Instead, she could not help laughing at the tales of his masculine shiftlessness.

But as soon as they came in view of the others, Tilly and Purdy sitting under one parasol on a rock by the cave, Jinny standing and looking out rather aggressively after the loiterers, she withdrew her arm.
"Moth ...

Mrs.Beamish will need me to help her with tea.

And ...

and WOULD you please walk back with Jinny ?" Before he could reply, she had turned and was hurrying away.
They got home from the cave at sundown, he with the ripe Jinny hanging a dead weight on his arm, to find tea spread in the private parlour.
The table was all but invisible under its load; and their hostess looked as though she had been parboiled on her own kitchen fire.