human
You feel all wobbly, I know, Lucia,
gpt
Yes, yes. It is painful. Betty, you could loosen the tourniquet now, I'm sure, and suppose you tie it again a little higher up.
human
Oh, I wish we had some way of getting you home, said Marcella.
gpt
I'll watch and hail somebody. Lean over on Betty, Lucia.
human
I do feel a bit sick, Marcella, but I never fainted in my life and I'll not begin now. I can walk home. It isn't so much, but not being sure what sort of a bite it is, I've had to hurt myself more, you see. I'd rather look for flowers and birds, Betty, than for snakes. I thought I saw a flower under the leaves and stooped for it--and found a snake instead!
gpt
Oh, it's just too bad--your first hike and everything!
human
We'll make our way over to the road, Lucia. I've got a guard stationed to stop any automobile that looks as if it were being driven by anybody safe--nobody that would kidnap us for ransom, I mean. Come on, if you think you can walk as far as the road.
gpt
I could walk all the way home, Marcella, said Lucia, smiling for the first time.
human
There is nothing the matter with me but a scare. Wait till I take a look at that snake!
gpt
though Lucia remarked that she could tell better about its belonging to the dangerous group if she could have seen the shape of the head.
human
But it's shapeless now, poor thing, said Betty.
gpt
You did a bad thing for yourself, snakey, when you bit Lucia!
human
It was only protecting itself,
gpt
What was that medicine, Lucia?
human
I don't know how Mother fixed it, but I heard her ask Uncle if he kept any permanganate of potash crystals, and when he said no, she sent to the drug store. She wrapped this bottle in cotton and told me not to lose it. I had full instructions what to do if I got bitten by a--rattler, I believe. Mother makes a lot of fuss over me! Lucia closed her remark rather apologetically, but the other girls were far from any critical thought. The Countess Coletti had
gpt
to some purpose this time. If it had been a diamond-backed rattlesnake! And perhaps it wasn't the garter snake that had bitten Lucia. Mathilde now kept bringing that up with little sympathetic remarks like,
human
It is such a shame, Lucia! I do hope that it will prove to be nothing serious. I don't think that it _could_ have been a rattlesnake, do you, Betty?
gpt
I faint so easily, girls, she had said, weakly, when the knife came out.
human
I'll have to go away.
gpt
Well if there's any fainting to be done, Marcella had said,