“All right, naibours! Be ye rich men or be ye poor men, that ye must needs come to the world’s end at this time o’ night?” exclaimed a voice at this instant; and, turning their heads, they saw a rickety individual shambling round from the back door with a horn lantern dangling from his hand.
“Time o’ night, ’a b’lieve! and the clock only gone seven of ’em. Show a light, and let us in, William Worm.”
“Oh, that you, Robert Lickpan?”
“Nobody else, William Worm.”
“And is the visiting man a-come?”
“Yes,” said the stranger. “Is Mr. Swancourt at home?”
“That ’a is, sir. And would ye mind coming round by the back way? The front door is got stuck wi’ the wet, as he will do sometimes; and the Turk can’t open en. I know I am only a poor wambling man that “ill never pay the Lord for my making, sir; but I can show the way in, sir.”
The new arrival followed his guide through a little door in a wall, and then promenaded a scullery and a kitchen, along which he passed with eyes rigidly fixed in advance, an inbred horror of prying forbidding him to gaze around apartments that formed the back side of the household tapestry. Entering the hall, he was about to be shown to his room, when from the inner lobby of the front entrance, whither she had gone to learn the cause of the delay, sailed forth the form of Elfride. Her start of amazement at the sight of the visitor coming forth from under the stairs proved that she had not been expecting this surprising flank movement, which had been originated entirely by the ingenuity of William Worm.
She appeared in the prettiest of all feminine guises, that is to say, in demi-toilette, with plenty of loose curly hair tumbling down about her shoulders. An expression of uneasiness pervaded her countenance; and altogether she scarcely appeared woman enough for the situation. The visitor removed his hat, and the first words were spoken; Elfride prelusively looking with a deal of interest, not unmixed with surprise, at the person towards whom she was to do the duties of hospitality.
“I am Mr. Smith,” said the stranger in a musical voice.