It is our favourite haunt on a hot summer's afternoon." Malcolm made an appropriate reply, and for the next few minutes they talked pleasantly of Staplegrove, and the short cut that led to Rotherwood church and village; and then Cedric joined them, and began chatting volubly to his sister; and Malcolm drank his tea and watched them both.

He owned to Anna afterwards that Dinah Templeton was a revelation to him, and that all his preconceived notions of her fell as flat as a pack of cards.
The demure and somewhat stately spinster he was expecting to see was certainly not en evidence in this gray-haired, radiant-looking woman; the soft, girlish bloom and the silvery hair were wonderfully attractive; and yet what struck him most, with a sort of indefinable surprise, was the mingled gentleness and brightness of expression; there was such a wonderful clearness in the eyes--it somehow reminded him of the innocent look of a happy child.
And it was to this sweet woman that Cedric was talking in that cavalier fashion--with much affection certainly, but little reverence, after the manner of the nineteenth-century youth.

More than once Malcolm muttered "Jackanapes" under his breath, and once he interposed.
"Our young friend is too modern in his notions, Miss Templeton," he observed.

"Young Oxford is so cock-sure of everything under the sun--it is a fault of the age." "Oh, do you think so ?" and Miss Templeton looked relieved; for the moment her serenity had seemed slightly clouded with what her sister always called her "hen and duckling look." "Oh, you may laugh, Cedric," looking at him fondly, "but I intend to believe Mr.Herrick, he is older and more experienced.

Oh, we have such arguments sometimes," turning to Malcolm.