"I hope I could find topics more agreeable to us both," said L'Isle, laughing and blushing. "But unluckily I have in my pocket Sir Rowland's order to meet him there, and have intelligence he is waiting for. I am afraid he will have to wait."
"I am afraid, he will," said Lady Mabel, coolly, "for I do not see how you are to get out of the house now. By this time Moodie has bolted, barred, and locked every door and window below, hidden the keys, and gone to bed in his usual condition. He never can find them again, until his head gets clear in the morning."
"What!" exclaimed L'Isle, "that respectable old man drunk every night!"
"Not every night!" said Lady Mabel. "But have you forgotten in what condition he came back with us from Evora?"
"True. But I thought that an accident, and more the effect of sickness than drinking. He seemed quite sober when you came home, and a graver and more sedate man I do not know."
"O, he is a Presbyterian, you know, and the more liquor he swallows the graver and more sanctimonious he becomes."
"That may be. Still Lady Mabel, I must find some way of getting out of the house. Already I shall be too late at Alcantara."
"I am afraid Sir Rowland will not drink in your news at breakfast. But if it be good, it will come in capitally after dinner, by way of dessert."
"After dinner!" said L'Isle hurriedly. "I must be there many hours before that!"
"Then I am sorry to have kept you here so long. I suppose Jenny and I must keep watch by ourselves all night, for I cannot keep those heavy-headed fellows awake."