“I’ve often wanted to escape from mine, but I never thought of climbing out of a window.”
“Of course not!” said Pen scornfully. “You are a man!”
Cedric seemed dissatisfied. “Only females escape out of windows? Something wrong there.”
“I think you are excessively stupid. I escaped out of the window because it was dangerous to go by the door. And Richard happened to be passing at the time, which was a very fortunate circumstance because the sheets were not long enough, and I had to jump.”
“Do you mean to tell me you climbed down the sheets?” demanded Cedric.
“Yes, of course. How else could I have got out, pray?”
“Well, if that don’t beat all!” he exclaimed admiringly.
“Oh, that was nothing! Only when Sir Richard guessed that I was not a boy he thought it would not be proper for me to journey to this place alone, so he took me to his house, and cut my hair more neatly at the back, and tied my cravat for me, and—and that is why you found those things in his library!”
Cedric cocked an eye at Sir Richard. “Damme, I knew you’d shot the cat, Ricky, but I never guessed you were as bosky as that!”
“Yes,” said Sir Richard reflectively, “I fancy I must have been rather more up in the world than I suspected.”