The stranger started violently, and turned upon the bed an eye at first alarmed, then rapidly becoming lit with indignation.
“That, sir--that----” stammered Mackenzie.
“Is Count Bunker,” said the Count, who remained entirely courteous in spite of the inconvenience of this intrusion. “Have I the pleasure of addressing Sir Justin Wallingford?”
“In that case, Mackenzie will be able to give you a satisfactory account of my presence; and in half an hour or so I shall have the pleasure of joining you downstairs.”
The Count, with a polite smile, turned over in bed, as though to indicate that the interview was now at an end. But his visitor apparently had other views.
“I should be obliged by some explanation from yourself of your entry into my house,” said he, steadily keeping his eye upon the Count.
“Now how the deuce shall I get out of this hole without letting Julia into another?” wondered Bunker; but before he could speak, Mackenzie had blurted out--
“Miss Wallingford, sir--the gentleman is a friend of hers, sir.”
“I assure you that Miss Wallingford was actuated by the highest motives in honoring me with an invitation to The Lash,” said Bunker earnestly.
He had already dismissed an ingenious account of himself as a belated wanderer, detained by stress of weather, as certain to be contradicted by Julia herself, and decided instead on risking all upon his supposed uncle's saintly reputation.
“How came she to invite you, sir?” demanded Sir Justin.
Sir Justin stared at him in silence, while he brought the full force of his capacious mind to bear upon the situation.
“Your name, you say, is Bunker?” he observed at length.
“Ah! Doubtless, then, you are the same gentleman who has been residing with Lord Tulliwuddle?”
By a wave of his hand the Count referred him to the portrait upon the wall. Sir Justin now stared at it.
“Bunker--Count Bunker,” he repeated in a musing tone, and then turned to the present holder of that dignity with a look in his eye which the adventurer disliked exceedingly.
“I will confer with you later,” he observed. “Mackenzie, remove my portmanteau.”
In a voice inaudible to the Count he gave another order, which was followed by Mackenzie also removing the Count's clothes from their chair.