"I should think they do, especially when they belong to someone who's always climbing trees, or crawling on his hands and knees up hedges, or falling into ditches," she reminded him, casting an affectionate glance at the little figure now hovering around her dressing-table. "What are you doing, Master Theodore?" she asked suspiciously.
"Oh, nothing," he answered evasively, which was not true, for, without being seen, he had managed to convey a box of matches from the dressing-table to the pocket of his trousers. "I came to know what you intend to do this afternoon, Jane," he added. "Are you going out?"
"I'll take you and Master Jack for a nice long walk presently, but I must finish these stockings first. You can wait for me in the parlour," she told him.
"Will you be long?" Theodore asked, feeling for the first time a little hypocritical as he put the question.
"Oh, about half an hour."
"Very well."
Theodore retired, closing the door gently behind him. Then he rushed downstairs and joined Jack, who was waiting for him, looking decidedly uneasy, having been thinking matters over.
"It's all right," Theodore told him, reassuringly. "She won't be ready to go out for half an hour and by that time we shall have gone a good way. Come and let us ask Mrs. Fry to give us some cake to put in our pockets."
"But won't Jane wonder where we are?"
"Of course she will."