“Speak, some of you, will you?” cried Tom. “Did any one see my sister go out?”
“If you please, my lord,” said the housemaid, “if I may make so bold—”
“Yes,” said Tom, with sarcastic politeness, “you may make so bold. Now go on.”
“Well, I’m sure,” muttered the woman. “Well, my lord, I was going upstairs to-night, and I heard my young mistress sobbing bitterly in her room.”
“Well,” said Tom, “and you stopped to listen.”
“Which I wouldn’t bemean myself to do anything of the kind,” said the woman with a toss of the head; “but certainly she was crying, and soon after I was a-leaning out of the second floor window, it being very ’ot indoors, as we’ve been a good deal ’arrissed lately by her ladyship.”
“Go on,” cried Tom, impatiently.
“Which I am, my lord, as fast as I can,” cried the woman; “and there was that tall handsome Italian gentleman, as cook thinks is a furrin’ nobleman in disguise, playing on his hinstrument.”
“Yes,” said Tom, sarcastically.
“And all of a sudden he stops, and I see him go into the portico.”