Page:Doctor Syn - A Smuggler Tale of the Romney Marsh.djvu/267

 and never will be! Will you behave yourself now, you truly terrible old man?"

"Certainly, my love," meekly replied the lawyer, "but do look at this young lady."

"Sakes alive!" she exclaimed when she did look at Imogene, "for if she hasn't got a pistol in her hand, you're no fool, Antony!"

"She has got a pistol in her hand, my love, and I'll not only be a fool, but a dead fool, if you don't find some way out of the difficulty."

"And what is the difficulty, pray?" she asked, looking from her terrified husband to the extraordinary girl. "Oh, keep that pistol down, will you, my dear? for there is no immediate danger of my eating you. Just because I keep this fool of a husband of mine in his place, you mustn't think me an utter virago."

"I am afraid it is me that you will be thinking a virago," answered the girl, still feigning fear in her voice, "but indeed I cannot help myself. This unpleasant situation has been forced upon me."

But the old lady cut in again with: "I beseech you both to cease making melodramatic idiots of yourselves and tell me calmly and clearly what all this to-do is about. Now, Antony, speak up and tell me all about it. Come along, sir, make haste and tell me if you have any ideas left in that silly head of yours. No doubt you've been getting yourself into another pretty mess. Isn't it enough for you that you go out, sir, a-driving