"Little Brick," said Mr. Reffold, "isn't it nice to have Winifred here?
And I have been so disagreeable and snappish."
"Oh, we won't say anything about that now," said Mrs. Reffold, smiling sweetly.
"But I've said I am sorry," he continued. "And one can't do more."
"No," said Bernardine, who was amused at the notion of Mr. Reffold apologizing to Mrs. Reffold, and of Mrs. Reffold posing as the gracious forgiver, "one can't do more." But she could not control her feelings, and she laughed.
"You seem rather merry this afternoon," Mr. Reffold said, in a reproachful tone of voice.
"Yes," she said. And she laughed again. Mrs. Reffold's forgiving graciousness had altogether upset her gravity.
"You might at least tell us the joke," Mrs. Reffold said. Bernardine looked at her hopelessly, and laughed again.
"I have been developing photographs all the afternoon," she said, "and I suppose the closeness of the air and the badness of my negatives have been too much for me. Anyway, I know I must seem very rude."
She recovered herself after that, and tried hard not to think of Mrs. Reffold as the dispenser of forgiveness, although it was some time before she could look at her hostess without wishing to laugh. The corners of her mouth twitched, and her brown eyes twinkled mischievously, and she spoke very rapidly, making fun of her first attempts at photography, and criticising herself so comically, that both Mr. and Mrs. Reffold were much amused.
All the same, Bernardine was relieved when Mrs. Reffold went to fetch some silks, and left her with Mr. Reffold.