Lady Dorothea looked at him, and with a slight shrug of the shoulders seemed to sneer at his low-priced compassion.
“Scoff away!” said he, sternly; “but if I thought that any consent we gave to this scheme could take the shape of a coercion, I 'd send the estate to the--”
“You have, sir; you have done all that already,” broke in Lady Dorothea. “When the troubled breathing that we hear from yonder room ceases, there is no longer a Martin of Cro' Martin!”
“Then what are we losing time for?” cried he, eagerly. “Are moments so precious to be spent in attack and recrimination? There's Scanlan sitting on a bench before the door. Call him up--tell him you accept his terms--let him start for London, post haste. With every speed he can master he 'll not be a minute too soon. Shall I call him? Shall I beckon to him?”
“Send a servant for him,” said Lady Dorothea, calmly, while she folded up the letter, and laid it on the table at her side.
Martin rang the bell and gave the order, and then, assuming an air of composure he was very far from feeling, sat silently awaiting Scanlan's entrance. That gentleman did not long detain them. He had been sitting, watch in hand, for above an hour, looking occasionally up at the windows, and wondering why he had not been summoned. It was, then, with an almost abrupt haste that he at last presented himself.
“Read over that letter, sir,” said Lady Dorothea, “and please to inform me if it rightly conveys your propositions.”
Scanlan perused Massingbred's letter carefully, and folding it up, returned it. “Yes, my Lady,” said he, “I think it embraces the chief points. Of course there is nothing specified as to the mode of carrying them out,--I mean, as to the security I should naturally look for. I believe your Ladyship does not comprehend me?”
“Well, if I must speak plainer, I want to be sure that your concurrence is no mere barren concession, my Lady; that, in admitting my pretensions, your Ladyship favors them. This is, of course,” said he, in a tone of deference, “if your Ladyship condescends to accept the terms at all; for, as yet, you have not said so.”
“If I had not been so minded, sir, this interview would not have taken place.”
“Well, indeed, I thought as much myself,” said he; “and so I at once entered upon what one might call the working details of the measure.”