"On what?"
"On having bagged a brace—without accident to yourself. But I have had enough of it."
And without waiting for a reply to this very rude speech, he rose and flung himself across the lawn into the house.
Claudia seemed less angry than she ought to have been. She sat with a little smile for a moment, then she threw her hat in the air and caught it, then lay back, sighed gently, and murmured:
"Heigho! a brace means two, doesn't it? Who's the other? Oh! Mr. Haddington, I suppose. I didn't think he knew. Poor Eugene! He's very angry, or he'd never have been so rude. 'Bagged a brace!'"
And she actually laughed again, and then said "Heigho!" again.
Just at this moment Ayre came up the drive, looking very hot and very disgusted. Seeing Claudia, he came and sat down.
"Bob's rat-hunting's a mere fraud," he said. "I was there half an hour, and we only bagged a brace."
"What a curious coincidence!" exclaimed Claudia.
"How a coincidence!"