There was no intentional familiarity in the speech; but it made her stiffen instinctively.
"It was very kind of you," she repeated, and with a bow that was even more freezingly polite than her words she turned to the chair and prepared to walk on.
But at this point Bunny suddenly found his voice in belated acknowledgment of the service rendered. "Hi! You! Stop a minute! Thanks for pushing me up this beastly hill!"
The stranger was still standing with his foot in the stirrup; but at the sound of Bunny's voice he took it out again and came to the boy's side, leading his horse.
"What a beauty!" said Bunny, admiringly. "Let me touch him, I say!"
"Oh, don't!" Maud said nervously. "He looked so savage just now."
"He's not savage," said the horse's owner, and pulled the animal's nose down to Bunny's eager, caressing hand.
The creature was plainly suspicious. He tried to avoid the caress, but his master and Bunny were equally insistent, and he finally submitted.
"He's not savage," his rider said again. "He's only young and a bit heady; wants a little shaping--like all youngsters."
Bunny's shrewd eyes flashed him a rapid glance, meeting the red-brown eyes deliberately scrutinizing him. With a certain blunt courage that was his, he tackled the situation.