“Child, this is no time for telling stories.”
“Let me tell it first, Miss Kitty. Nay, it is not a silly story. A gentleman once had planned to carry off a great heiress.”
“What has that to do with Lord Chudleigh? He does not want to carry me off.”
“The gentleman was a wicked man and an adventurer. He only wanted the lady’s money. One of her friends, a woman it was, found out the plot. She wanted to prevent it without bloodshed, or murder, or duelling, which would have happened if it had been prevented by any stupid interference of clumsy men——”
“O Cicely! get on with the story.”
“She did prevent it. And how do you think?”
“How?”
Cicely ran and shut the door, which was ajar. Then she looked all about the room and under the bed.
“It was a most dreadful wicked thing to do. Yet to save a friend or a lover, I would even do it.”
“What was it, Cicely?”