MALKIEL THE SECOND POISONS MISS MINERVA
“Miss Minerva!” exclaimed Malkiel the Second.
“Lady Enid!” cried the Prophet, at the same moment.
“You can’t go in there, Miss Partridge!” ejaculated the young librarian, simultaneously, from the further room.
The lady, a tall girl of twenty-two, with grey eyes, dark smooth hair, and a very agreeable, though slightly Scottish, mouth, began to behave rather like a stag at bay. She panted, and looked wildly round as if meditating how, and in what direction, she could best bolt.
“What’s the matter?” cried the Prophet, his voice becoming not a little piercing from surprise and his previous stress of agitation.
“You can’t go in there, Miss Minerva,” requested the young librarian, who had now gained the parlour threshold, and who seemed about to take up a very determined stand thereon.
“I must go in—I must,” said the lady, in a mellow, but again slightly Scottish, voice. “Don’t tell anybody I’m here, or you’ll be sorry.”
And, with these words, she bounded into the parlour and banged the door on the young librarian. The Prophet opened his lips preparatory to a third wild exclamation.
“Hush!” the lady hissed aristocratically.