you'll not
tell papa, or I'll bring him up here--and then, how will you be?"
"Ratty, you wretch!" cried Augusta, kicking at the door, "let me out!"
"Not a bit, till you promise."
"Oh, fie, Maste' O'Gwady!" said Furlong.
"I'll scream, Ratty, if you don't let me out!" cried Augusta.
"If you screech, papa will hear you, and then he'll come up and kill
that fellow there."
"Oh, don't squeam, Miss O'Gwady!" said Furlong, very vivaciously, from
the bed-curtains; "don't squeam, pway!"
"I'm not squeamish, sir," said Miss Augusta; "but it's dreadful to be
shut up with a man who has no clothes on him. Let me out, Ratty--let
me out!"
"Well, will you tell on us?"
"No."
"'Pon your honour?"
"'Pon my honour, no! Make haste! Oh, if papa knew of this!"
Scarcely had the words been uttered, when the heavy tramp and gruff
voice of O'Grady resounded in the passage, and the boys scampered off
in a fright, leaving the door locked.
"Oh, what will become of me!" said the poor girl, with the extremity of
terror in her look--a terror so excessive, that she was quite heedless
of the dishabille of Furlong, who jumped from the curtains, when he
heard O'Grady coming.
"Don't be fwightened, Miss O'Gwady," said Furlong, half frightened to
death himself. "When we explain the affair----"
"Explain!" said the girl, gasping. "Oh, you don't know papa!"
As she spoke, the heavy tramp ceased at the door--a sharp tap
succeeded, and Furlong's name was called in the gruff voice of the
Squire.
Furlong could scarcely articulate a response.
"Let me in," said O'Grady.
"I am not dwessed, sir," answered Furlong.
"No matter," said the Squire; "you're not a woman."
Augusta wrung her hands.
"I'll be down with you as soon as I am dwessed, sir," replied Furlong.
"I want to speak to you immediately--and here are letters for you--open
the door."
Augusta signified by signs to Furlong that resistance would be vain;
and hid herself under the bed.
"Come in, sir," said Furlong, when she was secreted.
"The door is fastened," said O'Grady.
"Turn the key, sir," said Furlong.
O'Grady unlocked the door, and was so inconsistent a person, that he
never thought of the impossibility of Furlong's having locked it, but,
in the richest spirit of bulls, asked him if he always fastened his
door on the outside. Furlong said he always did.
"What's the matter with you?" inquired O'Grady. "You're as white as the
sheet there;" and h
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