“That isn’t so easy,” John said, and sounded so sorry that I almost laughed at him.
“You are gentlemen,” she continued, “what else can you do?”
“Thank you,” I said. “We are complimented, but after all, you do present difficulties.”
“I come of honorable antecedents,” she said, proudly.
“And take them seriously,” I suggested.
“Of course she does,” John took her part sternly.
“If you will let me go,” she offered, “I swear I will say nothing of ’aving seen you for, say, twenty-four hours. Will that be long enough?”
I agreed, gloomily, but John was more enthusiastic. “Of course, Countess, of course, it will be quite enough. We really ought to see you home, but there are difficulties, you know. Forgive us, won’t you?”
“Oh, we are not civilised ’ere,” she laughed. “I am quite safe on this mountain alone, I assure you. No one could be safer. You might untie my hands, though, if you don’t mind.”
John made a wry face, and let me do it, his own hands being in a state of skinlessness that would have been embarrassing to him if she had seen them, to say nothing of being painful.