Romaine. 'But
this is the accursed drawback of your position. We can do nothing
openly. I must smuggle you out of this room and out of this house
like seizable goods; and how am I to set about it with a sentinel
planted at your very door?'
'There is no good in being agitated,' said I.
'None at all,' he acquiesced. 'And, come to think of it, it is
droll enough that I should have been that very moment commenting on
your personal appearance, when your cousin came upon this mission.
I was saying, if you remember, that your face was as good or better
than a letter of recommendation. I wonder if M. Alain would be
like the rest of us--I wonder what he would think of it?'
Mr. Romaine was sitting in a chair by the fire with his back to the
windows, and I was myself kneeling on the hearthrug and beginning
mechanically to pick up the scattered bills, when a honeyed voice
joined suddenly in our conversation.
'He thinks well of it, Mr. Romaine. He begs to join himself to
that circle of admirers which you indicate to exist already.'
CHAPTER XIX--THE DEVIL AND ALL AT AMERSHAM PLACE
Never did two human creatures get to their feet with more alacrity
than the lawyer and myself. We had locked and barred the main
gates of the citadel; but unhappily we had left open the bath-room
sally-port; and here we found the voice of the hostile trumpets
sounding from within, and all our defences taken in reverse.
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