"Indeed, sir," she faltered, "I could not say. The men were masked."
"Ay, so they were," said he, considering.
"'Twas from this one's face that I took the cover," put in York, pertly.
"But certain it is that Mr York rescued us," went on miss in a faint voice.
At that news I could have reeled under the words, so little was I ripe for them, and so unsuspicious of her.
"Why," said I, opening my mouth and stuttering, "why, 'twas I drove off the pack, and fetched the chaise home. 'Twas I lifted you in and took the reins. The Lord deliver me from this wicked puss!"
Sir Philip threw up his sword arm with a gesture of black wrath.
"'Tis plain," said he, "that one here is a villainous rogue, and if we have not always agreed, Mr York, at least I cannot think you that."
Miss leaned against the wall white and trembling, and I gave her a congee, very deep and ironical. Truth to say, as soon as I had recovered I had, after my habit, begun to ply my wits pretty sharply, and already I had taken a notion of how things stood between the two. Moreover, I was not done with yet, and I cast about to be even with the pair. Sir Philip, it seemed, was hostile to the addresses of this York; and as patently, miss herself was not. The attack, then, must have been part of a plan to gain Miss Lydia's person, to which she was herself privy. What do I then but step in and interfere with the pretty plot? This was why she bore me no goodwill, no doubt.
"Well," says I, with the congee, "I cannot contest a lady's word, be she Poll or Moll. Let the gentleman have his way."