“But you fancied she’d see through it? Probably. She was born and bred here, and knows the weather-signs as well as you do. What’s the good of trying to throw dust in her eyes? Put it to her plainly that, as things are, you would feel much happier if she was away, and she’ll go like a shot. Your sister and my Flora will go with her, and they’ll be a pleasant party.”
“She won’t like going when there’s no sign of danger, and it might precipitate the crisis, too. Perhaps when Burgrave launches his thunderbolt——”
“If you could only get him to escort the ladies down at once, we might pull through yet.”
“No fear,” said Dick bitterly, “until he’s done his worst.”
CHAPTER X.
GAINING A LOVER AND KEEPING A FRIEND.
“No bathing to-day, Mab!” laughed Georgia, meeting Mabel in her riding-habit in the hall.
“You mean that we can’t ride? Why not?”
“Now you look just like the prehistoric lady in the picture! Because there’s a dust-storm coming on. I meant to tell you before, but you rushed away from the breakfast-table so quickly. I have been hurrying Dick off, that he may get to the office before it begins.”
“But how do you know there’s going to be a dust-storm at all? I thought that before they came on the sky was copper-coloured, and the air got like an oven?”
“Well, the sky is getting black, as you can see. Dust-storms here are not confined to the hot weather, they come all the year round. It’s the merest chance that there hasn’t been one yet since you arrived.”