"There's ane gude thing," resumed Elspeth, "that the Marquis doesna ken yet awhile."
"But when he return!" exclaimed the old man, lifting eyes and hands to heaven.
He was still in this attitude when there came a rousing rat-tat at the hall-door.
"Mebbe that's the Marquis the noo!" ejaculated Mrs. Saunders. And, though it was not her place to do so, she flung off her apron and rushed to answer it.
(2)
Lieutenant Francis Tollemache, therefore, standing on the steps, received one of the most painful shocks of his life when a gaunt Scottish female, darting forth, caught his small companion from the ground and almost stifled him with kisses, and then showed a decided disposition to cast herself on his breast also. He prepared to defend himself, backing hurriedly to the limits of the portico, and saying disjointedly, "My good woman, my good woman . . ." And then in a moment there was some old man actually trying to kiss his hand, and from the back of the hall there was even advancing a salaaming native in a turban, while more and more female servants came flocking towards the doorstep. It was intolerable! In a minute or two there would be a crowd outside, and already Mr. Tollemache was conscious of the enraptured gaze of the hackney coachman who had brought them there.
"Good God!" he exclaimed, very red. "For Heaven's sake let's get inside!" But even within the hall the whirl of greetings and emotion continued, and Anne-Hilarion kept disappearing from view in successive avalanches of embraces, till at last his voice was upraised, asking, "Grandpapa! Where is Grandpapa? Has Papa come back?"
"Yes, where is the master of the house?" demanded Mr. Tollemache, with some indignation, and was most unseasonably answered in French by the old man. Meanwhile, one of the younger domestics in the background was threatened with a fit of hysterics, and had to be removed. During this episode Anne skipped about the hall, and ran into the library and the dining-room in turn. "Oh, I wish Grandpapa were in! When will he be back?" he queried, and mixed with his inquiries the unfortunate young officer heard the remark, "There, you see, it's no foreigner as has brought him back,"—to which the cook, who had an affinity on the lower deck of H.M.S. Thunderer, responded with pride, "No, it's a Navy gentleman!"
"Anne," said Mr. Tollemache firmly, holding out his hand, "I must be going. Good-bye!"
The Comte de Flavigny came at once and caught him by the cuff of his uniform. "No, no, M. le lieutenant! No, I do not want you to go! Come into the bibliothèque and wait for Grandpapa!" he said, with a little tug, and the domestic crowd, waking all at once to a sense of their forgotten duties, concurred in this request, which, to tell the truth, accorded very well with Mr. Tollemache's most secret wish. It was not that he at all desired to receive the thanks of Mr. Elphinstone, but—though he would have died on the scaffold rather than admit it—he hankered for just a few minutes more of Anne's society before the final good-bye.