He had hardly spoken when there emerged from the entrance in the hedge through which they had just passed, Raymond himself. Colin, white with fury, turned on him.
“Hullo, at it again?” he said. “You’ve overheard something nice this time!”
Raymond’s mouth twitched, but he gave no other sign. “Father has just sent me out to tell you that he wants to speak to you before you go to bed,” he said, and, turning, went straight back to the house.
Violet waited till the sound of his step had vanished. “Colin, you’re a brute,” she said. “You’re fiendish!”
“I know that,” said Colin. “Who ever supposed I was an angel?”
“And it’s acting like a fool to treat Raymond like that,” she went on. “Can you afford to make him hate you?”
He laughed. “I’ve afforded it as long as I can remember,” he said. “It amuses me.”
“Well, it doesn’t amuse me to see you behave like a fiend,” said Violet. “And do you know that you lost your temper? I’ve never seen you do that yet.”
Colin licked his lips; his mouth felt dry. “That was an odd thing,” he observed. “Now I know what I make Raymond feel like when we chat together. But it’s amazing that Raymond should have done the same to me. I must go in to father.”
They moved back into the shadow of the hedge and Colin stopped.