book_id
stringlengths 2
6
| title
stringclasses 1
value | author
stringclasses 1
value | conversations
listlengths 1
5.07k
|
|---|---|---|---|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The worms themselves do the work here, monsieur."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "One of these, said he,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Lawsy! said Quinney."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I ought to know."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is that old or new, monsieur?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It’s old,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It’s quite new, monsieur."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I’m fairly done, said Joe."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This beats the world, this does."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That piece, said the proprietor,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "and he showed Quinney two interlaced initials, cleverly concealed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The original is in the Cluny, and valued by experts at four thousand pounds. I can sell it for sixteen pounds."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mark it ’sold,’"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Obviously, monsieur is in the business?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am, replied Quinney,"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wonderfully keen, isn’t he?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Do you think he’s too keen?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "As for that, Mrs. Quinney, one can hardly be too keen in business nowadays."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I meant—is he too keen for his own happiness?"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "His keenness might make for his happiness. I divide the people I know into two classes, those who care for things and those who care for persons."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Surely a man can care for both?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "One must be the dominant interest."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You think it’s bad to care too much for things?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are very sharp. However, in this case there isn’t much cause for serious alarm."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why not?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, you stand between him and false gods."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "False gods! What a good way of describing faked Chelsea figures!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I’ll take the lot off your hands, Joe, at a twenty-five per cent. advance."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, you won’t! replied Joe."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Our furniture is not for sale, old man. Not yet, by Gum!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are a wonder!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Isn’t he?"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It’s becoming harder every day, ma’am, he addressed Mrs. Biddlecombe,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Really, did you now? murmured Mrs. Biddlecombe For all she knew a"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, ma’am, a fi’ pun note. It was this way. The table belonged to a decayed gentlewoman, who’d seen better days, and needed money."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That may happen to any of us,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She had inherited this table from her grandma, continued Tomlin,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sensible old dear, I call her,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My agent was fairly boiled, and then inspiration struck him. He never went near the old gal for a couple of months. Then he called with a friend, a stout, red-faced man, bit of an amateur actor. My agent introduced him as a collector of choice bits. Asked if he might show him the little table. Old lady was willing enough, and of course the low comedy feller crabbed it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Stale dodge that,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wait a bit. After crabbin’ it, he pretended to be interested in other things; and then he began to act queer. He’d slipped a bit o’ soap into his mouth, so as to froth proper."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Gracious me! Why!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Then he went into a regular fit, fell down, and as he fell grabbed the little table, and broke off one of its pretty spindle legs. When he come out of his fit, my agent said that the least thing a gentleman could do was to buy the table he’d spoiled. The old lady took a fiver as compensation, and jolly glad she was to get it. I sold that table to an American millionaire for one hundred and twenty-five—guineas!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Come, Susan, let us leave these _gentlemen_ to their wine."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Old man, that yarn was a bit too thick for ’em. See?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "One more glass of port, he replied,"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Joe, dear, you wouldn’t have done what Mr. Tomlin did, would you?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "About what, Sue?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "About that table. Mother and I thought it was horrid of him to take advantage of a poor old lady."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Look ye here, my girl, Tomlin is—well, Tomlin. Don’t you mix him up with me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But, Joe, you are mixed up with him—in business."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Temporary arrangement, my pretty, nothing more."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Blessed little saint you are!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They’ll be ruined, said Quinney, chuckling and rubbing his hands."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Nobody will buy their muck, and they know it."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You want to get the patter, he told his wife,"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Find out what they want, and don’t be too keen to sell to ’em. Most men, my pretty, and nearly all the women go dotty over the things hardest to get. Our best stuff will sell itself, if we go slow. Old silver is getting scarcer every day."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We’ve a lot to learn; something new every hour. And we shall make bloomin’ errors, again and again. All dealers do. Tomlin was had to rights only last week over two Chippendale chairs; and he thinks he knows all about ’em. I’ve been done proper over that coffee-pot."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A genuine George II bit, Susie, and worth its weight in gold if it hadn’t been tampered with by some fool later on. All that repoussé work is George IV, and I never knew it. The worst fake is the half-genuine ones."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Gracious!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There are lots o’ things I don’t know, and don’t understand, my girl; all the more reason to hold tight on to what I do know. And what I know I’ll try to share with you, and what you know you’ll try to share with me."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I’m stupid about things,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Can you tell t’other from which? he asked."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Look at ’em, feel ’em inside and out."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ain’t they just alike, Joe?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Lord, no! One’s the real old blue and white, hand-painted, and worth fifty pound. T’other is a reproduction, printed stuff, with a different glaze. Look again, my pretty!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This is the old one, Joe."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, it ain’t. Slip your hand inside. Which is the smoother and better finished inside?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, I feel the difference, but I don’t see it. I wish I could see it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You will. I’m going to put a little chipped bit of the best on your toilet table. You just squint at it twenty times a day for one year, and you’ll know something. That’s what I’m doing with the earlier stuff, which is more difficult to be sure of, because it doesn’t look so good. I wouldn’t trust my judgment to buy it. That’s Tomlin’s job."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don’t like Mr. Tomlin, Joe."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Never asked you to like him, but we can learn a lot from Tomlin. See? He’s an expert upon Chinese and Japanese porcelain and lac. We’ve got to suck his brains."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ugh!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "what Quinney termed a"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Susan was instructed to take a third less. Quinney trained her to answer awkward questions, to make a pretty picture of ignorance, to pose effectively as the inexperienced wife keeping the shop during the absence of her husband. He had said upon the morning of the grand opening of _Quinneys’_,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don’t want you to tell lies, Sue."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wouldn’t for the world,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I know you wouldn’t; but I don’t want you to tell all the truth neither."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What do you mean?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This oak now. Me and you know it’s new, but if a customer tells you it’s old, don’t contradict him. ’Twouldn’t be polite. All you know about it is this—your clever hubby picked it up in France, in Brittany. See?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It won’t be acting a lie, dear?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not a bit of it! By Gum, Sue, I’m as proud of that conscience of yours as I am of that jar. Not a flaw in either."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good-morning, my lord!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Good-morning, Mrs. Quinney. May I look at some of these tempting things?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "As this is my first visit, I must buy something for luck. What is the price of that small jar with the _prunus_ decoration? If it is within my means——"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We can sell this to you, my lord, for three pounds ten."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I’ll take it, Mrs. Quinney."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He’d have given a fiver for it. Why didn’t you ask more than we was prepared to take?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "His lordship confirmed me, Joe."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What’s that got to do with it?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He knows about china. He passed by the inferior stuff. I wanted him to tell his friends that our prices were very reasonable; and I wanted him to come again. He promised that he would. And I think the clergy, our own clergy, ought to be treated—generously."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "By Gum, you’re right! said Quinney."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They’ll tell the old women that our prices touch bottom, reg’lar bargains."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Have a go at the old girl! Then he retreated discreetly to his inner room. Mrs. Nish greeted Susan with much affability, and immediately mentioned the Bishop,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I want one just like it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I’m afraid, said Susan,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "As near as may be,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The only other jar with similar decoration, and of the same period, is this."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The price is fifty pounds."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It can’t be worth all that,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I think his lordship would tell you that it was. We don’t expect to sell it. In fact it belongs to somebody else. We get a small commission if it is sold."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This is modern, madam, a very clever production, made by the same factory in China. We ask five pounds for this."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don’t buy fakes."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Of course not, madam. My husband says Lord Mel has not a finer piece of blue and white than that."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, yes; I paid fifty pounds for that."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You like the work?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I like being with you, Joe."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Good! You can consider yourself permanently engaged, Mrs. Quinney."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Permanently?"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ho! Another job in view?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I—I think so."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What will you do without me?"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, Mrs. Q., how is _my_ baby this morning? Any news of him?"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The kid _is_ comin’—ain’t it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We hope so,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We know it, old dear. Why not talk about it? Joe Quinney, junior! There you are!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It sounds so—indelicate."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That be blowed for a tale! Lawsy, there’s no saying what my son may not be. Think o’ my brains and his dear little mother’s looks. Worse followed. He began to call Susan"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mrs. Biddlecombe protested in vain. Laburnum Row laughed openly. Everybody knew! One terrible morning, a disgusting small boy shouted after her,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hullo, gran’ma!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "with Mrs. Biddlecombe, prepared a surprise. An amazing basket arrived from London, embellished with pale blue ribbon, and filled with a layette fit—so the advertisement said—for"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "To Joseph Quinney, Jr., Esq., care of Mother."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why not burn the furniture and the basket together?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What a wicked, wicked girl I am!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Feelin’ fine, are you?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh yes, Joe."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Any one bloomin’ thing you fancy?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Nothing."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not worriting? No stewin’ in your own juice, hey?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, no, no!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good. Everything is going to be all right. Lucky little dear, you are, to have a hubby who looks after you properly, and Joe Quinney, junior, will be looked after also. Make no error about that. He’s going to be a very remarkable young man! Chose his parents with rare right judgments he did. By Gum, when I read that little ’ad.’ about his kit bein’ fit for a lord, I says to myself, ’Why not? Why shouldn’t my son be a lord one day?’"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Joe, you are funny!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Funny? I’m dead serious, my girl. This stream, he tapped an inflated chest,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Gracious, no!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Useful bit of knowledge. Nigh upon three million square miles!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mercy!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I see Joe Quinney, junior, percolatin’ everywhere, bang from one end of the Empire to another."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "She’s not born yet, poor little dear!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She! There you go again."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I’m sure it will be a ’she.’"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not him. You trust my judgment. It’s a gift with me. All great men have it. Bonyparte and Wellington and Julius Cæsar."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You do go it."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That’s right. Do for a motto, that would. Go it! Keep a-moving! The people in this silly old town are standin’ still, up to their knees in their graves already, poor souls!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "a bit of heather picked by Joe when they took a jaunt together to the New Forest, a trinket or two, a lock of Joe’s hair, his letters tied up in pink ribbon and her birth certificate, solemnly thrust into her hand by Mrs. Biddlecombe upon the morning ol the wedding. Inside the desk remained a few sheets of the"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Your loving"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "P.S.—I hope you will marry again."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "To be opened after my death."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She was accustomed to these odd middle-class euphuisms. This particular expression, invariably used by Mrs. Biddlecombe, indicated a certain selection upon the part of the Reaper, who"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He (or she) has entered into rest. Or, with tearful conviction,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "God’s will be done."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Joe can’t do without me. I shall not be taken this time."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Marry a nice sensible woman, not quite so pretty as I am, one who will be kind to my baby."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "instead of"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is the baby born?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, nor likely to be till after midnight."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is it over?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Just begun,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mrs. Biddlecombe is with her, continued the doctor, in the same suavely impassive tone."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "They will send for me later. Good-afternoon!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, you go to blazes! I shall send for somebody else; a man, not a machine,"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not so much noise, _please_!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where are you going, Joseph?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Into my room o’ course. Where did you think I was going? Into the coal cellar?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We —Maria was indicated as an accomplice—"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I’m a-going to stay with Susie till it’s over."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, you ain’t!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, I am!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, you ain’t. ’Tisn’t seemly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That be damned!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Joseph Quinney! And an innocent unborn babe might hear you! Now, listen to me, and do just as I tell you. Men ain’t wanted on these occasions. You can go in and see Susan for a few minutes, but, remember, out you go when I say the word. Try to be a help and not an hindrance. I sent for you because you may be wanted to run for the doctor."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Run from ’im more likely, said Quinney."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Cold-blooded beast."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He’s just what a gentleman should be at such times. You take pattern by him! Now, go in, don’t shout, say something cheerful, and leave the room when I nod."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But if Susie wants me to stay——?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "She won’t."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That’ll do, she said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We don’t want any flustrations."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Dear, dear Joe!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You want me to stay, Susie?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh yes, till the pain comes."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And after?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, no!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But why, why?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I couldn’t bear for you to see my face. It, it, her voice quivered,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I shall do as Susan wishes,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You will leave the room when I nod?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Please!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Smoking?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Generally called that, ain’t it?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You can smoke outside."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I can, but I won’t. How’s Susie?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Susan will be much worse before she’s better. You can fetch the nurse, and finish your pipe while you are fetching her."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now, don’t you worry, Mr. Quinney, because there’s nothing to worry about with Dr. Ransome and me in charge of the case. We never have any trouble with our patients. You’ll be the proud father of a big fat baby-boy before you know where you are."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I’m climbin’!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What’s the meaning o’ this?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Meat tea for you and Mrs. Biddlecombe."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What the hell d’ye mean? Meat tea? I eat my supper at seven, and you know it!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You’ll eat it at six to-night. Mrs. Biddlecombe’s orders. I shall give notice if you swear at me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Smells all over Melchester. I believe that fish is bad."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I didn’t buy it,"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Stale fish, Joseph!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Did you buy it?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I did."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Did you choose it?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I did not. I instructed the fishmonger to send round some fresh fish."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Thought so!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You can’t come in now,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I’m not coming in. You tell my wife, with my love, not to eat any mackerel, and don’t you touch it yourself, if you want to be fit and well to-night."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You’ll be within call?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Of course. Any notion when the doctor will be wanted?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He may be wanted at any minute."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You may want him before Susan does!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is it always like this?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "First time—yes,"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My God! he exclaimed hoarsely."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I didn’t know it was like this. I’ve heard her!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I do not regret that! replied Mrs. Biddlecombe, not unkindly, but with emphasis."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If I had my way all men and all big boys, too, should know what their mothers have suffered. They might be kinder to them."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Quinney, he said gravely,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I advise you to go for a brisk walk. You can do nothing more."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But if my wife should want me?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "She is not likely to want you. It might make it easier for her, if she knew you were out of the way."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I’ll sit in the dining-room,"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And your mistress?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I know nothing about her, sir."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Everything seems strangely quiet."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, sir; terribly so."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It’s all over! Your child is born."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Thank God! exclaimed Quinney. He added tremulously:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And my poor wife?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "She is very much exhausted. Presently you can go to her for a minute. It has been a complicated case, but we anticipate no further complications."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Come in here, gentlemen, please."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My son!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don’t you know? Didn’t we tell you?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Tell me what?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are the father, my dear sir, of a ten-pound daughter!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are not very disappointed?"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, I’m damned! he exclaimed. As the nurse raised her eyebrows in silent protest, he added quickly:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I’ve been swearing all night; one more little one don’t count!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You go to bed at once!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "N-n-no, faltered Susan, feeling more wife than mother. She qualified the doubtful negative by murmuring:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I did love helping you."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Lord bless you! You’re helping me at home—a woman’s right place. It’s the biggest help a woman can give to a man. You run things fine! Yes, you do! —for she had shaken her head."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And the kid has the very best nurse in all the world! Shop, indeed! I don’t want my wife demeaning herself in a shop!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She’s not out of the wood yet, my lord."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I know how you feel—I have been through it. And now show me over your premises. The Bishop tells me that you have some fine porcelain."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I’ve a lot of poor stuff, too!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Have you much of this oak?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Any amount of it!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Enough to panel a room?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, I think so."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What will you take for the lot? It happens that I can use it at Mel Court. I am building a new billiard room, and my lady is rather tired of mahogany."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It’s all faked stuff."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What! Impossible!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I can sell the lot, my lord, at a price that will surprise you."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The price does surprise me,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Perfectly wonderful! said Quinney."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The real stuff—if you could have found such a quantity—would have run into a couple of thousand."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But, pardon me, aren’t you doing business upon rather a novel plan?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That’s as may be, my lord. I propose to keep the very best fakes and to label ’em as such. I have the genuine stuff, too. Take Oriental china. Look at those jars!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I hate rubbish! Rubbish is wicked, rubbish is cruel, rubbish poisons the world. I was brought up amongst it, and that’s why I loathe it and fear it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mr. Quinney, he said simply,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am happy to make your acquaintance; you are building even better than you know."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You don’t seem to have thought of me!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I didn’t,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I told you about that fellow in Brittany; I sent you to him; I provided half the cash, and I was counting upon big profits. You’ve let me down badly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Looks like it, to be sure!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Damned outrage, I call it!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "So it is; but I was desperate. Susan was dying. I never thought of you at all. Now, look here! Don’t overheat yourself! You was counting upon a fifty per cent. profit."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Perhaps more."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You do like to get your fore-feet into the trough. Any Jew blood in your family? Keep cool! At first we got our big profit, and how much stuff did we sell? Very little. Now I’ve orders coming in faster than I can fill ’em, and your profit, small and quick, will knock endways the big and slow. See?"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It’s silly to be dishonest, said Quinney,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Honest fakes,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That’s it. And my fakes are goin’ to be advertised as the best in the world—really fine stuff, at a price which’ll defy competition."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You’re an extraordinary man, Joe. There is something in it. Honest fakes!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Rub this in as vaseline, old man. If we can sell honest fakes cheap, we can sell the real Simon pure stuff at the top notch. Rich people don’t haggle over a few extra pounds if they know that they’re not being imposed upon. I’m going to offer to take back any bit I sell as genuine which may be pronounced doubtful by the experts."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If you think you know your own business——"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Cocksure of it, old man!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I can only hope that Pride won’t have a fall."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You come with me and drink my daughter’s health. Never saw such a kid in all my life—and not a month old!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Daughter? Rather muddled things, haven’t you? Thought you’d arranged with your missis that it was to be a boy?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Did you? Well, being a better husband than you are, I let her ’ave her own way in that."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And what is your name, my dear?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Josie-posie, she replied demurely. Even at that early age Quinney’s daughter was absolutely devoid of fear or shyness. She added confidingly:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And I wear a macheese."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What does she wear?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She means a—chemise, my lord."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Josie-posie is too big a name for so tiny a maid. I like the second half of it better than the first."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "So do I,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, yes; Posy is a sweet, old-fashioned name, and it describes the child admirably."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He’s right. Posy she is, the little dear! And his lordship didn’t fail to notice, I’ll be bound, that she smells as sweet as she looks."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Reg’lar butterfly! said Quinney."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Dotty about flowers! Picks out the best, by Gum!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I was an only child, you was an only child, your grandfather was an only child. It’s in the family. After what you went through——"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Joe would like a son, mother."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Has he hinted that to you?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You take it from me that he doesn’t."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I do miss my baby."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Enjoyed bein’ woke up—hey?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Like another, perhaps?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If—if you wanted it, Joe. A little son this time."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now look here, Susie, I ain’t going to have another."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It isn’t you who will have it. Mother says she wishes that the men could take turn and turn about."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ho! Said that, did she? You tell her from me that I suffered quite enough with my first. Enough to last me all my life, and yours, too!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, Joe, you are a darling!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Silly name to call me! Red-headed and freckled! But no more nonsense about little sons. When my daughter marries, her husband can take my name. See?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I see, said Susan;"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "for her, perhaps in more senses than one. Ransome, of course, reassured her again and again in regard to her symptoms. They were such as could not be ignored at her age—fifty-five—but with care and a less generous diet she might reasonably hope to live happily for many years. Mrs. Biddlecombe refused to believe this. She made her will, leaving everything she possessed to Susan, selected her last resting-place in the Melchester cemetery, not too near the grave of her second husband, the contractor and builder, and announced calmly that she was"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Old Pomposity is hedgin’—see? Just like him! Comes to this, Susie. You was at death’s door, seemin’ly, but, by Gum! you pulled through because you wouldn’t leave me!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Works t’other way round with your mother. She’s made up her mind to die, and the doctor can’t argue her out of the notion. Her heart is weak, and if it begins flutterin’ it may stop for ever just because the pore old dear won’t will it to go on wigglin’. There y’are!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A bit thick!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Joe!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But, isn’t it? Let’s face the facts. You spend a lot o’ time away from home, away from Posy. Losin’ your nice fresh colour, you are! And I’m losin’ my appetite for the good meals I used to have."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But mother wants me. And any moment——"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "So she thinks. Quite likely to make old bones yet. Now, look here, I’ve a plan—the only plan. I simply won’t have you trapesin’ round to Laburnum Row at all hours of the day and night. Tell your mother to pack up and come to us."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Let me die here, Joseph."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are not going to die, Mrs. B., but, if you did, just think of the sad job we’d have gettin’ you down them narrow stairs. And we never could receive all your friends in such a small parlour."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That’s true, sighed Mrs. Biddlecombe."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There’s a lot in what you say, Joseph."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There is, old dear! I’m uneducated, and I know it, but my talk is full o’ meat and gravy. It’s nourishing!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Joseph’s luck will turn,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Now, Granny, don’t you go on barkin’ your old knuckles over that. I ain’t superstitious, but long ago I had ’arf-a-crown’s worth o’ fortune-tellin’ from the Queen o’ the Gipsies herself. I’m to live to be seventy-six, and to bend the knee to my Sovereign."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What did the foolish woman mean by that?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A queen, I tell you. She meant knighthood. Sir Joseph and Lady Quinney! What ho!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sir Humpty and Lady Dumpty more like!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It would mean a big fight. You are not in the ring, my dear fellow."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I should get into the ring, my lord."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Um! Would you! And —his landlord laughed pleasantly—"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I should lose a good tenant."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "London’s the best market for knowledge,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Quite, quite! Can you attempt to compete with the experts?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "it was impossible to find a man with more technical knowledge than his own. In London, he would be rubbing shoulders with world-famous collectors and connoisseurs. They would"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It fair furs my tongue to think o’ that."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "—chairs, tables, chests of drawers, bureaux, bookcases, bedsteads, and mantel-pieces. The"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Damn!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Vae victis."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My house is afire!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Your house afire?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You bolt for the engine—see?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Get a move on!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You’ve time to slip on warm clothes. Bolt on to the lawn with Posy. Don’t try to save any of your rags. I’ll wake Maria—and then I’ve a lot to do. The best stuff downstairs is not insured. The engine will be here in two jiffs. You scoot out o’ this! Hear me?"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Look at that, he said grimly,"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Seen your missus?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "On the lawn,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Women all out?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You bet! replied Quinney. At that moment he remembered Mrs. Biddlecombe."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My God! he exclaimed, gripping the Chief."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There’s Mrs. Biddlecombe! Bedridden, by Gum!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The old lady, she spluttered,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ran?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Like a rabbit!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We’ve about five more minutes,"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You never thought of mother,"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I didn’t."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "She legged it out on to the lawn. Maria says she ran like a bloomin’ rabbit."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If Maria said that I shall have to speak to her seriously."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "She didn’t say ’blooming.’ I’m sorry, Susie. It’s awful, I know, but you needn’t glare at me as if I’d left the old lady to burn on purpose. And out of evil comes good—hey? We know now that she’s as spry as ever. Almost looks as if firin’ had cured her."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If you mean to make a joke of it——"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What! Refuse to kiss your own hubby!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mother might be lying dead; and you thinking only of sticks and stones."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Come off it!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "While you are away, she said cheerfully,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I shall be looking out for another Dream Cottage."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You won’t find it in Melchester,"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Guarantee that?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Certainly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It’s French. Came out of a French château in Touraine."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Signed?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I think not. It’s signed all over as a bit of the finest Renaissance craftsmanship."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It is signed,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Really? Where, may I ask?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Remove that, he observed quietly,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Whose signature?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The signature of a great artist who lives near Treguier in Brittany."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Lives? What do you mean?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I mean, my lad, that your master has here a very clever copy, signed where I say by the man who copied it, whom I know. I’ve not asked the price, but I’ll tell you this: if it’s genuine, it’s cheap at two thousand; if it’s a copy I can buy a dozen just like it at sixteen pounds apiece. Good-morning."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There is a place for me,"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Never did see a man with a more unhealthy appetite!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A place for you, my tulip? Hope it won’t be in the Bankruptcy Court!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You’re a fool to leave Melchester, Joe. I say it as a friend."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There’s a place for me in London,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, somewhere between the Fulham Road and Long Acre."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Customers?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That’s right—customers. The business will have to be built up slowly, because I mean to specialize."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "In what?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Old English porcelain, glass, and the finest furniture."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You’ll starve."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I mean to have one other department which may keep the pot boiling."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Give it a name, Joe."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not yet."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My first and last word to you is: Go back to Melchester and stay there."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "To Let."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "the treasure-house, wherein his"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "exasperated him. By this time he had recognized her inability to appreciate fine"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You look so queer, Joe."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I’m out for a big thing. I know that I can pull it off single-handed. Results will justify this move, Susie. It’s no use my hidin’ from you that I’m in for a fight. They’ll down me if they can, but in the end I shall come out on top, my girl. On top!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "On top of what, Joe?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Atop o’ the heap. A big dealer. It’s in me. Always knew it. Not a dog’s chance here. Why, even Primmer of Bath had to go to London. I was in his Piccadilly place yesterday. And I can remember what his old shop at Bath used to be."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What does Mr. Tomlin say?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He’s nasty, is Tom Tomlin. I wanted him to be nasty. By Gum! I egged him on to call me a fool and an idiot."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How I dislike that man!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He fairly wallowed in prophecies. It will be the same here. I can hear Pinker goin’ it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Have you asked Lord Mel’s advice?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "His lordship was very kind, but he’s my landlord, and I’m a good tenant. He may be offended. I must risk that."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It’s done?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thank the Lord—yes!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When I woke to hear the roaring of the flames, I heard a Voice. It seemed to say: ’Martha Biddlecombe, arise and walk.’"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We heard you—ran."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It is perfectly true, replied Mrs. Biddlecombe, with austere dignity."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The hand of the Lord was upon me, and I ran."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "she deemed it a duty to let that tongue wag freely. She received her son-in-law seated upon a sofa, the hard, old-fashioned sofa covered with black horse-hair. Above the mantelpiece was a framed print in crude colour, a portrait of the Great White Queen, in all her Imperial splendour handing a cheap edition of the Bible to a naked savage. Underneath this work of art was inscribed:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This is the secret of England’s greatness."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Be seated, Joseph."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are going to London?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That’s right."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is not right, Joseph. It is very far indeed from being right. It would seem that right and wrong, as I interpret such plain words, have no definite meaning to you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Pop away!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I said ’Pop away.’ I meant, go on firing."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I beg to be allowed to finish without flippant interruption on your part. Personally, the affairs of this world do not concern me any longer. I am interested in them so far as they concern others, my own flesh and blood. Susan was born in Melchester, and so were you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We couldn’t help it. You might have chosen a livelier spot. Me and Susan wasn’t consulted. Children in a better managed world would be consulted, but there you are."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do you think, Joseph, in your arrogance, that you could manage this world better than it is managed?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Lord bless you, yes!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I trust that the Lord will bless me, young man. but He will assuredly not bless you, unless you mend your ways and your manners."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Keep it up!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I, for one, refuse to accompany you to London."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sorry."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Are you sorry? I doubt it. Susan will miss me —she wiped away two tears invisible to Quinney, and her voice trembled querulously as she continued—"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I took it —he drew in his breath sharply, speaking almost as solemnly as his very upright judge—"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "To what do you allude?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "To the spire of the Cathedral. It soars, don’t it? Can you see it laying flat on the ground? Can you fancy it asleep? It taught me to soar. When I was a boy, crawlin’ at the old man’s heel, I used to say to it: ’Gosh, you’re well out of it!’ And now —he smiled triumphantly—"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I’m well out of it, for ever and ever, Amen!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It seems a strange thing to say, but I have heard of spires struck by God’s lightning."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Maybe, said Quinney, rising;"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Makes us feel a bit green, hey?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "knew all about"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Leave those swine alone, Joe."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I mean to, old man."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But remember this, they won’t leave you alone, the dirty dogs!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Buyin’ against my crowd, you was, las’ week?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Your crowd, hey?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I said my crowd. Want to join us?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, my lad, I don’t."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why not?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I’m rather careful about the company I keep, see?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Nevertheless he"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Can’t you prosecute?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Never saw the fellow before, never likely to see him again. Hired for the job, he was—earned his money, too."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It’ll fetch more than fifty pounds."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "afterwards, bidding against the other dealers, Quinney paid nine hundred pounds for this"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Seems to me that poor man was robbed. Ninety-seven pounds for a thing that you say is worth two thousand. It’s awful."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Is it? Now, look ye here, Susie, I’m going to put you right on this for ever and ever, see? I’m not in this business for my health. Like every other merchant, I buy in the cheapest market, and sell in the dearest. It’s not my business to educate country gentlemen, who’ve had twice my advantages. If the owners of good stuff don’t take the trouble to find out the value of what they’ve got, so much the worse for them, the blooming idiots! I play the game, my girl. I might have bought that commode for a level fifty. Think of it! Why didn’t I? Because I’m an honourable man. Because it wouldn’t have been straight with the others who were after that commode. Has it soaked in? I’ll just add this: It’s we dealers who create values. Never thought o’ that, did you? Nor anyone else outside the profession. But it’s gospel truth. Dealers create the big prices, not the silly owners, who don’t know enough to keep their pictures in decent condition. I remember a country parson who kept his umbrella in a big _famille verte_ jar. Tomlin bought that jar for a few pounds, and sold it at Christopher’s for fifteen hundred. The parson made a fine hullabaloo, but it served him jolly well right. We do the work, and we’re entitled to the big profits."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I hope that commode is worth nine hundred pounds."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It’s worth a damn sight more than that, Susie!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Are you quite sure, Joe, that Angelica Kauffman painted them panels?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Just as sure, old man, as if I’d seen her at it."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why did we not hear of this?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Because we can’t hear of everything. There wasn’t one big London dealer at the sale; and the only thing worth having was this commode."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is it the goods?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I believe so."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do you know?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, yes—I know."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I must send for Pressland."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "certain painters, long dead. To quote Quinney, he"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "values. And he worked hand in hand with just such men as Gustavus Lark. In appearance he might have been a successful dentist. He wore a frock-coat and small side-whiskers. He said"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Please in an ingratiating tone. His hands were scrupulously clean, as if he had washed them often after dirty jobs. Out of a pale, sallow face shone two small grey eyes, set too close together. He contradicted other experts with an inimitable effrontery."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What is this? he would say, laying a lean forefinger upon a doubtful signature."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A Velasquez? I think not. Why? Because, my dear sir, I know!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do you know this Soho Square man, Quinney?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have met him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Has he come to stay?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Um! I think so."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I want you, he said slowly,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "—he laughed pleasantly—"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Probably."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I mean to have a look at it myself later."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Anything to show me?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Happy and honoured to see you, sir."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "In it were all his beloved treasures. He had done up the room"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What do you think of that, sir?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That commode. Pedigree bit, out of an old Melshire manor house. Good stuff, hey?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Bit of all right—um?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I hope you didn’t pay very much for it, Mr. Quinney."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I paid a thumping big cheque for it. Never paid so much before for a single bit."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I thought you knew your furniture."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ain’t it all right? There’s no secret about what I paid. It’s been paragraphed—nine hundred pounds."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I dare say you know more about those panels than I do."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Don’t play that on me, Mr. Pressland. If I knew one quarter of what you know about pictures I’d be a proud man."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A pedigree bit? What do you mean by that?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Owner said it had been in his family for more than a hundred years. He said that the panels were painted by Angelica Kauffman."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Are you quite sure he didn’t say after Angelica Kauffman?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Did he know the value of it?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, he didn’t."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ah! He must have been pleased with your cheque."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Isn’t it right, Mr. Pressland?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My opinion is worth little, Mr. Quinney."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I’m prepared to pay for it if necessary."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, no, no! Not from you. Well, then, I am afraid you have been had. Did the dealers at the ’knock-out’ suspect that you wanted it badly?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Perhaps they did. I kept on bidding."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Just so. It’s a little way they have. Very, very jealous, some of them. You have been successful. Success makes enemies. I have enemies. There are men in London who accuse me of abominable, unmentionable things."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You can afford to laugh at ’em, Mr. Pressland."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I do."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Am I to take it from you, sir, that Angelica did not paint those panels?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am of opinion, and I may well be mistaken, that those panels were painted after Angelica Kauffman’s death, probably by a clever pupil. But please ask somebody else."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I’ve been done—cooked to a crisp!"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That man knows. He felt sorry for me. He hated to tell me. He promised that he would tell nobody else—a good sort! What did your mother say—Sir Humpty and Lady Dumpty. There you are!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I was so sure of my own judgment, Susie. The loss of the money is bad enough, but everybody will find out that I’ve been had. That’s what tears me!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He may be mistaken."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not he. He knows. I’ve a mind to go outside and hire a strong man to kick me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "By Gum! I do believe it’s all right. If it isn’t, I’d better go back to Melchester and stay there. He caressed the lovely wood so tenderly that Susan felt jealous."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, you beauty! he exclaimed passionately."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I believe in you; yes, I do. An artist created you. An artist painted those panels."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am Gustavus Lark,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Pleased to see you, Mr. Lark."
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Cries. But he does not mention that. He has heard—it is his business to hear such gossip—that the widow possesses the complete set in colour, the full baker’s dozen. He arranges for a week’s board and lodging, and he satisfies himself that the prints are genuine specimens. In his satchel he carries thirteen bogus prints, excellent reproductions. At dead of night he takes from the frames the genuine prints and substitutes the false ones. Three days afterwards he goes to London, and, later, sells the prints for a sum sufficient to start him in business. But he does not rest there, as a lesser man might well do. A rapper’s hands, be it noted, are against all men. He robs cheerfully the men of his own trade—the small dealers. Gustavus, then, proceeds to pile Pelion upon Ossa. He next visits a dealer of his acquaintance and tells him that he has discovered a genuine set of"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Cries,"
}
]
|
50596 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Anything of interest to show me?"
}
]
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.