Once Sir Maurice asked her the cause of it.

She only shook her head.
Captain Baster ate his dinner in a sizzling excitement: he knew that he had made a splendid first impression; he was burning to deepen it.

But on his eager way back to Colet House, he walked warily, feeling before him with his stick for clotheslines.

He came out of the dark lane into the broad turf road, which runs across the common to the house, with a strong sense of relief and became once more his hearty care-free self.
There was not enough light to display the jaunty air with which he walked in all its perfection; but there seemed to be light enough for more serious matters, for a stone struck him on the thigh with considerable force.

He had barely finished the jump of pained surprise with which he greeted it, when another stone whizzed viciously past his head; then a third struck him on the shoulder.
With the appalling roar of a bull of Bashan the gallant officer dashed in the direction whence, he judged, the stones came.