“We gen’ally hide ahind the waratahs or the bamboos, or up a tree’s a good place,” said Muffie, much interested.
If it were hide-and-seek about to begin, this is where Max shone. He laid down his pen and slipped down from his chair.
“I’ll find her for you,” he said. “I find licker than any one. Once I found Paul an’ she was lapped up in the sheets in the linen less.”
But Hugh had made off towards the bamboos without any help. He could see a moving dress beyond the loose striped leaves.
At the sound of footsteps on the gravel the skirts moved rapidly away.
“So!” he said to himself. “Very well, Miss Bibby, it’s not dignified for persons of our age, but you’ll give up this chase before I do.”
[p148]
She must have realized this, for, when they neared the waratahs she stood absolutely still and waited.
“You’re in for it now, my fine chap,” Hugh said to himself, “and she’ll weep—she’s just the sort to weep. Well, you jolly well deserve it, you brute.”
Then he walked up to her.
She wore a dark blue cambric to-day with a soft leather belt and dainty white muslin cuffs and collar as a relief. The costume suited her infinitely better than the limp lavender had done.