She came to him quickly, and gave him her hand.

Her lips trembled, but she did not speak.

Blackton accepted this as the psychological moment.
"What do you think of a man who'll wander off a trail, tumble over a ledge, and get mixed up in a bunch of wait-a-bit like _that ?_" he demanded, laughing as though he thought it a mighty good joke on Aldous.

"Wait-a-bit thorns are worse than razors, Miss Gray," he elucidated further.
"They're--they're perfectly devilish, you know!" "Indeed they _are_," emphasized Peggy Blackton, whom her husband had given a quick look and a quicker nudge, "They're dreadful!" Looking straight into Joanne's eyes, Aldous guessed that she did not believe, and scarcely heard, the Blacktons.
"I had a presentiment something was going to happen," she said, smiling at him.

"I'm glad it was no worse than that." She withdrew her hand, and turned to Peggy Blackton.