“Yes—at least, not entirely, for I had no time to listen to it all! But it can’t signify, and Deb had no right to kidnap you like this! I cannot think how she could be so mad!”
“Let there be no misunderstanding about this!” said Ravenscar. “Your sister, I suppose, must have told you that I have insulted her in almost every conceivable way?”
“Oh, but I know how she talks when she is angry, and I assure you I set very little store by it!”
“Well, I did insult her,” said Ravenscar.
Kit looked very much taken aback by this, and did not know what to say. After a moment, he stammered: “I daresay she might have vexed you excessively. I do not rightly understand just what—but you cannot remain here, that is certain! Good God, did she have you tied up? I will have you free in a trice!”
“Keep your distance!” said Ravenscar, holding him off with one elegantly shod foot. “Why should you want to set me free? If you had come to knock my teeth down my throat I could better understand it.”
“You cannot suppose that I will allow my sister to—to tie people up, and put them in the cellar!” exclaimed Kit. “I never heard of such a thing! And when I learned that it was you—you must know, sir, that I am—that I have the honour of being acquainted with your sister—with Miss Arabella Ravenscar!”
“Oh!” said Ravenscar. “So you are acquainted with my sister, are you? Are you, I wonder, stationed in Tunbridge Wells?”
“Yes,” said Kit eagerly. “That is where I met her, sir! I had hoped to have called upon you in town. I wanted very particularly to—”
“To ask for my permission to pay your addresses to her, I infer?”