"Oh, mother!" he cried, "what shall I do? I ought not to have told you anything about Theo's going with Tom Blake. Theo will be so angry."
"Nonsense, my dear. It was Miss Selina who told me, in the first place."
"Of course Theo couldn't promise not to have anything more to do with Tom Blake, if he meant to all the time."
"No, certainly not. But remember, Jack, it is Theodore's duty to obey Jane whilst he is under her charge."
"I know. But Theo wouldn't tell a lie, mother; and you see he doesn't mean to give up Tom Blake—he says he is such a nice boy."
"And do you think he is, Jack?"
Jack hung his head guiltily, mindful of many things that Theodore had repeated to him as clever speeches of Tom's.
Mrs. Barton did not press the question, and presently the party in the hayfield broke up.
"This has been the happiest day of my life," the little invalid confided to his stepbrother later on, "and I've been thanking God for it."
"It has been jolly," Theodore replied. "But what a queer chap you are, to thank God for it; you're as funny as old John Bawdon—that's just his way of talking."