Sir George raised his eyebrows, and bowed as profoundly as before.  ’That is entirely as your ladyship pleases,’ he said.  Nevertheless he was not accustomed to be snubbed, and he set a trifle to her account.

‘But for that creature,’ she continued, trembling with passion, ’I will not sleep under the same roof with her.’

Sir George simpered.  ‘I am sorry for that,’ he said.  ’For I am afraid that the Falcon in the town is not the stamp of house to suit your ladyship.’

The viscountess gasped.  ‘I should like to know why you champion her,’ she cried violently.  ‘I suppose you came here to meet her.’

‘Alas, madam, I am not so happy,’ he answered—­with such blandness that a servant by the door choked, and had to be hustled out in disgrace.  ’But since Miss—­er—­Masterson is here, I shall be glad to place my rooms at her—­mother’s disposal.’

‘There are no rooms,’ said the landlord.  Between the two he was growing bewildered.

‘There are mine,’ said Sir George drily.

‘But for yourself, Sir George?’

’Oh, never mind me, my good man.  I am here to meet Lord Chatham, and some of his people will accommodate me.’

‘Well, of course,’ Mr. Smith answered, rubbing his hands dubiously—­for he had sent for the constable—­’of course, Sir George—­if you wish it.  I did not understand for whom the rooms were ordered, or—­or this unpleasantness would not have arisen.’

‘To be sure,’ Sir George drawled good-naturedly.  ’Give the constable half-a-crown, Smith, and charge it to me.’  And he turned on his heel.

But at this appearance of a happy issue, Lady Dunborough’s rage and chagrin, which had been rising higher and higher with each word of the dialogue, could no longer be restrained.  In an awful voice, and with a port of such majesty that an ordinary man must have shaken in his shoes before her towering headdress, ‘Am I to understand,’ she cried, ’that, after all that has been said about these persons, you propose to harbour them?’

The landlord looked particularly miserable; luckily he was saved from the necessity of replying by an unexpected intervention.

‘We are much obliged to your ladyship,’ the girl behind the table said, speaking rapidly, but in a voice rather sarcastic than vehement.  ’There were reasons why I thought it impossible that we should accept this gentleman’s offer.  But the words you have applied to me, and the spirit in which your ladyship has dealt with me, make it impossible for us to withdraw and lie under the—­the vile imputations, you have chosen to cast upon me.  For that reason,’ she continued with spirit, her face instinct with indignation, ’I do accept from this gentleman—­and with gratitude—­what I would fain refuse.  And if it be any matter to your ladyship, you have only your unmannerly words to thank for it.’

‘Ho! ho!’ the viscountess cried in affected contempt.  ’Are we to be called in question by creatures like these?  You vixen!  I spit upon you!’