"They've no need of _you_--keep out of my way," Diana answered roughly,
at which Mick and the others laughed as if it was a very good joke, for
hitherto Diana had been always accused of "favouring" the boy.
Tim looked up resentfully. He had it on his tongue--for after all he was
only a child--to say something which might have done harm never to be
undone, for he could not understand Diana. But something in her face, as
she looked at him steadily, stopped the words of reproach as they rose
to his lips.
"You'll make an end of them, you will, if you keep them choked up in
there all day," he said sullenly. "Why can't you let 'em out for a bit
of a run with me, like you've done before?"
"I'll let them out when it suits me, and not before. It's none of your
business," she replied, while adding in a lower tone that no one else
could overhear: "I'd never have thought you such a fool, Tim;" and Tim,
feeling rather small,--for he began to understand her a little,--walked
off.
All this was at what they called dinner-time, when the vans generally
halted for an hour or so and hitherto--even when they were travelling
too quickly for the children to have walked beside for a change, as they
had sometimes done when going slowly--Mick or Diana had always let them
out at this hour for a breath of fresh air.
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