"You are surprised, sir," resumed Lord Mowbray, "as I was myself an hour ago. Heaven is my witness that it was not her ladyship whom I supposed I had carried off; but after all, as the French proverb has it, Quand le vin est tiré, il faut le boire, and an old sweetheart, like old wine, is best."
"Insolent fellow!" murmured Lady Vereker, toying with her fan.
Still Reuben remained sombre and defiant.
"What assurance have I," he demanded, "that this lady is not your accomplice?"
Then her ladyship with feigned anger mingled with raillery, exclaimed:—
"I! when I have wished my reputation to protect that of my young friend!"
Without pausing to consider this important sacrifice, Marsham continued:—
"And what assurance have I that my cousin is not concealed in some corner of this accursed house, for it is certain that she has disappeared?"
"If she has been carried off, it must have been by the devil," said Mowbray, "and unfortunately I cannot be held responsible. I freely consent to your searching the house. I can refuse nothing to so amiable a man."
Conducted by Hackman, and accompanied by Fisher and the former hostler, who knew all the ins and outs of the place, young Marsham visited every recess of the "Folly." Carrying to a grotesque degree the affected civility of his patron, the captain preceded them, opening all the cabinets, the wardrobes and the closets, and even inviting them to examine nooks scarcely large enough to stow away a hare in. Quite unmoved by his impertinence, Reuben and his companions sounded the walls with their sticks.