“Do you mind telling us where you’ve been?” she inquired, in a tone that boded no good.
The two girls looked at each other and then looked at her. “We’ve been on the moor,” they said together, with a sweet smile.
“So I gathered from what Claude has just told us.”
Lady Jane looked from Gwendolen to Evelyn, and then at Gwendolen again. She had always found it hard to face the air of mild innocence they put on after doing something particularly outrageous.
“Oh, well, since Claude has told you all about it, of course you know. I hope you don’t mind very much.”
“Raddles says the motor’s all right, and that it’s a very good test, because if it will stand that it will stand anything.”
This reassuring statement was vouchsafed by Evelyn, who was the elder sister and the fair one, and, if anything, the calmer of the two. Both had the sweetest possible way of speaking, and seemed quite surprised that their doings should not be thought quite normal.
“It was awfully low-down of you to go and tell, all the same,” Gwendolen observed, smiling at Claude.
“I thought it rather natural,” he answered, “as it seemed quite probable that you had broken your necks.”
“You deserved to, I must say,” said Lady Jane tartly, “though I’m glad you didn’t. I shall send you both to a boarding-school to-morrow.”