"I can't hold this dog much longer," Meg gasped. "If you don't go—you'll get bitten."
William ceased to growl, for far down the road he had heard a footstep that he knew. He still strained at his collar, but it was in a direction that led away from Mr. Walter Brooke. Meg let go and William swung off down the road.
"Shall we all have a lide in loo ghalli?" little Fay asked—it seemed to her sheer waste of time to stand arguing in the road when a good car was waiting empty. The children called every form of conveyance a "gharri."
"We shall meet again," said this persistent man. "You can't put me off like this."
He raised his voice, for he was angry, and its clear tones carried far down the quiet road.
"There's Captain Middleton with William,"
Tony said suddenly. "Perhaps he has some money."
Meg paled and crimsoned, and with hands that trembled started to push the pram at a great pace.
The man went back to his car, and Tony, regardless of Meg's call to him, ran to meet William and Miles.
The back wheels of the car had sunk deeply into the soft wet turf. It refused to budge. Miles came up. He was long-sighted, and he had seen very well who it was that was talking to Meg in the road. He had also heard Mr. Brooke's last remark.