"Stop him!" he yelled. "Call him off. He'll-he'll spoil the lawn."
"Ruin it," shrilled Emma.
"Where?" said Berry blankly. "What lawn?"
"This lawn!" roared Vandy, stamping his foot.
"But I thought——"
"I don't care what you thought. Call the brute off. It's my land, and I won't have it."
"Nobby," said Berry, "come off the bowling green."
Scrambling to my feet, I countersigned the order in a peremptory tone. Aggrievedly the terrier complied. My brother-in-law turned to Vandy with an injured air.
"I fear," he said stiffly, "that we are unwelcome." Instinctively Emma and May made as though they would protest. In some dignity Berry lifted his hand. "I may be wrong," he said. "I hope so. But from the first I felt that your manner was strained. Subsequent events suggest that my belief was well founded." He turned to Vandy. "May I ask you to let us out? I am reluctant to trouble you, but to scale those gates twice in one morning is rather more than I care about."
Fearful lest our surprise at our reception should become crystallized into an undesirable suspicion, short of pressing us to remain, our cousins did everything to smooth our ruffled plumage.