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Using travellers' freedom, we spared to wait for James More, and
sat down to meat, we threesome. Alan had Catriona sit by him and
wait upon his wants: he made her drink first out of his glass, he
surrounded her with continual kind gallantries, and yet never gave
me the most small occasion to be jealous; and he kept the talk so
much in his own hand, and that in so merry a note, that neither she
nor I remembered to be embarrassed. If any had seen us there, it
must have been supposed that Alan was the old friend and I the
stranger. Indeed, I had often cause to love and to admire the man,
but I never loved or admired him better than that night; and I
could not help remarking to myself (what I was sometimes rather in
danger of forgetting) that he had not only much experience of life,
but in his own way a great deal of natural ability besides. As for
Catriona, she seemed quite carried away; her laugh was like a peal
of bells, her face gay as a May morning; and I own, although I was
well pleased, yet I was a little sad also, and thought myself a
dull, stockish character in comparison of my friend, and very unfit
to come into a young maid's life, and perhaps ding down her gaiety.
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