"Oh!" cried he, and kissed her on the chin beneath the mask.
SCENE IX
"My Lord," clamoured Captain Spicer at the door, "the coach is waiting and we have but half an hour to reach Bathwick Meadows. Egad, Lord Verney, would you be last at the meeting?"
Lord Verney sprang to his feet. The words, the impatient raps penetrated to his dizzy brain with sudden conviction.
"Heavens!" cried he, and glanced at the clock, and made a leap for the door.
"And will you go," said the stranger, "without having seen my face?"
He ran back to her and then back to the door again, distracted, as you may see a puppy dog between two calls. Finally he came back to the lady with a new and manly dignity upon him.
"I must go," he said. "Would you show yourself as kind as you seem, madam, remove your mask that I may see you before I go."
Outside Captain Spicer was dancing a sort of hornpipe of impotent impatience, and filling the air with shrill strange oaths.