He was laughing at me for all he was worth.

I _know_ he was!" At eighteen it is an overwhelming matter to be laughed at.

Quenrede's newly-developed dignity was decidedly wounded.
"After all, it was a very schoolgirlish thing to do," she remarked, sticking in hair-pins as well as she could without a mirror.

"Do you think he's still there?
I shall stop here till he marches off." "I'll go and prospect," said Ingred.
She came back with the bad news that not only was the stranger still there, but he was actually in close and apparently familiar conversation with Athelstane and Hereward, who were calling loudly for their sisters, and to confirm her words came distant jodellings of: "Ingred!" "Queenie!" "Where are you girls ?" There was nothing for it but to come forth from their retreat.

It was impossible to stay hidden forever.