"You are rather late," said Nessa.
"Yes," replied Winnie; "we were getting apples, and Bland nearly caught us, so we had to run round the long way. He did catch me, but I wriggled away from him. We brought the apples all safe," she added, turning to Murtagh.
"All right," said Murtagh, shortly.
Winnie glanced quickly from him to Nessa, and then subsided into silence.
"I thought you ought not to take the apples," said Nessa.
"No," replied Bobbo, "but we had to; we wanted them."
The children were bad actors. Nessa wondered what was the matter, and wondered why none of them made the slightest allusion to the event which had apparently been so deeply interesting to them in the morning.
After luncheon she was standing before the drawing-room fire, when the door opened and Murtagh ran in. To her surprise he threw his arms round her and kissed her. Then, blushing a little at what he had done, he said earnestly:
"You're awfully kind. I'll tell you about everything this evening," and without waiting for her to answer he ran away again.
Rosie was with them, and having completely recovered from her fit of crying she was very anxious now to regain her place in Winnie's and Murtagh's esteem.