Sophy (with spirit). "He is not vile. You ought to be ashamed of yourself speaking so, Mr. Rugge!"
Here simultaneously Mr. Waife hastily, endued in his gray dressing-grown, presented himself at the aperture of the bedroom door, and the Cobbler on the threshold of the sitting-room. The Comedian stood mute, trusting, perhaps, to the imposing effect of his attitude. The Cobbler, yielding to the impulse of untheatric man, put his head doggedly on one side, and, with both hands on his hips, said,
"Civil words to my lodgers, master, or out you go!"
The Remorseless Baron glared vindictively first at one, and then at the other; at length he strode up to Waife, and said, with a withering grin, "I have something to say to you; shall I say it before your landlord?"
The Comedian waved his hand to the Cobbler.
"Leave us, my friend; I shall not require you. Step this way, Mr. Rugge." Rugge entered the bedroom, and Waife closed the door behind them,
"Anan," quoth the Cobbler, scratching his head. "I don't quite take your grandfather's giving in. British ground here! But your ascendant can not surely be in such malignant conjunction with that obstreperous tyrant as to bind you to him hand and foot. Let's see what the Crystal thinks of it. Take it up gently, and come down stairs with me."
"Please, no; I'll stay near grandfather," said Sophy, resolutely. "He shan't be left helpless with that rude man."
The Cobbler could not help smiling. "Lord love you," said he; "you have a spirit of your own, and, if you were my wife, I should be afraid of you. But I won't stand here eavesdropping; mayhap your grandfather has secrets I'm not to hear; call me if 'm wanted." He descended. Sophy, with less noble disdain of eavesdropping, stood in the center of the room, holding her breath to listen. She heard no sound—she had half a mind to put her ear to the key-hole, but that seemed, even to her, a mean thing, if not absolutely required by the necessity of the case. So there she still stood, her head bent down, her finger raised: oh that Vance could have so painted her!
