“No friend of mine!” cried her ladyship. “How dare you so insult me?”
He stared bewildered.
“No friend of yours? Did you not invite her to our house?”
“Never! You know you did yourself.”
“I? Before God, no! I thought she was your guest.”
“What is this, my lord? And I thought her yours.”
“Mine? I had never seen her in my life before. That hussy!”
Again that amazed inquisition of the delinquent.
“Hussy yourself!” cried Moll. And then she screamed with laughter. “O! don’t look so perplexed, good people! It’s all right. Neither of you invited me. I invited myself.”
“Yourself?” cried my lady, dumbfounded.