As soon as they had passed the gates, they were met by a middle-aged woman carrying a child of two years old, an infant of wonderfully hearty appearance.

At the sight of its father it chuckled and crowed.

Dagworthy took it from the woman's arms, and began a game which looked not a little dangerous; with surprising strength and skill, he tossed it up some feet into the air, caught it as it descended, tossed it up again.

The child shrieked with delight, for all that the swift descent positively stopped its breath, and made a hiatus in the screaming.
'Theer, that's abaht enough, Mr.Richard,' said the woman, in broad dialect, when the child had gone up half a dozen times; she was nervous, and kept holding out her arms involuntarily.

'Ah doan't ovver much fancy that kind o' laakin.