“Damn him!” cried the Earl. “I always said it was he, but you would never believe me. And now he hath been to visit her, on what false pretext I know not, and they have been closeted alone, together—alone, in her private apartments.”
“When was this?” asked Hamilton, astonished and disturbed enough, for his part.
“Yesterday afternoon,” replied the other; and he hissed between his clenched teeth. “And I’ll not forgive the dishonour done to my house, or spare him though he wore the crown.”
“Nay, coz,” said Hamilton. “Command yourself. How got you this information?”
“How? Why, from that little cursed, prying, eavesdropping skit, her friend. And that is not all. ’Twas through ‘Kit’ the meeting came about—a common pitcher-bawd, who shall pay for it with every bone in his body broke.”
“Through Kit?”
“Aye; she confessed to him at last. He brought the Duke—was the tool arranged between them, no doubt. O, what measure can gauge the perfidy of woman!”
“Who do you say confessed to him?”
“O, a curse on your dullness! Who but Mrs. Davis.”
“What, and to Kate’s collusion in the plot?”