"What sort of nose?" demanded the unseen speaker--"long or short?"
"Neither, please, my lady; bluish, rayther, I should say."
"But it is either long or short, _decidedly_, and I forget which," said Lady Alice--"'_Tis_n't he!"
The General ground his teeth with impatience, and knocked so sharp a signal at the door that Lady Alice bounced in her bed.
"Lord bless us! How dare he do that?--tell him how dare he."
"Lady Alice, sir, would be much obliged if you'd be so good not knock so loud, sir, please," said the maid at the door, translating the message.
"Tell your mistress I'm General Lennox, and must have my key," glared the General, and the lady's-maid, who was growing nervous, returned.
"He looks, my lady, like he'd beat us, please, if he does not get the key, my lady."
"Sha'n't have it, the brute! We don't know he is--a robber, maybe. Bolt the door, and tell him to bring Monsieur Varbarriere to the lobby, and if _he_ says he's General Lennox he shall have the key."
With trembling fingers the maid _did_ bolt the door, and once more accost the soldier, who was chafing on the threshold.
"Please, sir, my lady is not well, having nervous pains, please sir, in her head to-night, and therefore would be 'appy if you would be so kind to bring Mister Barvarrian" (the name by which our corpulent friend was known in the servants' hall) "to her door, please, when she'll try what she may do to oblige you, sir."
"They don't know me," said the General, accosting Varbarriere, who was only half a dozen steps removed, and whom he had rejoined. "You must come to the door, they say, and tell them it's all right."
Perhaps with some inward sense of the comic, Varbarriere presented himself at the door, when, his voice being recognised, and he himself reconnoitred through the keyhole and reported upon, the maid presented herself in an extemporised drapery of cloaks and shawls, like a traveller in winter, and holding these garments together with one hand, with the other presented the key, peering anxiously in the General's face.
"I thank you," said the General, with a nod, to which she responded with such a courtesy as her costume permitted. The door shut, and as the gentlemen withdrew they heard the voices of the inmates again busy with the subject.