human
I'm so pleased that you have formed such a good opinion of me, Mr Dudley! I was really afraid you had forgotten me altogether, for you seemed hardly to recognise me a few minutes ago.
gpt
I'm Babs--Una Sackville is my name--England is my nation, Branfield is my dwelling--
human
Don't joke, please. I want to understand. _You--are--Babs_! Have you been deliberately deceiving me, then? Pray, what has been your object in posing as a child all these weeks!
gpt
I never posed at all--I never deceived you! Father treats me as a child, and you followed his example as a matter of course, and I was very pleased to be friends in a sensible manner without any nonsense. If I had said, `Please, I'm nineteen--I've left school, and am coming out--this is a hockey skirt, but I wear tails in the evening,' you would have been proper, and stiff, and have talked about the weather, and we should have had no fun. If anyone is to blame, it is you, for not seeing how really old I was!
human
So very old! he said.
gpt
Nineteen, is it? And I put you down as-- fourteen or fifteen, at the most! And so Babs has disappeared. Exit Babs! I'm sorry. She was a nice child; I enjoyed meeting her very much. I think we should have been real good friends.
human
She has not disappeared at all. You will meet her to-morrow morning. There is nothing to prevent us being as good friends as ever,
gpt
I think there is! There's a third person on the scene now who will make it difficult--for me, at least--to go back to the same footing. There's Una!