"My dear, what can we do?" said Lady Pomona.
"Do!" Georgiana was now going to speak out plainly. "Make him understand that we are not going to be sat upon like that. I'll do something, if that's going to be the way of it. If he treats me like that I'll run off with the first man that will take me, let him be who it may."
"Don't talk like that, Georgiana, unless you wish to kill me."
"I'll break his heart for him. He does not care about us,—not the least,—whether we are happy or miserable; but he cares very much about the family name. I'll tell him that I'm not going to be a slave. I'll marry a London tradesman before I'll stay down here." The younger Miss Longestaffe was lost in passion at the prospect before her.
"Oh, Georgey, don't say such horrid things as that," pleaded her sister.
"It's all very well for you, Sophy. You've got George Whitstable."
"I haven't got George Whitstable."
"Yes, you have, and your fish is fried. Dolly does just what he pleases, and spends money as fast as he likes. Of course it makes no difference to you, mamma, where you are."
"You are very unjust," said Lady Pomona, wailing, "and you say horrid things."
"I ain't unjust at all. It doesn't matter to you. And Sophy is the same as settled. But I'm to be sacrificed! How am I to see anybody down here in this horrid hole? Papa promised and he must keep his word."