“I wish to goodness he had left me alone!”
“Me couldn’t, of course, because you’re a girl. I’m not sure that girls ought to ride at all,” said Charlie, helping himself to more tea-cake. “Otherwise, I bet he’d have got out of the way fast enough. I never knew any one cut in as sharply as he did. I couldn’t have done it myself.”
“You! Of course you couldn’t, a boy like you!” She was stung to retort. “I wish you’d finish your tea and go. They’ll all be wondering what has become of us.”
“I’ll go. But I never saw such a beastly tea as old Fuller has brought in,” he remarked, mournfully regarding the empty dish.
“Charlie!”
“Well?”
“You go and ask Mrs Graham how Captain Fenwick is going on, and I’ll order in a second tea-cake.”
“You won’t dare.”
“Won’t I?”
“Oh, I shan’t go up again.”