"Did you, my dear? That's very good."
The Colonel and his wife looked at her with affectionate satisfaction.
"I'm going to take off my hat."
She gave James to put in the hall her sailor hat and her rough tweed cloak. She wore a bicycling skirt and heavy, square-toed boots.
"Say you're glad to see us, Jamie!" she cried, laughing.
Her voice was rather loud, clear and strong, perhaps wanting variety of inflection. She sat by Jamie's side, and broke into a cheerful, rather humorous, account of the day's excursion.
"How silent you are, Jamie!" she cried at last.
"You haven't given me a chance to get a word in yet," he said, smiling gravely.
They all laughed, ready to be pleased at the smallest joke, and banter was the only form of humour they knew.
"Are you tired?" asked Mary, her cheerful eyes softening.