“I am speaking of the outside tyre.”
Tiddy had the impression that she was courteously snubbed. Grimshaw wrestled with the tyre, and prevailed. Then he righted the bicycle with a vigorous swing, and held it by the bars.
“Up, and away!”
“Thanks, Mr. Grimshaw, and thanks again.”
“Not at all. Good-bye.”
“Certainly not. Au revoir.”
II
Tiddy had ten minutes for reflection before she reached the Manor, and she made the most of it. All that was feminine in Miss Tiddle became ebullient. She simply effervesced with excitement and the consciousness that the game was not over, hardly begun in point of fact. Romeo cared and Juliet cared. Destiny had been beastly to them. Sir Nathaniel’s daughter snapped her fingers at destiny, and then extended them, placing her thumb to her tip-tilted nose.
“She cares; she must care; and so does he.”
Again we are unable to divine how Tiddy arrived at this unshakable conviction.