He drew her gently to him.
"Run inside the house. I'll join you presently," he whispered.
She thanked him with her eyes and vanished. Gay turned to Spiller.
"You deserve a double benefit at Drury Lane, Jemmy, for what you did
just now. That wild cat was about to use her claws," said he.
"Aye, and her teeth too, Mr. Gay."
"You'll need a mouthful of mountain port after that tussle. And your
friends as well, when they've disposed of Mistress Salisbury."
The butchers had removed her out of harm's way. Some of her lady friends
and sympathisers had joined her; and a couple of young "bloods" who had
come to see the fun of an execution, with money burning holes in their
pockets, being captured, the party subsided into the "Bowl" where a
bottle of wine washed away the remembrance of Sally Salisbury's
grievance. But she vowed vengeance on the "squalling chit" sooner or
later.
Meanwhile the object of Sally Salisbury's hoped for revenge was sitting
in a dark corner of the coffee room of the Maiden Head tavern. She felt
terribly embarrassed and answered Bolingbroke's compliments in
monosyllables. He pressed her to take some wine but she refused. To her
great relief he did not trouble her with attentions.
Then Gay entering with Spiller and his butcher friends, and Leveridge,
as soon as he could, approached her.
"Tell me, Polly,--my tongue refuses to say Lavinia--how you have
offended that vulgar passionate woman?"
"I don't know.
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