Evan replied quietly:  ’She is a stranger to me; and if you could see her, sir, and know her situation, I think she would move your pity.’

‘I don’t doubt it, sir—­I don’t doubt it,’ returned the chairman.  ’They all move our pity.  That’s how they get over us.  She has diddled you, and she would diddle me, and diddle us all-diddle the devil, I dare say, when her time comes.  I don’t doubt it, sir.’

To confront a vehement old gentleman, sitting as president in an assembly of satellites, requires command of countenance, and Evan was not browbeaten:  he held him, and the whole room, from where he stood, under a serene and serious eye, for his feelings were too deeply stirred on behalf of the girl to let him think of himself.  That question of hers, ‘What are you going to do with me?’ implying such helplessness and trust, was still sharp on his nerves.

‘Gentlemen,’ he said, ’I humbly beg your pardon for disturbing you as I do.’

But with a sudden idea that a general address on behalf of a particular demand must necessarily fail, he let his eyes rest on one there, whose face was neither stupid nor repellent, and who, though he did not look up, had an attentive, thoughtful cast about the mouth.

‘May I entreat a word apart with you, sir?’

Evan was not mistaken in the index he had perused.  The gentleman seemed to feel that he was selected from the company, and slightly raising his head, carelessly replied:  ‘My bed is entirely at your disposal,’ resuming his contemplative pose.

On the point of thanking him, Evan advanced a step, when up started the irascible chairman.

‘I don’t permit it!  I won’t allow it!’ And before Evan could ask his reasons, he had rung the bell, muttering:  ’They follow us to our inns, now, the baggages!  They must harry us at our inns!  We can’t have peace and quiet at our inns!—­’

In a state of combustion, he cried out to the waiter: 

’Here, Mark, this gentleman has brought in a dirty wench:  pack her up to my bed-room, and lock her in lock her in, and bring down the key.’

Agreeably deceived in the old gentleman’s intentions, Evan could not refrain from joining the murmured hilarity created by the conclusion of his order.  The latter glared at him, and added:  ’Now, sir, you’ve done your worst.  Sit down, and be merry.’

Replying that he had a friend outside, and would not fail to accept the invitation, Evan retired.  He was met by the hostess with the reproachful declaration on her lips, that she was a widow woman, wise in appearances, and that he had brought into her house that night work she did not expect, or bargain for.  Rather (since I must speak truth of my gentleman) to silence her on the subject, and save his ears, than to propitiate her favour towards the girl, Evan drew out his constitutionally lean purse, and dropped it in her hand, praying her to put every expense incurred to his charge.  She exclaimed: