"Yes, ma'am, of course! When you're safely on the London Road, I'll go and give the alarm at the Assembly Rooms."
"Remember, you ask first for Lord Verney."
"Oh, ay, ma'am. 'My mistress is carried off, is carried off! Help, help, my lord!' I'll say. Oh, ma'am, I'll screech it well out, trust me."
"Don't forget," said her mistress, whose mood became every moment merrier, "don't forget to say that you heard the ravisher mention London, by Devizes."
"Well, ma'am," said Lydia, "I thought of saying that he first flung you swooning upon the cushions of the chay; then, stepping in himself, cried out to the coachman, with an horrible oath, 'If you're not in Devizes before twelve, I'll flay you with your own whip, and then hang you with it to the shaft!'"
"Aha, ha, Lydia," laughed her mistress. "I see I must give you a gold chain to hang that locket upon. But pray, child," she added warningly, "be careful not to overdo it."
SCENE XVIII
The livelong day Lady Standish had not beheld the light of her lord's countenance.
Upon their last meeting, his behaviour to the Bishop having roused in her gentle bosom a feeling as nearly akin to resentment as it was capable of harbouring, she would not be (she had resolved) the one to seek him first. She had, therefore, passed the day in her own apartment in writing to her mother, and in practising her last song to the harp—a piece of audacity and independence which she expected would have goaded Sir Jasper into an instant interview with herself.