“That will bring the boys in,” he explained. “Now I’ll get Miss Gladwyne’s supper.”
During the meal the others came back and when they had all assembled, looking the worse for their scramble through the bush, Crestwick, who had occasional lapses from good behavior, addressed them collectively.
“Wasn’t I right?” he asked. “I offered anybody three to one that Lisle would be the first to find her.”
“Then you ought to be ashamed of it, after the expensive way in which your confidence in your opinions has often been shown to be mistaken,” declared Bella. “Besides, you promised me you wouldn’t waste your money that way again!”
“This time I was backing a moral certainty,” Crestwick rejoined. “That isn’t gambling; if you’re not convinced, you can ask the others on what grounds they were so unwilling to take me.”
Receiving no encouragement, he addressed Millicent, who was extremely vexed with him.
“I suppose you know that you have given us all a good deal of anxiety. You ought to feel contrite.”
“I’m not sorry if I’ve given you a good deal of trouble,” Millicent retorted. “You were a long time in coming to my rescue.”
“That,” he exclaimed, “is just the kind of thing Bella used to delight in saying, though I’ll own that she’s been much more civil lately. It’s possible that Carew’s patience is not so long as mine.”
“Aren’t you getting rather personal?” Carew hinted.