"You might as well have come with us; we've had such a jolly time."
"I don't care about gathering flowers, and I like fishing still less," said Gilbert disdainfully.
"In short, you prefer your own sweet company to ours. Oh, I say, old fellow, don't go!" Tom cried hastily, as his brother was moving away. "You're never going off in a huff, are you?"
"I'm not in a huff."
"No?" Tom said questioningly. "Well, then, don't be so much on your dignity. Wait a few minutes, and by-and-by we'll all go home together. Here come the girls. Where is Gerald, I wonder!"
Angel looked around for her brother, but he was nowhere within sight; she concluded he would return presently.
"So you're back," Dinah remarked to Tom. "What a chase we've had after you! We gave you too much start. Oh, there's Angel. We lost her altogether."
"I couldn't keep up," Angel exclaimed. "Is Gerald coming?"
"No; he has gone home."
"Gone home?" echoed a chorus of voices.