Part 4 (1/2)
”I like you angry, Aileen. Faith, 'tis worth being the object of your rage to see you stamp that pretty foot and clench those little hands I love to kiss. But Ecod! Montagu, the hour grows late. The lady will lose her beauty sleep. Shall you and I go down-stairs and arrange for a conveyance?”
He bowed low and kissed his fingers to the girl. Then he led the way out of the room, fine and gallant and debonair, a villain every inch of him.
”Will you be leaving me?” the girl cried with parted lips.
”Not for long,” I told her. ”Do not fear. I shall have you out of here in a jiff,” and with that I followed at his heels.
Sir Robert Volney led the way down the corridor to a small room in the west wing, where flaring, half-burnt candles guttering in their sconces drove back the darkness. He leaned against the mantel and looked long at me out of half-closed eyes.
”May I ask to what is due the honour of your presence to-night?” he drawled at last.
”Certainly.”
”Well?”
”I have said you may ask,” I fleered rudely. ”But for me-- Gad's life! I am not in the witness box.”
He took his snuff mull from his waistcoat pocket and offered it me, then took a pinch and brushed from his satin coat imaginary grains with prodigious care.
”You are perhaps not aware that I have the right to ask. It chances that this is my house.”
”Indeed! And the lady we have just left----?”
”----Is, pardon me, none of your concern.”
”Ah! I'm not so sure of that.”
”Faith then, you'll do well to make sure.”
”And--er--Mistress Antoinette Westerleigh?”
”Quite another matter! You're out of court again, Mr. Montagu.”
”Egad, I enter an exception. The lady we have just left is of another mind in the affair. She is the court of last resort, and, I believe, not complaisant to your suit.”
”She will change her mind,” he said coolly.
”I trust so renowned a gallant as Sir Robert would not use force.”
”Lard, no! She is a woman and therefore to be won. But I would advise you to dismiss the lady from your mind. 'Ware women, Mr. Montagu! You will sleep easier.”
”In faith, a curious coincidence! I was about to tender you the same advice, Sir Robert,” I told him lightly.
”You will forget the existence of such a lady if you are wise?”
”Wisdom comes with age. I am for none of it.”
”Yet you will do well to remember your business and forget mine.”