Loudly he thumped upon the heavy front door.  There was somewhat of a bustle inside at the knock.  The snow-bound household collected quickly at the welcome thought of a message from the outside world.  When the door was opened Madge and the Morins were there to behold Courthope carrying the plunder.  He perceived at once that his guilt, if doubted before, was now proved beyond all doubt.  There was a distinct measure of reserve in the satisfaction they expressed.  Madge especially was very grave, with a strong flavour of moral severity in her words and demeanour.

Courthope explained to her that the other man was dying in the snow, that if his life was to be saved no time must be lost.  She repeated the story in French to Morin, and thereupon arose high words from the Frenchman.  Madge looked doubtfully at Courthope, and then she interpreted.

It seemed that the Frenchman’s desire was to put him out again and lock up the house, leaving the two accomplices to shift for themselves as best they might.  Courthope urged motives of humanity.  He described the man and his condition.

At length he prevailed.  Madge insisted that if Morin did not go she would.  In a few moments both she and Morin were preparing to set out.

It seemed useless for Courthope to precede them; he went into the dining-room, demanding food of Madam Morin.

He found that Eliz had been carried down and placed in her chair in the midst of domestic activities.

As soon as she spied him, being in a nervous, hysterical state, she opened her mouth and shrieked sharply; the shriek at this time had more the tone of a child’s anger than of a woman’s fear.  With a strong sense of humour he sat down at the table, and she, realising that he was not immediately dangerous, railed upon him.

‘Viper in the bosom!’ said Eliz.

Courthope, almost famished, ate fast.

’Daughter of the horse-leech crying “give,” and sucking blood from the hand it gives!’ she continued.

‘Sir Charles Grandison would never have kicked a man when he was down,’ he said.  ’He would have tried to do good even to the viper he had nourished.’

The memory of Sir Charles’s well-known method even with the most villainous, appeared to distract her attention for a moment.

’And then they all sent for him and confessed and made amends, just as I have done,’ Courthope went on; but the fact that a laugh was gleaming in his eyes enraged the little cripple.

‘How dare you talk to me, sitting there pretending to be a gentleman!’

’I would rather be allowed to make a better toilet if my reputation were to rest upon a pretence.  I never heard of a gentlemanly villain who went about without collar and cuffs, and had not been allowed access to his hair-brush.’

’A striped jacket and shaved head is generally what he goes about in after he’s unmasked.  If I had been Madge I would not have let you off.’