human
Please, ma'am, it's only fair to say, but it's not Miss Bessie.
gpt
What is not Miss Bessie? I mean, who is not Miss Bessie?
human
Her as is spying on me.
gpt
I told you it could not be she. Who is it?
human
Please, ma'am, I don't know. It's a red-haired girl.
gpt
But, Jane, be serious. There is no red-haired girl in the house.
human
I know there ain't, ma'am. But for all that, she spies on me.
gpt
Be reasonable, Jane, I said, disguising the shock her words produced on me.
human
If there be no red-haired girl in the house, how can you have one watching you?
gpt
I don't know; but one does.
human
How do you know that she is red-haired?
gpt
Because I have seen her.
human
When?
gpt
This morning.
human
Indeed?
gpt
Yes, ma'am. I was going upstairs, when I heard steps coming softly after me--the backstairs, ma'am; they're rather dark and steep, and there's no carpet on them, as on the front stairs, and I was sure I heard someone following me; so I twisted about, thinking it might be cook, but it wasn't. I saw a young woman in a print dress, and the light as came from the window at the side fell on her head, and it was carrots--reg'lar carrots.
human
Did you see her face?
gpt
No, ma'am; she put her arm up and turned and ran downstairs, and I went after her, but I never found her.
human
You followed her--how far?
gpt
To the kitchen. Cook was there. And I said to cook, says I: 'Did you see a girl come this way?' And she said, short-like: 'No.'
human
And cook saw nothing at all?
gpt
Nothing. She didn't seem best pleased at my axing. I suppose I frightened her, as I'd been telling her about how I was followed and spied on.
human
Jane, what you want is a _pill_. You are suffering from hallucinations. I know a case very much like yours; and take my word for it that, in your condition of liver or digestion, a pill is a sovereign remedy. Set your mind at rest; this is a mere delusion, caused by pressure on the optic nerve. I will give you a pill to-night when you go to bed, another to-morrow, a third on the day after, and that will settle the red-haired girl. You will see no more of her.
gpt
You think so, ma'am?
human
I am sure of it.