"He pushed me back into the limousine--with some degree of force, too, confound him! Who can he be ?" "Suppose we idquire," growled Vassilan, and, mopping his nose with the Earl's handkerchief, he tugged viciously at the old-fashioned bell-pull which served the needs of visitors to the Rev.Thomas J.Hughes.
The maid-servant who took the names of the two men was surprised, and showed it, but her democratic respect for titles yielded to suspicion when she observed Count Vassilan's villainous guise.
"Wil-li-am!" she cried, and, when the ex-sailor appeared from the depths, she asked him to "look after the gentlemen" while she summoned Mr.Hughes.
"Cad you take me somewhere, ad supply me with a towel ad pledty of cold water ?" said the Hungarian, addressing the wizened one.
Now, Jenkins was verger and pew-opener in the church as well as trusted assistant to the aged minister, but the ways and language of the fo'c's'l came back to him with irresistible force when he gazed on the Hungarian's damaged organ.
"Lord love a duck, you've had it handed to you all right," he gasped.
"How did you get it?
Did you foul a lamp-post, or bump a rock, or what ?" "It is edough that I have met with ad accided," snarled the Count.
"Cad't you see that I wadt some water?
Is there do place where I cad wash ?" "What you reelly want is a tap," said Jenkins sympathetically.

"An' I shouldn't be surprised if a slab of raw beefsteak across yer lamps wouldn't be a bully good notion, too, or you'll have a lovely pair of mice in the morning." Then, hearing Mr.Hughes's voice from the library, he suddenly recollected the habits of later years.
"Come with me, sir," he said, leading the way to the basement.

"I'll do my best for you." Perhaps it was fortunate for the success of his mission that the Earl of Valletort was left free to deal with the clergyman.

The Count's hectoring methods would certainly have stiffened the worthy old gentleman's back, whereas he yielded readily to the Earl's skillful handling.

He was much pained at hearing that a peer's daughter should have fallen into the hands of an adventurer.
"Dear me! Dear me!" he wheezed.