“I will explain, Sir ’Oo, what the d⸺ it is to you; only I wish you were eating the nice things on the table. This Lady Ongar is treating me very bad. She treat my brother very bad too. My brother is Count Pateroff. We have been put to—oh, such expenses for her! It have nearly ruined me. I make a journey to your London here altogether for her. Then, for her, I go down to that accursed little island;—what you call it?—where she insult me. Oh! all my time is gone. Your brother and your cousin, and the little man out of Warwickshire, all coming to my house—just as it please them.”
“But what is this to me?” shouted Sir Hugh.
“A great deal to you,” screamed back Madame Gordeloup. “You see I know everything—everything. I have got papers.”
“What do I care for your papers? Look here, Madame Gordeloup, you had better go away.”
“Not yet, Sir ’Oo; not yet. You are going away to Norway—I know; and I am ruined before you come back.”
“Look here, madame; do you mean that you want money from me?”
“I want my rights, Sir ’Oo. Remember, I know everything;—everything; oh, such things! If they were all known—in the newspapers, you understand, or that kind of thing, that lady in Bolton Street would lose all her money tomorrow. Yes. There is uncles to the little lord; yes! Ah, how much would they give me, I wonder? They would not tell me to go away.”
Sophie was perhaps justified in the estimate she had made of Sir Hugh’s probable character from the knowledge which she had acquired of his brother Archie; but, nevertheless, she had fallen into a great mistake. There could hardly have been a man then in London less likely to fall into her present views than Sir Hugh Clavering. Not only was he too fond of his money to give it away without knowing why he did so; but he was subject to none of that weakness by which some men are prompted to submit to such extortions. Had he believed her story, and had Lady Ongar been really dear to him, he would never have dealt with such a one as Madame Gordeloup otherwise than through the police.
“Madame Gordeloup,” said he, “if you don’t immediately take yourself off, I shall have you put out of the house.”
He would have sent for a constable at once, had he not feared that by doing so, he would retard his journey.
“What!” said Sophie, whose courage was as good as his own. “Me put out of the house! Who shall touch me?”
“My servant shall; or if that will not do, the police. Come, walk.” And he stepped over towards her as though he himself intended to assist in her expulsion by violence.
“Well, you are there; I see you; and what next?” said Sophie. “You, and your valk! I can tell you things fit for you to know, and you say, Valk. If I valk, I will valk to some purpose. I do not often valk for nothing when I am told—Valk!” Upon this, Sir Hugh rang the bell with some violence. “I care nothing for your bells, or for your servants, or for your policemen. I have told you that your sister owe me a great deal of money, and you say—Valk. I vill valk.” Thereupon the servant came into the room, and Sir Hugh, in an angry voice, desired him to open the front door. “Yes—open vide,” said Sophie, who, when anger came upon her, was apt to drop into a mode of speaking English which she was able to avoid in her cooler moments. “Sir ’Oo, I am going to valk, and you shall hear of my valking.”
“Am I to take that as a threat?” said he.
“Not a tret at all,” said she; “only a promise. Ah, I am good to keep my promises! Yes, I make a promise. Your poor wife—down with the daises; I know all, and she shall hear too. That is another promise. And your brother, the captain. Oh! here he is, and the little man out of Warwickshire.” She had got up from her chair, and had moved towards the door with the intention of going; but just as she was passing out into the hall, she encountered Archie and Doodles. Sir Hugh, who had been altogether at a loss to understand what she had meant by the man out of Warwickshire, followed her into the hall, and became more angry than before at finding that his brother had brought a friend to his house at so very inopportune a moment. The wrath in his face was so plainly expressed that Doodles could perceive it, and wished himself away. The presence also of the Spy was not pleasant to the gallant captain. Was the wonderful woman ubiquitous, that he should thus encounter her again, and that so soon after all the things that he had spoken of her on this morning? “How do you do, gentlemen?” said Sophie. “There is a great many boxes here, and I with my crinoline have not got room.” Then she shook hands, first with Archie, and then with Doodles; and asked the latter why he was not as yet gone to Warwickshire. Archie, in almost mortal fear, looked up into his brother’s face. Had his brother learned the story of that seventy pounds? Sir Hugh was puzzled beyond measure at finding that the woman knew the two men; but having still an eye to his lamb chops, was chiefly anxious to get rid of Sophie and Doodles together.
“This is my friend Boodle—Captain Boodle,” said Archie, trying to put a bold face upon the crisis. “He has come to see me off.”
“Very kind of him,” said Sir Hugh. “Just make way for this lady, will you? I want to get her out of the house if
