Wilfrid, suspecting that she aimed at a _tete-a-tete_, proposed that his father should accompany them.

Mrs.
Rossall overruled the suggestion.
'How wonderfully you are picking up,' she said, after watching him pull for a few minutes.

'Do you know, Wilf, your tendency is to stoutness; in a few years you will be portly, if you live too sedentary a life.' He looked annoyed, and by so doing gratified her.

She proceeded.
'What do you think I overheard one of our spectacled friends say this morning--"_Sehen Sie mal_,"-- you were walking at a little distance--"_da haben Sie das Muster des englischen Aristokraten_.

_O, der gute, schlichte Junge_!"' Wilfrid had been working up his German.