'
'Did you?' avidly. 'I should have liked to see that. I have often oiled
their bats for them. Careless lads, they always forget. Was that nice
German boy with him?'
'Mr. Karl? Not far off, sir. He was sitting by the bank of the stream
playing on his flute; and Miss Barbara, she had climbed one of my
apple-trees,--she says they are your trees.' He lowers.
'They are, you know, Dering,' the Colonel says meekly.
'Yes, sir, in a sense,' brushing the spurious argument aside, 'but I
don't like any of you to meddle with them. And there she sat, pelting
the two of them with green apples.'
'How like her!' The Colonel shakes his head indulgently. 'I don't know
how we are to make a demure young lady of her.'
Dering smirks. 'They say in the village, sir, that Master Will would
like to try.'
To the Colonel this is wit of a high order.
'Ha! ha! he is just a colt himself.' But the laughter breaks off. He
seems to think that he will get the truth if Dering comes closer, 'Who
are all here now, Dering; in the house, I mean? I sometimes forget. They
grow old so quickly.
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