The same course of thought relieved me of the least alarm for Catriona.

She might be thought to have broke prison for her father; she might have believed so herself.

But the chief hand in the whole business was that of Prestongrange; and I was sure, so far from letting her come to punishment, he would not suffer her to be even tried.
Whereupon thus came out of me the not very politic ejaculation: "Ah! I was expecting that!" "You have at times a great deal of discretion too!" says Prestongrange.
"And what is my lord pleased to mean by that ?" I asked.
"I was just marvelling," he replied, "that being so clever as to draw these inferences, you should not be clever enough to keep them to yourself.

But I think you would like to hear the details of the affair.
I have received two versions: and the least official is the more full and far the more entertaining, being from the lively pen of my eldest daughter.

'Here is all the town bizzing with a fine piece of work,' she writes, 'and what would make the thing more noted (if it were only known) the malefactor is a _protegee_ of his lordship my papa.