"Look you here, young lady," she said, with increasing warmth. "I'm not going to stand any of your nonsense—and of that I give you fair warning. Now you just answer me in a seemly manner and tell me exactly where you are going this afternoon, or I'll send you straight back into the house to take off your finery and not go out at all."
Dale, close by in the little sitting-room, heard his wife's voice raised thus angrily, closed the book that was lying open on his knees, and came to the window.
"What's wrong, Mav?"
"It's Norah offering me her sauce, and I won't put up with it."
Dale, with the book in his hand, came out through the kitchen, and stood by Mavis on the stone flags.
"Norah," he said seriously, "you must always be good, and do whatever Mrs. Dale tells you."
"Yes, but that's just what she doesn't do;" and Mavis explained that, in spite of repeated orders, Norah had several times gone mooning off into the woods all by herself. "So now I'm reminding her, and asking where she means to go this afternoon."
Norah, with her eyes on the flags, said that she would go to Rodchurch.
"Very good," said Mavis. "Then now you've answered, you may go."
When Norah had disappeared round the corner of the house, Mavis talked to her husband apologetically and confidentially.