the condescension to come into trade? Stop though. Wines? Is it trade in England or profession? Not fine art?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Obenreizer, returned Vendale, somewhat out of countenance,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I was but a silly young fellow, just of age, when I first had the pleasure of travelling with you, and when you and I and Mademoiselle your niece--who is well?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thank you. Who is well."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You make too much of it, returned the Swiss."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And what the devil! After all, yours _was_ a fine family."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well! I was strongly attached to my parents, and when we first travelled together, Mr. Obenreizer, I was in the first flush of coming into what my father and mother left me. So I hope it may have been, after all, more youthful openness of speech and heart than boastfulness."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "All openness of speech and heart! No boastfulness! cried Obenreizer."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You tax yourself too heavily. You tax yourself, my faith! as if you was your Government taxing you! Besides, it commenced with me. I remember, that evening in the boat upon the lake, floating among the reflections of the mountains and valleys, the crags and pine woods, which were my earliest remembrance, I drew a word-picture of my sordid childhood. Of our poor hut, by the waterfall which my mother showed to travellers; of the cow-shed where I slept with the cow; of my idiot half-brother always sitting at the door, or limping down the Pass to beg; of my half-sister always spinning, and resting her enormous goitre on a great stone; of my being a famished naked little wretch of two or three years, when they were men and women with hard hands to beat me, I, the only child of my father's second marriage--if it even was a marriage. What more natural than for you to compare notes with me, and say, 'We are as one by age; at that same time I sat upon my mother's lap in my father's carriage, rolling through the rich English streets, all luxury surrounding me, all squalid poverty kept far from me. Such is _my_ earliest remembrance as opposed to yours!'"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The object of my present visit, said Vendale,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You must come together soon. He will be glad to have made your acquaintance, and I think I may predict that you will be glad to have made his. You have not been long established in London, I suppose, Mr. Obenreizer?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is only now that I have undertaken this agency."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mademoiselle your niece--is--not married?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not married."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "She has been in London?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She _is_ in London."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "When, and where, might I have the honour of recalling myself to her remembrance?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Come up-stairs."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Miss Marguerite, said Obenreizer to the young lady,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think, she answered, rising from her seat, surprised and a little confused:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I think it is, said Obenreizer, dryly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Permit me, Mr. Vendale. Madame Dor."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Madame Dor, said Obenreizer, smiling,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He was saying down-stairs, Miss Obenreizer, observed Vendale,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Have you travelled so far, then?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not so far, for I have only gone back to Switzerland each year; but I could have wished--and indeed I have wished very often--that the little world did not afford such opportunities for long escapes as it does. If it had been less, I might have found my follow-travellers sooner, you know."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You find us at length, Mr. Vendale. Perhaps you may lose us again."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I trust not. The curious coincidence that has enabled me to find you, encourages me to hope not."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What is that coincidence, sir, if you please?"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is that I happen to have become a partner in a House of business in London, to which Mr. Obenreizer happens this very day to be expressly recommended: and that, too, by another house of business in Switzerland, in which (as it turns out) we both have a commercial interest. He has not told you?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ah! cried Obenreizer, striking in, filmless."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No. I had not told Miss Marguerite. The world is so small and so monotonous that a surprise is worth having in such a little jog-trot place. It is as he tells you, Miss Marguerite. He, of so fine a family, and so proudly bred, has condescended to trade. To trade! Like us poor peasants who have risen from ditches!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, it is good for trade! pursued Obenreizer, enthusiastically."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It ennobles trade! It is the misfortune of trade, it is its vulgarity, that any low people--for example, we poor peasants--may take to it and climb by it. See you, my dear Vendale! He spoke with great energy."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The father of Miss Marguerite, my eldest half-brother, more than two times your age or mine, if living now, wandered without shoes, almost without rags, from that wretched Pass--wandered--wandered--got to be fed with the mules and dogs at an Inn in the main valley far away--got to be Boy there--got to be Ostler--got to be Waiter--got to be Cook--got to be Landlord. As Landlord, he took me (could he take the idiot beggar his brother, or the spinning monstrosity his sister?) to put as pupil to the famous watchmaker, his neighbour and friend. His wife dies when Miss Marguerite is born. What is his will, and what are his words to me, when he dies, she being between girl and woman? 'All for Marguerite, except so much by the year for you. You are young, but I make her your ward, for you were of the obscurest and the poorest peasantry, and so was I, and so was her mother; we were abject peasants all, and you will remember it.' The thing is equally true of most of my countrymen, now in trade in this your London quarter of Soho. Peasants once; low-born drudging Swiss Peasants. Then how good and great for trade: here, from having been warm, he became playfully jubilant, and touched the young wine-merchant's elbows again with his light embrace:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I do not think so, said Marguerite, with a flushed cheek, and a look away from the visitor, that was almost defiant."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think it is as much exalted by us peasants."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Fie, fie, Miss Marguerite, said Obenreizer."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You speak in proud England."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I speak in proud earnest, she answered, quietly resuming her work,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I most heartily agree with you, Miss Obenreizer, and I have already said so, as Mr. Obenreizer will bear witness, which he by no means did,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Miss,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Countrymen, he explained, as he attended Vendale to the door."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Poor compatriots. Grateful and attached, like dogs! Good-bye. To meet again. So glad!"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "O! You are here, are you, Joey?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oughtn't it rather to go, 'O! _You're_ here, are you, Master George?' For it's my business to be here. But it ain't yourn."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't grumble, Joey."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "O! _I_ don't grumble, returned the Cellarman."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If anything grumbles, it's what I've took in through the pores; it ain't me. Have a care as something in you don't begin a grumbling, Master George. Stop here long enough for the wapours to work, and they'll be at it."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They'll be at it, he resumed, laying the wooden rod that he measured with across two casks, entering his last calculation, and straightening his back,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Regularly. I hope you don't object, Joey?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We shall got over that objection day by day, Joey."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ay, Master George; but I shall day by day get over the objection that I'm too old, and so I shan't be capable of seeing much improvement in you."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But what's no laughing matter, Master George, he resumed, straightening his back once more,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Has this growth on the roof anything to do with your divination? asked Vendale, holding his light towards a gloomy ragged growth of dark fungus, pendent from the arches with a very disagreeable and repellent effect."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We are famous for this growth in this vault, aren't we?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We are Master George, replied Joey Ladle, moving a step or two away,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ay, indeed? Why so?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, not so much because it rises from the casks of wine, and may leave you to judge what sort of stuff a Cellarman takes into himself when he walks in the same all the days of his life, nor yet so much because at a stage of its growth it's maggots, and you'll fetch 'em down upon you, returned Joey Ladle, still keeping away,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What other reason?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am doing so."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Done, sir. Now, come out of the place."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, Joey? The colour."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is it like clotted blood, Master George?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Like enough, perhaps."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "More than enough, I think,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, say it is like; say it is exactly like. What then?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Master George, they do say--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Who?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How should I know who? rejoined the Cellarman, apparently much exasperated by the unreasonable nature of the question."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Them! Them as says pretty well everything, you know. How should I know who They are, if you don't?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "True. Go on."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "They do say that the man that gets by any accident a piece of that dark growth right upon his breast, will, for sure and certain, die by murder."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If Mr. Vendale should ask for me, he said,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We are obliged to be cautious, he said, when it came to his turn to speak,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You can hardly consider me a stranger, answered Wilding, simply."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I was one of your poor lost children here, in the bygone time."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "All the information which our books can give is heartily at your service, he said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "After the time that has elapsed, I am afraid it is the only information we have to offer you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Is that all? asked the wine-merchant."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Had you no after-communication with Mrs. Miller?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "None--or some reference to it must have appeared in this book."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "May I take a copy of the entry?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Certainly! You are a little agitated. Let me make a copy for you."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My only chance, I suppose, said Wilding, looking sadly at the copy,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That is the only chance I see at present, answered the Treasurer."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I heartily wish I could have been of some further assistance to you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "M. The account of Mrs. Miller, widow, of Groombridge Wells, was found. Two long lines, in faded ink, were drawn across it; and at the bottom of the page there appeared this note:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Account closed, September 30th, 1837."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's where Lime-Tree Lodge stood, sir, said the man,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The martyrdom of the Reverend John Harker in New Zealand. Related by a former member of his flock."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I beg your pardon,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It may lead to something yet, he thought."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "While I live, I won't part with it. When I die, my executors shall find it sealed up with my will."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No Thoroughfare, Sir, No Thoroughfare. My belief is that there is no way out of this at this time of day, and my advice is, make yourself comfortable where you are."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mr. Wilding, No Thoroughfare. Rest and be thankful."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Being all three assembled with closed doors, said Mr. Bintrey, addressing the new partner on the occasion,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I wish to observe, before our friend (and my client) entrusts us with his further views, that I have endorsed what I understand from him to have been your advice, Mr. Vendale, and what would be the advice of every sensible man. I have told him that he positively must keep his secret. I have spoken with Mrs. Goldstraw, both in his presence and in his absence; and if anybody is to be trusted (which is a very large IF), I think she is to be trusted to that extent. I have pointed out to our friend (and my client), that to set on foot random inquiries would not only be to raise the Devil, in the likeness of all the swindlers in the kingdom, but would also be to waste the estate. Now, you see, Mr. Vendale, our friend (and my client) does not desire to waste the estate, but, on the contrary, desires to husband it for what he considers--but I can't say I do--the rightful owner, if such rightful owner should ever be found. I am very much mistaken if he ever will be, but never mind that. Mr. Wilding and I are, at least, agreed that the estate is not to be wasted. Now, I have yielded to Mr. Wilding's desire to keep an advertisement at intervals flowing through the newspapers, cautiously inviting any person who may know anything about that adopted infant, taken from the Foundling Hospital, to come to my office; and I have pledged myself that such advertisement shall regularly appear. I have gathered from our friend (and my client) that I meet you here to-day to take his instructions, not to give him advice. I am prepared to receive his instructions, and to respect his wishes; but you will please observe that this does not imply my approval of either as a matter of professional opinion."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Nothing, observed Wilding,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If you feel that singing in it coming on, hinted the lawyer, with an alarmed glance,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not at all, I thank you, said Wilding."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What was I going to--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't excite yourself, Mr. Wilding,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No; I _wasn't_ going to, said the wine-merchant."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Bintrey and George Vendale, would you have any hesitation or objection to become my joint trustees and executors, or can you at once consent?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Thank you both. Mr. Bintrey, my instructions for my last will and testament are short and plain. Perhaps you will now have the goodness to take them down. I leave the whole of my real and personal estate, without any exception or reservation whatsoever, to you two, my joint trustees and executors, in trust to pay over the whole to the true Walter Wilding, if he shall be found and identified within two years after the day of my death. Failing that, in trust to you two to pay over the whole as a benefaction and legacy to the Foundling Hospital."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Those are all your instructions, are they, Mr. Wilding?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The whole."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And as to those instructions, you have absolutely made up your mind, Mr. Wilding?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Absolutely, decidedly, finally."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It only remains, said the lawyer, with one shrug of his shoulders,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mr. Bintrey, answered Wilding, gravely,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We are lawyer and client again, rejoined Bintrey, who, for the nonce, had become almost sympathetic."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If this day week--here, at the same hour--will suit Mr. Vendale and yourself, I will enter in my Diary that I attend you accordingly."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What do you think, George, Wilding asked him next day,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't know, said Vendale,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He is well informed and clever,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Certainly clever."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A good musician."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Unquestionably a good musician."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And talks well."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, said George Vendale, ruminating,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How do you mean? He is not obtrusively talkative."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, and I don't mean that. But when he is silent, you can hardly help vaguely, though perhaps most unjustly, mistrusting him. Take people whom you know and like. Take any one you know and like."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Soon done, my good fellow, said Wilding."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I take you."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I didn't bargain for that, or foresee it, returned Vendale, laughing."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "However, take me. Reflect for a moment. Is your approving knowledge of my interesting face mainly founded (however various the momentary expressions it may include) on my face when I am silent?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I think it is,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think so too. Now, you see, when Obenreizer speaks--in other words, when he is allowed to explain himself away--he comes out right enough; but when he has not the opportunity of explaining himself away, he comes out rather wrong. Therefore it is, that I say he does not keep silence well. And passing hastily in review such faces as I know, and don't trust, I am inclined to think, now I give my mind to it, that none of them keep silence well."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Rise above the grovelling level country; come far away from the crowd; pursue me as I mount higher; higher, higher, melting into the azure distance; rise to my supremest height of all, and love me here!"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ann Koar! repeatedly pronouncing them as if calling in a familiar manner for some lady who had distinguished herself in the orchestra. But this was his final testimony to the merits of his mates, for, the instrumental duet being performed at the first Wednesday concert, and being presently followed by the voice of Marguerite Obenreizer, he sat with his mouth wide open, entranced, until she had finished; when, rising in his place with much solemnity, and prefacing what he was about to say with a bow that specially included Mr. Wilding in it, he delivered himself of the gratifying sentiment:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Arter that, ye may all on ye get to bed!"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You'll change the luck time about, Miss, said Joey, ducking again."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's such as you in the place that can bring round the luck of the place."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Can I? Round the luck? she answered, in her pretty English, and with a pretty wonder."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I fear I do not understand. I am so stupid."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Young Master Wilding, Miss, Joey explained confidentially, though not much to her enlightenment,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where is my Mr. Joey, please?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Wapours, and perhaps it might have been; but whatever the cause of the effect, there the effect was, upon him. On this first occasion he had been seen to sidle along the wall, with his left hand to his left ear, until he had sidled himself into a seat pretty near the singer, in which place and position he had remained, until addressing to his friends the amateurs the compliment before mentioned. It was observed on the following Wednesday that Joey's action as a Pecking Machine was impaired at dinner, and it was rumoured about the table that this was explainable by his high-strung expectations of Miss Obenreizer's singing, and his fears of not getting a place where he could hear every note and syllable. The rumour reaching Wilding's ears, he in his good nature called Joey to the front at night before Marguerite began. Thus the Institution came into being that on succeeding nights, Marguerite, running her hands over the keys before singing, always said to Vendale,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where is my Mr. Joey, please? and that Vendale always brought him forth, and stationed him near by. That he should then, when all eyes were upon him, express in his face the utmost contempt for the exertions of his friends and confidence in Marguerite alone, whom he would stand contemplating, not unlike the rhinocerous out of the spelling- book, tamed and on his hind legs, was a part of the Institution. Also that when he remained after the singing in his most ecstatic state, some bold spirit from the back should say,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What do you think of it, Joey? and he should be goaded to reply, as having that instant conceived the retort,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Arter that ye may all on ye get to bed!"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You have not been quite well; that's all. He looked for explanation into the faces of his people. But they would put it off with"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Glad to see you looking so much better, sir; or"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hope you're doing nicely now, sir;"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Lying here, perhaps you will not mind my calling you Sally, Mrs. Goldstraw?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It sounds more natural to me, sir, than any other name, and I like it better."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thank you, Sally. I think, Sally, I must of late have been subject to fits. Is that so, Sally? Don't mind telling me now."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It has happened, sir."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah! That is the explanation! he quietly remarked."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mr. Obenreizer, Sally, talks of the world being so small that it is not strange how often the same people come together, and come together at various places, and in various stages of life. But it does seem strange, Sally, that I should, as I may say, come round to the Foundling to die."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are not going to die, dear Mr. Wilding."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "So Mr. Bintrey said, but I think he was wrong. The old child-feeling is coming back upon me, Sally. The old hush and rest, as I used to fall asleep."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Please kiss me, Nurse,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "God bless you!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "God bless you!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't move me, Sally, because of what I am going to say; I lie quite easily. I think my time is come, I don't know how it may appear to you, Sally, but--"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If we find a chance of tracing the lost man, we will take it. If we don't, let us meet for another consultation on the first anniversary of Wilding's death."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We shall be only four, the note said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We shall be only two, Vendale determined,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This is your first New Year's Day in England, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Will you let me help to make it like a New Year's Day at home?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I own you have pleased and flattered me. Never had she been so charming, in Vendale's eyes, as she was at that moment. Her winter dress--a petticoat of dark silk, with a bodice of black velvet rising to her neck, and enclosing it softly in a little circle of swansdown--heightened, by all the force of contrast, the dazzling fairness of her hair and her complexion. It was only when she turned aside from him to the glass, and, taking out the brooch that she wore, put his New Year's gift in its place, that Vendale's attention wandered far enough away from her to discover the presence of other persons in the room. He now became conscious that the hands of Obenreizer were affectionately in possession of his elbows. He now heard the voice of Obenreizer thanking him for his attention to Marguerite, with the faintest possible ring of mockery in its tone. ("
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Such a simple present, dear sir! and showing such nice tact!"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Vendale wondered whether the good Dor had, on this occasion, varied her domestic employment from cleaning Obenreizer's gloves to cooking Obenreizer's dinner. This at least was certain--the dishes served were, one and all, as achievements in cookery, high above the reach of the rude elementary art of England. The dinner was unobtrusively perfect. As for the wine, the eyes of the speechless friend rolled over it, as in solemn ecstasy. Sometimes he said"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Good! when a bottle came in full; and sometimes he said"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah!"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am afraid there is no help for it? said Obenreizer, addressing his fellow-countryman."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am afraid we must go."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I think, he said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I should have liked a little more wine."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am so shocked, so confused, so distressed, he began."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A misfortune has happened to one of my compatriots. He is alone, he is ignorant of your language--I and my good friend, here, have no choice but to go and help him. What can I say in my excuse? How can I describe my affliction at depriving myself in this way of the honour of your company?"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Pray don't distress yourself, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'll wait here with the greatest pleasure till you come back."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "So frank, so friendly, so English!"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't disturb her, he whispered."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have been waiting to tell you a secret. Let me tell it now."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We have been talking, said Vendale,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Can you guess what the one Swiss impression is which I have not told you yet?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "An impression of the mountains, perhaps?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No; a much more precious impression than that."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Of the lakes?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No. The lakes have not grown dearer and dearer in remembrance to me every day. The lakes are not associated with my happiness in the present, and my hopes in the future. Marguerite! all that makes life worth having hangs, for me, on a word from your lips. Marguerite! I love you!"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "O, Mr. Vendale, she said sadly,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There can be but one distance between us, Marguerite--a distance of your making. My love, my darling, there is no higher rank in goodness, there is no higher rank in beauty, than yours! Come! whisper the one little word which tells me you will be my wife!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Think of your family, she murmured;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If you dwell on such an obstacle as that, he said,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I shall think but one thought--I shall think I have offended you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "O, no! she exclaimed innocently. The instant the words passed her lips, she saw the construction that might be placed on them. Her confession had escaped her in spite of herself. A lovely flush of colour overspread her face. She made a momentary effort to disengage herself from her lover's embrace. She looked up at him entreatingly. She tried to speak. The words died on her lips in the kiss that Vendale pressed on them."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Let me go, Mr. Vendale!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Call me George."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "George!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Say you love me!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I love you!"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Let me go! she said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He has come back!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mon Dieu! said Madame Dor, addressing herself to the stove, and trembling violently. Vendale picked up the stockings and the ball, and huddled them all back in a heap over her shoulder."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mon Dieu!"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What! he exclaimed,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I beg you will not disturb Miss Obenreizer, he said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You have returned, I see, without your friend?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My friend remains, and consoles our afflicted compatriot. A heart-rending scene, Mr. Vendale! The household gods at the pawnbroker's--the family immersed in tears. We all embraced in silence. My admirable friend alone possessed his composure. He sent out, on the spot, for a bottle of wine."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Can I say a word to you in private, Mr. Obenreizer?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Assuredly. He turned to Madame Dor."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My good creature, you are sinking for want of repose. Mr. Vendale will excuse you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Go! he cried, giving his prodigious handful a preparatory swing in the air. Madame Dor said,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mon Dieu,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What must you think, Mr. Vendale, said Obenreizer, closing the door,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wish to speak to you on a subject in which I am deeply interested, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You must have observed, Mr. Obenreizer, that I have, from the first, felt no ordinary admiration for your charming niece?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are very good. In my niece's name, I thank you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Perhaps you may have noticed, latterly, that my admiration for Miss Obenreizer has grown into a tenderer and deeper feeling--?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Shall we say friendship, Mr. Vendale?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Say love--and we shall be nearer to the truth."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are Miss Obenreizer's guardian, pursued Vendale."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I ask you to confer upon me the greatest of all favours--I ask you to give me her hand in marriage."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Vendale, he said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I will wait, rejoined Vendale,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "One word before I recover myself. You have said nothing about this to my niece?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have opened my whole heart to your niece. And I have reason to hope--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What! interposed Obenreizer."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You have made a proposal to my niece, without first asking for my authority to pay your addresses to her? He struck his hand on the table, and lost his hold over himself for the first time in Vendale's experience of him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sir! he exclaimed, indignantly,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I can only justify it as one of our English institutions, said Vendale quietly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You admire our English institutions. I can't honestly tell you, Mr. Obenreizer, that I regret what I have done. I can only assure you that I have not acted in the matter with any intentional disrespect towards yourself. This said, may I ask you to tell me plainly what objection you see to favouring my suit?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I see this immense objection, answered Obenreizer,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "he added, lowering himself again gradually to his customary polite level,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "One moment, said Vendale, interposing on his side."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I may claim, without any great arrogance, to know more of my country people in general, and of my own friends in particular, than you do. In the estimation of everybody whose opinion is worth having, my wife herself would be the one sufficient justification of my marriage. If I did not feel certain--observe, I say certain--that I am offering her a position which she can accept without so much as the shadow of a humiliation--I would never (cost me what it might) have asked her to be my wife. Is there any other obstacle that you see? Have you any personal objection to me?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Personal objection! he exclaimed."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Dear sir, the bare question is painful to me."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We are both men of business, pursued Vendale,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Before I answer that last question, he said, after a little close consideration with himself,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I beg leave to revert for a moment to Miss Marguerite. You said something just now which seemed to imply that she returns the sentiment with which you are pleased to regard her?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have the inestimable happiness, said Vendale,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If you will excuse me for a few minutes, he said, with ceremonious politeness,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I should like to have the opportunity of speaking to my niece."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have spoken to my niece, he began."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I find, Mr. Vendale, that even your influence has not entirely blinded her to the social objections to your proposal."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "May I ask, returned Vendale,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are master of the situation, he answered, in a tone of sardonic submission."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If you insist on my admitting it, I do admit it in those words. My niece's will and mine used to be one, Mr. Vendale. You have come between us, and her will is now yours. In my country, we know when we are beaten, and we submit with our best grace. I submit, with my best grace, on certain conditions. Let us revert to the statement of your pecuniary position. I have an objection to you, my dear sir--a most amazing, a most audacious objection, from a man in my position to a man in yours."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What is it?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You have honoured me by making a proposal for my niece's hand. For the present (with best thanks and respects), I beg to decline it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Because you are not rich enough."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Your income is fifteen hundred a year, pursued Obenreizer."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "In my miserable country I should fall on my knees before your income, and say, 'What a princely fortune!' In wealthy England, I sit as I am, and say, 'A modest independence, dear sir; nothing more. Enough, perhaps, for a wife in your own rank of life who has no social prejudices to conquer. Not more than half enough for a wife who is a meanly born foreigner, and who has all your social prejudices against her.' Sir! if my niece is ever to marry you, she will have what you call uphill work of it in taking her place at starting. Yes, yes; this is not your view, but it remains, immovably remains, my view for all that. For my niece's sake, I claim that this uphill work shall be made as smooth as possible. Whatever material advantages she can have to help her, ought, in common justice, to be hers. Now, tell me, Mr. Vendale, on your fifteen hundred a year can your wife have a house in a fashionable quarter, a footman to open her door, a butler to wait at her table, and a carriage and horses to drive about in? I see the answer in your face--your face says, No. Very good. Tell me one more thing, and I have done. Take the mass of your educated, accomplished, and lovely country-women, is it, or is it not, the fact that a lady who has a house in a fashionable quarter, a footman to open her door, a butler to wait at her table, and a carriage and horses to drive about in, is a lady who has gained four steps, in female estimation, at starting? Yes? or No?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Come to the point, said Vendale."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You view this question as a question of terms. What are your terms?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The lowest terms, dear sir, on which you can provide your wife with those four steps at starting. Double your present income--the most rigid economy cannot do it in England on less. You said just now that you expected greatly to increase the value of your business. To work--and increase it! I am a good devil after all! On the day when you satisfy me, by plain proofs, that your income has risen to three thousand a year, ask me for my niece's hand, and it is yours."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "May I inquire if you have mentioned this arrangement to Miss Obenreizer?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Certainly. She has a last little morsel of regard still left for me, Mr. Vendale, which is not yours yet; and she accepts my terms. In other words, she submits to be guided by her guardian's regard for her welfare, and by her guardian's superior knowledge of the world."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I protest against the conditions you impose on me,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Naturally, said Obenreizer;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I dare say I should protest, myself, in your place."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Say, however, pursued Vendale,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Aha! to see my niece? and to make her in as great a hurry to be married as you are yourself? Suppose I say, No? you would see her perhaps without my permission?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Decidedly!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How delightfully frank! How exquisitely English! You shall see her, Mr. Vendale, on certain days, which we will appoint together. What next?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Your objection to my income, proceeded Vendale,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "In plain English, said Obenreizer,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Do you purpose to take _my_ word for it when I inform you that I have doubled my income? asked Vendale."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If my memory does not deceive me, you stipulated, a minute since, for plain proofs?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well played, Mr. Vendale! You combine the foreign quickness with the English solidity. Accept my best congratulations. Accept, also, my written guarantee."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Are you satisfied with your guarantee?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am satisfied."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Charmed to hear it, I am sure. We have had our little skirmish--we have really been wonderfully clever on both sides. For the present our affairs are settled. I bear no malice. You bear no malice. Come, Mr. Vendale, a good English shake hands."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "When may I expect to see Miss Obenreizer again?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Honour me with a visit to-morrow, said Obenreizer,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I made an estimate, some months since, of the capacities of my business, said Vendale."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If that estimate is correct, I shall double my present income--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And be married!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And be married, repeated Vendale,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What's the matter? asked Vendale."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Anything wrong?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I should wish to mention one thing, answered Joey."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Young Mr. Vendale, I have never set myself up for a prophet."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Who ever said you did?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No prophet, as far as I've heard I tell of that profession, proceeded Joey,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "concluded Joey, pointing attention to a special passage in the report, with a forefinger which appeared to be in process of taking in through the pores nothing more remarkable than dirt."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's foreign to my nature to crow over the house I serve, but I feel it a kind of solemn duty to ask you to read that."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Note, respecting the Swiss champagne. An irregularity has been discovered in the last consignment received from the firm of Defresnier and Co. Vendale stopped, and referred to a memorandum-book by his side."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That was in Mr. Wilding's time, he said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The vintage was a particularly good one, and he took the whole of it. The Swiss champagne has done very well, hasn't it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't say it's done badly, answered the Cellarman."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It may have got sick in our customers' bins, or it may have bust in our customers' hands. But I don't say it's done badly with us."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We find the number of the cases to be quite correct by the books. But six of them, which present a slight difference from the rest in the brand, have been opened, and have been found to contain a red wine instead of champagne. The similarity in the brands, we suppose, caused a mistake to be made in sending the consignment from Neuchatel. The error has not been found to extend beyond six cases."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is that all!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'm glad to see you take it easy, sir, he said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Whatever happens, it will be always a comfort to you to remember that you took it easy at first. Sometimes one mistake leads to another. A man drops a bit of orange-peel on the pavement by mistake, and another man treads on it by mistake, and there's a job at the hospital, and a party crippled for life. I'm glad you take it easy, sir. In Pebbleson Nephew's time we shouldn't have taken it easy till we had seen the end of it. Without desiring to crow over the house, young Mr. Vendale, I wish you well through it. No offence, sir, said the Cellarman, opening the door to go out, and looking in again ominously before he shut it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'm muddled and molloncolly, I grant you. But I'm an old servant of Pebbleson Nephew, and I wish you well through them six cases of red wine."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I may as well send a line to Defresnier and Company, he thought,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "WILDING AND CO."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "DEFRESNIER & CIE."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A thousand pardons, said the voice;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am afraid I disturb you."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have called, pursued Obenreizer,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Excuse me for one moment, said Vendale;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I will speak to you directly. He turned round again, and continued his search among the papers."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You come at a time when friendly offers are more than usually precious to me, he resumed."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have had very bad news this morning from Neuchatel."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Bad news, exclaimed Obenreizer."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "From Defresnier and Company?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes. A remittance we sent to them has been stolen. I am threatened with a loss of five hundred pounds. What's that?"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "All my awkwardness, said Obenreizer."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This dreadful news of yours startled me; I stepped back--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't trouble yourself, said Vendale."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The clerk will pick the things up."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This dreadful news! repeated Obenreizer, persisting in collecting the envelopes."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This dreadful news!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If you will read the letter, said Vendale,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Come to the fire, said Vendale."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You look perished with the cold out there. I will ring for some more coals."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Marguerite will be as sorry to hear of this as I am, he said, kindly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What do you mean to do?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am in the hands of Defresnier and Company, answered Vendale."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "In my total ignorance of the circumstances, I can only do what they recommend. The receipt which I have just found, turns out to be the numbered and printed form. They seem to attach some special importance to its discovery. You have had experience, when you were in the Swiss house, of their way of doing business. Can you guess what object they have in view?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Suppose I examine the receipt?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Are you ill? asked Vendale, startled by the change in his face, which now showed itself plainly for the first time."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Pray go to the fire. You seem to be shivering--I hope you are not going to be ill?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not I! said Obenreizer."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Perhaps I have caught cold. Your English climate might have spared an admirer of your English institutions. Let me look at the receipt."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Let me look at the receipt,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Imbecile!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Will you come into the clerks' room? asked Vendale."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They have a stove there."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, no. No matter."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No; I don't understand it! I am sorry to be of no use."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I will write to Neuchatel by to-night's post, said Vendale, putting away the receipt for the second time."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We must wait, and see what comes of it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "By to-night's post, repeated Obenreizer."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Let me see. You will get the answer in eight or nine days' time. I shall be back before that. If I can be of any service, as commercial traveller, perhaps you will let me know between this and then. You will send me written instructions? My best thanks. I shall be most anxious for your answer from Neuchatel. Who knows? It may be a mistake, my dear friend, after all. Courage! courage! courage!"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Who knows? he thought."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I may have read that man's face wrongly, after all."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Go!"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They told me at Soho Square you were expected back last night, said Vendale, greeting him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Have you done well in the country? Are you better?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A very strange letter, answered Vendale."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The matter has taken a new turn, and the letter insists--without excepting anybody--on my keeping our next proceedings a profound secret."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Without excepting anybody? repeated Obenreizer. As he said the words, he walked away again, thoughtfully, to the window at the other end of the room, looked out for a moment, and suddenly came back to Vendale."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Surely they must have forgotten? he resumed,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is Monsieur Rolland who writes, said Vendale."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And, as you say, he must certainly have forgotten. That view of the matter quite escaped me. I was just wishing I had you to consult, when you came into the room. And here I am tried by a formal prohibition, which cannot possibly have been intended to include you. How very annoying!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Perhaps it is more than annoying! he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I came this morning not only to hear the news, but to offer myself as messenger, negotiator--what you will. Would you believe it? I have letters which oblige me to go to Switzerland immediately. Messages, documents, anything--I could have taken them all to Defresnier and Rolland for you."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are the very man I wanted, returned Vendale."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I had decided, most unwillingly, on going to Neuchatel myself, not five minutes since, because I could find no one here capable of taking my place. Let me look at the letter again."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is most annoying, he said to Obenreizer--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Say no more! returned Obenreizer."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "In your place I should have done the same. My good friend, I take no offence. I thank you for your compliment. We shall be travelling companions, at any rate, added Obenreizer."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You go, as I go, at once?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "At once. I must speak to Marguerite first, of course!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Surely! surely! Speak to her this evening. Come, and pick me up on the way to the station. We go together by the mail train to-night?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "By the mail train to-night."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We have only a few minutes, George, she said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But Madame Dor has been good to me--and we can have those few minutes alone. She threw her arms round his neck, and whispered eagerly,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Have you done anything to offend Mr. Obenreizer?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hush! she said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I want to whisper it. You know the little photograph I have got of you. This afternoon it happened to be on the chimney-piece. He took it up and looked at it--and I saw his face in the glass. I know you have offended him! He is merciless; he is revengeful; he is as secret as the grave. Don't go with him, George--don't go with him!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My own love, returned Vendale,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Obenreizer"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Are you ready? he asked, addressing Vendale."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Can I take anything for you? You have no travelling-bag. I have got one. Here is the compartment for papers, open at your service."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thank you, said Vendale."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have only one paper of importance with me; and that paper I am bound to take charge of myself. Here it is, he added, touching the breast-pocket of his coat,"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Adieu, my charming niece! he said, turning to Marguerite next."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "En route, my friend, for Neuchatel!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't go!"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He is Marguerite's guardian. We are on perfectly friendly terms; he is my companion of his own proposal, and can have no interested motive in sharing this undesirable journey."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If I could fling him into it!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Where shall I rob him, if I can? Where shall I murder him, if I must?"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The Rhine sounds to-night, he said with a smile,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If she was? said Vendale, gradually changing his attitude to a sitting one."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If she was? Why do you say 'if'?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What do I know? replied the other negligently, throwing up his hands and letting them fall as they would."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What would you have? I am so obscurely born, that how can I say? I was very young, and all the rest of the family were men and women, and my so-called parents were old. Anything is possible of a case like that."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Did you ever doubt--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I told you once, I doubt the marriage of those two, he replied, throwing up his hands again, as if he were throwing the unprofitable subject away."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But here I am in Creation. _I_ come of no fine family. What does it matter?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "At least you are Swiss,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How do I know? he retorted abruptly, and stopping to look back over his shoulder."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I say to you, at least you are English. How do you know?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "By what I have been told from infancy."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah! I know of myself that way."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And, added Vendale, pursuing the thought that he could not drive back,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I also. I know of myself that way--if that way satisfies."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Does it not satisfy you?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It must. There is nothing like 'it must' in this little world. It must. Two short words those, but stronger than long proof or reasoning."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You and poor Wilding were born in the same year. You were nearly of an age,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes. Very nearly."
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where shall I rob him, if I can? Where shall I murder him, if I must?"
}
]
|
1423 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do you lock your door at night when travelling?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not I. I sleep too soundly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are so sound a sleeper? he retorted, with an admiring look."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What a blessing!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Anything but a blessing to the rest of the house, rejoined Vendale,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I, too, said Obenreizer,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are not complimentary to your countrymen,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My countrymen, said Obenreizer, with that light touch of his friend's elbows by way of Good-Night and benediction,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I suppose are like the majority of men. And the majority of men will take what they can get. Adieu! At four in the morning."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Adieu! At four."
}
]
|
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