human
Now, Mr. David, sit ye down here and let us have a two-handed crack, said she.
gpt
For I have much to tell you, and it appears besides that I have been grossly unjust to your good taste.
human
In what manner, Mistress Grant? I asked.
gpt
I trust I have never seemed to fail in due respect.
human
I will be your surety, Mr. David, said she.
gpt
Your respect, whether to yourself or your poor neighbours, has been always and most fortunately beyond imitation. But that is by the question. You got a note from me?
human
I was so bold as to suppose so upon inference, said I,
gpt
It must have prodigiously surprised you, said she.
human
But let us begin with the beginning. You have not perhaps forgot a day when you were so kind as to escort three very tedious misses to Hope Park? I have the less cause to forget it myself, because you was so particular obliging as to introduce me to some of the principles of the Latin grammar, a thing which wrote itself profoundly on my gratitude.
gpt
I fear I was sadly pedantical, said I, overcome with confusion at the memory.
human
You are only to consider I am quite unused with the society of ladies.
gpt
I will say the less about the grammar then, she replied.
human
But how came you to desert your charge? 'He has thrown her out, overboard, his ain dear Annie!' she hummed;
gpt
You take a pleasure to torment me, said I,
human
Do you call her by that name to her face, Mr. Balfour?
gpt
In troth, and I am not very sure,
human
I would not do so in any case to strangers, said Miss Grant.
gpt
And why are you so much immersed in the affairs of this young lady?
human
I heard she was in prison,
gpt
Well, and now you hear that she is out of it, she replied,
human
I may have the greater need of her, ma'am,
gpt
Come, this is better! says Miss Grant.
human
But look me fairly in the face; am I not bonnier than she?
gpt
I would be the last to be denying it, said I.
human
There is not your marrow in all Scotland.
gpt
Well, here you have the pick of the two at your hand, and must needs speak of the other, said she.
human
This is never the way to please the ladies, Mr. Balfour.
gpt
But, mistress, said I,
human
By which I am to understand that I am no better than I should be, perhaps?
gpt
By which you will please understand that I am like the cock in the midden in the fable book, said I.
human
I see the braw jewel--and I like fine to see it too--but I have more need of the pickle corn.
gpt
Bravissimo! she cried.
human
There is a word well said at last, and I will reward you for it with my story. That same night of your desertion I came late from a friend's house--where I was excessively admired, whatever you may think of it--and what should I hear but that a lass in a tartan screen desired to speak with me? She had been there an hour or better, said the servant-lass, and she grat in to herself as she sat waiting. I went to her direct; she rose as I came in, and I knew her at a look. '_Grey Eyes!_' says I to myself, but was more wise than to let on. _You will be Miss Grant at last?_ she says, rising and looking at me hard and pitiful. _Ay, it was true he said, you are bonny at all events.--The way God made me, my dear_, I said, _but I would be gey and obliged if ye could tell me what brought you here at such a time of the night--Lady_, she said, _we are kinsfolk, we are both come of the blood of the sons of Alpin.--My dear_, I replied, _I think no more of Alpin or his sons than what I do of a kale-stock. You have a better argument in these tears upon your bonny face_. And at that I was so weakminded as to kiss her, which is what you would like to do dearly, and I wager will never find the courage of. I say it was weakminded of me, for I knew no more of her than the outside; but it was the wisest stroke I could have hit upon. She is a very staunch, brave nature, but I think she has been little used with tenderness; and at that caress (though to say the truth, it was but lightly given) her heart went out to me. I will never betray the secrets of my sex, Mr. Davie; I will never tell you the way she turned me round her thumb, because it is the same she will use to twist yourself. Ay, it is a fine lass! She is as clean as hill well water.
gpt
She is e'en't!
human
Well, then, she told me her concerns, pursued Miss Grant,
gpt
You will have many hours to rally me in, said I,
human
I would not like to wager upon that, Mr. David, said she.
gpt
The lasses have clear eyes. But at least she is your friend entirely, as I was to see. I carried her in to his lordship my papa; and his Advocacy, being in a favourable stage of claret, was so good as to receive the pair of us. _Here is Grey Eyes that you have been deaved with these days past_, said I, _she is come to prove that we spoke true, and I lay the prettiest lass in the three Lothians at your feet_--making a papistical reservation of myself. She suited her action to my words; down she went upon her knees to him--I would not like to swear but he saw two of her, which doubtless made her appeal the more irresistible, for you are all a pack of Mahomedans--told him what had passed that night, and how she had withheld her father's man from following of you, and what a case she was in about her father, and what a flutter for yourself; and begged with weeping for the lives of both of you (neither of which was in the slightest danger) till I vow I was proud of my sex because it was done so pretty, and ashamed for it because of the smallness of the occasion. She had not gone far, I assure you, before the Advocate was wholly sober, to see his inmost politics ravelled out by a young lass and discovered to the most unruly of his daughters. But we took him in hand, the pair of us, and brought that matter straight. Properly managed--and that means managed by me--there is no one to compare with my papa.
human
He has been a good man to me,
gpt
Well, he was a good man to Katrine, and I was there to see to it,
human
And she pled for me!
gpt
She did that, and very movingly, said Miss Grant.
human
I would not like to tell you what she said, I find you vain enough already.
gpt
God reward her for it!
human
With Mr. David Balfour, I suppose?
gpt
You do me too much injustice at the last! I cried.
human
I would tremble to think of her in such hard hands. Do you think I would presume, because she begged my life? She would do that for a new whelped puppy! I have had more than that to set me up, if you but ken'd. She kissed that hand of mine. Ay, but she did. And why? because she thought I was playing a brave part and might be going to my death. It was not for my sake, but I need not be telling that to you that cannot look at me without laughter. It was for the love of what she thought was bravery. I believe there is none but me and poor Prince Charlie had that honour done them. Was this not to make a god of me? and do you not think my heart would quake when I remember it?
gpt
I do laugh at you a good deal, and a good deal more than is quite civil, said she;
human
Me? I cried,
gpt
I would never dare. I can speak to you, Miss Grant, because it's a matter of indifference what ye think of me. But her? no fear!
human
I think you have the largest feet in all broad Scotland,
gpt
Troth, they are no very small,
human
Ah, poor Catriona!