“My lady is still in a faint,” said I.
“Faint or no, she must come. Tell them I am here.”
He spoke as a soldier with authority; and a pang of jealousy smote me as I looked at his handsome presence in spite of its disguise.
I went to my lady’s room and announced him. She lay half stupified, with her eyes open, her bosom heaving, and a choking sob in her throat. Miss Kit kneeled at the bedside and held her hand.
Both were too numb and dazed to express much amazement at the news I brought; and when Captain Lestrange followed me in, no breath was wasted on empty greetings.
“I lodge in an attic six houses away. If you could only get on to the roof,” said he, “you would reach it easily.”
“We are not far from the roof already,” said I, pointing to a corner of the ceiling through which, even as we spoke, flakes of snow were drifting into the room.
Captain Lestrange took a log of fuel and poked the hole, till it was large enough to let a person through.
He bade me tear the sheet, make a band of it, and fasten it round my mistress, while he clambered through my window on to the roof. It was a perilous climb, but the captain was lithe and active as a cat. In a minute we saw him looking in through the hole in the ceiling.
“Now hand me the end of the band,” said he, “and come here and help me to haul.—Nerve yourself, cousin, and all will be well.”