It was with a kind of terror that he saw Georgiana charging down upon them remorselessly through the trees. Dolly had wrung her hand away and vanished with a little sound like a gasp, and he, on the wrong side of the gate, was almost speechless with wrath and temper.
"If a man can't furnish his own study as he likes——" he stammered darkly, turning on his heel. Georgiana was like a fate.
"What was Freddy saying?"
A rather sad little face was visible among the leaves of the weeping ash.
He saw Georgiana charging down upon them.
"I—I don't know, Georgiana. He was just beginning—I think he has fallen in love again."
The elder girl glanced at her young sister with a gleam of suspicion, but Dolly had spoken in all good faith. And, indeed, in the dim past Freddy had once or twice been smitten and had confided his troubles to the kind ears of Dolly. They had been slight affairs and, although unhappy, always less tragic than laughable.
"He did not say who it was?"
"No," answered Dolly, "because you interrupted. I—I—I'm trying to guess."