“Ah, and what did you say the place was, sir, by the bye?”
“Why, sir, the great thicket opposite Miss’s window.”
“Indeed, sir! and may I ask what you was doing in such a place?”
I thought Mr Menotti seemed confounded for a moment, but he answered quickly, with a monstrous effrontery, “Why, sir, I saw the fellow sneaking into the shadow of the thicket, and thinking I knew his villainous countenance, my concern for your interests induced me to follow him. Recognising me as an acquaintance of his master’s, he was so imprudent as to declare his errand, when my regard for Miss’s honour at once put me upon getting hold of the letter he carried, which I did by promising to deliver it to the proper person. The wicked wretch had been haunting the spot for hours without being able to have speech of Miss, and being a simple sort of fellow, one of those Sykes[02] from the Mogul’s dominions, and not a Gentoo, he was easily persuaded to deliver it up.”
“Sir, your concern for my honour and my family’s does prodigious credit to the goodness of your heart. Did you dismiss the fellow in peace?”
“Why, no, sir; the billet once in my hands, it was no longer needful to dissemble the fury that possessed me, passing all bounds when I perceived the nature of the vile piece. For seeing that the letter was from the hand of the abandoned deceiver, whose shameless attempts have twice been frustrated by your vigilance, and that it contained a condolence with Miss on the tyranny by which you, sir, was endeavouring to force her into marriage with an elderly suitor, and an invitation to her to meet the writer on that spot at a certain hour this very night, with a view to eloping with him, I fell upon the messenger in my rage, and kicked and cuffed him so soundly that he may be thankful to have escaped with his life.”
“Sir, you lay me under an ever-increasing debt of obligation. The Unknown must be but new at his work to send his letter open and unfolded.”
“Indeed, sir, it was folded and sealed, but my transports of indignation would not permit me to hand the vile scrawl to Miss.”
“Nor to me neither, I suppose, sir? Perhaps, having perused it at your leisure, you’ll now pass it on to me.”
“Why, sir, I tore it into a thousand pieces and scattered ’em abroad. Would you have it pollute the sight of any but myself?”