"On our first evening the girl was engaged serving the members of the club. The next day she was indisposed and confined to her room. After that she was on a visit to her aunt, who is ill, and what with one excuse and then another—oh! it's sickening. I came across the little jade unexpectedly the other day, and tried to detain her with a little pleasant chat. You should have seen the dignified air she put on, as with a 'by your leave, my lord, I am overpressed for time,' she curtesyed and passed by. What has come to these simple seeming rustics of late I am at a loss to imagine."
"If your lordship should deign to follow my advice——"
"Well."
"I would suggest that we should take the bull by the horns and make short work of it."
"How?"
"Pick the lock of her bedroom door. Gag her and carry her out of bed downstairs, wrap a warm cloak around her, and lift her into the carriage, which must be waiting for us only a few paces off. Then, head for the nearest township, and so on, to London. In case of opposition on the way, we have our pistols. But hush! I thought I heard footsteps."
"Tut! the walls are thick enough in this antique hostelry," said his lordship. "Never fear."
They little knew that there was a sliding panel high up over the bedstead his lordship occupied, which was covered by a bad picture of His Majesty George II. on horseback, and which could be reached by a secret staircase within the thickness of the wall.
"So that is their little game, is it?" muttered our host to himself, who had been eavesdropping. "All right, my men, all right."