“Don’t mention that name!” begged her ladyship, with a shudder. “The least thing will bring on my spasms!”

“But are you acquainted with him?” he demanded. “I had no idea! Will he come here tonight?”

“Ask your sister!” said Lady Bellingham helplessly. “I have borne enough, and wash my hands of it. But if we are all clapped up for this night’s work, don’t lay the blame at my door, that’s all I ask of you!”

“I do not understand you! What is the matter, my dear ma’am? What can Deb know of Ravenscar?”

“She has him locked up in the cellar, and she means to keep him there,” replied her ladyship.

“What?”

“Oh dear, I ought not to have told you, for Deb said you were to know nothing about the mortgage, but I declare I am so distracted I do not know what I am doing! She has locked him in the cellar to make him surrender some odious bills of mine, and there is his race to be run tomorrow, and I know he will hound us to our graves for this night’s work! But there she stands, laughing away as though she had not a care in the world, and for all she knows he will catch his death in the cellar! But she has the key in her pocket, and she says that she doesn’t mean to give it up!”

“Does she, by God!” muttered Mr Grantham, and strode away to where his sister was standing. “Deb! I want a word with you!” he said in her ear. “Come outside on to the landing for a moment.”

She looked surprised, but called to Kennet to take her place at the E.O. board, and followed Kit out of the room. “What is it, my dear? You look quite upset! Have you been plunging at hazard, or have you discovered that the wine is corked?”

“Upset! I have reason to be! What is this my aunt tells me about Mr Ravenscar?”

“The devil fly away with Aunt Lizzie!” said Miss Grantham undutifully. “What has she told you?”

“That you have him locked in the cellar I cannot credit it!”

“Well, I did not mean you to know of it,” replied Deborah, “but there is not much harm done, after all. It is just such a joke as you will appreciate, Kit! You must know that Ravenscar is Lord Mablethorpe’s cousin, and has been set against my marriage to him. I cannot tell you the insults I have suffered at his hands! But that is nothing, and I don’t mean to complain now that I have such a neat revenge on him. He has got into his possession some bills of my aunt’s, and tried to threaten me with them. So I had him kidnapped, and brought to this house, and there he is, neatly tied up in the cellar until he chooses to give up the bills! There is nothing for you to worry your head over!”

“Nothing for me to worry my head over!” he repeated, in a stupefied tone. “Do you know what you have done? It is Arabella Ravenscar whom I hope to marry!”

She stared at him for a moment in the blankest astonishment, but instead of showing any sign of contrition, when the full import of this disclosure had dawned upon her, she burst into a gurgle of laughter. “Oh no! Oh, Kit, I am very sorry, but you had never the least hope of marrying her! Ravenscar would see her dead at his feet rather!”

“Thanks to your crazy conduct!” he said furiously. “Upon my soul, I believe you are mad! Where is the key to the cellar?”

“In my pocket, where it will stay!” she replied.

“Give it to me this instant! God knows what I can find to say to him! I shall tell him that you are not yourself. Oh, there was never anything so damnably unlucky!”

She was no longer laughing. She laid her hand on his arm, saying seriously: “You cannot mean to be so disloyal to me!”

“Disloyal! Do you expect me to help you to gaol? That is where you will end, I can tell you, unless I can smooth Ravenscar down! If you wish to talk of disloyalty, pray consider your own conduct in alienating the one man in the world I would give a fortune to be on terms with! Give me the key!”

“I’ll do no such thing!” Deborah said, backing away from him. “How can you be so poor-spirited, Kit? Does Arabella Ravenscar mean more to you than Aunt Lizzie, and me? I am very sure she does not intend to marry you!”

“You know nothing of the matter! Are you going to give me that key?”

“No, I am not!”

“Then I’ll take it!” said Kit, closing with her.

Miss Grantham fought desperately, but being no match for him was very soon overcome. He dragged the key from hi pocket, and waiting only long enough to say: “I am sorry you are hurt, but it is your own fault!” ran down the stairs to the hall.

She would have followed him, to call to Silas to stop him but the sound of voices below informed her that more guest were arriving. Angry as she was, she could not inaugurate brawl in front of strangers, and was obliged to go back in the saloon, to hide her rage and her chagrin under the be smile she could muster.

Mr Grantham was also checked by the noise of fresh arrival and turned back to make his way down the backstairs. In the basement he ran into a surprised kitchenmaid, but he told her hastily that he had come down to the cellars to look out a very special wine, and brushed past her. Finding the lantern by the area-door, he picked this up, and after plunging into a coal cellar, several store-cupboards, and a boot-hole, came up the locked door at the end of the stone passage. He fitted the key into the lock with trembling fingers, and turned it, and pushed open the door, holding up the lantern.

Its glow illuminated Mr Ravenscar’s harsh features, and showed him to be still sitting in the Windsor chair, with his legs crossed, and his hands behind his back.

“Sir!” stammered Kit. “Sir! Mr Ravenscar?”

“Who the devil are you?” asked Ravenscar.

Kit set the lantern down on the top of a corded trunk. “Oh sir, I do not know what you must think! I do not know what to say to you! I am Grantham—Deb’s brother, you know! I came as soon as I was aware—I was never more shocked in my life!”

“Her brother? Oh, yes, I seem to remember that there was some talk of a brother! Have you come to try to persuade me in your sister’s stead? You will not succeed.”

“No, no!” Kit assured him. “I never knew—I would never have consented, nor permitted—I am most heartily sorry for it, sir, indeed I am! I have come to set you free! Nothing was ever so disgraceful! But you will forgive Deb, I know! She was always so headstrong that no one could do anything with her but though she has a quick temper she don’t mean any harm.”

Ravenscar, who had been regarding him with a lower brow, broke in on this to demand: “Are you aware of the circumstances that have led to my being in this damnably uncomfortable cellar?”

“Yes—at least, not entirely, for I had no time to listen to it all! But it can’t signify, and Deb had no right to kidnap you like this! I cannot think how she could be so mad!”

“Let there be no misunderstanding about this!” said Ravenscar. “Your sister, I suppose, must have told you that I have insulted her in almost every conceivable way?”

“Oh, but I know how she talks when she is angry, and I assure you I set very little store by it!”

“Well, I did insult her,” said Ravenscar.

Kit looked very much taken aback by this, and did not know what to say. After a moment, he stammered: “I daresay she might have vexed you excessively. I do not rightly understand just what—but you cannot remain here, that is certain! Good God, did she have you tied up? I will have you free in a trice!”

“Keep your distance!” said Ravenscar, holding him off with one elegantly shod foot. “Why should you want to set me free? If you had come to knock my teeth down my throat I could better understand it.”

“You cannot suppose that I will allow my sister to—to tie people up, and put them in the cellar!” exclaimed Kit. “I never heard of such a thing! And when I learned that it was you—you must know, sir, that I am—that I have the honour of being acquainted with your sister—with Miss Arabella Ravenscar!”

“Oh!” said Ravenscar. “So you are acquainted with my sister, are you? Are you, I wonder, stationed in Tunbridge Wells?”

“Yes,” said Kit eagerly. “That is where I met her, sir! I had hoped to have called upon you in town. I wanted very particularly to—”

“To ask for my permission to pay your addresses to her, I infer?”

Kit blushed, and looked rather sheepish. “Yes. Yes, that was it, sir! You must know that I—”

“I want to know nothing at all about it!” interrupted Ravenscar unkindly. “There is not the smallest likelihood of my giving you permission to address her, and if you ever dare to come into my house, I’ll kick you down the steps!”

Kit turned pale at this brutal speech. “It was not my fault that you were brought here, sir! You must believe I had nothing to do with it! I was in total ignorance of it until just now! You cannot mean to visit your anger upon me, and upon Arabella! Indeed—”

“Let me tell you, Mr Grantham, that there would have been more hope of winning my consent to your suit if you had come here to quarrel with me!” said Ravenscar cuttingly. “When my sister marries it will be to a man with some spirit in him! Why you contemptible little worm, if you had a spark of pride or courage you would be calling me out, not offering to set me free! Your sister is worth a dozen of you! And she is a jade!”

Kit swallowed, and said with what dignity he could summon up: “You must be aware that I cannot strike a man who he is bound. If Deb had only told me what was amiss I would have acted for her, and I hope I know how to protect my own sister. But to have you kidnapped is beyond anything! You are angry and I cannot wonder at it, but—”

“Go to the devil!” said Ravenscar.

“But—but shan’t I untie you?” asked Kit, utterly bewildered. “You cannot mean to remain here all night!”