"Oh damn!" said the newcomer disconsolately. "Then I shall soon be sent back in disgrace."
"Cheer up!" said Bunny. "We don't convict on a first offence as a rule in this country."
"But I shall never remember!" groaned the other, and for the first time the words held a note that was not wholly boyish, it sounded wistful, even rather piteous. "People's ways are all so different. It's rather infernal—trying to please everybody, you know, Bunny."
"Never mind!" said Bunny, in a brotherly tone. "I'll kick you every time
I see it coming if you like."
"Will you really? That would be jolly decent of you." The wistfulness vanished in a laugh that was quick and musical, wholly spontaneous.
"You bet I will!" said Bunny.
"Right O! Mind you do! Now get out of the way and see me jump that rose tree!"
There followed the light scamper of feet, and Maud raised herself swiftly and leaned forth in time to see an athletic little figure in navy blue wearing a jaunty Panama hat, skim like a bird over a sweeping Dorothy Perkins just coming into bloom and alight on one leg with the perfect poise of a winged Mercury on the other side.