"You presume on your long services, Whitaker, and on your master's
absence, or you had not dared to use me thus," said the lady.

The unwonted agitation of her voice attracted the attention of the
refractory steward, notwithstanding his present state of elevation;
but he no sooner saw that her eye glistened, and her cheek reddened,
than his obstinacy was at once subdued.

"A murrain on me," he said, "but I have made my lady angry in good
earnest! and that is an unwonted sight for to see.--I crave your
pardon, my lady! It was not poor Dick Whitaker disputed your
honourable commands, but only that second draught of double ale. We
have put a double stroke of malt to it, as your ladyship well knows,
ever since the happy Restoration. To be sure I hate a fanatic as I do
the cloven foot of Satan; but then your honourable ladyship hath a
right to invite Satan himself, cloven foot and all, to Martindale
Castle; and to send me to hell's gate with a billet of invitation--and
so your will shall be done."

The invitations were sent round accordingly, in all due form; and one
of the bullocks was sent down to be roasted whole at the market-place
of a little village called Martindale-Moultrassie, which stood
considerably to the eastward both of the Castle and Hall, from which
it took its double name, at about an equal distance from both; so
that, suppose a line drawn from the one manor-house to the other, to
be the base of a triangle, the village would have occupied the salient
angle. As the said village, since the late transference of a part of
Peveril's property, belonged to Sir Geoffrey and to Bridgenorth in
nearly equal portions, the lady judged it not proper to dispute the
right of the latter to add some hogsheads of beer to the popular