“Damn that girl!” said Mr. Goddard. “You’d think I had enough on my hands without her.”
“From the way you’re speaking of her,” said Lord Manton, “I suppose you don’t feel inclined to go into the drawing-room and offer to marry her. That, as I said before, is the proper thing for you to do. If you won’t, the only other course I see open to you is to get away out of this as fast as you can.”
“What’s the good? She’d be after me again at once.”
“Not at once,” said Lord Manton. “I think I can arrange to give you a good long start. Wilkins will go back and ask her to be good enough to remain where she is for a few minutes. You could tell her, Wilkins, that Mr. Goddard is engaged with me at present, discussing very important business, but that he’ll be with her in less than a quarter of an hour. You could do that, Wilkins, couldn’t you?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Then Mr. Goddard could get out of the house and walk across the deer park. You could run if you like, Goddard, keeping carefully out of sight of the drawing-room windows. After a time, say at the end of half an hour, Miss Blow will begin to get impatient. What do you suppose she’ll do when she gets impatient, Wilkins?”
“I’d say, my lord, that’s she’s likely to ring the bell.”
“Exactly. That’s what I thought myself. I suppose, Wilkins, that you could arrange for the under housemaid to go to her when she rings.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“And the under housemaid would, of course, know nothing about Mr. Goddard. What would the under housemaid do, Wilkins, when she was asked about Mr. Goddard, and knew nothing about him?”