Once he
contrived to give an absolute wink with one of his big black eyes;
not, however, undetected, for Mr. Belamour in a grave tone of
reprimand ordered him off to fetch an ivory toothpick-case.
Not till the cloth had been remove, and dishes of early strawberries
and of biscuits, accompanied by bottles of port and claret, placed on
the table, and the servants had withdrawn, did Mr. Belamour observe,
"I have penetrated the outworks."
There was an outburst of inquiry and explanation, but he was not to
be prevented from telling the story in his own way. "I know the house
well, for my brother lived there the first years of his marriage,
before you came on the stage, young sir. Perhaps you do not know
how to open the door from without?"
"Oh, sir, tell me the trick!"
Mr. Belamour held up a small pass-key. There was a certain tone of
banter about him which almost drove his nephew wild, but greatly
reassured Miss Delavie.
"Why--why keep me in torments, instead of taking me with you?" cried
the youth.
"Because I wished my expedition to be no failure. I could not tell
whether my key, which I found with my watch and seals, would still
serve me. Ah! you look on fire; but remember the outworks are not
the citadel."
"For Heaven's sake, sir, torture me not thus!"
"I knew that to make my summons at the out gate would lead to a
summary denial by the sour porteress, so I experimented on the lock
of the little door into the lane, and admitted myself and Jumbo into
the court; but the great hall-door stood before me jealously closed,
and the lower windows were shut with shutters, so that all I could
do was to cause Jumbo to awake the echoes with a lusty peal on the
knocker, which he repeated at intervals, until there hobbled forth to
open it a crone as wrinkled and crabbed as one of Macbeth's witches.
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