"My dear," Maud said very gently, "Jake is going to scold you for riding that half-broken colt by yourself. It was very risky. Why did you do it?"
"Oh, is Jake cross?" said Toby. She looked across at him with an imp of mischief in her eyes. Then, as he still studied his paper, abruptly she left Maud and went round to him.
"Cheer up, Jake!" she said. "Don't throw a cloud on the proceedings!"
Her voice was half impudent, half wheedling. Jake looked up, his eyes very direct and somewhat stern.
"You sit down and have some breakfast!" he said. "I'll talk to you afterwards."
She obeyed him with a slight shrug of the shoulders. "P'raps I shan't stay to be talked to," she remarked, as she did so. "I've promised to take Eileen and Molly out as soon as I've had my tub, so if it's going to be a lengthy wigging, you'd better begin now."
Jake did not begin. He turned deliberately from the bravado of her look, and began to take the covers off the breakfast dishes.
Toby leaned back provocatively in her chair, and whistled under her breath. She was plainly in a dare-devil mood, but it was not her custom to dare Jake.
"What have you done to your hands?" he said, as she reached out for the plate he offered her.
She coloured deeply. "Nothing—I mean—nothing serious. I often get my hands scratched."