"'Twas a gentleman in disguise! How splendid, Miles!"
"Will ye hold your tongue, asthore, and not be spoiling me story on me?"
"Oh, indeed I am sorry! I will be good!"
"—and he started and seemed monstrous put out. What's more, me dear, I heard him speak to his mare in an ordinary, gentleman's voice. Molly, ye never saw the like of that same mare! The sweetest—"
"Pray, never mind the mare, dear! I am all agog to hear about the gentleman-highwayman!"
"Very well, me love, though 'twas a prodigious fine mare—When I heard him speak, it flashed across me brain that I knew him—no, ye don't, Molly!" His hand was over her mouth as he spoke, and her eyes danced madly. "But I could not for the life of me think where I had heard that voice: 'twas but the one word I heard him speak, ye understand, and when I held his wrists I felt that 'twas no stranger. And yet 'tis impossible. When I got him within the coach—"
"How imprudent! He might have—"
"Whisht now! When I got him within the coach I tried to worm his identity out of him, but 'twas to no avail. But when I told him he would have to appear before me to-day, he went off into a fit of laughing, till I wondered what he was at, at all. And not another word could I get out of him after beyond 'Yes, sir,' and 'No, sir.' Still, I felt that 'twas a gentleman all the same, so I—"
He was enveloped in a rapturous embrace.
"You dear Miles! You let him escape?"