For safety is nowhere to be had. But the earl pleaded: ‘At least in our country.’
‘In our country women are safe?’
‘They are, we may say, protected.’
‘Laws and constables are poor protection for them.’
‘The women we name ladies are pretty safe, as a rule.’
‘My sister, then, was the exception.’
After a burning half minute the earl said: ‘I have to hear it from you, Mr. Levellier. You see me here.’
That was handsomely spoken. But Lord Fleetwood had been judged and put aside. His opening of an old case to hint at repentance for brutality annoyed the man who had let him go scathless for a sister’s sake.
‘The grounds of your coming, my lord, are not seen; my time is short.’
‘I must, I repeat, be consulted with regard to Lady Fleetwood’s movements.’