human
Catriona!
gpt
You will be glad to see me again?
human
And I think that is an idle word, said I.
gpt
We are too deep friends to make speech upon such trifles.
human
Is she not the girl of all the world? she cried again.
gpt
I was never knowing such a girl, so honest and so beautiful.
human
And yet she cared no more for Alpin than what she did for a kale-stock,
gpt
Ah, she will say so indeed! cries Catriona.
human
Yet it was for the name and the gentle kind blood that she took me up and was so good to me.
gpt
Well, I will tell you why it was, said I.
human
There are all sorts of people's faces in this world. There is Barbara's face, that everyone must look at and admire, and think her a fine, brave, merry girl. And then there is your face, which is quite different, I never knew how different till to-day. You cannot see yourself, and that is why you do not understand; but it was for the love of your face that she took you up and was so good to you. And everybody in the world would do the same.
gpt
Everybody?
human
Every living soul!
gpt
Ah, then, that will be why the soldiers at the castle took me up!
human
Barbara has been teaching you to catch me,
gpt
She will have taught me more than that at all events. She will have taught me a great deal about Mr. David--all the ill of him, and a little that was not so ill either now and then, she said, smiling.
human
She will have told me all there was of Mr. David, only just that he would sail upon this very same ship. And why is it you go?
gpt
Ah, well, said she,
human
O!
gpt
There is one thing I must be saying first of all, Mr. David, said she.
human
I think two of my kinsfolk have not behaved to you altogether very well. And the one of them two is James More, my father, and the other is the Laird of Prestongrange. Prestongrange will have spoken by himself, or his daughter in the place of him. But for James More, my father, I have this much to say: he lay shackled in a prison; he is a plain honest soldier and a plain Highland gentleman; what they would be after, he never would be guessing; but if he had understood it was to be some prejudice to a young gentleman like yourself, he would have died first. And for the sake of all your friendships, I will be asking you to pardon my father and family for that same mistake.
gpt
Catriona, said I,