“It’s what I’m going to do, ma’am,” returned Nye in a grim voice. “Take his legs, Clem!”
Eustacie watched the two men carefully lift her cousin from the settle and begin to carry him upstairs, and turned her attention to the tall woman, who was regarding her with a kind of amused interest. “I dare say it seems very odd to you,” she said austerely, “but you should not have come downstairs.”
“I know,” apologized the lady, “but pray don’t tell me to go to bed again, for I couldn’t sleep a wink with an adventure going on under my very nose! Let me present myself to you: I’m one Sarah Thane, a creature of no importance at all, travelling to London with my brother, whom you may hear snoring upstairs.”
“Oh!” said Eustacie. “Of course, if you quite understand that this is a very secret affair—”
“Oh, I do!” said Miss Thane earnestly.
“But I must warn you that there is a great deal of danger.”
“Nothing could be better!” declared Miss Thane. “You must know that I have hitherto led the most humdrum existence.”
“Do you, too, like adventure?” asked Eustacie, looking her over with a more lenient eye.
“My dear ma’am, I have been looking for adventure all my life!”
“Well,” said Eustacie darkly, “this is an adventure of the most romantic, and it is certain that my cousin Tris—that people will come to search for me. You must promise not to betray me, and in particular not my cousin Ludovic, who is not permitted to set foot in England, you understand.”