human
You must be very strong, Signore,
gpt
Why?
human
Because you eat so much. It must be a fine thing to eat so much meat. We eat very little of it.
gpt
Why?
human
Oh, who knows? It costs much. That must be the reason. Besides, it does not go down. I should not care for it.
gpt
It is a habit. Dalrymple drank.
human
In my country most of the people eat oats,
gpt
Oats! laughed the girl.
human
Like horses! But horses will eat meat, too, like you. As for me--good bread, fresh cheese, a little salad, a drink of wine and water--that is enough.
gpt
Like the nuns,
human
Oh, the nuns! They live on boiled cabbage! You can smell it a mile away. But they make good cakes.
gpt
You often go to the convent, do you not? asked the Scotchman, filling his glass, for the first mouthful of ham made him thirsty again.
human
You take the linen up with your mother, I know.
gpt
Sometimes, when I feel like going, answered the girl, willing to show that it was not her duty to carry baskets.
human
I only go when we have the small baskets that one can carry on one's head. I will tell you. They use the small baskets for the finer things, the abbess's linen, and the altar cloths, and the chaplain's lace, which belongs to the nuns. But the sheets and the table linen are taken up in baskets as long as a man. It takes four women to carry one of them.
gpt
That must be very inconvenient, said Dalrymple.
human
I should think that smaller ones would always be better.
gpt
Who knows? It has always been so. And when it has always been so, it will always be so--one knows that.