Not till the cloth had been remove, and dishes of early strawberries and of biscuits, accompanied by bottles of port and claret, placed on the table, and the servants had withdrawn, did Mr. Belamour observe, “I have penetrated the outworks.”

There was an outburst of inquiry and explanation, but he was not to be prevented from telling the story in his own way.  “I know the house well, for my brother lived there the first years of his marriage, before you came on the stage, young sir.  Perhaps you do not know how to open the door from without?”

“Oh, sir, tell me the trick!”

Mr. Belamour held up a small pass-key.  There was a certain tone of banter about him which almost drove his nephew wild, but greatly reassured Miss Delavie.

“Why—­why keep me in torments, instead of taking me with you?” cried the youth.

“Because I wished my expedition to be no failure.  I could not tell whether my key, which I found with my watch and seals, would still serve me.  Ah! you look on fire; but remember the outworks are not the citadel.”

“For Heaven’s sake, sir, torture me not thus!”

“I knew that to make my summons at the out gate would lead to a summary denial by the sour porteress, so I experimented on the lock of the little door into the lane, and admitted myself and Jumbo into the court; but the great hall-door stood before me jealously closed, and the lower windows were shut with shutters, so that all I could do was to cause Jumbo to awake the echoes with a lusty peal on the knocker, which he repeated at intervals, until there hobbled forth to open it a crone as wrinkled and crabbed as one of Macbeth’s witches.  I demanded whether my Lady Belamour lived there.  She croaked forth a negative sound, and had nearly shut the door in my face, but I kept her in parley by protesting that I had often visited my Lady there, and offering a crown-piece if she would direct me to her.”

“A crown! a kingdom, if she would bring us to the right one!” cried Sir Amyas.

“Of course she directed me to Hanover Square, and then, evidently supposing there was something amiss with the great gates, she insisted on coming to let me out, and securing them after me.”

The youth gave a great groan, saying, “Excuse me, sir, but what are we the better of that?”

“Endure a little while, impatient swain, and you shall hear.  I fancy she recognised the Belamour Livery on Jumbo, for she hobbled by my side maundering apologies about its being against orders to admit gentle or simple, beast or body into the court, and that a poor woman could not lose her place and the roof over her head.  But mark me, while this was passing, Jumbo, who had kept nearer the house whistling ‘The Nightingale’ just above his breath, heard his name called, and presently saw two little faces at an up-stairs window.”

“My little sisters!” cried Sir Amyas.

“Even so; and he believes he heard one of them call out, ’Cousin, cousin Aura, come and see Jumbo;’ but as the window was high up, I scarce dare credit his ears rather than his imagination, and we were instantly hustled away by the old woman, whose evident alarm is a further presumption that the captive is there, since Faith and Hope scarce have reached the years of being princesses immured in towers.”