第29章 THREE IS COMPANY, AND FOUR NONE(2)

The words were still upon my lips when the door opened and my friend of the gold eyeglass appeared, a memorable figure, on the threshold.In one hand she bore a bedroom candlestick; in the other, with the steadiness of a dragoon, a horse-pistol.She was wound about in shawls which did not wholly conceal the candid fabric of her nightdress, and surmounted by a nightcap of portentous architecture.Thus accoutred, she made her entrance;

laid down the candle and pistol, as no longer called for; looked about the room with a silence more eloquent than oaths; and then, in a thrilling voice - 'To whom have I the pleasure?' she said, addressing me with a ghost of a bow.

'Madam, I am charmed, I am sure,' said I.'The story is a little long; and our meeting, however welcome, was for the moment entirely unexpected by myself.I am sure - ' but here I found I was quite sure of nothing, and tried again.'I have the honour,' I began, and found I had the honour to be only exceedingly confused.With that, I threw myself outright upon her mercy.'Madam, I must be more frank with you,' I resumed.'You have already proved your charity and compassion for the French prisoners, I am one of these;

and if my appearance be not too much changed, you may even yet recognise in me that ODDITY who had the good fortune more than once to make you smile.'

Still gazing upon me through her glass, she uttered an uncompromising grunt; and then, turning to her niece - 'Flora,'

said she, 'how comes he here?'

The culprits poured out for a while an antiphony of explanations, which died out at last in a miserable silence.

'I think at least you might have told your aunt,' she snorted.

'Madam,' I interposed, 'they were about to do so.It is my fault if it be not done already.But I made it my prayer that your slumbers might be respected, and this necessary formula of my presentation should be delayed until to-morrow in the morning.'

The old lady regarded me with undissembled incredulity, to which I was able to find no better repartee than a profound and I trust graceful reverence.

'French prisoners are very well in their place,' she said, 'but I cannot see that their place is in my private dining-room.'

'Madam,' said I, 'I hope it may be said without offence, but (except the Castle of Edinburgh) I cannot think upon the spot from which I would so readily be absent.'

At this, to my relief, I thought I could perceive a vestige of a smile to steal upon that iron countenance and to be bitten immediately in.

'And if it is a fair question, what do they call ye?' she asked.

'At your service, the Vicomte Anne de St.-Yves,' said I.

'Mosha the Viscount,' said she, 'I am afraid you do us plain people a great deal too much honour.'

'My dear lady,' said I, 'let us be serious for a moment.What was I to do? Where was I to go? And how can you be angry with these benevolent children who took pity on one so unfortunate as myself?

Your humble servant is no such terrific adventurer that you should come out against him with horse-pistol and' - smiling - 'bedroom candlesticks.It is but a young gentleman in extreme distress, hunted upon every side, and asking no more than to escape from his pursuers.I know your character, I read it in your face' - the heart trembled in my body as I said these daring words.'There are unhappy English prisoners in France at this day, perhaps at this hour.Perhaps at this hour they kneel as I do; they take the hand of her who might conceal and assist them; they press it to their lips as I do - '

'Here, here!' cried the old lady, breaking from my solicitations.

'Behave yourself before folk! Saw ever anyone the match of that?

And on earth, my dears, what are we to do with him?'

'Pack him off, my dear lady,' said I: 'pack off the impudent fellow double-quick! And if it may be, and if your good heart allows it, help him a little on the way he has to go.'

'What's this pie?' she cried stridently.'Where is this pie from, Flora?'

No answer was vouchsafed by my unfortunate and (I may say) extinct accomplices.

'Is that my port?' she pursued.'Hough! Will somebody give me a glass of my port wine?'

I made haste to serve her.

She looked at me over the rim with an extraordinary expression.'I hope ye liked it?' said she.

'It is even a magnificent wine,' said I.

'Aweel, it was my father laid it down,' said she.'There were few knew more about port wine than my father, God rest him!' She settled herself in a chair with an alarming air of resolution.

'And so there is some particular direction that you wish to go in?'

said she.

'O,' said I, following her example, 'I am by no means such a vagrant as you suppose.I have good friends, if I could get to them, for which all I want is to be once clear of Scotland; and I have money for the road.' And I produced my bundle.

'English bank-notes?' she said.'That's not very handy for Scotland.It's been some fool of an Englishman that's given you these, I'm thinking.How much is it?'

'I declare to heaven I never thought to count!' I exclaimed.'But that is soon remedied.'

And I counted out ten notes of ten pound each, all in the name of Abraham Newlands, and five bills of country bankers for as many guineas.

'One hundred and twenty six pound five,' cried the old lady.'And you carry such a sum about you, and have not so much as counted it!

If you are not a thief, you must allow you are very thief-like.'

'And yet, madam, the money is legitimately mine,' said I.

She took one of the bills and held it up.'Is there any probability, now, that this could be traced?' she asked.

'None, I should suppose; and if it were, it would be no matter,'

said I.'With your usual penetration, you guessed right.An Englishman brought it me.It reached me, through the hands of his English solicitor, from my great-uncle, the Comte de Keroual de Saint-Yves, I believe the richest EMIGRE in London.'

'I can do no more than take your word for it,' said she.

'And I trust, madam, not less,' said I.