Richard and Katherine rose, as if to depart.
"May be, your lordship and this pretty young lady will just wash your mouths out," said Mr. Banks, attempting a pleasant smile. "A leetle drop of wine—one glass; and I'll step myself to the public-house to fetch it."
"Do so," returned Markham, throwing a sovereign upon the table.
Katherine looked at her brother in astonishment; but he affected not to perceive the impression which his strange conduct had thus created.
Banks seemed overjoyed at the affability of the nobleman; and gathering up the piece of gold, the change out of which he already considered as his own perquisite, he hastened to execute the commission;—but not without trying the lid of the desk ere he left the room, to convince himself that it was securely locked.
He passed through the shop, which was empty; and, muttering to himself something about "his unnat'ral boys who had gone off to the public without finishing the economic coffins," opened the street door and went out.
The moment he was gone, Richard seized his pistols, and saying in a hurried tone to Katharine, "Remain here, dear sister, for a few moments," hastened from the room by a door leading to the inner part of the dwelling.
He rushed down a passage, and entered the yard—as if well acquainted with the undertaker's premises.
The moment he set foot in the yard, he whistled in a peculiar manner.
"Damnation!—treachery!" cried a man, darting forward from the corner near the window.