The opening of the library door made him release her, and look quickly over his shoulder. Mr. Fawnhope, wearing an expression of almost complete abstraction, came into the hall with a paper in his hand. “There is no ink in there,” he complained, “and I have broken the point of my pencil. I have abandoned the notion of hailing you as vestal virgin; there is something awkward in those syllables. My opening line now reads Goddess, whose steady hands upheld — But I must have ink!”
With these words, and without paying the least heed to Mr. Rivenhall, he walked across to the door leading to the back premises and disappeared through it.
Mr. Rivenhall turned a face of undisguised horror upon Sophy. “Good God!” he said. “You might have warned me that he was here! And what the deuce did he mean by that stuff?”
“Well, I think,” said Sophy confidentially, “that he now means to be in love with me, Charles. He likes the way I hold a lamp, and he says he would like to see me with an urn.”
“Well, he is not going to see you with an urn!” said Mr. Rivenhall, revolted. He cast a glance round the hall, saw a pelisse lying on one chair, and snatched it up. “Put this on! Where is your hat?”
“But, Charles, we cannot leave poor Sancia with all these dreadful people in the house! It is too base!”
“Yes, we can! You don’t imagine I am going to sit down to dinner with Eugenia and that damned poet, do you? Is this your muff? Must we take these ducklings?”
“No, it is Cecilia’s, and now they will be all over the floor again! Charles, how provoking of you!”
Sir Vincent, who had come into the hall with a couple of bottles, set them down in the hearth, saying, “How do you do, Rivenhall? Sophy, is there any ink in the house? The poet is searching for some in the larder and driving my poor Sancia distracted.”
“Talgarth,” said Mr. Rivenhall, firmly grasping Sophy by one wrist, “I beg you will take care of these infernal ducklings, and I wish you a very pleasant evening! Sir Horace has arrived in town, and I must instantly restore his daughter to him!”