"I'd have been glad," said Sir Rupert, "if a hen had laid an egg and
clucked a bit. You might have thought there had been a Resurrection or
somethin', and cleared off everybody. Lord! it was deadly. I'd have sung
out myself if it hadn't been for these infernal ribs...."
Mrs. Pope came upon the affair quite by accident.
"Well, Marjorie," she said as she poured tea for the family, "did you
get your laces?"
"Never got there, Mummy," said Marjorie, and paused fatally.
"Didn't get there!" said Mrs. Pope. "That's worse than Theodore!
Wouldn't the donkey go, poor dear?"
There was nothing to colour about, and yet Marjorie felt the warm flow
in neck and cheek and brow. She threw extraordinary quantities of
candour into her manner. "I had a romantic adventure," she said rather
quietly. "I was going to tell you."
(Sensation.)
"You see it was like this," said Marjorie. "I ran against Mr.
Trafford...."
She drank tea, and pulled herself together for a lively description of
the wheel-locking and the subsequent conversation, a bright ridiculous
account which made the affair happen by implication on the high road and
not in a byeway, and was adorned with every facetious ornament that
seemed likely to get a laugh from the children. But she talked rather
fast, and she felt she forced the fun a little. However, it amused the
children all right, and Theodore created a diversion by choking with his
tea. From first to last Marjorie was extremely careful to avoid the
affectionate scrutiny of her mother's eye. And had this lasted the
_whole_ afternoon? asked Mrs. Pope. "Oh, they'd talked for
half-an-hour," said Marjorie, or more, and had driven back very slowly
together. "He did all the talking. You saw what he was yesterday. And
the donkeys seemed too happy together to tear them away."
"But what was it all about?" asked Daffy curious.
"He asked after you, Daffy, most affectionately," said Marjorie, and
added, "several times." (Though Trafford had as a matter of fact
displayed a quite remarkable disregard of all her family.)
"And," she went on, getting a plausible idea at last, "he explained all
about aeroplanes. And all that sort of thing. Has Daddy gone to Wamping
for some more cricket?..."
(But none of this was lost on Mrs. Pope.)