human
I've been thinking of that yarn you were spinning yesterday afternoon--in fact, I believe I dreamt of it last night; and I should imagine that the little yellow-haired girl, if she grew up, would have looked enough like Agatha to be her sister--or her mother, at any rate.
gpt
And I've been thinking, sir, of the accident that stopped me from finishing that there yarn ye speak of, and of the hearty thanks I owe ye for the stout heart and ready hand that saved my Peter. But thanks is easily said; and I mean more than words come to. I'd not have ye suppose as I'd give all trust and confidence to a man just because he's done a brave act for me and mine. But as I told you once afore, and speaking out man to man, I like the looks of ye, and ever did; and seeing as how ye've found out a good bit of our little secret already, and seem like you'd an interest to know more of it; for that, and likewise because of another thing, as I've just found out myself, and it may be as important as any--well, I'll tell ye what about Agatha there is to tell.
human
Ay, the same old harbour, said he;
gpt
Why was he buried here?
human
Well, 'twas his wish; that's all. He was crazed the last years of his life, with grieving on the death of the young girl as he'd picked up on the beach, that I was telling you of. A sad thing it was altogether. She went wrong, d'ye see, with the fellow David, the Scholar's brother, and was drowned here along with him; but how that came to pass was never rightly known. 'Tis thought the Scholar had meant for to marry the girl himself. And so would David have married her, I doubt, if he'd known what I know.
gpt
About the family?
human
Ay, sir, that. Ye maybe 'll remember the iron box as I picked up? Well, I didn't tell anyone about it then, not even the Scholar; and soon after the night of the storm I shipped for Rio, and was away a matter of two years. When I came back I heard as how David was thick with the girl--Swanhilda they called her. Then I opened the box, not having done it before, and found papers in it telling who she was, and that folks of hers were living in Germany, having emigrated there from Denmark; and from what I could make out--for 'twas in a foreign lingo, and I was forced to borrow a lexicon to it--it seemed likely as how they was well off. Now, I had my opinion of David, that he was a worthless sort of a chap, though clever and handsome; so thinks I, I won't tell him of this, for if so be as I do, he'll wed the girl in the hope of money, and not for true love of her, who was worthy the love of better than he. But what I'll do, I'll write to those her folks in Germany, telling them as how she's here; and when they come, then they can do for her as they find best, and it'll be out of my hands. And so I did, but had never an answer, why I don't know. But it never came in my mind, sir, that the fellow David would ever be so black a scoundrel as to lead the poor innocent girl wrong. How be, when he had done it, thinks I, I'll tell him of her folks now, because now the best can happen will be that they marry, though the best is bad enough; and if I tell him, maybe he'll make her an honest woman, as the saying is. And tell him I did, with a piece of my mind touching my thought of him, into the bargain. And he promised me as he'd go and make it right the next day--this being spoke in the town above here, whither I'd gone for to see him. And it can't be said but what he kept his word; only he and she was drowned in the night, and crushed under that there wheel, as never has turned since, to this day.
gpt
What became of her baby--she had a baby?
human
Ay, and so she did, sir. Well, 'twas cared for by the housekeeper--she being grandmother to it and so having first right, the more as the Scholar was crazed, though not dangerous, but mild and melancholy-like. But in years the old woman she came to the poor-house, and there died; and I took the baby, and gave her what best I had to give, and better schooling than the lasses care for hereabouts. And as luck would have it, an elderly woman of Danish blood being come by a chance to the village, I got her to be nurse to the little one, and so grew up to a knowledge of her native tongue, d'ye see, and the fairy tales and such like thereto belonging. And--ay, I see you've guessed it long already, sir--that's Agatha.
gpt
But, I added, as we stood on the brow of the slope overlooking the old house, and saw Agatha appear round the corner and kiss her hand to us,
human
Nay, ye mustn't ask me, replied the ancient mariner, grasping my hand, with tears in his old blue eyes.
gpt
I doubt she loves you well, already. And so do we all, for ye're a man, all be a quiet one. 'Twill be hard parting with her, as has been sunshine to us this many a year; but ye'll bring her to see the old folks, as time serves; and I'm bold for to believe ye'll be as happy as the day is long.