“Oh, your ladyship, in a moment of desperation, you know... If anybody had seen Miss Miskin’s face, I’m sure, as she tugged at the shutter—it was as red... really scarlet!”
“And I’m sure so was yours, Mrs Howell, downright crimson.”
“And after all,” resumed Mrs Howell, “we should never have got the shutter up, if Mr Tucker had not had the politeness to come and help us. But we are talking all this time, and perhaps your ladyship may be almost fainting with the fright. Would not your ladyship step into my parlour, and have a little drop of something? Let me have the honour—a glass of mulled port wine, or a drop of cherry-bounce. Miss Miskin—you will oblige us—the cherry-bounce, you know.”
Miss Miskin received the keys from the girdle with a smile of readiness; but Lady Hunter declined refreshment. She explained that she felt more collected than she might otherwise have done, from her not having been taken by surprise. She had been partly aware, before she left the Hall, of what she should have to encounter.
“Dear heart! what courage!”
“Goodness! how brave!”
“I could not be satisfied to remain safe at the Hall, you know, when I did not know what might be happening to Sir William; so I ordered the carriage, and came. It was a very anxious ride, I assure you, Mrs Howell. But I found, when I got here, that I need not have been under any alarm for Sir William. He has made himself so beloved, that I believe we have nothing to fear for him under any circumstances. But what can we think, Mrs Howell, of those who try to create such danger?”
“What, indeed, ma’am! Any one, I’m sure, who would so much as dream of hurting a hair of Sir William’s head... As I said to Miss Miskin, when Mr Tucker told us Sir William was come among them—‘that’s the criterion,’ said I.”
“As it happens, Sir William is in no danger, I believe; but no thanks to those who are at the bottom of this disturbance. It is no merit of theirs that Sir William is so popular.”
“No, indeed, your ladyship. We may thank Heaven for that, not them. But what is to be done, your ladyship? I declare it is not safe to go on in this way. It makes one think of being burnt in one’s bed.” And all the three shuddered.