"But you are very bad to go. You are not the kind of horses I care to drive at all. Thieves, traitors, murderers, liars."
"Goodness gracious me!" exclaimed the lord.
"I don't say anything for myself, because I am only a singing girl, and understand nothing about politics. But these are the very lightest words which he has at his tongue's end when he talks about you. He is the most good-tempered fellow in the world, and you would like him very much. Here is Mr. Moss." Mr. Moss had opened the door and had entered the room.
The greeting between the two men was closely observed by Rachel, who, though she was very imprudent in much that she did and much that she said, never allowed anything to pass by her unobserved. Mr. Moss, though he affected an intimacy with the lord, was beyond measure servile. Lord Castlewell accepted the intimacy without repudiating it, but accepted also the servility. "Well, Moss, how are you getting on in this little house?"
"Ah, my lord, you are going to rob us of our one attraction," and having bowed to the lord he turned round and bowed to the lady.
"You have no right to keep such a treasure in a little place like this."
"We can afford to pay for it, you know, my lord. M. Le Gros came here a little behind my back, and carried her off."
"Much to her advantage, I should say."
"We can pay," said Mr. Moss.
"To such a singer as Mademoiselle O'Mahony paying is not everything. An audience large enough, and sufficiently intelligent to appreciate her, is something more than mere money."