well! matters went smoothly enough at the start. with a diamond vanringham dexterously cut out a pane of glass, so that we had little difficulty in opening the window; and i climbed into a room black as a pocket, leaving him without to act as a sentinel, since, so far as i could detect, the house was now untenanted.
but some twenty minutes later, when i had finally succeeded in forcing the escritoire i found in the back room upon the second story, i heard the street door unclose. and i had my candle extinguished in that self same instant. you can conceive that 'twas with no pleasurable anticipation i peered into the hall, for i was fairly trapped. i saw some five or six men of an ugly aspect, who carried among them a burden, the nature of which i could not determine in the uncertain light. but i heaved a sigh of relief as they bore their cargo past me, to the front room, (which opened on the one i occupied), without apparent recognition of my presence.
"now," thinks i, "is the time for my departure." and having already selected the papers i had need of from the rifled desk, i was about to run for it, when i heard a well-known voice.
"rat the parson!" it cried; "he should have been here an hour ago. here's the door left open for him, endangering the whole venture, and whey-face han't plucked up heart to come! do some of you rogues fetch him without delay; and do all of you meet me to-morrow at the mitre, to be paid in full for this business, before reporting to his grace."
"here," thinks i, "is beyond doubt a romance." and as the men tumbled down-stairs and into the street, i resolved to see the adventure through, by the light of those candles which were now burning in the next room.
i waited for perhaps ten minutes, during which period i was aware of divers movements near at hand; and, judging that in any case there was but one man's anger to be apprehended, i crept toward the intervening door and found it luckily ajar.
so i peered through the crack into the adjoining room, and there, as i had anticipated, discovered lord humphrey degge, whom i had last seen at lady culcheth's wrangling over a game of écarté with the fairest antagonist the universe could afford.
just now my lord was in a state of high emotion, and the cause of it was evident when i perceived his ruffians had borne into the house a swooning lady, whom merciful unconsciousness had rendered oblivious to her present surroundings, and whose wrists his lordship was vigorously slapping in the intervals between his frequent applications to her nostrils of a flask, which, as i more lately learned, contained sal volatile.
here was an unlucky turn, since i had no desire to announce my whereabouts, my business in the house being of a sort that necessitated secrecy; whereas, upon the other hand, i could not but misdoubt my lord's intention toward the unknown fair was of discreditable kinship, and such as a gentleman might not countenance with self-esteem.
accordingly i devoted the moments during which the lady was recovering from her swoon, to serious reflection concerning the course that i should preferably adopt. but now, miss came to, and, as is the custom of all females similarly situated, rubbed her eyes and said, "where am i?"
and when she rose from the divan i saw that 'twas my adored dorothy.
"in the presence of your infatuated slave," says my lord. "ah, divine miss
allonby—!"
but being now aware of her deplorable circumstances, she began to weep, and, in spite of the amorous rhetoric with which his lordship was prompt to comfort her, rebuked him for unmanly conduct, with sublimity and fire, and depicted the horrors of her present predicament in terms that were both just and elegant.
from their disjointed talk i soon determined that, lord humphrey's suit being rejected by my angel, he had laid a trap for her (by bribing her coachman, as i subsequently learned), and had so far succeeded in his nefarious scheme that she, on leaving lady culcheth's, had been driven to this house, in the conviction she rode homeward; and this course my lord endeavored to justify, with a certain eloquence, and attributed the irregularity of his behavior solely to the colossal vehemence of his affection.
his oratory, however, was of little avail, for dorothy told him plainly that she had rather hear the protestations of a toad than listen to his far more nauseous flattery; and bade him at once restore her to her natural guardians.
"ma charmante," said he, "to-morrow your good step-mother may, if you will, share with your husband the privilege of saluting lady humphrey degge; but as for miss allonby, i question if in the future her dearest friends are likely to see much of her."
"what do you mean?" cries she.
"that the parson will be here directly," said he.
"infamous!" she observes; "and is the world run mad, that these extempore weddings should be foisted upon every woman in the allonby connection!"
"ah, but, my dear," he answered airily, "'twas those two fiascos which begot my notion, and yet hearten me. for in every approved romance the third adventurer gets the victory; so that i am, i take it, predestinate to win where vanringham and rokesle failed."
she did not chop logic with him, but instead retorted in a more primitive fashion by beginning to scream at the top of her voice.
i doubt if any man of honor was ever placed under a more great embarrass. yonder was the object of my devotion, exposed to all the diabolical machinations of a heartless villain; and here was i concealed in my lord's bedroom, his desk broken open, and his papers in my pocket. to remain quiet was impossible, since 'twas to expose her to a fate worse than death; yet to reveal myself was to confess frank audaine a thief, and to lose her perhaps beyond redemption.
then i thought of the mask which i had brought in case of emergency; and, clapping it on, resolved to brazen out the affair. meanwhile i saw all notions of gallantry turned topsy-turvy, for my lord was laughing quietly, while my adored dorothy called aloud upon the name of her maker.
"the neighborhood is not unaccustomed to such sounds," said he, "and i hardly think we need fear any interruption. i must tell you, my dear creature, you have, by an evil chance, arrived in a most evil locality, for this quarter of the town is the devil's own country, and he is scarcely like to make you free of it."
"o lord, sir!" said i, and pushed the door wide open, "surely you forget that the devil is a gentleman?"
