'Give the constable half-a-crown, Smith, and charge it to me.' And he turned on his heel.
But at this appearance of a happy issue, Lady Dunborough's rage and chagrin, which had been rising higher and higher with each word of the dialogue, could no longer be restrained.

In an awful voice, and with a port of such majesty that an ordinary man must have shaken in his shoes before her towering headdress, 'Am I to understand,' she cried, 'that, after all that has been said about these persons, you propose to harbour them ?' The landlord looked particularly miserable; luckily he was saved from the necessity of replying by an unexpected intervention.
'We are much obliged to your ladyship,' the girl behind the table said, speaking rapidly, but in a voice rather sarcastic than vehement.

'There were reasons why I thought it impossible that we should accept this gentleman's offer.

But the words you have applied to me, and the spirit in which your ladyship has dealt with me, make it impossible for us to withdraw and lie under the--the vile imputations, you have chosen to cast upon me.

For that reason,' she continued with spirit, her face instinct with indignation, 'I do accept from this gentleman--and with gratitude--what I would fain refuse.