"Wouldn't you rather have tea with - with Peregrine?" asked Midge, catching sight of a gleam of red out of the corner of her eye. After all, if Charlotte had deserted to the other camp, what more likely that their nice Mr. Dean would go over too, if he wasn't there already?
"Frankly," said Mr. Dean, "no."
Well that was some comfort and they settled themselves at a very nice table from which they could command an excellent view of all that was going on. Midge and Susan regretted this a few minutes later when Charlotte sat down at a near-by table with the hated Gascoigne.
"I hope the sight of them doesn't put me off my food," said Susan to Midge as Mr. Dean ordered tea.
"I hope her food chokes her," said Midge.
"It won't," said Susan sadly. "There's no justice in this world."
"I hope he's madly boring about his silly old digs and she doesn't understand a word he says," said Midge.
"I hope he didn't dig up a single old broken pot," said Susan.
"I hope he fell in all the holes," said Midge.
Mr. Dean said mildly, "You sound like a couple of old witches uttering spells. What has poor Adrian done to deserve this?
Susan blushed furiously and Midge said uncomfortably, "Oh sorry, Mr. Dean, we shouldn't have been talking like this in front of you. After all, perhaps they're friends of yours."
"You've eaten their salt," said Susan solemnly.
"Mm," Mr. Dean agreed. "I nearly ate their frogs as well. Peregrine put a frog in my soup and everybody thought it was funny except me."
This cheered Midge and Susan up enormously. "We think Pea-green is quite boringly unfunny," Midge said happily, "but I must say that everybody else simply shrieks with laughter at his antics."
From SUSAN RUSHES IN, Chapter 10, Interesting and Curious Objects.
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