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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/17381-8.txt b/17381-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9714f96 --- /dev/null +++ b/17381-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10564 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, What Timmy Did, by Marie Adelaide Belloc +Lowndes + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: What Timmy Did + + +Author: Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes + + + +Release Date: December 23, 2005 [eBook #17381] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT TIMMY DID*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/ + + + +WHAT TIMMY DID + +by + +MRS. BELLOC LOWNDES + +Author of "From Out the Vasty Deep," "The Lonely House," "Love and +Hatred," "Good Old Anna," "The Chink in the Armour," Etc. + + + + + + + +Copyright, 1922, +By George H. Doran Company + + + + +WHAT TIMMY DID + + + +"Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling from the power of the +dog."--_Psalms_ xxii, 20. + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +The telephone bell rang sharply in the sunlit and charming, if shabby, +hall of Old Place. + +To John Tosswill there was always something incongruous, and recurringly +strange, in this queer link between a little country parish mentioned in +Domesday Book and the big bustling modern world. + +The bell tinkled on and on insistently, perhaps because it was now no +one's special duty to attend to it. But at last the mistress of the house +came running from the garden and, stripping off her gardening gloves, +took up the receiver. + +Janet Tosswill was John Tosswill's second wife, and, though over forty, +a still young and alert looking woman, more Irish than Scotch in +appearance, with her dark hair and blue eyes. But she came of good +Highland stock and was proud of it. + +"London wants you," came the tired, cross voice she knew all too well. + +"I think there must be some mistake. This is Old Place, Beechfield, +Surrey. I don't think anyone can be ringing us from London." + +She waited a moment impatiently. Of course it was a mistake! Not a soul +in London knew their telephone number. It had never been put on their +notepaper. Still, she went on listening with the receiver held to her +ear, and growing more and more annoyed at the futile interruption and +waste of time. + +She was just going to hang up the receiver when all at once the +expression of her face altered. From being good-humoured, if slightly +impatient, it became watchful, and her eyes narrowed as was their way +when Janet Tosswill was "upset" about anything. She had suddenly heard, +with startling clearness, the words:--"Is that Old Place, Beechfield? If +so, Mr. Godfrey Radmore would like to speak to Mrs. Tosswill." + +She was so surprised, so taken aback that for a moment she said nothing. +At last she answered very quietly:--"Tell Mr. Radmore that Mrs. Tosswill +is here waiting on the 'phone." + +There was another longish pause, and then, before anything else happened, +Janet Tosswill experienced an odd sensation; it was as if she felt the +masterful, to her not over-attractive, presence of Godfrey Radmore +approaching the other end of the line. A moment later, she knew he was +there, within earshot, but silent. + +"Is that you, Godfrey? We thought you were in Australia. Have you been +home long?" + +The answer came at once, in the deep, resonant, once familiar voice--the +voice no one had heard in Old Place for nine years--nine years with the +war having happened in between. + +"Indeed no, Janet! I've only been back a very short time." (She noticed +he did not say how long.) "And I want to know when I may come down and +see you all? I hope you and Mr. Tosswill will believe me when I say it +wasn't my fault that I didn't come to Beechfield last year. I hadn't a +spare moment!" + +The tone of the unseen speaker had become awkward, apologetic, and the +listener bit her lips--she did not believe in his explanation as to why +he had behaved with such a lack of gratitude and good feeling last +autumn. + +"We shall be very glad to see you at any time, of course. When can we +expect you?" + +But the welcoming words were uttered very coldly. + +"It's Tuesday to-day; I was thinking of motoring down on Friday or +Saturday. I've got a lot of business to do before then. Will that be +all right?" + +"Of course it will. Come Friday." + +She was thawing a little, and perhaps he felt this, for there came an +eager, yearning note into the full, deep voice which sounded so oddly +near, and which, for the moment, obliterated the long years since she had +heard it last. + +"How's my godson? Flick still in the land of the living, eh?" + +"Thank heaven, yes! That dog's the one thing in the world Timmy cares +for, I sometimes think." + +He felt that she was smiling now. + +She heard the question:--"Another three minutes, sir?" and the hasty +answer:--"Yes, another three minutes," and then, "Still there, Janet?" + +"Of course I am. We'll expect you on Friday, Godfrey, by tea-time, and +I hope you'll stay as long as you can. You won't mind having your old +room?" + +"Rather not!" and then in a hesitating, shamefaced voice:--"I needn't +tell _you_ that to me Old Place _is_ home." + +It was in a very kindly voice that she answered: "I'm glad you still feel +like that, Godfrey." + +"Of course I do, and of course I am ashamed of not having written more +often. I often think of you all--especially of dear old George--" There +came a pause, then the words:--"I want to ask you a question, Janet." + +Janet Tosswill felt quite sure she knew what that question would be. +Before linking up with them all again Godfrey wanted to know certain +facts about George. While waiting for him to speak she had time to tell +herself that this would prove that her husband and Betty, the eldest of +her three step-daughters, had been wrong in thinking that Godfrey Radmore +knew that George, Betty's twin, had been killed in the autumn of 1916. At +that time all correspondence between Radmore and Old Place had ceased for +a long time. When it had begun again in 1917, in the form of a chaffing +letter and a cheque for five pounds to the writer's godson, Betty had +suggested that nothing should be said of George's death in Timmy's +answer. Of course Betty's wish had been respected, the more so that Janet +herself felt sure that Godfrey did not know. Why, he and George--dear, +sunny-natured George--had been like fond brothers in the long ago, before +Godfrey's unfortunate love-affair with Betty. + +And so it was that when she heard his next words they took her entirely +by surprise, for it was such an unimportant, as well as unexpected, +question that the unseen speaker asked. + +"Has Mrs. Crofton settled down at The Trellis House yet?" + +"She's arriving to-day, I believe. When she first thought of coming here +she wrote John such a nice letter, saying she was a friend of yours, and +that you had told her about Beechfield. Luckily, The Trellis House was to +let, so John wrote and told her about it." + +Then, at last, came a more intimate question. The man's voice at the +other end of the telephone became diffident--hesitating:--"Are you all +right? Everything as usual?" + +She answered, drily. "Everything's quite as usual, thank you. Beechfield +never changes. Since you were last here there have only been two new +cottages built." She paused perceptibly, and then went on:--"I think that +Timmy told you that Betty was with the Scottish Women's Hospital during +the war? She's got one of the best French decorations." + +Should she say anything about George? Before she could make up her mind +she heard the words--"You can't go on any longer now. Time's up." And +Radmore called out hastily:--"Till Friday then--so long!" + +Janet Tosswill hung up the receiver; but she did not move away from the +telephone at once. She stood there, wondering painfully whether she had +better go along and tell Betty _now_, or whether it would be better to +wait till, say, lunch, when all the young people would be gathered +together? After all Betty had been nineteen when her engagement to +Godfrey Radmore had been broken off, and so very much had happened since +then. + +And then, in a sense, her mind was made up for her by the fact that a +shadow fell across the floor of the hall, and looking up, she saw her old +friend and confidant, Dr. O'Farrell, blocking up the doorway with his big +burly body. + +"D'you remember Godfrey Radmore?" she asked as their hands met. + +"Come now, you're joking surely. Remember Radmore? I've good cause to; I +don't know whether I ever told you--" there came a slight, very slight +note of embarrassment into his hearty Irish voice--"that I wrote to the +good fellow just after the Armistice, about our Pat. That the boy's doing +as well out in Brisbane as he is, is largely owing to Radmore's good +offices." + +Mrs. Tosswill was surprised, and not quite pleased. She wondered why Dr. +O'Farrell had not told her at the time that he was writing to Godfrey. +She still subconsciously felt that Godfrey Radmore belonged to Old Place +and to no one else in Beechfield. + +"I didn't know about Pat," she said slowly. "But you'll be able to thank +him in person now, for he's coming on Friday to stay with us." + +"Is he now?" The shrewd Irishman looked sharply into her troubled face. +"Well, well, you'll have to let bygones be bygones--eh, Mrs. Toss? I take +it he's a great man now." + +"I don't think money makes for greatness," she said. + +"Don't you?" he queried drily. "I do! Come admit, woman, that you're +sorry _now_ you didn't let Betty take the risk?" + +"I'm not at all sorry--" she cried. "It was all his fault. He was such +a strange, rough, violent young fellow!" + +The words trembled on the old doctor's lips--"Perhaps it will all come +right now!" But he checked himself, for in his heart of hearts he did +not in the least believe that it would all come right. He knew well +enough that Godfrey Radmore, after that dramatic exit to Australia, had +cut himself clean off from all his friends. He was coming back now as +that wonderful thing to most people--a millionaire. Was it likely, so +the worldly-wise old doctor asked himself, that a man whose whole +circumstances had so changed, ever gave a thought to that old boyish love +affair with Betty Tosswill?--violent, piteous and painful as the affair +had been. But had Betty forgotten? About that the doctor had his doubts, +but he kept them strictly to himself. + +He changed the subject abruptly. "It isn't scarlet fever at the +Mortons--only a bit of a red rash. I thought you'd like to know. + +"It's good of you to have come and told me," she exclaimed. "I confess +I did feel anxious, for Timmy was there the whole of the day before +yesterday." + +"Ah! and how's me little friend?" + +Janet Tosswill looked around--but no, there was no one in the corridor of +which the door, giving into the hall, was wide open. + +"He's gone to do an errand for me in the village." + +"The boy is much more normal, eh?" He looked at her questioningly. + +"He still says that he sees things," she admitted reluctantly, "though +he's rather given' up confiding in me. He tells old Nanna extraordinary +tales, but then, as you know, Timmy was always given to romancing, and of +course Nanna believes every word he says and in a way encourages him." + +The doctor looked at Timmy's mother with a twinkle in his eye. "Nanna +isn't the only one," he observed. "I was told in the village just now +that Master Timmy had scared away the milk from Tencher's cow." + +A look of annoyance came over Mrs. Tosswill's face. "I shall have to +speak to Timmy," she exclaimed. "He's much too given to threatening the +village people with ill fortune if they have done anything he thinks +wrong or unkind. The child was awfully upset the other day because he +discovered that the Tenchers had drowned a half-grown kitten." + +"He's a queer little chap," observed the old doctor, "a broth of a boy, +if ye'll allow me to say so--I'd be proud of Timmy if I were his mother, +Mrs. Toss!" + +"Perhaps I _am_ proud of him," she said smiling, "but still I always tell +John he's a changeling child--so absurdly unlike all the others." + +"Ah, but that's where _you_ come in, me good friend. 'Twas a witch you +must have had among ye're ancestresses in the long ago." + +He gripped her hand, and went out to his two-seater, his mind still full +of his friend's strange little son. + +Then all at once--he could not have told you why--Dr. O'Farrell's mind +switched off to something very different, and he went back into the hall +again. + +"A word more with ye, Mrs. Tosswill. What sort of a lady has taken The +Trellis House, eh? We don't even know her name." + +"She's a Mrs. Crofton--oddly enough, a friend or acquaintance of Godfrey +Radmore. He seems to have first met her during the war, when he was +quartered in Egypt. She wrote to John and asked if there was a house to +let in Beechfield, quoting Godfrey as having told her it was a delightful +village." + +"And how old may she be?" + +"Her husband was a Colonel Crofton, so I suppose she's middle-aged. She's +only been a widow three months--if as long." + +Janet Tosswill waited till Dr. O'Farrell was well away, and then she +began walking down the broad corridor which divided Old Place. It was +such a delightful, dignified, spacious house, and very dear to them all, +yet Janet was always debating within herself whether they ought to go on +living in it, now that they had become so poor. + +When she came to the last door on the left, close to the baize door +Which shut off the commons from the living rooms, she waited a moment. +Then, turning the handle, she walked into what was still called the +schoolroom, though Timmy never did his lessons there. + +Betty Tosswill, the eldest of John Tosswill's three daughters, was +sitting at a big mid-Victorian writing-table, examining the house-books. +She had just discovered two "mistakes" in the milkman's account, and she +felt perhaps unreasonably sorry and annoyed. Betty had a generous, +unsuspicious outlook on human nature, and a meeting with petty dishonesty +was always a surprise. She looked up with a very friendly, welcoming +smile as her step-mother came into the room. They were very good friends, +these two, and they had a curiously close bond in Timmy, the only child +of the one and the half-brother of the other. Betty was now twenty-eight +and there were only two persons in the world whom she had loved in her +life as well as she now loved her little brother. + +As her step-mother came close up to her--"Janet? What's the matter?" +she exclaimed, and as the other made no answer, a look of fear came +over the girl's face. She got up from her chair. "Don't look like that, +Janet,--you're frightening me!" + +The older woman tried to smile. "To tell the truth, Betty, I've had +rather a shock. You heard the telephone bell ring?" + +"You mean some minutes ago?" + +"Yes." + +"Who was it?" + +"Godfrey Radmore, speaking from London." + +"Is that all? I was afraid that something had happened to Timmy!" But, +even so, the colour flamed up into Betty Tosswill's face. + +Her step-mother looked away out of the window as she went on:--"It was +stupid of me to have been so surprised, but somehow I thought he was +still in Australia." + +"He was in England last year." Betty, not really knowing what she was +doing, bent over the peccant milkman's book. + +"He's coming down here on Friday. I think he realises that I haven't +forgiven him for not coming to see us last year. Still we must let +bygones be bygones." + +Then she wondered with a sharp touch of self-reproach what had made her +say such a stupid thing--a thing which might have, and indeed had, two +such different meanings? What she had _meant_ had been that she must +forget the hurt surprise she and her husband had felt that Godfrey +Radmore, on two separate occasions, had deliberately avoided coming down +from London to what had been, after all, so long his home; in fact, as he +himself had said just now, the only home he had ever known. + +But what was this Betty was saying?--her face rather drawn and white, all +the bright colour drifted out of it--"Of course we must, Janet! Besides +Godfrey was not to blame--not at the last." + +Janet knew what Betty meant. That at the end it was she who had failed +him. But when their engagement had been broken off, Godfrey had been +worse than penniless--in debt, and entirely through his own fault. He +had gambled away what little money he had, and it had ended in his going +off to Australia--alone. + +Then an astounding thing had happened. Godfrey had had a fortune left him +by an eccentric old man in whose employment he had been as secretary for +a while. His luck still holding, he had gone through most of the war, +including Gallipoli, with only one wound, which had left no ill effects. +A man so fortunate ought not to have neglected his old friends. + +Janet Tosswill, the step-mother completely merging into the friend, came +forward, and put her arms round the girl's shoulders. "Look here, Betty. +Wouldn't you rather go away? I don't suppose he'll stay longer than +Monday or Tuesday--" + +"I shouldn't think of going away! I expect he's forgotten all about that +old affair. It's a long time ago, Janet--nine years. We were both so +young, that I've forgotten too--in a sense." And then, as she saw that +the other was far more moved than she herself was outwardly, she +repeated: "It really has faded away, almost out of sight. Think of +all that has happened since then!" + +The other muttered, "Yes, that's true," and Betty went on, a little +breathlessly, "I'll tell you who'll be pleased--that's Timmy. He's got a +regular hero-worship of Godfrey." She was smiling now. "I hope he asked +after his godson?" + +"Indeed he did. After Flick too! By the way he wanted to know if Mrs. +Crofton was settled down in The Trellis House. I wonder if she's an +Australian?" + +"I don't think so," said Betty. "I think he met them in Egypt during the +war. He mentioned them in one of his letters to Timmy, and then, when he +was in England last year, he must have stayed with them, for that's where +Flick came from. Colonel Crofton bred terriers. I remember reading Timmy +a long letter signed 'Cecil Crofton' telling him all about how to manage +Flick, and he mentioned Godfrey." + +"I don't remember that--I must have been away." + +They were both glad to have glided on to a safe, indifferent subject. + +"I'll go back to my carnations now, but first I'd better tell your father +the news." + +"You--you--needn't remind father of anything that happened years ago, +Janet--need you?" + +Janet Tosswill shook her head, and yet when she had shut the door behind +her in her husband's study, almost the first words she uttered, after +having told him of Godfrey Radmore's coming visit, were:--"I shall never, +never forgive him for the way he treated Betty. I hate the thought of +having to be nice to him--I wish Timmy wasn't his godson!" + +She spoke the words breathlessly, defiantly, standing before her old +John's untidy writing table. + +As she spoke, he rather nervously turned some papers over under his +hand:--"I don't know that he behaved as badly as you think, my dear. +Neither of them had any money, and at that time he had no prospects." + +"He'd thrown away his prospects! Then I can't forgive him for his +behaviour last year--never coming down to see us, I mean. It was so--so +ungrateful! Handsome presents don't make up for that sort of thing. I +used to long to send the things back." + +"I don't think you're fair," began Mr. Tosswill deprecatingly. "He did +write me a very nice letter, Janet, explaining that it was impossible for +him to come." + +"Well, I suppose we must make the best of it--particularly as he says +that he's come back to England for good." + +She went out of the room, and so into the garden--back to the border she +had left unwillingly but at which she now glanced down with a sensation +of disgust. She felt thoroughly ruffled and upset--a very unusual +condition for her to be in, for Janet Tosswill was an equable and +happy-natured woman, for all her affectionate and sensitive heart. + +She told herself that it was true the whole world had altered in the last +nine years--everything had altered except Beechfield. The little Surrey +village seemed to her mind exactly the same as it was when she had come +there, as a bride, fourteen years ago, except that almost everybody in +it, from being comfortably off, had become uncomfortably poor. Then all +at once, she smiled. The garden of Old Place was very different from the +garden she had found when she first came there. It had been a melancholy, +neglected, singularly ugly garden--the kind of garden which only costly +bedding-out had made tolerable in some prosperous early Victorian day. +Now it was noted for its charm and beauty even among the many beautiful +gardens of the neighbourhood, and during the War she had made quite a lot +of money selling flowers and fruit for the local Red Cross. Now she was +trying to coax her husband to take one of the glebe fields on a long +lease in order to start a hamper trade in fruit, vegetables and flowers. +Dolly, the one of her three step-daughters whom she liked least, was fond +of gardening, in a dull plodding way, and might be trained to such work. + +But try though she did to forget Godfrey Radmore, her mind swung +ceaselessly back to the man with whom she had just had that curious talk +on the telephone. She was sorry--not glad as a more worldly woman would +have been--that Godfrey Radmore was coming back into their life. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +While Janet Tosswill was thinking so intently of Godfrey Radmore, he +himself was standing at the window of a big bedroom in one of those +musty, expensive, old-fashioned hotels, which, perhaps because they are +within a stone's throw of Piccadilly, still have faithful patrons all the +year round, and are full to bursting during the London Season. As to +Radmore, he had chosen it because it was the place where the grandfather +who had brought him up always stayed when he, Godfrey, was a little boy. + +Tall, well-built after the loose-limbed English fashion, and with a dark, +intelligent, rather grim cast of face, Radmore looked older than his age, +which was thirty-two. Yet, for all that, there was an air of power and of +reserved strength about him that set him apart from his fellows, and a +casual observer would have believed him cold, and perhaps a thought +calculating, in nature. + +Yet, standing there, looking out on that quiet, narrow street, he was +seething with varying emotions in which he was, in a sense, luxuriating, +though whether he would have admitted any living being to a share in them +was another matter. + +Home! Home at last for good!--after what had been, with two short breaks, +a nine years' absence from England, and from all that England stands for +to such a man. + +He had left his country in 1910, an angry, embittered lad of +twenty-three, believing that he would never come back or, at any rate, +not till he was an old man having "made good." + +But everything--everything had fallen out absolutely differently from +what he had expected it to do. The influence of Mars, so fatal to +millions of his fellow beings, had brought him marvellous, unmerited good +fortune. He had rushed home the moment War was declared, and after +putting in some time in a training which he hated to remember, he had at +last obtained a commission. Within a fortnight of having reached his +Mecca--the Front, he was back in England in the--to him--amazing guise of +wounded hero. But he had sent for none of his old friends for he was +still ashamed. After the Armistice he had rushed through England on his +way to Australia, putting in a few days with a Colonel and Mrs. Crofton, +with whom he had been thrown in Egypt. More to do his host a kindness +than for any other reason, Radmore had sent his godson, Timothy Tosswill, +a pedigree puppy, from the queer little Essex manor-house where the +Croftons were then making a rather futile attempt to increase their +slender means by breeding terriers. + +The days had slipped by there very pleasantly, for Radmore liked his +taciturn host, and Mrs. Crofton was very pretty--an agreeable playfellow +for a rich and lonely man. So it was that when it came to the point he +had not cared to look up any of the people associated with his early +youth. + +But now he was going to see them--almost had he forced himself upon them. +And the thought of going home to Old Place shook and stirred him to the +heart. + +To-day he felt quite queerly at a loose end. This perhaps, partly because +the lately widowed Mrs. Crofton, with whom he had spent a good deal of +his time since his arrival in London three weeks ago, had left town. She +had not gone far, only to the Surrey village where he himself was going +on Friday. + +When pretty Mrs. Crofton had told Radmore that she had taken a house at +Beechfield, he had been very much surprised and taken aback. It had +seemed to him an amazing coincidence that the one place in the wide world +which to him was home should have been chosen by her. But at once she had +reminded him, in her pretty little positive way, that it was he himself +who, soon after they had become first acquainted in Egypt, had drawn such +an attractive picture of the Surrey village. That, in fact, was why, in +July--it was now late September--when she, Enid Crofton, had had to think +of making a new home, Beechfield had seemed to her the ideal place. If +only she could hear of a house to let there! And by rare good chance +there had been such a house--The Trellis House! A friend had lent her +a motor, and she had gone down to look at it one August afternoon, and +there and then had decided to take it. It was so exactly what she +wanted--a delightful, old, cottagy place, yet with all modern +conveniences, lacking, alas! only electric light. + +All this had happened, so she had explained, after her last letter to +him, for she and Radmore had kept up a desultory correspondence. + +And now, with Janet Tosswill's voice still sounding in his ears, Godfrey +Radmore was not altogether sorry to feel a touch of loneliness, for at +times his good fortune frightened him. + +Not only had he escaped through the awful ordeal of war with only one bad +wound, while many of his friends and comrades--the best and bravest, the +most happily young, had fallen round him--but he had come back to find +himself transformed from a penniless adventurer into a very rich man. An +old Brisbane millionaire, into whose office he had drifted in the January +of 1914, and with whom he had, after a fashion, made friends, had re-made +his will in the memorable autumn of that year, and had left Radmore half +his vast fortune. Doubtless many such wills were made under the stress of +war emotion, but--and it was here that Radmore's strange luck had come +in--the maker of this particular will had died within a month of making +it. And, as so often happens to a man who had begun by losing what little +he had owing to folly and extravagance, Godfrey Radmore, though +exceptionally generous and kindly, now lived well within his means, and +had, if anything, increased his already big share of this world's goods. + +Now that he was home for good, he intended to buy a nice old-fashioned +house with a little shooting, and perchance a little fishing. The place, +though not at Land's End, must yet not be so near London that a fellow +would be tempted to be always going to town. It seemed to him amazing +that he now had it within his power to achieve what had always been his +ideal. But when he had acquired exactly the kind of place he wanted to +find, what those whom he had set seeking for him had assured him with +such flattering and eager earnestness he would very soon discover--what +then? Did he mean to live there alone? He thought yes, for he did not now +feel drawn to marriage. + +As a boy--it now seemed æons of years ago--it had been far otherwise. But +Betty Tosswill had been very young, only nineteen, and when he had fallen +on evil days she had thrown him over in obedience to her father's +strongly expressed wish. He had suffered what at the time seemed a +frightful agony, and he had left England full of revolt and bitterness. + +But to-day, when the knowledge that he was so soon going to Beechfield +brought with it a great surge of remembrance, he could not honestly tell +himself that he was sorry. Had he gone out to Australia burdened with a +girl-wife, the difficult struggle would have been well-nigh intolerable, +and it was a million to one chance that he would ever have met the man to +whom he owed his present good fortune. What he now longed to do was to +enjoy himself in a simple, straightforward way. Love, with its tremors, +uncertainties, its blisses and torments, was not for him, and in so far +as he might want a pleasant touch of half sentimental, half sexless +comradeship, there was his agreeable friendship with Mrs. Crofton. + +Enid Crofton? The thought of how well he had come to know her in the +last three weeks surprised him. When he had first met her in Egypt she +had been the young, very pretty wife of Colonel Crofton, an elderly +"dug-out," odd and saturnine, whose manner to his wife was not always +over-kindly. No one out there had been much surprised when she had +decided to brave the submarine peril and return to England. + +Radmore had not been the only man who had felt sorry for her, and who had +made friends with her. But unlike the other men, who were all more or +less in love with her, he had liked Colonel Crofton. During his visit to +Fildy Fe Manor, the liking had hardened into serious regard. He had been +surprised, rather distressed, to find how much less well-off they had +appeared here, at home, than when the Colonel had been on so-called +active service. It had also become plain to him--though he was not a man +to look out for such things--that the husband and wife were now on very +indifferent terms, the one with the other, and, on the whole, he blamed +the wife--and then, just before he had started for home again, had come +the surprising news of Colonel Crofton's death! + +In her letter to one who was, after all, only an acquaintance, the +young widow had gone into no details. But, just by chance, Radmore had +seen a paragraph in a week-old London paper containing an account of the +inquest. Colonel Crofton had committed suicide, a result, it was stated, +of depression owing to shell-shock. "Shell-shock" gave Radmore pause. He +felt quite sure that Colonel Crofton had never--to use a now familiar +paraphrase--heard a shot fired in anger. The fact that his war service +had been far from the Front had always been a subject of bitter complaint +on the old soldier's part. + +Radmore had written a sympathetic note to Mrs. Crofton, telling her the +date of his return, and now--almost without his knowing how and why--they +had become intimate, meeting almost daily, lunching or dining together +incessantly, Radmore naturally gratified at the admiration his lovely +companion--she had grown even prettier since he had last seen +her--obviously excited. + +And yet, though he had become such "pals" with her, and though he missed +her society at his now lonely meals to an almost ridiculous extent, +Radmore would have been much taken aback had an angel from heaven told +him that the real reason he had sought to get in touch with Old Place was +because Enid Crofton had already settled down at Beechfield. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +After Timmy Tosswill had been to the village shop and done his mother's +errand, he wandered on, his dog, Flick, at his heels, debating within +himself what he should do next. + +Like most children who lead an abnormal, because a lonely, childhood, he +was in some ways very mature, in other ways still very babyish. He was at +once secretive and--whenever anything touched his heart--emotionally +expansive. To the indifferent observer Timmy appeared to be an +exceptionally intelligent, naughty, rather spoilt little boy, too apt +to take every advantage of a certain physical delicacy. This was also +the view taken of him by his half-brothers, and by two out of his three +step-sisters. But the three who really loved him, his mother, his nurse, +and his eldest half-sister, Betty, were convinced that the child was +either possessed of a curious, uncanny gift of--was it second sight?--as +his old nurse entirely and his mother half, believed, or, as Dr. +O'Farrell asserted, some abnormal development of his subconscious self. +All three were ruefully aware that Timmy was often--well, his mother +called it "sly," his sister called it "fanciful," his nurse by the good +old nursery term, "deceitful." + +It was this unlovable attribute of his which made it so difficult to know +whether Timmy believed in the positive assertions occasionally made by +him concerning his intimate acquaintance with the world of the unseen. +That he could sometimes visualise what was coming to pass, especially +if it was of an unpleasant, disturbing nature, was, so his mother +considered, an undeniable fact. But sometimes the gift lay in abeyance +for weeks, even for months. That had been the case, as Mrs. Tosswill had +told Dr. O'Farrell, for a long time now--to be precise, since March, +when, to the dismay of those about him he had predicted an accident in +the hunting field which actually took place. + +Timmy walked on up the steep bit of road which led to the upper part +of the beautiful old village which was, like many an English village, +shaped somewhat like a horseshoe--and then suddenly he stopped and gazed +intently into a walled stable-yard of which the big gates were wide open. + +Beechfield was Timmy Tosswill's world in little. He was passionately +interested in all that concerned its inhabitants, and was a familiar and +constant, though not always a welcome visitor to every cottage. Most of +the older village men and women had a certain grudging affection for the +odd little boy. They were all well aware of, and believed in, the gift +which made him, as the nurse had once explained to a crony of hers, "see +things which are not there," though not one of them would have cared to +mention it to him. + +Timmy had a special reason for wishing to know what was going on in this +stable-yard, so, after a moment's thought, he walked deliberately through +the gates as if he had some business there, and then he saw that two men, +one of whom was a stranger to him, were tidying up the place in a very +leisurely, thoroughgoing manner. + +The back door of The Trellis House, as the quaint-looking, long, low +building to the right was incongruously named, opened into the +stable-yard and by the door was a bench. Timmy walked boldly across the +yard and established himself on the bench and his dog, Flick, jumped up +and sat sedately by him. The little boy then took a small black book out +of his pocket. The book was called "The Crofton Boys" and Timmy had +chosen it because the name of the new tenant of The Trellis House was +Mrs. Crofton, a friend, as he was aware, of his godfather, Godfrey +Radmore. He wondered if she had any boys. + +The two men, busy with big new brooms, came up close to where Timmy was +sitting. When the child, obviously "one of the gentry," had walked into +the stable-yard, they had abruptly stopped talking; but now, seeing that +he was reading intently, and apparently quite uninterested in what they +were doing, they again began speaking to one another, or rather one of +them, a hard-bitten, shrewd-looking man, much the older of the two, began +talking in what was, though Timmy was not aware of it, a Cockney dialect. + +"You won't find 'er a bad 'un to work for, m'lad. I speak of folks as I +find them. I'm not one to take any notice of queer tales!" + +"Queer tales. What be the queer tales, Mister Piper?" + +Timmy knew this last speaker. He was the baker's rather sharp younger +son, and Mrs. Crofton had just engaged him as handy man. + +The older man lowered his voice a little, but Timmy, who, while his eyes +seemed glued to the pages of the book he held open, was yet listening +with all his ears, heard what followed quite clearly. + +"It ain't for me to spread ill tales after what I've told you, eh? But +the Colonel's death was a reg'lar tragedy, 'twas, and some there were who +said that 'is widder wasn't exactly sorry. 'E were a melancholy cove for +any young woman to 'ave to live with. But there, as my old mother used to +say, 'any old barn-door can keep out the draught!'" + +The younger man looked up:--"What sort o' tragedy?" he asked. + +"The Colonel pizened 'isself, and the question was--did 'e do it o' +purpose? Some said yes, and some said no. I was in it by a manner of +speaking." + +"You was in it?" + +The boy left off working, and gazed at the other eagerly:--"D'you mean +you saw him do it?" + +"I was the first to see 'im in his agony--I calls that being in it. And +I was called upon to give evidence at the inquest held on the corpse." + +The man looked round him furtively as he spoke. The little boy sitting by +the back door of the house caused him no concern, but he did not want +what he said to be overheard by the two new maid-servants who had arrived +at The Trellis House that morning. + +"There's always a lot of talk when folks die sudden," he went on, in a +sententious tone. "It was as plain as the nose on your face that the +Colonel, poor chap, 'ad 'ad what they called shell-shock. I'd heard 'im +a-talking aloud to 'isself many a time. 'E was a-weary of life 'e was. So +'tis plain 'e just thought 'e'd put an end to it, like many a better man +afore 'im." + +And then the youth said something that rather surprised himself, but his +mind had been working while the other had been talking. + +"Did anyone say different?" was his question and the other answered in +a curious tone: "Now you're askin'! Yes, there was some folk as did say +different. They argued that the Colonel never took the pizen knowingly. +'E was very keen over terriers--we bred 'em. The best of 'em, a grand +sire, was the very spit of that little dawg sitting up on that there +bench. Colonel bred 'em for profit, not pleasure. Mrs. Crofton, she +'ated 'em, and she lost no time either in getting rid of 'em after +'e was gone. They got on 'er nerves, same as 'e'd done. She give the +best--prize-winner 'e was--to the Crowner as tried the corpse. 'E'd known +'em both--was a bit sweet on 'er 'isself." + +The youth laughed discordantly. "Ho! Ho! She's that sort, is she?" + +But the other spoke up at once with a touch of sharpness in his voice. + +"She's a good sort to them as be'aves themselves, my lad. She give me a +good present. Got me a good, new soft place, too, that's where I'm going +to-morrer. I'm 'ere to oblige 'er, that's what I am--just to put you, +young man, in the way of things. Look sharp, please 'er, mind your +manners, and you may end better off than you know!" + +The lad looked at the speaker with a gleam of rather hungry curiosity in +his lack-lustre eyes. + +"Mark my words! Your missus won't be a widder long. Ever 'eard of a Major +Radmore?" + +The speaker did not notice that the little boy sitting on the bench +stiffened unconsciously. + +"Major Radmore?" repeated the listener. "Folk in Beechfield did know a +chap called Radmore. Lives in Australia, he does. He sent home some money +for a village club 'e did, but nothing 'as been done about it yet. Some +do say old Tosswill's sticking to the cash--a gent as what they calls +trustee of it all. But then who'd trust anyone with a load o' money? The +chap I'm thinking of used to live at Tosswill's a matter of ten years +ago." + +"Then 'tis the same one!" exclaimed the other eagerly, "and, if so, +you'll not lack good things. Likely as not the Major's your future +master. 'E's got plenty, and a generous soul too. Gave me a present last +year when he was a stopping at Fildy Fe Manor. The Major, 'e bought one +of our dawgs, and I sent it off for 'im to Old Place, Beechfield, damn +me if I don't remember it now--name of Tosswill too." He stopped short, +and then, as if he had thought better of what he was going to say, he +observed musingly: "Some says Jack Piper's a blabber--but they don't know +me! But one thing I'll tell you. The're two after the Missus, for all the +Colonel's 'ardly cold, so to speak, but I put my money on the dark one." + +He had hardly uttered these cryptic words when a pretty young woman +opened the door which gave on to the stable-yard from the house: +"Dinner-time!" she called out merrily. + +Both men dropped the brooms they were holding, and going towards the door +disappeared. + +As they did so, Timmy heard the words:--"_She's_ a peach--thinks herself +one too--oh! the merry widder!" + +The little boy waited a moment. He took a long look round the sunny, and +now unnaturally tidy, stable-yard. Then he got up, shut his book, and put +it sedately into his pocket. Flick seemed unwilling to move, so Timmy +turned and called sharply:--"Flick! come along at once!" + +The dog jumped down and ran up to his master. Timmy walked across the +big, flat, white stones, kicking a pebble as he went. At last, when he +got close to the open gate, he hop-scotched, propelling the pebble far +into the road. + +He was extremely disturbed and surprised. He went over and over +again what he had heard the two men say. The absurd suspicion of his +father filled him with angry hurt disgust. Why only yesterday the plan +of the village clubhouse had come from the architect! And then that +extraordinary disconcerting hint about his godfather? Godfrey Radmore +belonged in Timmy's imagination, first to himself, secondly to his +parents, and then, in a much less close way, to the rest of the Tosswill +family. A sensation of strong-dislike to the still unknown new tenant of +The Trellis House welled up in his secretive little heart, and instead of +going on round the village, he turned back and made his way straight +home. + +As he walked along the short avenue which led to the front door of Old +Place he saw his mother kneeling on her gardening mat. He stepped up on +to the grass hoping to elude her sharp eyes and ears, but she had already +seen him. + +"Hullo, Timmy!" she called out cheerfully. "What have you been doing with +yourself all this time?" + +"I've been sitting reading in the stable-yard of The Trellis House." + +"That seems rather a funny thing to do, when you might have been here +helping your Mummy," but she said the words very kindly. Then suddenly +the mention of The Trellis House reminded her of Godfrey Radmore. "I've +got a great piece of news!" she exclaimed. "Guess who's coming here to +spend the week-end with us, Timmy?" + +He looked at her gravely and said:--"I think I know, Mum." + +She felt taken aback, as she so often was with her strange little son. + +"I don't think you do," she cried briskly. + +"I think it's"--he hesitated a moment--"Major Radmore, my godfather." + +She was very, very surprised. Then her quick Scotch mind fastened on the +one unfamiliar word. "Why _Major_ Radmore?" she asked. + +Timmy looked a little confused. "I--I don't know," he muttered +unwillingly. "I thought he was a soldier, Mum." + +"Of course he _was_ a soldier. But he isn't a soldier now." + +"Isn't it tea-time?" asked Timmy suddenly. + +"Yes, I suppose it is." + +As they walked towards the house together Janet was telling herself +uneasily that unless Timmy had met Dr. O'Farrell, it was impossible for +him to have learnt through any ordinary human agency that Godfrey Radmore +was coming to Beechfield. Though a devoted, she was not a blind mother, +and she was disagreeably aware that her little son never "gave himself +away." She did not wish to start him on a long romancing explanation +which would embody--if one were to put it in bald English--a lie. So she +said nothing. + +They were close to the door of the house when he again took her aback by +suddenly saying:--"I don't think Mrs. Crofton can be a very nice sort of +lady, Mum." + +(Then he had seen Mrs. Crofton, and _she_ had told him.) + +"Why not, Timmy?" + +"I have a sort of feeling that she's horrid." + +"Nonsense! If only for your godfather's sake, we must all try and like +her. Besides, my boy, she's in great trouble. Her husband only died two +or three months ago." + +"Some people aren't sorry when their husbands die," remarked Timmy. + +She pretended not to hear. But as they walked through into the hall +she heard him say as if to himself: "Some people are glad. Mrs. George +Pott"--the woman who kept the local beer-shop--"danced when _her_ husband +died." + +"I wish, Timmy," said his mother sharply, "that you would not listen to, +or repeat low village gossip." + +"Not even if it's true, Mum?" + +"No, not even if it's true." + +When Janet had first come to Old Place as a bride, eager to shoulder what +some of her friends had told her would be an almost intolerable burden, +her husband's six children had been a sad, subdued, nursery-brought-up +group, infinitely pathetic to her warm Scotch heart. At once she had +instituted, rather to the indignation of the old nurse who was yet to +become in due time her devoted henchwoman, a daily dining-room tea, and +the custom still persisted. + +And now, to Timmy's surprise, his mother opened the drawing-room door +instead of going on to the dining-room. "Tell Betty," she said abruptly, +"to pour out tea. I'll come on presently." + +She shut the door, and going over to the roomy old sofa, sat down, and +leaning back, closed her eyes. It was a very unusual thing for her to +do, but she felt tired, and painfully excited at the thought of Godfrey +Radmore's coming visit. And as she lay there, there rose up before her, +wearily and despondently, the changes which nine years had brought to Old +Place. + +Janet Tosswill, like all intelligent step-mothers, sometimes speculated +as to what her predecessor had really been like. Her husband's elder +children were so amazingly unlike one another, as well as utterly unlike +her own son Timmy. + +Betty, the eldest of her step-children, was her favourite, and she had +also been deeply attached to Betty's twin-brother, George. The two had +been alike in many ways, though Betty was very feminine and George +essentially masculine, and each of them had possessed those special +human attributes which only War seems to bring to full fruition. + +George had been out in France seven months when he had been killed at +Beaumont Hamel, and he had already won a bar to his Military Cross by an +action which in any other campaign would have given him the Victoria +Cross. As for Betty, she had shown herself extraordinarily brave, cool, +and resourceful when after doing some heavy home war work, she had gone +out with one of the units of the Scottish Women's Hospital. + +But Janet Tosswill admired and loved the girl more than ever since +Betty had come back, from what had perforce been a full and exciting +life, to take up the dull, everyday routine existence at Old Place where, +what with a bad investment, high prices, and the sudden leap in the +income-tax, from living pleasantly at ease they had become most +unpleasantly poor. + +Jack, who came next to Betty, though a long way after, and who had just +missed being in the war, was a very different type of young Englishman +from what George had been. He was clever, self-assertive, and already +known as a brilliant debater and as a sound speaker at the Oxford Union. +There need be no trouble as to Jack Tosswill's future--he was going to +the Bar, and there was little doubt that he would succeed there. One of +his idiosyncrasies was his almost contemptuous indifference to women. He +was fond of his sisters in a patronising way, but the average pleasant +girl, of whom the neighbourhood of Beechfield had more than its full +share, left him quite cold. + +The next in age--Dolly--was the most commonplace member of the family. +Her character seemed to be set on absolutely conventional lines, and the +whole family, with the exception of her father, who did not concern +himself with such mundane things, secretly hoped that she would marry a +young parson who had lately "made friends with her." As is often the case +with that type of young woman, Dolly was feckless about money, and would +always have appeared badly and unsuitably dressed but for the efforts of +her elder sister and step-mother. + +Rosamund, the youngest and by far the prettiest of the three sisters, was +something of a problem. Though two years younger than Dolly, she had +already had three or four love affairs, and when only sixteen, had been +the heroine of a painful scrape--the sort of scrape which the people +closely concerned try determinedly to forget, but which everyone about +them remembers to his or her dying day. + +The hero of that sorry escapade had been a man of forty, separated from +his wife. On the principle that "truth will out even in an affidavit," +poor Rosamund's little world was well aware that the girl, or rather the +child, had been simply vain and imprudent. But still, she had disappeared +for two terrible long days and nights, and even now, when anything +recalled the episode to her step-mother or to Betty, they would shudder +with an awful inward tremor, recollecting what they had both gone +through. That she had come back as silly and innocent a girl as she had +left, and feeling as much shame as she was capable of feeling, had been +owing to the tardily awakened sense of prudence and honour in the man to +whom she had run away in a fit of temper after a violent quarrel with--of +all people in the world--her brother Jack. + +Rosamund now ardently desired to become an actress, and after much secret +discussion with his wife, her father had at last told her that if she +were of the same opinion when she reached the age of twenty-one he would +put no obstacle in her way. + +As to Tom, the youngest of Janet Tosswill's step-children, he was "quite +all right." Though only fifteen months younger than Rosamund, whereas she +was as much of a woman as she ever would be, he was still a cheery, +commonplace schoolboy. He had been such a baby when Janet had married +that sometimes she almost felt as if he were her own child and that +though Tom's relation to her own son was peculiar. Theoretically the +two boys ought to have been pals, or at any rate good friends. But in +practice they were like oil and water--and found it impossible to mix. +When Tom was at home, as now, on his holidays, he spent most of his time +with a schoolfellow of his own age who lived about two miles from +Beechfield. In some ways Timmy was older now than Tom would ever be. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Timmy went on into the dining-room to find his brothers and sisters all +gathered there excepting Dolly. But as he sat down, and as Betty began to +pour out tea, Dolly came in from the garden with the words:--"Guess who +I've met and had a talk with?" + +She looked round her eagerly, but no one ventured an opinion. There were +so many, many people whom Dolly might have met and had a talk with, for +she was the most gregarious member of the Tosswill family. + +At last Timmy spoke up:--"I expect you've seen Mrs. Crofton," he +observed, his mouth already full of bread and butter. + +Dolly was taken aback. "How did you know?" she cried. "But it's quite +true--I _have_ seen Mrs. Crofton!" + +"What is she like?" asked Jack indifferently. + +"How old is she?" This from Betty, who somehow always seemed to ask the +essential question. + +"D'you think she'll prove a 'stayer'?" questioned Tom. + +He had hoped that someone with a family of boys and girls would have come +to The Trellis House. It was a beautiful little building--the oldest +dwelling-house in the village, in spite of its early Victorian name. But +no one ever stayed there very long. Some of the older village folk said +it was haunted. + +"Did you speak to her, or did she speak to you?" asked Rosamund. + +And then again Timmy intervened. + +"I know more about her than any one of you do. But I don't mean to tell +you what I know," he announced. + +No one took any notice of him. By common consent efforts were always made +in the family circle to keep Timmy down--but such efforts were rarely +successful. + +"Well, tell us what's she like?" exclaimed Rosamund. "I did so hope we +should escape another widow." + +She had hoped for a nice, well-to-do couple, with at least one grown-up +son preferably connected, in some way, with the stage. + +Dolly Tosswill, still standing, looked down at her audience. + +"She's quite unlike what I thought she would be," she began. "For one +thing, she's quite young, and she's awfully pretty and unusual-looking. +You'd notice her anywhere." + +"Did you meet her in the post-office?" asked Betty. + +"No, at church. She only arrived this morning, and she said she felt so +lonely and miserable that when she heard the bell ring she thought she'd +go along and see what our church was like." + +"Oh, then she's 'pi'?" in a tone of disgust from Rosamund. + +"I'd noticed her in church, though she was sitting rather back, close to +the door," went on Dolly, "and I'd wondered who she was, as she looked so +very unlike any of the Beechfield people." + +"How do you mean--unlike?" asked Tom. + +"I can't explain exactly. I thought she was a summer visitor. And then +something so funny happened--" + +Dolly was sitting down now, and Betty handed her a cup of tea, grieving +the while to see how untidy she looked with her hat tilted back at an +unbecoming angle. + +"What happened?" + +"Well, as we came out of the church together, all at once that old, +half-blind, post-office dog made straight for her! He gave a most awful +howl, and she was so frightened that she ran back into the church again. +But of course I didn't know she was Mrs. Crofton _then_. I got the dog +into the post-office garden and then I went back into the church to tell +her the coast was clear. But she waited a bit, for she was awfully afraid +that he might get out again." + +"What a goose she must be"--this from Jack. + +"She asked if she were likely to meet any other dog in the road; so I +asked her where she lived, and then she told me she was Mrs. Crofton, and +that she had only arrived this morning. I offered to walk home with her, +and then we had quite a talk. She has the same kind of feeling about dogs +that some people have about cats." + +"That's rather queer!" said Tom suddenly, "for her husband bred +wire-haired terriers. Colonel Crofton sold Flick to Godfrey Radmore last +year--don't you remember?" + +He appealed to Betty, who always remembered everything. + +"Yes," she said quietly, "I was just thinking of that. Colonel Crofton +wrote Timmy such a nice letter telling him how to manage Flick. It does +seem strange that she should have that feeling about dogs." + +Again Timmy's shrill voice rose in challenge. "I should hate _my_ wife +not to like dogs," he cried pugnaciously. + +"It'll take you all your time to make her like _you_, old man," observed +Tom. + +"I've asked her in to supper to-night," went on Dolly, in her slow, +deliberate way, "so we shall have to have Flick locked up." + +"Whatever made you ask her to supper, Doll?" asked Jack sharply. + +Jack Tosswill had a hard, rather limited nature, but he was very fond +of his home, and unlike most young men, he had a curious dislike to the +presence of strangers there. This was unfortunate, for his step-mother was +very hospitable, and even now, though life had become a real struggle as +to ways and means, she often asked people in to meals. + +"Her cook didn't turn up," exclaimed Dolly. "And when she asked me if I +knew of any woman in the village who could come in and cook dinner for +her this evening, I said I was sure Janet would like her to come in and +have supper." + +"And I hope," chimed in Rosamund decidedly, "that we shall all dress for +dinner. Why should she think us a hugger-mugger family?" + +"I don't mean to change. I shall only wash my hands!" This from Timmy, +who was always allowed to sit up to dinner. His brothers and sisters were +too fond of their step-mother to say how absurdly uncalled-for they +thought this privilege. + +As everyone pretended not to have heard his remark, Timmy repeated +obstinately: "I shall only wash my hands." + +"Mrs. Crofton won't care how _you_ look," observed Jack irritably. "If we +didn't now live in such a huggery-muggery way, I should always dress. I +do everywhere else." + +Betty looked at him, and her face deadened. Though she would hardly have +admitted it, even to herself, she regretted the way in which everything +at Old Place was now allowed to go "slack." She knew it to be bad for her +sisters. It wasn't as if they did any real housework or gave useful help +in the kitchen. Dolly tried to do so in a desultory way, but in the end +it was she, Betty, who kept everything going in this big, rambling old +house, with the help of the old nurse and a day girl from the village. + +Timmy gave a little cackle, and Jack felt annoyed. He looked across at +his half-brother with a feeling akin to dislike. But Jack Tosswill was +truly attached to his step-mother. He was old enough to remember what a +change she had made in the then dull, sad, austere Old Place. Janet had +at once thrown herself into the task of being sister, rather than +step-mother, to her husband's children, and bountifully had she succeeded! + +Still, with the exception of Betty, they all criticised her severely, in +their hearts, for her weakness where her own child was concerned. And yet +poor Janet never made the slightest difference between Timmy and the +others. It was more the little boy's own clever insistence which got him +his own way, and secured him certain privileges which they, at his age, +had never enjoyed. Timmy also always knew how to manage his delicate, +nervous father. John Tosswill realised that Timmy might some day grow up +to do him credit. Timmy really loved learning, and it was a pleasure to +the scholar to teach his clever, impish, youngest son. + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile Janet, who had remained on in the drawing-room, got up from the +sofa and, going into the corridor, opened the dining-room door. For some +moments she stood there, unseen, watching the eager party gathered round +the table, and as she did so, she looked with a curious, yearning feeling +at each of the young folk in turn. + +How changed, how utterly changed, they all were since Godfrey Radmore had +last been in that familiar room! The least changed, of course, was Betty. +To her step-mother's partial eyes, Betty Tosswill, at twenty-eight, was +still an extraordinarily charming and young-looking creature. Had her +nose been rather less retroussé, her generous, full-lipped mouth just a +little smaller, her brown hair either much darker, or really fair, as was +Rosamund's, she would have been exceptionally pretty. What to the +discriminating made her so much more attractive than either of her +younger sisters was her look of intelligence and quiet humour. But of +course she looked not only older, but different, from what she had looked +nine years ago. Betty had lived a full and, in a sense, a tragic life +during four of the years which had elapsed since she and Radmore had +parted in this very room. + +Janet's eyes travelled past Betty to Jack. Just at that moment he was +looking with no very pleasant expression across at his little brother, +and yet there was something softer than usual in his cold, clear-cut +face. Janet Tosswill would have been touched and surprised indeed had +she known that it was the thought of herself that had brought that look +on Jack's face. Jack was twenty-one, but looked like a man of thirty--he +was so set, he knew so exactly what he wanted of life. As she looked at +him, she wondered doubtfully whether he would ever make that great career +his schoolmaster had so confidently predicted for him. He was so--so--she +could only find the word "conventional" to describe him. + +Janet Tosswill passed over Dolly quickly. To-day Dolly looked a little +different from the others, for she was wearing a hat, and it was clear +that she had just come in from the village. Her step-mother noticed with +dissatisfaction that the over large brooch fastening Dolly's blouse was +set in awry, and that there were wisps of loose hair lying on her neck. + +As for Rosamund, she looked ill-humoured, frankly bored to-day--but oh, +how pretty and dainty, next to the commonplace Dolly! Rosamund's gleaming +fair hair curled naturally all over her head; she had lovely, +startled-looking eyes which went oddly with a very determined, if +beautifully moulded, mouth and chin. + +Betty was convinced that, given a chance, Rosamund would make a success +on the stage, but Betty was prejudiced. There had always been a curious +link of sympathy between the two sisters, utterly different as they were, +and many as were the years that separated them. + +Tom was the only one of the flock who presented no problem. He was far +more human than Jack, but, like Jack, absolutely steady and dependable. + +Janet Tosswill's mind swung back to Godfrey Radmore. She wondered how he +would like the changes in Old Place, whether they would affect him +pleasantly or otherwise. She was woman enough to regret sharply their +altered way of life. When Godfrey had lived in Old Place, there had been +a good cook, a capable parlourmaid, and a well-trained housemaid, as well +as a bright-faced "tweenie" there, and life had rolled along as if on +wheels. It was very different now. + +She wondered if Betty or Timmy had told the others of Radmore's coming +visit. It was so strange, in a way, so painful to know that to most of +them, with the possible exception of Jack, he was only a name. + +Suddenly Betty, turning around, saw her step-mother. "Dolly has met Mrs. +Crofton, and she's utterly unlike what any of us thought she would be!" +she cried out. "She's young, and very pretty--quite lovely in fact! +Dolly asked her into supper to-night, as her cook has not yet arrived." + +She had a sort of prevision that Janet was now going to tell the others +about Godfrey Radmore, and she wanted to get away out of the room first. +But this was not to be. Janet Tosswill had a very positive mind--she +was full of what she had come in to say, and the new tenant at The +Trellis House interested her not at all, so as soon as she had sat down, +she exclaimed, "Perhaps Timmy has told you my news?" + +Then all turned to her, except Betty and Timmy himself. + +"What news?" came in eager chorus. + +"Godfrey Radmore is in England. He telephoned from London just now, and +he's coming down on Friday to spend a long week-end!" + +Rosamund was the only one who stole a look at Betty. + +"Godfrey Radmore here?" repeated Jack slowly. "It's queer he would want +to come--after the odd way he's behaved to us." + +"Yes, it is rather strange," Janet tried to speak lightly. "But there it +is! The whole world has turned topsy-turvy since any of us saw him last." + +"I wonder if he's still very rich," went on Jack. + +Janet Tosswill felt startled. "Why shouldn't he be?" she asked. + +"Oh, I don't know--it only occurred to me that he might have lost some of +this money in the same way that he lost that first fortune of his." + +"It wasn't a fortune"--Betty's quiet voice broke in very decidedly--"and +most of it was lost by a friend of his, not by Godfrey himself at all. He +was too proud to say anything about it to father, but he wrote and told +George." + +A curious stillness fell over the company of young people. They were all +in their different ways very much surprised, for Betty never mentioned +her twin-brother. All at once they each remembered about Betty and +Godfrey--all except Timmy, who had never been told. + +"And now what's this about Mrs. Crofton?" asked Janet at last, breaking a +silence that had become oppressive. "Do I understand that she's coming to +supper to-night?" + +It was Betty who answered: "I hope you don't mind? Dolly thought it the +only thing to do, as the poor woman's cook hadn't arrived." + +"We mustn't forget to ask her in for lunch or dinner on one of the days +that Godfrey is here," observed Janet. "I gather they're friends. He +asked if she'd already come." + + * * * * * + +Timmy was supposed to prepare his lessons between tea and dinner, but +unlike the ordinary boy, he much preferred to wake early and work before +breakfast. This was considered not good for his health, and there was +a constant struggle between himself and his determined mother to force +him to do the normal thing. So after she had finished her tea, she +beckoned to her son, and he unwillingly got up and followed her into +the drawing-room. But before he could settle down at his own special +table Betty came in. + +"Janet, I want to ask you something before I go into the village. There +are one or two things we must get in, if Mrs. Crofton is coming this +evening--" + +The little boy did not wait to hear his mother's answer. He crept very +quietly out of the open window, which was close to his table, and then +made his way round to the first of the long French windows of the +dining-room. He was just in time to hear his brother Tom ask in a very +solemn tone: "I say, you fellows! Wasn't Betty once engaged to this +Radmore chap?" + +Timmy, skilfully ensconced behind the full old green damask curtains, +listened, with all his ears, for the answer. + +"Yes," said Jack at last, with a touch of reluctance. "They were engaged, +but not for very long. Still, they'd been fond of one another for an age +and George was his greatest friend--" + +Rosamund broke in: "Do tell us what he's like, Jack! I suppose you can +remember him quite well?" + +Jack hesitated, rather uncomfortably. + +"Of course I remember Radmore very well indeed. He had quite a tidy bit +of money, as both his parents were dead. His snuffy old guardian had been +at Balliol with father. So father was asked to coach him. And then, well, +I suppose as time went on, and Betty began growing up, he fell in love +with her." + +"And she with him?" interposed Rosamund. + +"A girl is apt to like any man who likes her," said Jack loftily. "But I +believe 'twas he made all the fuss when the engagement was broken off." + +"But why was it broken off?" asked Rosamund. + +"Because he'd lost all his money racing." + +"What a stupid thing to do!" exclaimed Tom. + +"The row came during the Easter holidays," went on Jack meditatively, +"and there was a fearful dust-up. Like an idiot, Radmore had gone and put +the whole of the little bit of money he had saved out of the fire on an +outsider he had some reason to think would be bound to romp in first--and +the horse was not even placed!" + +"Poor fellow!" exclaimed Rosamund. + +"He rushed down here," went on Jack, "to say that he had made up his +mind to go to Australia. And he was simply amazed when father and Janet +wouldn't hear of Betty going with him." + +"Would she have liked to go?" asked Tom. + +"Well, yes--I believe she would. But of course it was out of the +question. Father could have given her nothing, even then, so how could +they have lived? There was a fearful rumpus, and in the end Godfrey went +off in a tearing rage." + +"Shaking the dust of Old Place off his indignant feet, eh?" suggested +Tom. + +"Yes, all that sort of thing. George was having scarlet fever--in a +London hospital--so of course he was quite out of it." + +"Then, at last Godfrey reopened communication via Timmy?" suggested the +younger boy. + +"Timmy's got the letter still," chimed in Rosamund. "I saw it in his +play-box the other day. It was rather a funny letter--I read it." + +"The devil you did!" from Tom, indignantly. + +She went on unruffled:--"He said he'd been left a fortune, and wanted to +share it with his godson. How much did he send? D'you remember?" She +looked round. + +"Five pounds!" said Dolly. + +"I wish _I_ was his godson," said Tom. + +"And then," went on Dolly, in her precise way, "the War came, and nothing +more happened till suddenly he wrote again to Timmy from Egypt, and then +began the presents. I wonder if we ought to have thanked him for them? +After all, we don't _know_ that they came from him. The only present we +_know_ came from him was Flick." + +"And a damned silly present, too!" observed Jack, drily. + +"Do you think he's still in love with Betty?" asked Rosamund. + +"Of course he's not. If he was, he would have written to her, not to +Timmy. Nine years is a long time in a man's life," observed Jack +sententiously. + +"My hat! yes!" exclaimed Tom. "Poor Betty!" + +Jack got up, and made a movement as if he were thinking of going out +through the window into the garden. So Timmy, with a swift, sinuous +movement, withdrew from the curtain, and edging up against the outside +wall of the house, walked unobtrusively back into the drawing-room. + +When his mother--who had gone out to find something for Betty to take +into the village--came back, she was pleased and surprised to find her +little son working away as if for dear life. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Close on eight that same evening, Timmy Tosswill stood by the open centre +window of the long drawing-room, hands duly washed, and his generally +short, rough, untidy hair well brushed, whistling softly to himself. + +He was longing intensely for his godfather's arrival, and it seemed such +a long time off to Friday. A photograph of Radmore, in uniform, sent him +at his own request two years ago, was the boy's most precious personal +possession. Timmy was a careful, almost uncannily thrifty child, with +quite a lot of money in the Savings Bank, but he had taken out 10/- in +order to buy a frame for the photograph, and it rested, alone in its +glory, on the top of the chest of drawers that stood opposite his bed. + +There had been a time when Timmy had hoped that he would grow up to +look like his godfather, but now he was aware that this hope would +never be fulfilled, for Radmore, in this photograph, at any rate, had +a strongly-featured, handsome face, very unlike what his mother had once +called "Timmy's wizened little phiz." + +It seemed strange to care for a person you had never seen since you were +a tiny child--but there it was! To Timmy everything that touched his +godfather was of far greater moment than he would have admitted to +anyone. Radmore was his secret hero; and now, to-night, he asked himself +painfully, why had his hero left off loving Betty? The story he had +overheard this afternoon had deeply impressed him. For the first time he +began to dimly apprehend the strange and piteous tangle we call life. + +Suddenly there broke on the still autumn air the distant sound of sharp +barks and piteous whines. Much against his will, the little boy had had +to bow to the edict that Flick should be shut up in the stable. Dolly, +who so seldom bothered about anything, had seen to this herself, because +Mrs. Crofton, who was coming to supper, hated dogs. Timmy inhospitably +hoped that the new tenant of The Trellis House would very seldom honour +Old Place with a visit. It would be impossible for them always to hide +Flick away like this! + +He moved further into the pretty, old-fashioned room. Like most +old-fashioned country drawing-rooms of the kind, it was rather over-full +of furniture and ornaments. The piano jutted out at right angles to a +big, roomy sofa, which could, at a pinch, hold seven or eight people, the +pinch usually being when, for the benefit of Timmy, the sofa was supposed +to be a stage coach of long ago on its way to London. The Tosswills had +been great people for private theatricals, charades, and so on--Timmy's +own mother being a really good actress and an excellent mimic, but she +did not often now indulge in an exhibition of her powers. + +At last Timmy looked round at the clock. It was ten minutes to eight, and +his mother would not be down for another five minutes. So he went back to +the window. All at once he saw in the gathering twilight, two people +walking up the avenue which led to the house. The little boy felt +surprised. "Who can they be?" was his immediate thought. + +As far as he could make out the one was an elderly-looking +gentleman--Timmy could just see the rough grey Norfolk jacket and +knickerbockers--by whose side there walked, sedately, a wire-haired +terrier. What an extraordinary thing! Surely that dog, walking by the +stranger, was _Flick_--Flick, having escaped from the stable, and +behaving for all the world as if the stranger were his master. But again +there fell on his ears Flick's distant squeals of anger and annoyance and +he felt a queer sensation of relief. + +Timmy turned his attention to the other figure, that of the young lady +who, dressed all in black, tripped gracefully along by the side of her +companion. Evidently some tiresome old gentleman, and his equally +tiresome daughter. He told himself crossly that his absent-minded, +kind-hearted father, or his incurably hospitable mother, forgetting all +about Mrs. Crofton, had asked these two people in to supper. If that was +so, Timmy, who was as much at home in the kitchen as in the drawing-room, +knew that there would not be quite enough to go round comfortably. This +was all the more irritating, as he himself was looking forward to-night +to tasting, for the first time, an especially delicious dish. This was +lobster pie, for which Old Place had been famed before the War, but +which, owing to the present price of lobsters, was among the many +delightful things which the War had caused to vanish from poor little +Timmy's world. One of the few sensible people in the world who know +what other people really like in the way of a present had sent by +parcels-post a lot of lobsters to Timmy's mother--hence the coming +lobster pie to-night. + +Realising that the strangers must be very near the front door by now, he +edged towards the door of the drawing-room, meaning to make a bolt for it +into what was still called the schoolroom. He did not wish to be caught +by himself in the drawing-room. But he was caught, for the door suddenly +opened, and his mother came in. + +Janet Tosswill "paid for dressing" as the old saying is. She looked +charming to-night, in a rather bright blue evening dress, and Timmy, +slipping his hand into hers, said softly: "You do look nice, Mum." + +She smiled, touched and pleased, for her child was not given to +compliments. Also, she had told herself, when glancing at her slim, +active figure in the early Victorian cheval glass which had belonged +to her husband's mother, that this blue dress was really _very_ +old-fashioned, and would probably appear so to Mrs. Crofton. + +In view of Timmy's pleasant compliment, she did not like to ask him if he +had washed his hands and brushed his hair. She could only hope for the +best: "I hope we shall like Mrs. Crofton," she said meditatively. "You +know she's a friend of your godfather, my dear." + +"Yes, I know that," he announced, in rather an odd voice, and she felt +just a little surprised. How did Timmy know that? Then she remembered her +husband had read aloud Mrs. Crofton's pretty, well-turned letter--the +letter which explained that the writer was looking out for a country +house, and would like to find one at Beechfield if possible, as her +friend, Godfrey Radmore, had described it as being the most beautiful +village in England. + +Timmy let go his mother's hand--then he looked searchingly into her face: +"Do you suppose," he asked, "that my godfather is in love with Mrs. +Crofton?" + +She was taken aback, and yes, shocked, by the question: "Of course not. +Whatever put such an extraordinary idea into your head, Timmy?" + +The words had hardly left her lips when the door opened, and the village +girl, who was staying on for two hours beyond her usual time because of +this visitor, announced in a breathless voice:--"Mrs. Crofton, ma'am." + +Timmy saw at once that the visitor was the young lady he had seen walking +up the avenue. Then the old gentleman and his dog--the dog which was +so extraordinarily like Flick--had only brought her as far as the door. +And then, while his mother was shaking hands with Mrs. Crofton, and +shepherding her towards the sofa, Timmy managed to have a good, long look +at the new tenant of The Trellis House. + +Grudgingly he admitted to himself that she was what most people--such +people, for instance, as Rosamund and Betty--would call "very pretty." + +Mrs. Crofton had a small three-cornered face, a ridiculously little, +babyish mouth, and a great deal of dark, curly hair which matched in a +queer kind of way the color of her big, pathetic-looking eyes. Timmy +told himself at once that he did not like her--that she looked "a muff". +It distressed him to think that his hero should be a friend of this +weak-looking, sly little thing--for so he uncompromisingly described Enid +Crofton to himself. + +Hostess and guest sat down on the big, roomy sofa, while Timmy moved +away and opened a book. He was afraid lest his mother should invite him +to leave the room, for he wanted to hear what they were saying. Timmy +always enjoyed hearing grown-up people's conversation, especially when +they had forgotten that he was present. All at once his sharp ears heard +Mrs. Crofton's low, melodious voice asking the question he had been +half-expecting her to ask: "Do you expect Mr. Radmore soon?" + +"Yes, he's coming down on Friday." There was a pause, then Timmy heard +his mother say: "Have you known Godfrey Radmore long?" + +Janet really wanted to know. Somehow, she found it difficult to imagine +a friendship between Godfrey and this little fribble of a woman. But as +to that, Janet Tosswill showed less than her usual intelligence. She +still thought of Godfrey Radmore as of the rather raw, awkward, though +clear-headed and determined lad of twenty-three--the Radmore, that is, +of nine years ago. + +"My husband and I first met him in Egypt," said Mrs. Crofton +hesitatingly. The delicate colour in her cheeks deepened. "One day he +began to talk about himself, and he told me about Beechfield, what a +beautiful village it was, how devoted he was to you all!" + +Janet Tosswill glanced at the clock. "It's already five minutes past +eight!" she exclaimed. "I must go and hurry my young people--their father +likes them to be absolutely punctual. The gong will go in a minute." + +After his mother had left the room, Timmy crept up close to the sofa, +and so suddenly appeared, standing with his hands behind his back, before +the visitor. She felt just a little startled; she had not known the +strange-looking boy was still there. Then she told herself quickly that +this surely must be Godfrey Radmore's godson--the child to whom he had +sent one of her late husband's puppies. + +There came over pretty Mrs. Crofton a slight feeling of apprehension and +discomfiture--she could not have told why. + +"When did you last see my godfather?" he asked abruptly, in an unchildish +voice, and with a quaintly grown-up manner. + +"Your godfather?" she repeated hesitatingly, and yet she knew quite well +who he meant. + +"I mean Major Radmore," he explained. + +She wondered why the disagreeable little fellow had asked such an +indiscreet question. + +Then, reluctantly, she made up her mind she had better answer it truly: +"I saw him the day before yesterday." She forced herself to go on +lightly. "I suppose you're the young gentleman to whom he sent a +puppy last year?" + +He nodded, and then asked another disconcerting question: "Did you leave +your dog outside? Dolly thought you didn't like dogs, so my terrier, +Flick, has been shut up in the stable. I suppose you only like your own +dog--I'm rather like that, too." + +"I haven't got a dog," she answered nervously. "It's quite true that I +don't like dogs--or, rather, I should like them if they liked me, but +they don't." + +"Then the dog that was with you belonged to the old gentleman?" + +"Old gentleman?" repeated Mrs. Crofton vaguely. This time she didn't in +the least know what the child was talking about, and she was relieved +when the door opened, and the Tosswill family came streaming through +it, accompanied by their step-mother. + +Laughing introductions took place. Mrs. Crofton singled out instinctively +her gentle, cultivated-looking host. She told herself with a queer sense +of relief, that he was the sort of man who generally shows a distantly +chivalrous regard for women. Next to her host, his eldest son, Jack +Tosswill, came in for secret, close scrutiny, but Enid Crofton always +found it easy and more than easy, to "make friends" with a young man. + +She realised that she was up against a more difficult problem in the +ladies of the family. She felt a little frightened of Mrs. Tosswill, of +whom Godfrey Radmore had spoken with such affection and gratitude. Janet +looked what Mrs. Crofton called "clever," and somehow she never got on +with clever women. Betty and Dolly she dismissed as of no account. +Rosamund was the one the attractive stranger liked best. There is no +greater mistake than to think that a pretty woman does not like to meet +another pretty woman. On the contrary, "like flies to like" in this, as +in almost everything else. + +But how did they regard her? She would have been surprised indeed had she +been able to see into their hearts. + +Mr. Tosswill, who was much more wideawake than he looked, thought her +a poor exchange for the amusing, lively, middle-aged woman who had +last lived at The Trellis House, and who had often entertained there a +pleasant, cultivated guest or two from London. Jack, though sufficiently +human to be attracted by the stranger's grace and charm, was inclined to +reserve his judgment. The three girls found her very engaging, and their +step-mother, if more critical, was quite ready to like her. As is often +the case with people who only care for those near and dear to them, the +world of men and women outside Janet Tosswill's own circle interested +her scarcely at all. She would make up her mind as to what any given +individual was like, and then dismiss him or her once for all from her +busy, over-burdened mind. + +One thing, however, both Janet and the three girls did notice--that was +the way their new acquaintance was dressed. Her black frock was not only +becoming, but had that indefinable look which implies thought, care, and +cost--especially cost. All four ladies decided immediately that Mrs. +Crofton must be much better off than she had implied in the letter she +had written to Mr. Tosswill some weeks ago. + +Timmy, alone of them all, on that first evening, felt strongly about +their visitor. Already he was jealous of the pretty, pathetic-looking +young widow. It irritated him to think that she was a friend of his +godfather. + +After they had all gone into the dining-room, and had sorted themselves +out, the guest being seated on her host's right, with Jack on the other +side of her, Janet announced: "This is supper, not dinner, Mrs. Crofton. +I hope you don't mind lobster? When I first came to Old Place, almost the +first thing I learnt was that it was celebrated for its lobster pie! +Since the War we have not been able to afford lobsters, but a kind friend +sent us six from Littlehampton yesterday, so I at once thought of our +dear old lobster pie!" + +Mrs. Crofton declared that, far from minding, she adored lobsters! And +then after she had been served, Timmy's fears were set at rest, for his +mother, very improperly the rest of the family thought, served him next, +and to a generous helping. + +As the meal went on, the mistress of Old Place realised that she had made +one mistake about Mrs. Crofton; their visitor was far more intelligent, +though in a mean, rather narrow way, than she had at first supposed. +Also, Mrs. Crofton was certainly very attractive. As the talk turned to +London doings, his step-mother was amused to notice that Jack was becoming +interested in their guest, and eagerly discussed with her a play they had +both seen. + +And the visitor herself? During supper she began to feel most pleasantly +at home, and when she walked into the long, high-ceilinged sitting-room, +which had such a cosy, homelike look she told herself that it was no +wonder Godfrey Radmore liked the delightful old house, and these kindly, +old-fashioned, and--and unsuspicious people. + +Two tall Argand lamps cast a soft radiance over the shabby furniture and +faded carpet. It was a lovely evening, a true St. Martin's summer night, +and the middle one of the three long French windows was widely open on to +the fragrant, scented garden. + +Mrs. Crofton, a graceful, appealing figure in her soft, black chiffon +gown, hesitated a moment--she wondered where they wanted her to sit? +And then Mrs. Tosswill came forward and, taking her hand, led her to the +big sofa, while one of the girls fetched an extra cushion so that she +might sit back comfortably. The talk drifted to the War, and Enid Crofton +was soon engaged in giving an animated account of some of her own +experiences--how she had managed to spend a very exciting fortnight not +far from the Front, in a hospital run by a great lady with whom she had a +slight acquaintance. Soon, sooner than usual, Mr. Tosswill and his three +sons came into the drawing-room, and they were all talking and laughing +together happily when a most unlucky, and untoward, accident happened! +Timmy's dog, Flick, having somehow escaped from the stable, suddenly ran +in from the dark garden, straight through the window opposite the sofa +round which the whole of the party was now gathered together. When about +a yard from Mrs. Crofton, he stopped dead, and emitted a series of short, +wild howls, while his hair bristled and stood on end, and his eyes flamed +blood red. + +They were all so surprised--so extremely taken aback by Flick's +behaviour--that no one moved. Then Mrs. Crofton gave a kind of gasp, and +covering her face with her hands, cowered back in the corner of the sofa. + +Timmy jumped up from the stool where he had been sitting, and as he did +so, his mother called out affrightedly: "Don't go near Flick, Timmy--he +looks mad!" + +But Timmy was no coward, and Flick was one of the few living things he +loved in the world. He threw himself on the floor beside his dog. +"Flick," he said warningly, "what's the matter, old chap? Has anything +hurt you?" As he spoke he put out his skinny little arms, and Flick, +though still shivering and growling, began to calm down. + +The little boy waited a moment, Flick panting convulsively in his arms, +then he gathered the dog to him, and, getting up from the floor, walked +quickly through the open window into the garden. + +For a moment no one stirred--and then Mr. Tosswill, who had been sitting +rather apart from the rest of the party, got up and shut the window. + +"What a curious thing," he said musingly. "I have always regarded Flick +as one of the best tempered of dogs. This is the first time he has ever +behaved like this." + +Mrs. Crofton dragged herself up from her comfortable seat. Her face +looked white and pinched. In spite of her real effort to control herself, +there were tears in her eyes and her lips were trembling. "If you are on +the telephone," she said appealingly, "I should be so grateful if you +should send for a fly. I don't feel well enough to walk home." She tried +to smile. "My nerves have been upset for some time past." + +Janet felt vexed and concerned. "Jack will drive you home in our old pony +cart," she said soothingly. "Will you go and bring it round, Tom?" + +Tom slipped off, and there arose a babel of voices, everyone saying how +sorry they were, Dolly especially, explaining eagerly how she herself had +personally superintended the shutting up of the dog. As for Betty, she +went off into the hall and quietly fetched Mrs. Crofton's charming +evening cloak and becoming little hood. As she did so she told herself +again that Mrs. Crofton must be much better off than they had thought +her to be from her letter. Every woman, even the least sophisticated, +knows what really beautiful and becoming clothes cost nowadays, and Mrs. +Crofton's clothes were eminently beautiful and becoming. + +As Betty went back into the drawing-room, she heard the visitor say:--"I +was born with a kind of horror of dogs, and I'm afraid that in some +uncanny way they always know it! It's such bad luck, for most nice people +and all the people I myself have cared for in my life, have been dog +lovers." + +And at that Dolly, who had a most unfortunate habit of blurting out just +those things which, even if people are thinking of, they mostly leave +unsaid, exclaimed:--"Your husband bred terriers, didn't he? Flick came +from him." + +Mrs. Crofton made no answer to this, and Janet, who was looking at her, +saw her face alter. A curious expression of--was it pain?--it looked more +like fear,--came over it. It was clear that Dolly's thoughtless words had +hurt her. + +Suddenly there came the sound of a tap on the pane of one of the windows, +and Mrs. Crofton, whose nerves were evidently very much out of order, +gave a suppressed cry. + +"It's only Timmy," said Timmy's mother reassuringly, and then she went +and opened the window. "I hope you've shut Flick up," she said in a low +voice. + +"Of course I have, Mum. He's quite quiet now." + +As the boy came forward, into the room, he looked straight up into Mrs. +Crofton's face, and as she met the enquiring, alien look, she told +herself, for the second time that evening, what a pity it was that these +nice people should have such an unpleasant child. + +Tom came in to say that the pony cart was at the door, and that Jack was +waiting there for Mrs. Crofton. + +They all went out in the hall to see her off. It was a bright, beautiful, +moonlight night, and Rosamund thought the scene quite romantic. + +Mr. Tosswill handed his guest into the pony cart with his usual, rather +aloof, courtesy; and after all the good-byes had been said, and as Jack +drove down the long, solitary avenue, Enid Crofton told herself that in +spite of that horrible incident with the dog--it was so strange that +Flick should come, as it were, to haunt her out of her old life, the +life she was so anxious to forget--she had had a very promising and +successful evening. The only jarring note had been that horrid little +boy Timmy--Timmy and his hateful dog. + +And then suddenly Enid Crofton asked herself whether Godfrey Radmore was +likely to go on being as fond of Timmy Tosswill as he seemed to be now. +She had been surprised at the reminiscent affection with which he had +spoken of his little godson. But there is a great difference between an +attractive baby-child of three and a forward, spoilt, undersized boy of +twelve. About a week ago, while they were enjoying a delicious little +dinner in the Berkeley Hotel grill-room, he had said:--"Although of +course none of them know it, for the present at any rate, Master Timmy is +my heir; if I were to die to-night Timmy Tosswill would become a very +well-to-do young gentleman!" + +Even at the time they had been uttered, the careless words had annoyed +Enid Crofton; and now the recollection of them made her feel quite angry. +All her life long money had played a great part in this very pretty +woman's inmost thoughts. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Betty Tosswill sat up in bed and told herself that it was Friday morning. +Then she remembered what it was that was going to happen to-day. + +It was something that she had thought, deep in her heart, would never +happen. Godfrey Radmore was coming back--coming back into her life, and +into all their lives. Though everything seemed just the same as when he +had left Old Place, everything was different, both in a spiritual and +material sense. The War had made a deep wound, nay, far more than one +wound, in the spiritual body politic of Old Place. And it was of a very +material thing that Betty Tosswill thought first, and most painfully, +this morning. This was the fact that from having been in easy +circumstances they were now very poor. + +When Godfrey Radmore had gone out of their lives there had been a great, +perhaps even then a false, air of prosperity over them all. John Tosswill +was a man who had always made bad investments; but in that far-off time, +"before the War," living was so cheap, wages were so low, the children +were all still so young, that he and Janet had managed very well. + +Only Betty knew the scrimping and the saving Jack, at Oxford, and Tom, at +Winchester, now entailed on the part of those who lived at Old Place. +Why, she herself counted every penny with anxious care, and the stupid, +kindly folk who asked, just a trifle censoriously, why she wasn't "doing +something," now that "every career is open to a girl, especially to one +who did so well in the War," would perhaps have felt a little ashamed had +they discovered that she was housemaid, parlourmaid, often cook, to a +large and not always easily pleased family. They never had a visitor to +stay now--they simply couldn't afford it--and she hated the thought of +Godfrey, himself now so unnaturally prosperous, coming back to such an +altered state of things. + +Besides, that was not all. Betty covered her face with her hands, and +slow, bitter, reluctant tears began to ooze through her fingers. She had +tried not to think of Godfrey and of his coming, these last two or three +days. She had put the knowledge of what was going to happen from her, +with a kind of hard, defiant determination. But now she was sorry--sorry, +that she had not taken her step-mother's advice, and gone away for a long +week-end. Betty Tosswill felt like a man who, having suffered intolerably +from a wound which has at last healed, learns with sick apprehension that +his wound is to be torn open. + +Although not even Janet, her one real close friend and confidant, was +aware of it, Godfrey had not been the only man in Betty's life. There had +been two men, out in France, who had loved her, and lost no time in +telling her so. One had been killed; the other still wrote to her at +intervals, begging her earnestly, pathetically, to marry him, and +sometimes she half thought she would. + +But always Godfrey Radmore stood before the door of her heart, +imperiously, almost contemptuously, "shooing off" any would-be intruder. +And yet to-day she told herself, believing what she said, that she no +longer loved him. She remembered now, as if they had been uttered +yesterday, the cruel words he had flung at her during their last hour +together when he had taunted her with not giving up everything and going +off with him--and that though she had known that there was, even then, a +part of his acute, clever brain telling him insistently that she would +be a drag on him in his new life.... She had also been cut to the heart +that Godfrey had not written to her father when his one-time closest +friend, her twin-brother, George, had been killed. + +To-day for the first time, Betty Tosswill told herself that perhaps she +had been mistaken in doing right instead of wrong, in coming here to help +Janet with her far from easy task with the younger children, instead of +getting a good job, as she knew she could have done, after the War. + +There is a modern type of young woman, quite a good young woman, too, +who, in Betty's position, would have thought that it was far better that +she should go out and earn, say, three or four pounds a week, sending +half the money, or a third of the money, home. But poor Betty was no +self-deceiver--she was well aware that what was wanted at Old Place in +the difficult months, aye, and even years, which would follow the end of +the Great War, was personal service. + +And so she had come home, making no favour of it, settling into her often +tiring and tiresome duties, trying now and again to make Rosamund and +Dolly do their share. In a way they did try, but they were both very +selfish in their different ways, and only Janet knew all that everyone +of them owed to Betty's hard, continuous work, and sense of order. Not +that the girl was perfect by any means; now and again she would say a +very sharp, sarcastic word, but on the whole she was wonderfully +indulgent, kindly and understanding--more like a mother than a sister +to the others. + +Everyday life is a mosaic of infinitely little things, whatever those who +write and talk may say. Betty had come back and settled down to life at +home, mainly because her step-mother could no longer "carry on." Janet +could not get servants, and if she could have got them, she could not now +have paid them. Then there had been the silly, vulgar but highly +dangerous affair between Rosamund and their too attractive married +"billet". Had Betty been at home that business would almost certainly +have been checked in the bud. As for Dolly, she was worse than no good in +the home. But--a certain secret hope was cherished both by Janet and by +Betty concerning Dolly. The bachelor vicar of the next parish seemed to +find a strange pleasure in her society. He was away now in Switzerland +and he had written to Dolly a minute account of his long, tiresome +journey. + +She wondered, with a feeling of pain at her heart, what Godfrey would +think of them all. There had been such an air of charm and gaiety about +the place nine years ago. Now, beautiful in a sense as was the stately +Georgian house, lovely as was the garden, thanks to Janet's cleverness +and hard work, there was an air of shabbiness over everything though +Betty only fully realised it on the very rare occasions when she got away +for a few days for a change and rest with old friends. + +This summer her brother Jack had said a word to her, not exactly +complainingly, but with a sort of regret. "Don't you think we could +afford new furniture covers for the drawing-room?" and Betty had shaken +her head. They could afford _nothing_ for the house--she alone knew how +very difficult it was to keep up Jack's own modest allowance. + +There had been a discussion between herself and Janet as to whether Mr. +Tosswill should start taking pupils again in his old age, but they had +decided against it, largely because they felt that the class of pupils +whom he had been accustomed to take before the war, and who could alone +be of any use from the financial point of view, could not now be made +really comfortable at Old Place. Betty was ashamed of feeling how much it +hurt her pride to know how concerned Godfrey would be to find how poor +they had become. She would not have minded this if he had been poor +himself. But she hated the thought of a rich Godfrey, who flung money +about over foolish, extravagant presents, discovering, suddenly, how +altered were their circumstances since the day when he had rushed out +of the house throwing the big cheque kind John Tosswill had shamefacedly +handed to him, on to the floor. + + * * * * * + +After Betty had had her own cold bath, and had prepared a tepid one for +her father, she dressed quickly, and going over to the dressing-table +in the large, low-ceilinged room--a room which, in spite of the fact +that everything in it was old and worn, had yet an air of dainty charm +and dignity, for everything in it was what old-fashioned people call +"good"--she looked dispassionately at herself in the glass. + +Her step-mother had said, "You haven't changed one bit!" But that was +not true. Of course she had changed--changed very much, outwardly and +inwardly, since she was nineteen. For one thing, the awful physical +strain of her work in France had altered her, turned her from a girl into +a woman. She had seen many terrible things, and she had met with certain +grim adventures she could never forget, which remained all the more vivid +because she had never spoken of them to a living being. + +And then, as she suddenly told herself, with a rather bitter feeling of +revolt, the life she was leading now was not calculated to make her +retain a look of youth. Last week, in a fit of temper, Rosamund had said +to her:--"I only wish you could see yourself! You look a regular +'govvy'!" She had laughed--the rather spiteful words passing her by--for +she had never cared either for learning or teaching. But now, as she +gazed critically in her mirror, she told herself that, yes, she really +did look rather like a nice governess--the sort of young woman a certain +type of smart lady would describe as her "treasure". Forty or fifty years +ago that was the sort of human being into which she would have turned +almost automatically when poverty had first knocked at the door of Old +Place. Now, thank God, people who could afford to pay well for a +governess wanted a trained teacher, not an untrained gentlewoman for +their children. + +But Betty did not waste much time staring at herself. Throwing her head +back with what had become a characteristic gesture, she went off and +called her sisters and brothers before running lightly down the back +stairs. + +Nanna was already pottering about the kitchen. She had laid and lit the +fire, and put the kettle on to boil for Mrs. Tosswill's early cup of tea. +The old woman looked up as Betty came into the kitchen, and a rather +touching expression came over her old face. She had a strong, almost a +maternal affection for her eldest nurseling, and she wondered how Miss +Betty was feeling this morning. Nanna had been told of the coming visitor +by Timmy, but with that peculiar touch of delicacy so often found in her +class, she had said nothing about it to Betty. + +"Well, Nanna? I expect Mrs. Tosswill has told you that Mr. Radmore is +coming to-day, and that he's to have George's room." + +Nanna nodded. "It's quite ready, Miss Betty. I went in there yesterday +afternoon while you was all out. He'll find everything there just as he +left it. Eh, dear, I do mind how those dear boys loved their stamps and +butterflies." + +Betty sighed, a sharp, quick sigh. After calling Jack she had thought of +going into the room which had been her brother's and Godfrey's joint room +in the long, long ago. And then she had decided that she couldn't bear to +do so. The room had never been slept in since George had spent his last +happy leave for now there was never any occasion to put a visitor in what +was still called by Nanna "Master George's room." + +"I expect he'll arrive for tea," said Betty, "and I was wondering whether +we couldn't make one of those big seed cakes he and George used to be so +fond of." + +"That's provided for, too," said Nanna quietly. + +And then, all at once, almost as though she were compelled to do so by +something outside herself, Betty went across the kitchen and threw her +arms round her old nurse's neck and kissed her. + +"There, there," said Nanna soothingly, "do you mind much, my dearie!" + +"No, I don't think I do." Betty winked away the tears. "It's George I'm +really thinking of, Nanna." + +"But the dear lad is in the Kingdom of the Blessed, my dear. You wouldn't +have him back--surely?" + +"Not if he's really happier where he is," said the girl, "but oh, Nanna, +it's so hard to believe that." She went across to the big old-fashioned +kitchen range, and poured the boiling water into a little silver teapot. +Then she took the tray to her step-mother's room. + +Next she went down into the drawing-room--she always "did" that room +while Nanna laid the breakfast with the help of the village girl who, +although she was supposed to come in at seven, very seldom turned up +till eight. And then, while Betty was carefully dusting the quaint, +old-fashioned Staffordshire figures on the mantelpiece, the door opened, +and Nanna came in and shut it behind her. "There isn't any wine," she +began mysteriously. "Gentlemen do like a little drop of wine after their +dinner." + +"I think what father and Jack can do without, Mr. Radmore can do without, +too," said Betty. For the first time her colour heightened. "In any case, +I don't see how we can get anything fit to drink by this evening." + +"I was thinking, Miss Betty, that you might borrow a bottle of port wine +at Rose Cottage." + +"I don't think I can do that," said Betty decidedly, "you see, Miss +Pendarth's port is very good port, and we could never give her back a +bottle of the same quality." + +And then, as Nanna sidled towards the door, the old woman suddenly +remarked, a little irrelevantly:--"I suppose you've told Miss Pendarth +that Mr. Godfrey is coming, Miss Betty?" + +Betty looked round quickly. "No," she said, "I haven't had a chance yet. +Thank you for reminding me." + +The old woman slipped away, and Betty suddenly wondered whether Nanna had +really come in to ask that question as to Miss Pendarth. Somehow Betty +suspected that she had. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +It was about eleven, when most of her household chores were done, that +Betty started off to pay an informal call on Miss Pendarth, in some ways +the most outstanding personality in the village of Beechfield. + +"Busybody"--"mischief-maker"--"a very kind lady"--"a disagreeable +woman"--"a fearful snob"--"a true Christian"--were some of the epithets +which had been, and were still, used, to describe the woman to whose +house, Rose Cottage, Betty Tosswill, with a slight feeling of discomfort +bordering on pain, began wending her way. + +Olivia Pendarth and her colourless younger sister, Anne, the latter +now long dead, had settled down at Beechfield in the nineties of the +last century. When both over thirty years of age, they had selected +Beechfield as a dwelling-place because of its quiet charm and nearness +to London. Also because Rose Cottage, which, in spite of its unassuming +name, was, if a small yet a substantial, red-brick house with a good +garden, paddock and stables, exactly suited them, as to price, and as to +the accommodation they then wanted. The surviving sister was now rather +over sixty, and her income was very much smaller than it had been, but it +never even occurred to her to try and sell what had become to her a place +of mingled painful and happy memories. + +In every civilised country a village is the world in little, though it +is always surprising to the student of human nature to find how many +distinct types are gathered within its narrow bounds. And if this is +true of village communities all over Europe, it is peculiarly true of +an English village. + +Miss Pendarth was a clever woman. Too clever to be really happy in the +life to which she had condemned herself. She had been born many years too +early to follow up any of the various paths now open to the intelligent, +educated woman. Yet she belonged, by birth and upbringing, to that +age-long tradition of command which perhaps counts for most of all to the +one class which has remained in England much the same for generations. + +The Pendarths had once been very great people in Cornwall, and long +records of the family are to be found in all county histories. Olivia +Pendarth was wordlessly very proud of their lineage, and it is no +exaggeration to say that she would have died rather than in any way +disgrace it. + +A woman of great activity, she had perforce no way of expending her +energies excepting in connection with the people about her, and always in +intention at least she spent herself to some beneficent purpose. Yet +there was a considerable circle who much disliked her and whom she +herself regarded with almost limitless scorn. These were the folk, idle +people most of them, and very well-to-do, who, having made fortunes in +London, now lived within a radius of five to ten miles round Beechfield. + +Miss Pendarth was on excellent terms with what one must call, for want of +a better name, the cottage class. To them she was a good, firm, faithful +friend, seeing them through their many small and great troubles, and +taking real pains to help their sons and daughters to make good starts +in life. Many a village mother had asked Miss Pendarth to "speak" to her +naughty girl or headstrong son, and as she was quite fearless, her words +often had a surprising effect. She neither patronised nor scolded, and it +was impossible to take her in. + +But when dealing with the affairs of those of her neighbours, who were +well-to-do, and who regarded themselves as belonging to her own class, it +was quite another matter. With regard to them and their affairs she was +what they often angrily accused her of being--a busy-body and even a +mischief-maker. Her lively mind caused her to take a great interest--too +great an interest--in the private affairs of people some of whom she +disliked, and even despised. She was also not as scrupulous as she might +have been in repeating unsavoury gossip. Yet, even so, so substantially +good a woman was she, that what some people called Miss Pendarth's +interfering ways had more than once brought about a reconciliation +between husband and wife, or between an old-fashioned mother and a +rebellious daughter. It was hopeless to try to keep from her the news of +any local quarrel, love-affair, or money trouble--somehow or other she +always found out everything she was likely to want to know--and she +almost always wanted to know everything. + +There was another fact about Miss Pendarth, and one which much +contributed to her importance even with the people who disliked and +feared her: she was the only inhabitant of the remote Surrey village who +was in touch with the world of fashion and society--who knew people whose +"pictures are in the papers." Now and again, though more and more rarely +as time went on, she would leave Rose Cottage to take part in some big +family gathering of the important and prosperous clan to which, in spite +of her own lack of means, she yet belonged, and with whom she kept in +touch. But she herself never entertained a visitor at Rose Cottage, for +a reason of which she herself was painfully aware and which the more +careless of those about her did not in the least realise. This reason was +that she was very, very poor. Before the War, her little settled income +had enabled her to live in comfort in a house which was her own. But now, +had not her one servant been friend as well as maid, she could not have +gone on living in Rose Cottage; and during the last year, as Betty +Tosswill perhaps alone had noticed, certain beautiful things, fine bits +of good old silver, delicate inlaid pieces of furniture, and a pair of +finely carved gilt mirrors, had disappeared from Rose Cottage. + +The house was situated in the village street, with, however, a paved +forecourt, in which stood two huge Italian oil jars gay from April to +November with narcissi, tulips, or pink geraniums. Miss Pendarth was +proud of the fine old Sussex ironwork gate and railing which separated +her domain from the village street. The gate was exactly opposite the +entrance to the churchyard, while at right angles stood the village post +office. From the windows of her drawing-room upstairs, the mistress of +Rose Cottage was able to see a great deal that went on in the village of +Beechfield. + +Miss Pendarth's appearance, as is so often the case with an elderly, +unmarried Englishwoman of her class, gave no clue to her clever, +decisive, and original character. She had a thin, rather long mouth, what +old-fashioned people call a good nose, and grey eyes, and she had kept +the slight, rather stiff, figure of her girlhood. She still wore her +hair, which was only now beginning to turn really grey, braided in the +way which had been becoming to her thirty years before. The effect, if +neat, was rather wig-like, and the one peculiar-looking thing about her +appearance. She always wore, summer and winter, a mannish-looking +tailor-made coat and skirt, and a plainly cut flannel or linen shirt. At +night--and she dressed each evening--she alternated between two black +dresses, the one a velvet dress gown, the other a sequin-covered satin +tea-gown. + +Such was the woman to whom Betty Tosswill had thought it just as well to +go herself with the news of Godfrey Radmore's coming visit to Old Place, +and as she walked slowly up the village street, the girl tried to remind +herself that Miss Pendarth had a very kind side to her nature. Of all the +letters Betty had received at the time of her brother's death, she had +had none of more sincerely expressed sympathy than that from this old +friend whom she was now going to see. And yet? Yet what pain and distress +Miss Pendarth had caused them all at the time of the Rosamund trouble! +Instead of behaving like a true friend, and, as far as possible, stopping +the flow of gossip, she had added to its volume, causing the story to be +known to a far larger circle than would otherwise have been the case. But +Betty, honesty itself, was well aware that her step-mother had made a +serious mistake in not telling Miss Pendarth what there was to tell. A +confidence she never betrayed. + +Betty also reminded herself ruefully that in the far-away days when +Godfrey Radmore had been so often an inmate of Old Place, there had been +something like open war between himself and Miss Pendarth, and when she +had heard of his extraordinary good fortune, she had not hidden her +regret that it had fallen on one so unworthy. + +As Betty went up to the iron gate and unlatched it, she half hoped that +the owner of Rose Cottage would be out. Miss Pendarth, unlike most of her +neighbours, always kept her front door locked--you could not turn the +handle and walk right into the house. + +To-day she answered Betty's ring herself, and with a smile of welcome +lighting up her rather grim face she drew the girl into the hall and +kissed her affectionately. + +"I was just starting to pay my first call on Mrs. Crofton. But I'm so +glad. Perhaps you'll be able to tell me something about her. I hear she +had supper with you the day she arrived!" + +As she spoke, she led the way into a little room off the hall. "I've been +trying to make out to what branch of the Croftons she belongs," she went +on reflectively. "There was a man called Cecil Crofton in my second +brother's regiment a matter of forty years ago." + +"She looks quite young," said Betty doubtfully. + +"Old enough to know better than to get herself talked about the first +hour she arrived," observed Miss Pendarth grimly. + +"I don't think she can have done that--" + +"Not only did she bring a man with her, a Captain Tremaine,--but just +before he left they had some kind of quarrel which was overheard by two +of the tradespeople who were calling to leave their cards." + +"How--how horrid," murmured Betty. But what really shocked her was that +Miss Pendarth should listen to that sort of gossip. + +"It was horrid and absurd too, for the man had turned the key in the lock +of the sitting-room, and it stuck for a minute or two when one of them +tried to unlock the door in answer to the maid's knock!" + +"What an extraordinary thing!" + +"I could hardly believe the story, but now that I've seen Mrs. Crofton, +I'm not so very much surprised!" + +"Then you have seen her?" Betty smiled. + +"I've just had a glimpse of her," admitted Miss Pendarth grudgingly, "as +she came out of church, a day or two ago, with your sister Dolly." + +"She's extraordinarily pretty, isn't she?" + +"Too theatrical for my taste. But still, yes, I suppose one must admit +that she will prove a very formidable rival to most of our young ladies. +I'm told she's a war widow--and she certainly behaves as if she were." + +"I don't think it's fair to say that!" Betty crimsoned. She felt a close +kinship to all those women who had lost someone they loved in the War. + +"You mean not fair to the war widows?" + +"Yes, that is what I do mean. Only a few of them behave horridly--" + +There was a pause. Betty was trying to bring herself to introduce the +subject which filled her mind. But Miss Pendarth was still full of the +new tenant of The Trellis House. + +"I hear that Timmy's dog gave her a fearful fright." + +Betty felt astonished, well used as she was to the other's almost uncanny +knowledge of all that went on in the village. Who could have told her +this particular bit of gossip? + +"I wonder," went on the elder lady reflectively, "what made Mrs. Crofton +come to Beechfield, of all places in the world. Somehow she doesn't look +the sort of woman who would care for a country life." + +"Godfrey Radmore first told her of Beechfield," said Betty, and in spite +of herself, she felt the colour rise again hotly to her cheeks. + +"Godfrey Radmore?" It was Miss Pendarth's turn to be genuinely surprised. +"_Godfrey Radmore!_ Then she's Australian? I thought there was something +odd about her." + +Betty smiled, but she felt irritated. In some ways Miss Pendarth was +surely very narrow-minded! + +"No, she's not Australian--at least I'm pretty sure she's not. They met +during the War, in Egypt. Her husband was quartered there at the same +time as Godfrey." She paused uncomfortably--somehow she found it very +difficult to go on and say what, after all, she had come here to say this +morning. + +"I suppose," said Miss Pendarth at last, "that Godfrey Radmore is back +in Brisbane by now. One of the strange things about this war has been the +way in which those who could have been best spared, escaped." + +In spite of herself, Betty smiled again. "Godfrey has come back to +England for good," she said quietly, "he's coming to-day for a long +week-end." + +"D'you mean," asked Miss Pendarth, "that he's coming to stay with this +Mrs. Crofton at The Trellis House?" + +"Oh, no!" exclaimed Betty. (What odd ideas Miss Pendarth sometimes had.) +"He's coming to Old Place of course: he telephoned to Janet from London, +and proposed himself." + +"I think it's very good of you all to put up with him," said Miss +Pendarth drily, "I've never said so before, my dear, but I thought it +exceedingly ungrateful of him not to have come down here when he was in +England a year ago, I mean when he sent that puppy to your brother +Timmy." + +Betty remained silent, and for once her old friend felt--what she too +seldom did feel--that she might just as well have kept her thoughts to +herself. + +Miss Pendarth was really attached to Betty Tosswill, but she was one of +those people--there are many such--who find it all too easy to hurt those +they love. + +They both got up. + +"I'm afraid you think me very uncharitable," said the older woman +suddenly. + +Betty looked at her rather straight. "I sometimes think it strange," she +said slowly, "that anyone as kind and clever as I know you are, does not +make more allowances for people. For my part, I wonder that Godfrey is +coming here at all. As I look back and remember all that happened--I +don't think that anyone at Old Place behaved either kindly or fairly to +him--I mean about our engagement." + +Miss Pendarth was moved as well as surprised by Betty's quiet words. The +girl was extraordinarily reserved--she very rarely spoke out her secret +thoughts. But Miss Pendarth was destined to be even more surprised, for +Betty suddenly put out her hand, and laid it on the other's arm. + +"I want to tell you," she said earnestly, "that as far as I am concerned, +everything that happened then is quite, quite over. I don't think that +Godfrey would have been happy with me, and so I feel that we both had a +great escape. I want to tell you this because so many people knew of our +engagement, and I'm afraid his coming back like this may cause a lot of +silly, vulgar talk." + +Miss Pendarth was more touched than she would have cared to admit even to +herself. "You can count on me, my dear," she said gravely, "and may I +say, Betty, that I feel sure you're right in feeling that you would have +been most unhappy with him?" + +As Betty walked on to the post office she was glad that _that_ little +ordeal was over. + + * * * * * + +John Tosswill was one of those men who instinctively avoid and put off +as long as may be, a difficult or awkward moment. That was perhaps one +reason why he had not made a better thing of his life. So his wife was +not surprised when, after luncheon, he observed rather nervously that he +was going out, and that she must tell Godfrey Radmore how sorry he was +not to be there to welcome him. + +As she remained silent, he added, rather shamefacedly:--"I'll be back in +time to have a few words with him before dinner." + +Poor Janet! She still loved her husband as much as she had done in the +days when he, the absent-minded, gentle, refined scholar, made his way +into her heart. Nay, in a sense, she loved him more, for he had become +entirely dependent on her. But though she loved and admired him, she no +longer relied on him, as she had once done; he had a queer way of failing +her at the big moments of life, and now, to-day, she felt it too bad of +him to shirk the moment of Godfrey Radmore's return. His presence would +have made everything easier, for he had never admitted either to himself +or her, that Godfrey had behaved in a strange or untoward manner. + +As she turned over the leaves of a nursery-man's catalogue and gazed at +the list of plants and bulbs she could not afford to buy, long-forgotten +scenes crowded on her memory. + +Radmore had been the violent, unreasonable element in the painful +episode, for Betty had behaved well, almost too well. The girl would have +thrown in her lot with her lover, but both her father and step-mother had +been agonised at the thought of trusting her to a man--and so very young +a man--who had made such a failure of his life. That he was going out to +Australia practically penniless--nay, worse than penniless, saddled with +debts of so-called honour--had been, or so they had judged at the time, +entirely his own fault. + +John Tosswill, who had a very clear and acute mind when any abstract +question was under discussion, had told Betty plainly that she would only +be a dangerous hindrance to a man situated as Radmore would be situated +in a new country, and she had submitted to her father's judgment. + +But how ironical are the twists and turns of life! If only they had known +what the future was to bring forth, how differently Betty's father and +step-mother would have acted! Yet now to-day, Janet tried to tell herself +that Betty had had a happy escape. Godfrey had been like a bull in the +net during those painful days nine years ago. He had shown himself +utterly unreasonable, and especially angry, nay enraged, with her, Janet, +because he had been foolish enough to hope that she would take his part +against Betty's father. + + * * * * * + +Acting on a sudden impulse, she went upstairs, and, feeling a little +ashamed of what she was doing, went into the room which was to be Godfrey +Radmore's. Then she walked across to where stood Timmy's play-box, in +order to find the letter which Betty's one-time lover had written to his +godson. + +The play-box had been George's play-box in the days of his preparatory +school, and it still had his name printed across it. + +She turned up the wooden lid. Everything in the box was very tidy, for +Timmy was curiously grown-up in some of his ways, and so she very soon +found the letter she was seeking for. + +It was a quaint, humorous epistle--the letter of a man who feels quite +sure of himself, and yet as she read it through rapidly, there rose +before her the writer as he had last appeared in a railing whirlwind +of rage and fury, just before leaving Old Place--he had vowed at the +time--for ever. She remembered how he had shouted at her, hurling bitter +reproaches, telling her she would be sorry one day for having persuaded +Betty to give him up. But though she, Janet Tosswill, had not forgotten, +he had evidently made up his mind, the moment he had met with his +unexpected and astonishing piece of good luck, to let bygones be bygones. +For, after that first letter to his godson, gifts had come in quick +succession to Old Place, curious unexpected, anonymous gifts, but even +Dolly had guessed at once from whom they came. + +No wonder the younger children were all excited and delighted at the +thought of his coming visit! Radmore was now looked upon as a fairy +godfather might have been. They were too young, too self-absorbed, to +realise that these wonderful gifts out of the blue never seemed to wing +their way to Betty or Janet. Yet stop, there had been an exception. Last +Christmas each had received an anonymous fairing--Betty, a beautiful +little watch, set in diamonds, and Janet, a wonderful old lace flounce. +Both registered parcels had come from London, Godfrey Radmore being known +at the time to be in Australia. But neither recipient of the delightful +gift had ever cared to wear or use it. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +And meanwhile the man of whom every single human being in Old Place, +with the exception of the little village day girl, was thinking this +afternoon, was coming ever nearer and nearer to Beechfield in an ecstasy +of sentient joy at being "at home" again. + +As Radmore motored along the Portsmouth Road through the warmly-beautiful +autumn countryside, a feeling of exultation, of intense personal love +for, and pride in, the old country, filled his heart. Why had he stayed +in London so long when all this tranquil, appealing loveliness of wood, +stream, hill and hollow lay close at hand? There are folk who deny the +charm of Surrey--by whom this delicious county, with its noble stretches +of wild, fragrant uplands, and wide, deep valleys, is dismissed as +suburban. But though they would deny it vehemently, the eyes of such +folk are holden. + +As he was borne along through the soft, lambent air, everything he passed +appealed to his heart and imagination. Each of the small, yet dignified, +eighteenth-century houses, which add such distinction and grace to each +Surrey township--Epsom, Leatherhead, Guildford--gave him a comfortable +feeling of his country's well-being, of the essential stability of +England. Now and again, in some woodland glade where summer still +lingered, he would pass by happy groups engaged in black-berrying; +while on the road there waited the charabancs, the motor-cycles, the +pony-traps, which had brought them. + +Once, when they came to such a spot, he, Radmore, called out to his +chauffeur to stop. They were close to the crest of Boxhill, and below +them lay spread out what is perhaps the finest, because the richest in +human and historic associations, view in Southern England. As he stood up +and gazed down and down and down, to his right he saw what looked from up +here such a tiny toylike town, and it recalled suddenly a book he had +once read, as one reads a Jules Verne romance, "The Battle of Dorking," +a soldier's fairy-tale that had come perilously near being a prophecy. + +Before Radmore's eyes--blotting out the noble, peaceful landscape, rich +in storied beauty--there rose an extraordinarily vivid phantasmagoria of +vast masses of armed men in field grey moving across that wide, thickly +peopled valley of lovely villages and cosy little towns. He saw as in a +vision the rich stretches of arable land, the now red, brown, and yellow +spinneys and clumps of high trees, the meadows dotted with sleek cattle, +laid waste--while sinister columns of flames and massed clouds of smoke +rose from each homestead. + +"Drive on!" he called out, and the chauffeur was startled by the harsh +note in his employer's generally kindly voice. + +On they sped down the great flank of the huge hill, past the hostelry +where Nelson bid a last farewell to his Emma, on and on along narrow +lanes, and between high hedges starred with autumn flowers. And then, +when in a spot so wild and lonely that it might have been a hundred miles +from a town--though it was only some ten miles from Beechfield--something +went wrong with the engine of the car. + +Janet had proposed that tea should be at five o'clock, so as to give the +visitor plenty of time to arrive. But from four onwards, all the younger +folk were in a state of excitement and expectation--Timmy running +constantly in and out of the house, rushing to the gate, from whence a +long stretch of road could be seen, till his constant gyrations got on +his mother's nerves, and she sharply ordered him to come in and be quiet. + +At a quarter to five the telephone bell rang and Jack languidly went to +answer it. Then he came back into the drawing-room. "Radmore's had a +breakdown," he said briefly, "he's afraid he can't get here till seven." + +Here was a disappointing anti-climax! + +"Then we'd better all go and have our tea," said Timmy sententiously, and +everyone felt, in a dispirited way, that, as usual, Timmy had hit the +nail on the head. + +They all trooped into the dining-room, but Timmy was the only one who did +full justice to the cakes and scones which had been made specially in +Godfrey Radmore's honour: all the others felt cross and disappointed, +especially Tom and Rosamund, who had given up going to a tennis-party. + +Tea was soon over, for everyone talked much less than usual, and then +they all scattered with the exception of Timmy and Betty. Janet had +someone to see in the village; Tom persuaded Rosamund that they would +still be welcome at the tennis-party; Betty stayed to clear the table. +She, alone of them all, was glad of even this short respite, for, as the +day had gone on, she had begun to dread the meeting inexpressibly. She +knew that even Tom--who had only been seven years old when Godfrey went +away--would be wondering how she felt, and watching to see how she would +behave. It was a comfort to be alone with only Timmy who was still at +table eating steadily. Till recently tea had been Timmy's last meal, +though, as a matter of fact, he had nearly always joined in their very +simple evening meal. And lately it had been ordained that he was to eat +meat. But much as he ate, he never grew fat. + +"Hurry up!" said Betty absently. "I want to take off the table-cloth. We +can wash up presently." + +Timmy got up and shook himself; then he went across to the window, Flick +following him, while Betty after having made two tray journeys into the +kitchen, folded up the table-cloth. Timmy might have done this last +little job, but he pretended not to see that his sister wanted help. He +thought it such a shame that he wasn't now allowed the perilous and +exciting task of carrying a laden tray. But there had been a certain +dreadful day when... + +Betty turned round, surprised at the child's stillness and silence. Timmy +was standing half in and half out of the long French windows staring at +something his sister could not see. + +Then, all at once, Betty's heart seemed to stop still. She heard a voice, +familiar in a sense, and yet so unlike the voice of which she had once +known every inflection. + +"Hullo! I do believe I see Timothy Godfrey Radmore Tosswill!" and the +window for a moment was darkened by a tall, stalwart figure, which looked +as if it were two sizes larger than that which Betty remembered. + +The stranger took up Timmy's slight, thin figure as easily as a little +girl takes up a doll, and now he was holding his godson up in the air, +looking up at him with a half humorous, half whimsical expression, while +he exclaimed:--"I can't think where you came from? You've none of the +family's good looks, and you haven't a trace of your mother!" + +Then he set Timmy down rather carefully and delicately on the edge of the +shabby Turkey carpet, and stepped forward, into the dining-room. + +"I wonder if I may have a cup of tea? Is Preston still here?" + +"Preston's married. She has five children. Mother says it's four too +many, as her husband's a cripple." Timmy waited a moment. "We haven't got +a parlourmaid now. Mother says we lead the simple life." + +"The devil you do!" cried Radmore, diverted, and then, not till then, did +he suddenly become aware that he and his godson were not alone. + +"Why, Betty!" he exclaimed in a voice he tried to make quite ordinary, +"I didn't see you. Have you been there the whole time?"--the whole time +being but half a minute at the longest. + +And then he strode across the room, and, taking her two hands in his +strong grasp, brought her forward, rather masterfully, to the window +through which he had just come. + +"You're just the same," he said, but there was a doubtful note in his +voice, and then as she remained silent, though she smiled a little +tremulously, he went on:-- + +"Nine years have made an awful difference to me--nine years _and_ the +war! But Beechfield, from what I've been able to see of it, seems exactly +the same--not a twig, not a leaf, not a stone out of place!" + +"We didn't expect you for another hour at least," said Betty, in her +quiet, well-modulated voice. + +She was wondering whether he remembered, as she now remembered with a +kind of sickening vividness, the last time they had been together in this +room--for it was here, in the dining-room of Old Place, that they had +spent their last miserable, heart-broken moment together, a moment when +all the angry bitterness had been merged in wild, piteous tenderness, and +heart-break... + +"I had a bit of luck," he answered cheerfully, "as I went out of the +house where I had managed to get on to a telephone, there came a car down +the road, and I asked the man who was driving it if he would give me a +lift. My luck held, for he was actually breaking his journey for half an +hour here, at Beechfield!" + +He was talking rather quickly now, as if at last aware of something +painful, awkward, in the atmosphere. + +"Others all out?" he asked. "Perhaps you'll show me my room, godson?" + +"Wouldn't you like to see Nanna?" asked Timmy officiously. "She's so +looking forward to seeing you. She wants to thank you for the big +Shetland shawl she supposes you sent her last Christmas, and she has an +idea that the little real silver teapot she got on her birthday came from +you too. It has on it 'A Present for a Good Girl.'" + + * * * * * + +As Radmore followed Timmy up the once familiar staircase, he felt +extraordinarily moved. + +How strange the thought that while not only his own life, but the lives +of all the people with whom he had been so intimately associated, had +changed--this old house had remained absolutely unaltered! Nothing had +been added--as far as he could see--and nothing taken away, and yet the +human atmosphere was quite other than what it had been ten years ago. + +Just now, in the moment of meeting, he had avoided asking Betty about +George. Betty's twin had been away at the time of Radmore's break with +Old Place--away in a sense which in our civilised days can only be +brought about by one thing, an infectious illness. At the time the +agonising debate was going on at Beechfield, he had been in a fever +hospital close on a month, and they were none of them to see him for +three more weeks. It had been at once a pain and a relief that he should +not be there--yet what good could a boy of nineteen have done? + +As to what had happened to George afterwards, Radmore knew nothing. He +believed that his friend had joined the Indian Civil Service. From +childhood George had always intended to make his career in India, his +maternal forebears having all been in the service of John Company. + +During the last few days Radmore had thought a great deal of George, +wondering what had happened to him during the war--whether, for instance, +he had at last managed, as did so many Anglo-Indian officials, to get +leave to join the Army? At one moment, before it had entered into his +mind to write to his little godson, he had thought of opening up +communications through George. But he had rejected the notion. The break +had been so complete, and George, after all, was so closely connected +with Betty! Considering that he had not mentioned Betty's brother, either +when speaking to Janet on the telephone two or three days ago, or again +just when he had made his unconventional re-entry into Old Place, it was +odd how the thought of Betty's twin haunted him as he followed his little +guide upstairs. Odd? No, in a sense very natural, for he and George often +raced each other up these very stairs. They had been such pals in spite +of the four years' difference between them. + +Radmore and Timmy were now in the kind of annex or wing which had been +added some fifty years after the original mansion had been built. The +lower floor of this annex consisted of one big room which, even in the +days of Radmore's first acquaintance with the Tosswills, was only used in +warm weather. Above it were two good bedrooms--the one still called +"George's room," over-looked the garden, and had a charming view of +bracken-covered hill beyond. + +Timmy opened the door with a flourish, and Radmore saw at once that only +one of the two beds was made up; otherwise the room was exactly the same, +with this one great outstanding difference--that it had a curiously +unlived-in look. The dark green linoleum on the floor appeared a thought +more worn, the old rug before the fireplace a thought more shabby--still, +how well things lasted, in the old country! + +He walked across to one of the windows, and the sight of the garden below +now in its full autumn beauty, seemed to bring Janet Tosswill vividly +before him. + +"Your mother as great a gardener as ever?" he asked, without turning +round, and Timmy said eagerly:--"I should think she is! And we're going +to sell our flowers and vegetables. _We_ shall get the money now; the Red +Cross got it during the war." + +As his godfather remained silent, the boy went on insistently:--"Fifteen +shillings a week clear profit is £40 a year, and Mum thinks it will come +to more than that." + +Radmore turned round. + +"I wonder if any of you have yet met a lady who's just come to live +here--Mrs. Crofton?" + +"Oh, yes, we've met her; in fact she's been to supper." Timmy spoke +without enthusiasm, but Radmore did not notice that. + +"I was wondering if you and I could go round and see her between now and +dinner?" + +"I _think_ I could." There was a doubtful touch in Timmy's voice. He knew +quite well he ought to stay and help his sister to wash up the tea-things +and do certain other little jobs, but he also knew that if he asked Betty +to let him off, she would. + +"I shan't be a minute," he exclaimed, and a moment later Radmore heard +the little feet pattering down the carpetless back stairs, and then +scampering up again. + +Timmy ran in breathlessly. "It's all right!" he exclaimed, "I can go +with you--Mrs. Crofton has got The Trellis House--I'll show you the way +there." + +"Show me the way there?" repeated Radmore. "Why, I knew The Trellis House +from garret to cellar before you were born, young man." + +In the hall Timmy gave a queer, side-long look at his companion. "Do you +think we'd better take Flick?" he asked doubtfully, "Mrs. Crofton doesn't +like dogs." + +"Oh, yes, she does," Radmore spoke carelessly. "Flick was bred by Colonel +Crofton. I think she'll be very pleased to see him." + +Timmy would have hotly resented being called cruel, and to animals he was +most humane, yet somehow he had enjoyed Mrs. Crofton's terror the other +night, and he was not unwilling to see a repetition of it. And so the +three set out--Timmy, Radmore, and Flick. Somehow it was a comfort to the +grown-up man to have the child with him. Had he been alone he would have +felt like a ghost walking up the quiet, empty village street. The +presence of the child and the dog made him feel so _real_. + +The two trudged on in silence for a bit, and then Radmore asked in a low +voice:--"Is that busy-body, Miss Pendarth, still alive?" + +They were passing by Rose Cottage as he spoke, and Timmy at once replied +in a shrill voice:--"Yes, of course she is." And then, as if as an +afterthought, he remarked slyly:--"Rosamund often says she wishes she +were dead. Do you hate her, too?" + +"Hate's a big word," said Radmore thoughtfully, "but there was very +little love lost between me and that good lady in the old days." + +They passed the lych-gate of the churchyard, and then, following a sudden +impulse, Radmore turned into the post-office. + +Yes, his instinct had been right, for here, at any rate, was an old +friend, but a friend who, from a young man, had become old and grey. +Grasping the postmaster, Jim Cobbett, warmly by the hand Radmore +exclaimed:--"I'm glad to find you well and hearty, Cobbett." There +came the surprised: "Why, it's Mr. Radmore to be sure! How's the world +been treating you, sir?" + +"Better than I deserve, Cobbett." + +"Can you stay a minute, sir--Missus would like to see you, too?" The +speaker opened a door out of the tiny shop, and Radmore, followed by +Timmy and Flick, walked into a cosy living-room, where an old dog got +up and growled at them. + +"That dog," said Timmy in a hoarse whisper, "frightened poor Mrs. Crofton +very much the other day as she was coming out of church." + +For a moment Radmore thought the room was empty. Then, in the dim +lamp-light, a woman, who had been sitting by the fireplace, got up. + +"Here's Mr. Radmore come all the way from Australia, mother." + +"Mr. Radmore?" repeated the woman dully, and Radmore had another, and a +very painful, shock. + +He remembered Mrs. Cobbett definitely, as a buxom, merry-looking young +woman. She now looked older than her husband, and she did not smile at +him, as the man had done, as she held out her worn, thin hand. + +"A deal has happened," she said slowly, "since you went away." + +"Yes," said Radmore, "a deal has happened, Mrs. Cobbett; but Beechfield +seems unchanged, I cannot see any difference at all." + +"Hearts are changed," she said in a strange voice. + +For the first time since he had been in Beechfield, Radmore felt a tremor +of real discomfort run through him. + +He looked up at the mantelpiece. It was bare save for the photographs, in +cheap frames, of two stolid-looking lads, whom he vaguely remembered. + +"Those your boys?" he asked kindly, and then, making an effort of memory +of which he felt harmlessly proud, he said:--"Let me see, one was Peter +and the other was Paul, eh? I hope they're all right, Mrs. Cobbett?" + +"In a sense, sir," she said apathetically. "I do believe they are. They +was both killed within a month of one another--first Paul, then Pete, as +we called him--so Mr. Cobbett and I be very lonely now." + +As Radmore and Timmy walked away from the post-office, Radmore said +a trifle ruefully:--"I wish, Timmy, you had told me about those poor +people's sons. I'm afraid--I suppose--that a good many boys never came +back to Beechfield." + +He now felt that everything was indeed changed in the lovely, peaceful +little Surrey village. + +"I expect," said Timmy thoughtfully, "that the most sensible thing you +could do"--(he avoided calling Radmore by name, not knowing whether he +was expected to address him as "godfather," "Godfrey," or "Major +Radmore")--"before we see anybody else, would be to take a look at the +Shrine. You have plenty of matches with you, haven't you?" + +"The Shrine?" repeated Radmore hesitatingly. + +"Yes, _you_ know?" + +But somehow Radmore didn't know. + +They walked on in the now fast gathering darkness through a part of the +village where the houses were rather spread out. And suddenly, just +opposite the now closed, silent schoolhouse and its big playground, Timmy +stopped and pointed up to his right. "There's our Shrine," he exclaimed. +"If you'll give me the box of matches, I'll strike some while you look at +the names." + +Radmore stared up to where Timmy pointed, but, for a moment or two, he +could see nothing. Then, gradually, there emerged against the high hedge +a curious-looking wooden panel protected by a slanting, neatly thatched +eave, while below ran a little shelf on which there were three vases +filled with fresh flowers. + +Timmy Tosswill struck a match and held it up, far above his little head. +And Radmore saw flash out the gilded words:-- + + ROLL OF HONOUR, 1914-1918. + PASS, FRIEND. ALL'S WELL. + +The first name was "Thomas Ingleton," then came "Mons, 22nd August, +1914." Immediately below, bracketed together, came "Peter and Paul +Cobbett," followed, in the one case, by the date October 15, 1915, and in +the other, November 19, 1915. And then, in the wavering light, there +seemed to start out another name and date. + +Radmore uttered an exclamation of sharp pain, almost of anger. He did +not want the child to see his shocked, convulsed face, but he said +quickly:--"Not George? Surely, Timmy, not _George_?" + +Timmy answered, "Then you didn't know? Dad and Betty thought you did, but +Mum thought that perhaps you didn't." + +"Why wasn't I told?" asked Radmore roughly. "I should have thought, +Timmy, that you might have told me when you answered my first letter." + +He took the box of matches out of Timmy's hand, and himself lighting a +match, went up quite close to the list of names. Yes, it was there right +enough. + +"When did he, George, volunteer?" he asked. + +"On the seventh of August, two days after the War began," said Timmy +simply. "He was awfully afraid they wouldn't take him. There was such a +rush, you know. But they did take him, and the doctor who saw him +undressed, naked, you know, told Daddy"--the child hesitated a moment, +then repeated slowly, proudly--"that George was one of the finest +specimens of young manhood he had ever seen." + +"And when did he go out?" + +"He went out very soon; and we used to have such jolly times when he came +back, because, you know, he did come back three times altogether, and the +second time--Betty hadn't gone to France then--they all went up to London +together and had a splendid time. I didn't go; Mum didn't think it worth +the expense that I should go, though George wanted me to." + +Hardly conscious that he was doing so, Radmore turned round, and began +walking quietly on along the dark road, with Timmy trotting by his side. +"What I believed," he muttered, half to himself, "was that George was +safe in India, and probably not even allowed to volunteer." + +"George never went to India," said Timmy soberly. "Betty wasn't well, I +think, and as they were twins, he didn't like to go so far away from her. +So he got a job in London. It was quite nice, and he used to come down +once a month or so." He waited a moment, then went on. "Betty always said +he was a born soldier, and that he ought to have been a soldier from the +very beginning. As you care so much," he added a little diffidently, "I +expect Betty would show you the letters his men wrote about him. Dad has +got the letters of his Colonel and of the officers, but Betty has the +others." + +And then all at once Radmore felt a small skinny hand slipped into his. + +"I want to tell you something," muttered Timmy. "I want to tell you two +things. I want to tell you that I'm sure George is in Heaven. I don't +know if you know, but I sometimes see people who are dead. I saw Pete +Cobbett once. He was standing by the back door of the post-office, and +that old dog of theirs saw him too; it was just before we got the news +that he was killed, so I thought he was back on leave. But I've never +seen George--sometimes I've felt as if he were there, but I've never +_seen_ him." + +For a moment Radmore wondered if he had heard the words aright. What +could the child mean? Did Timmy claim the power to see spirits? + +"Now I'll tell you the second thing," went on Timmy, his voice dropping +to a whisper. "The last time George was home he came into the night +nursery one night. Nanna was still busy in the kitchen, so I was by +myself. I have a room all to myself now, but I hadn't then. George came +in to say a special good-bye to me--he was going off the next morning +very early, and Betty wanted to be the only one up to see him go; I mean +really early, half past five in the morning. And then--and then--he said +to me: 'You'll look after Betty, Timmy? If anything happens to me you'll +take my place, won't you, old chap? You'll look after Betty all the days +of her life?' I promised I would, and so I will too. But I haven't told +her what George said, and you mustn't tell anybody. I've only told you +because you're my godfather." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +Mrs. Crofton was walking restlessly about her new home--the house that +was so new to her, and yet, if local tradition could be trusted, one of +the oldest inhabited dwellings in that part of England. + +She had felt so sure that Godfrey Radmore would manage to get away from +Old Place, and call on her this afternoon, for Jack Tosswill had told her +that he was arriving before tea--she felt depressed and disappointed +though she had not yet given up hope. + +She wondered if he would come alone the first time, or if one of +the girls would accompany him. She felt just a little afraid of +Rosamund--Rosamund was so very pretty with all the added, evanescent +charm of extreme youth. She told herself that it was lucky that she, +Enid, and Godfrey Radmore were already friends, and good friends too. + +Twice she went up into her bedroom and gave a long, searching, anxious +look at herself in the narrow panel mirror which she had fixed on to one +of the cupboard doors. That there is no truer critic of herself, and of +her appearance, than a very pretty woman, is generally true even of the +vainest and most self-confident of her sex. + +Enid Crofton had put on a white serge skirt, and a white woolen jumper, +the only concession to her new widowhood being that the white jumper was +bordered in pale grey of a shade that matched her shoes and stockings. +Though her anxious surveys of herself had been reassuring, she felt +nervous, and a trifle despondent. She did not like the country--the +stillness even of village life got on her nerves. Still, Beechfield was +very different from the horribly lonely house in Essex to which she +never returned willingly in her thoughts--though sometimes certain +memories of all that had happened there would thrust themselves upon her, +refusing to be denied. + +Fortunately for the new occupant of The Trellis House, a certain type of +prettiness gives its lucky possessor an extraordinary sense of assurance +and tranquillity when dealing with the average man. Enid Crofton wasn't +quite sure, however, if Godfrey Radmore was an average man. He had never +made love to her in those pleasant, now far-away days in Egypt, when +every other unattached man did so. That surely proved him to be somewhat +peculiar. + +During the whole of her not very long life she had been petted and +spoilt, admired and sheltered, by almost everyone with whom fate had +brought her in contact. + +Enid Crofton's father had been a paymaster in the Royal Navy named +Joseph Catlin. After his death she and her mother had lived on in +Southsea till the girl was sixteen, when her mother had pronounced +her quite old enough to be "out." Mrs. Catlin was still too attractive +herself to feel her daughter a rival, and the two years which had +followed had been delightful years to them both. Then something which +they regarded as most romantic occurred. On the day Enid was eighteen, +and her mother thirty-seven, there had been a double wedding, Mrs. Catlin +becoming the wife of a prosperous medical man, while Enid married a young +soldier who had just come in for £4,000, which he and his girl-wife +at once proceeded to spend. + +To-day, in spite of herself, her mind went back insistently to her first +marriage--that marriage of which she never spoke, but of which she was +afraid she would have to tell Godfrey Radmore some day. She was shrewd +enough to know that many a man in love with a widow would be surprised +and taken aback were he suddenly told that she had been married before, +not once, but twice. + +Unknowingly to them both, the young, generous, devoted, lover-husband, to +whom even now she sometimes threw a retrospective, kindly thought, had +done her an irreparable injury. He had opened to her the gates of a +material paradise--the kind of paradise in which a young woman enjoys a +constant flow of ready money. Though she was quite unaware of it, it was +those fifteen weeks spent on the Riviera, for the most part at Monte +Carlo, which had gradually caused Enid to argue herself into the belief +that she was justified in doing anything--_anything_ which might +contribute to the renewal of that delicious kind of existence--the only +life, from her point of view, worth living. + +Her first husband's death in a motor accident had left her practically +penniless, as well as frightened and bewildered, and so she had committed +the mistake of marrying, almost at once, clever, saturnine Colonel +Crofton, a man over thirty years older than herself. His mad passion had +died down like a straw-fed flame, and when there had come, like a bolt +from their already grey sky, the outbreak of War, it had been a godsend +to them both. + +Colonel Crofton had at once stepped into what had seemed to them both +a good income, with all sorts of delightful extras, and allowances, +attached to it. And while he was in France, at the back of the Front, +absorbed in his job, though resentful of the fact that he was not in +the trenches, Enid had shared a small flat in London with another young +and lonely wife. The two had enjoyed every moment of war-time London, +dancing, flirting, taking part, by way of doing their bit, in every +form of the lighter kind of war charities, their ideal existence only +broken by the occasional boredom of having to entertain their respective +husbands when the latter were home on leave. + +Then had come the short interval in Egypt during which the Croftons had +met Godfrey Radmore, and, after that for Enid, another delightful stretch +of London life. + +She had felt it intolerable to go back to the old, dull life, on an +income which seemed smaller than ever with rising prices, and everything +sacrificed, or so it had seemed to her, to Colonel Crofton's new, +dog-breeding hobby. She resented too, perhaps, more bitterly than she +knew herself, her husband's altered attitude to herself. From having been +passionately, foolishly in love, he had become critical, and, what to her +was especially intolerable, jealous. For a time she had kept up with some +of her war-time acquaintances, but there was a strain of curious timidity +in her nature, and she grew afraid of Colonel Crofton. Even now, when +Enid Crofton, free at last, remembered those dreary months in the shabby +little manor-house which Colonel Crofton had taken after the Armistice, +she told herself, with a quickened pulse, that flesh and blood cannot +stand more than a certain amount of dulness and discomfort. But she +seldom went back in thought to that hateful time. She had wanted to +obliterate, as far as was possible, all recollection of the place where +she had spent such unhappy months, and where had occurred the tragedy +of her husband's death. And it would have been difficult to find two +dwelling-houses more different than the lonely, austere-looking, Fildy +Fe Manor, which stood surrounded by water-clogged fields, some two +miles from an unattractive, suburban Essex town, and the delightful, +picturesque, cheerful-looking Trellis House which formed an integral part +of a prosperous-looking and picturesque Surrey village. + + * * * * * + +At last Mrs. Crofton settled herself down into her low-ceilinged, square +little sitting-room, and, looking round at her new possessions, she told +herself that outwardly her new home was perfect. + +The Trellis House had been for a short time in the possession of a +clever, modern architect who had done his best to restore the building to +what it must have been before it had been transformed, early in the 19th +century, from a farm into a so-called gentleman's house. He had uncovered +the old oak beams, stripped five layers of paper off the walls of the +living rooms, and laid bare what panelling there was--in fact he had +restored the interior of the old building, while leaving the rose and +clematis covered trellis which was on the portion of the house standing +at right angles to the village street, and which gave it its name. + +In a sense it was too much like a stage picture to please a really fine +taste. But to Enid Crofton it formed an ideal background for her +attractive self. She had sold for very high prices the sound, solid, +fine, 18th century furniture, which her husband had inherited, and with +the proceeds she had bought the less comfortable but to the taste of the +moment, more attractive oak furnishings of The Trellis House. + +Enid Crofton was the kind of woman who acquires helpful admirers in every +profession. The junior partner of the big firm of house-agents who had +disposed of the lease of Fildy Fe Manor had helped her in every way +possible, though he had been rather surprised and puzzled, considering +that she knew no one there, at her determination to find a house in, or +near, the village of Beechfield. + +It was also an admirer, the only one who had survived from her war +sojourn in Egypt--a cheery, happy, good-looking soldier, called Tremaine, +now at home on leave from India--who had helped her in the actual task of +settling in. Not that there had been much settling in to do--for the +house had been left in perfect order by its last tenant. But Captain +Tremaine had fetched her from the hotel where she had stayed in London; +he had bought her first-class ticket (Enid always liked someone to pay +for her); they had shared a delightful picnic lunch which he provided +in the train; and then, finally, reluctantly, he had left The Trellis +House--after a rather silly, tiresome, little scene, during which he had +vowed that she should marry him, even if it came to his kidnapping her +by force! + +While hoping and waiting, in nervous suspense, for Godfrey Radmore, she +cast a tender thought to Bob Tremaine. Nothing, so she told herself with +a certain vehemence, would induce her to marry him, for he had only £200 +a year beside his pay, and that, even in India, she believed would mean +poverty. Also she had been told that no woman remained really pretty in +India for very long. But she was fond of Tremaine--he was "her sort," and +far, far more her ideal of what a man should be than was the rich man she +had deliberately made up her mind to marry; but bitter experience had +convinced Enid Crofton that money--plenty of money--was as necessary to +her as the air she breathed. + + * * * * * + +Suddenly there broke on her ear the peal of an old-fashioned bell, +followed by a short, sharp knock on the toy knocker of her front door. +Enid started up, her face full of eagerness and pleasure; something +seemed to tell her that it was--it must be--Radmore! + +While the maid was going to the door, her mind worked quickly. Surely it +was very late for a call? He must have been wishing to see her as soon as +he possibly could, or he would never have managed to get away from Old +Place, and its many tiresome inmates. There came a mischievous smile over +her face. Of one of those inmates, the rather priggish Jack Tosswill, she +had made a real conquest. Under some flimsy excuse he had come every day, +always staying for a considerable time. This very morning he had not gone +till she had told him frankly that she only had lunch enough for one! + +The door opened slowly, and her smile died away, giving place to a +touching, pathetic expression. And then, instead of the tall, dark +man she expected to see walk in, there advanced towards her a small, +freckled-faced, fair-haired little boy--Timmy Tosswill, the child whom +she was already beginning to regard with something akin to real distaste. + +But Enid Crofton was never unpleasant in manner to anybody, and she even +forced herself to smile, as she exclaimed:--"I was not expecting a +visitor so late, but I'm very pleased to see you all the same, Master +Timmy! How wonderful that you should have been able to reach my knocker. +It's placed so very high up on the door--I think I must get it altered." + +"I didn't knock," said Timmy shortly, "it was my godfather who knocked, +Mrs. Crofton." + +And when Radmore followed his godson into the room he was surprised, even +a little touched, at the warmth of Mrs. Crofton's greeting. + +She put out both her hands, "I _am_ glad to see you"--and then she added, +characteristically, for truth was not in her, "I was afraid you wouldn't +have time to look me up for ever so long!" + +But though Radmore was pleased by her evident joy in seeing him, he +looked at her with a curiously critical eye. He was surprised to find her +in a white frock--inclined, even, to be just a little bit shocked. + +And there was something else. Enid Crofton had enjoyed the War--she had +admitted this just a little shamefacedly a week ago, when they two were +having dinner together at the Savoy Grill, where she had been easily the +prettiest woman in the room. At the time he had felt indulgently that it +was a good thing that someone should have gone through that awful time +untouched by the pains and scars of war. But now everything seemed +different, somehow. Beechfield was a place of mourning, and in a place +of mourning this smiling, beautifully dressed, almost too pretty young +creature looked out of place. Still that wasn't her fault, after all. + +As the three sat down, Timmy upset the narrow oak stool on which he had +placed himself with a great clatter, and Radmore suddenly realised that +he had made a mistake in bringing the boy. For the first time since his +return to England he saw something like a frown gather on Mrs. Crofton's +face. Perhaps, unlike most nice women, she didn't like children? + +"I'm awfully grateful to you for having told me about Beechfield," she +exclaimed. "Although I've hardly been here a week, I do feel what a +delightful place it is! Everybody is so kind and friendly. Why the very +first day I was here I was asked to supper at Old Place--and several +people have left cards on me already. What sort of a woman is Miss--" she +hesitated, "Pendarth?" + +Timmy and Radmore looked at one another, but neither spoke for a moment. +Then Radmore answered, rather drily:--"In my time, Miss Pendarth was the +greatest gossip and busy-body within a radius of thirty miles. She must +be an old woman now." + +"Oh, I don't think she would like you to call her that!" exclaimed Timmy, +and both his grown-up auditors laughed. But Enid Crofton felt a little +disappointed, for on Miss Pendarth's card had been written the words:--"I +look forward to making your acquaintance. I think I must have known +Colonel Crofton many years ago. There was a Cecil Crofton who was a great +friend of my brother's--they joined the Ninetieth on the same day." She +had rather hoped to find a kindly friend and ally in the still unknown +caller. + +And then, as if answering her secret thought, Radmore observed +carelessly:--"It's wrong to prejudice you against Miss Pendarth; I've +known her do most awfully kind things. But she had what the Scotch call +a 'scunner' against me when I was a boy. She's the sort of woman who's +a good friend and a bad enemy." + +"I must hope," said his hostess softly, "that she'll be a good friend to +me. At any rate, it was nice of her to come and call almost at once, +wasn't it?" + +"You've delightful quarters here," observed Radmore. "The Trellis House +was a very different place to this in my time; I can remember a hideous, +cold and white wallpaper in this room--it looks twice as large as it did +then." + +"I found the things I sold made it possible for me to buy almost +everything in The Trellis House. Tappin & Edge say that I got a great +bargain." + +"Yes," said Radmore hesitatingly, "I expect you did." + +But all the same he felt that his pretty friend had made a mistake, for +he remembered some of Colonel Crofton's furniture as having been very +good. In the bedroom in which he had slept at Fildy Fe Manor there had +been a walnut-wood tallboy of the best Jacobean period. That one piece +must certainly have been worth more than all the furniture in this +particular room put together. + +Poor Enid Crofton! The call to which she had been looking forward so +greatly was not turning out a success. Godfrey Radmore seemed a very +different man here, in Beechfield, from what he had seemed in London. +They talked in a desultory way, with none of the pleasant, cosy, intimacy +to which she had insensibly accustomed him; and though Timmy remained +absolutely quiet and silent after that unfortunate accident with the +stool, his presence in some way affected the atmosphere. + +All at once Radmore asked:--"And where's Boo-boo? It's odd I never +thought of asking you in London, but somehow one expects to see a dog in +the country, even as highly civilised and smart a little dog as Boo-boo!" + +"I sold her," answered Mrs. Crofton, in a low, pained tone. "I got £40 +for her, and a most awfully good home. Still," she sighed, "of course I +miss my darling little Boo--" and then a sharp tremor ran through her, +for there suddenly fell on her ears the sound of a dog, howling. + +Now Enid Crofton did not believe that what she heard so clearly were real +howls, proceeding from a flesh-and-blood dog. She thought that her nerves +were betraying her, as they had a way of doing since her husband's death. +Often when she fell asleep, there would come to her a strange and +horrible nightmare. It was such a queer, uncanny kind of dream for a +grown-up woman to have! She used to dream that she was a rat--and that +Colonel Crofton's own terrier, a fierce brute called Dandy, was after +her. + +"That's Flick! Perhaps I'd better go and let him out?" Timmy jumped up +as he spoke. "I thought you didn't like dogs, Mrs. Crofton, and so I shut +Flick up in your stable-yard. I expect he's got bored, being in there +all by himself, in the dark!" + +The boy's words brought delicious relief, and then, all at once, she +felt unreasonably angry. How stupid of this odious little fellow to have +brought his horrid, savage dog with him--after what had happened the +other night! + +Timmy shot out of the room and so through the front door, and Radmore got +up too. "I'm afraid we ought to be going," he said. + +His white-clad hostess came up close to him:--"It's so good of you to +have come to see me so soon," she murmured. "Though I do like Beechfield, +and the people here are awfully kind, I feel very forlorn, Mr. Radmore. +Seeing you has cheered me up very much. I hope you'll come again soon." + +There fell on the still air the voice of Timmy talking to his dog +outside. Mrs. Crofton went quickly past Radmore into the tiny hall; she +shut the front door, which had been left ajar; and then she came back. + +"It's quite true that I don't like dogs!" she exclaimed. "Poor Cecil's +terriers got thoroughly on my nerves last winter. I sometimes dream of +them even now." + +He looked at her, surprised, and rather concerned. Poor little woman! +There were actually tears in her eyes. + +"Yes," she went on, as if she could not help the words coming out, +"that's the real reason I sold Boo-boo. I even felt as if my poor little +Boo-boo had turned against me." There was a touch of excitement, almost +of defiance, in her low voice, and Radmore felt exceedingly taken aback +and puzzled. This was an Enid Crofton he had never met. "Come, come--you +mustn't feel like that"--he took her hand in his and held it closely. + +She looked up at him and her eyes filled with tears, and then, suddenly, +her heart began beating deliciously. She saw flash into his dark face a +look she had seen flash into many men's faces, but never in his, till +now--the excited, tender look that she had longed to see there. She +swayed a little towards him; dropping her hand, he put out his arms--in +another moment, what she felt sure such a man as Radmore would have +regarded as irreparable would have happened, had not the door just behind +them burst open. + +They fell apart quickly, and Radmore, with a sudden revulsion of +feeling--a sensation that he had been saved from doing a very foolish +thing--turned to see his godson, Timmy Tosswill. + +Enid Crofton looked at Timmy, too, and if evil thoughts could kill, the +child would have fallen dead. But evil thoughts do not kill, and so all +that happened was that Timmy had a sudden, instinctive feeling that he +must account for his presence. + +Looking up into his godfather's face, he said breathlessly:--"The front +door was shut, so I came in, through the kitchen. It's ever so late, +Godfrey--after half past seven. Dad _will_ be upset if you're not back to +speak to him before dinner!" + + * * * * * + +As the two, the tall man and the short boy, walked away into the +darkness, Radmore was possessed by an extraordinary mixture of feelings. +"You've had an escape! You've got well out of what would have been not +only a dangerous but an absurd situation," so whispered a secret, inner +voice. And yet there was a side of him which felt not only balked and +disappointed, but exasperated... + +"Do you ever think of people's faces when they're not there?" asked Timmy +suddenly, and then, without waiting for an answer, he went on:--"When I +shut my eyes, before I go quite off to sleep, you know, I see a row of +faces. Sometimes they're people I've never seen at all; but last night I +kept seeing Mrs. Crofton's face, looking just as it looked when Flick ran +in and growled at her the other night. It was such an awful look--I don't +think I shall ever forget it." + +As Radmore said nothing, the little boy asked another question: "Do you +think Mrs. Crofton pretty?" This time Timmy waited for an answer. + +"Yes, I think she's very pretty. But gentlemen don't discuss ladies and +their looks, old boy." + +"Don't they? How stupid of them!" said Timmy. He added a little shyly, "I +suppose a gentleman may talk of his sister?" + +Radmore turned hot in the darkness. Was Timmy going to say something of +Betty, and of that old, painful, now he hoped forgotten, episode? But +Timmy only observed musingly:--"You haven't seen Rosamund yet. Of course +we never say so to her, because it might make her vain, but I do think, +Godfrey, that she's very, _very_ pretty." + +And then, rather to his companion's discomfiture, his queer little +mind swung back to the woman to whose house they had just been. "Mrs. +Crofton," he observed, with an air of finality, "may be pretty, but she's +got what I call a blotting-paper face." + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +Radmore felt secretly relieved that he and Timmy got home too late for +him to see Mr. Tosswill alone before dinner. And when at last he came +down, just a minute or two late, for he had to do things for himself to +which he had become unaccustomed--unpacking his bag, putting out his +evening clothes, placing of studs in his evening shirt, and so on--he +found what looked to him like a large party of strangers all gathered +together in the dear old drawing-room. + +As he walked in among them he looked first with quick interest at the +three girls. Yes, Timmy was right--Rosamund was lovely. Dolly struck him +as commonplace, though as a matter of fact she looked more attractive +than usual. Betty looked very hot--or was it that the exquisite +complexion that once had been her chief physical beauty had gone? + +After a moment or two Betty slipped out of the room, leaving Radmore and +Mr. Tosswill shaking hands quite cordially, if a little awkwardly. + +"Well, sir, here I am again, turned up just like a bad penny!" And his +host answered absently:--"Yes, yes, Godfrey--very glad to see you, I'm +sure." + +Then, after he had shaken hands with Janet and Tom, they all stood +together on the hearthrug waiting, so Radmore supposed, for the +parlourmaid to come in and announce dinner. + +But instead of that happening, the door opened and Timmy appeared. "Will +you come into the dining-room? Everything's ready now." + +They all followed him, three of the younger ones--Tom, Dolly and +Rosamund--laughing and whispering together. Somehow Timmy never +associated himself with those of his brothers and sisters nearest to +him in age. + +Radmore came last of all with Janet. He felt as if he were in a strange, +unreal dream. It was all at once so like and so unlike what he had +expected to find it. All these quiet, demure-looking young strangers, +instead of the jolly, familiar children he had left nine years ago--and, +as he realised with a sharp pang--no George. He had not known till +to-night how much he had counted on seeing George, or at least on hearing +all about him. Instead, here was Jack, so very self-possessed--or was it +superior?--in his smart evening jacket. He could hardly believe that Jack +was George's brother. + +For a moment he forgot Betty. Then he saw her come hurrying in. Her +colour had gone down, and she looked very charming, and yet--yes, a +stranger too. + +The table was laid very much as it had been in the old days on a Sunday, +when they always had supper instead of dinner at Old Place. But to-day +was not Sunday--where could all the servants be? + +Janet, looking very nice in the bright blue gown her little son had +admired, placed the guest on her right hand. To her left, Timmy, +with snorts and wriggles, settled himself. The others all sorted +themselves out; Betty sat the nearest to the door, on the right of +her father,--lovely Rosamund on his left. + +Timmy stood up and mumbled out a Latin grace. How it brought back +Radmore's boyhood and early manhood days! But in those days it was Tom, +a simple cherubic-looking little boy of seven, who said grace--the usual +"For what we are going to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful!" +The stranger--how queer to think he was a stranger here, in this familiar +room--did not care for the innovation. + +They all sat down, and Radmore began to eat his soup, served in a covered +cup. It was very good soup, and as he was rather tired and hungry, he +enjoyed it. Then Timmy got up and removed the cup and its cover; and +suddenly the guest became aware that only four people at the table had +taken soup--himself, Mr. Tosswill, Jack, and Timmy. What an odd thing! + +They were all rather silent, and Radmore began to have a strange, uncanny +feeling that none of them could see him, that he was a wraith, projected +out of the past into the present. It was a novel and most disconcerting +sensation. But no one glancing at his keen face, now illumined with a +half humorous expression of interest, would have guessed the mixed and +painful feelings which possessed him. + +He stole a look to his left. Janet, in his eyes, was almost unchanged. Of +course she looked a thought older, a thought thicker--not so much in her +upright figure, as in her clever, irregular-featured face. In the days of +his early manhood she had never seemed to him to be very much older than +himself--but now she looked a lifetime older than he felt. + +Only Mr. Tosswill looked absolutely unchanged. His mild benevolent face, +his deep blue eyes, his grey hair, seemed exactly the same as when +Radmore had last sat down, in the Old Place dining-room, to a full table. +That had been in the Christmas holidays of 1910. Very well he remembered +all that had happened then, for he and Betty had just become engaged. + +At nineteen Betty Tosswill had belonged to the ideal type of +old-fashioned English girlhood--high-spirited, cheerful, artless yet +intelligent, with a strong sense of humour. She had worn a pink evening +frock during those long-ago Christmas holidays, and had looked, at any +rate in her young lover's eyes, beautiful. + +They had been ardently, passionately in love, he a masterful, exacting +lover, and though seeming older than his age, without any of the +magnanimity which even the passage of only a very few years brings to +most intelligent men. Poor little Betty of long ago--what a child she +had been at nineteen!--but a child capable of deep and varied emotions. + +At the time of their parting he had been absorbed in his own selfish +sensations of anger, revolt, and the sharp sense of loss, savagely glad +that she was unhappy too. But after he had gone, after he had plunged +into the new, to him exciting and curious, life of the great vessel +taking him to Australia, he had forced himself to put Betty out of his +mind, and, after a few days, he had started a violent flirtation with the +most attractive woman on board the liner. The flirtation had developed, +by the time they reached Sydney, into a serious affair, and had been the +determining cause why he had not written even to George. Godfrey Radmore +had not thought of that woman for years. But to-night her now hateful, +meretricious image rose, with horrid vividness, before him. It had been +an ugly, debasing episode, and had dragged on and on, as such episodes +have a way of doing. + +Wrenching his mind free of that odious memory, he looked across at Betty. +Yes, it was at once a relief and something of a disappointment to feel +her, too, transformed into a stranger. For one thing she had had, when +he had last seen her, a great deal of long fair hair. But she had cut it +off when starting her arduous war work, and the lack of it altered her +amazingly, all the more that she did not wear her short hair "bobbed," in +what had become the prevailing fashion, but brushed back from her low +forehead, and staidly held in place by a broad, black, snood-like ribbon. + +He looked to his right, down the old-fashioned, almost square dining +table. Jack was the least changed, after his father, of the young people +sitting at this table. Jack, nine years ago, had been a rather complacent +boy, doing very well at school, the type of boy who is as if marked out +by fate to do well in life. Yes, Jack had hardly changed at all, but +Radmore, looking at Jack, felt a sudden intolerable jealousy for +George.... + +He came back with a start to what was going on around him, and idly he +wondered what had happened to all the servants this evening. Truth to +tell he had been just a little surprised and taken aback at not finding +his bag unpacked and his evening clothes laid out before dinner. + +Timmy had slipped out of his chair and brought him a plateful of roast +mutton, and now Rosamund was playing waitress, smiling at his elbow, a +lovely Hebe indeed, with dishes of potatoes and greens. He helped himself +a little awkwardly, while Timmy was taking round platefuls of meat to his +father, to Jack, and finally one to his own little self. + +Then Betty went out of the room, and came back with a large dish of +macaroni cheese, which she put on a side table. Jack got up and whispered +something to her rather angrily. He was evidently remonstrating with her +for not having allowed him to go and get the dish, for he motioned her +rather imperiously back to her seat by her father, while he himself, +calling to Dolly to help him, dealt out generous portions of macaroni +cheese to those who had not taken meat. + +All at once Timmy exclaimed in his shrill voice:--"I like macaroni +cheese. Why shouldn't I have a little to-day, too? Here, Tom, you take +my meat, and I'll have your macaroni cheese." He did not wait for Tom's +assent to this peculiar proposal, and was proceeding to effect the +exchange when Tom muttered crossly, while yet, or so Radmore fancied, +casting rather longing eyes at Timmy's plate. + +"You know perfectly well you've got to have meat to drive the ghosties +out of your silly head." + +Timmy submitted with a grunt of disappointment, and the meal proceeded. +Again Radmore felt surprised and puzzled. Was it conceivable that the +whole family--with the exception of Mr. Tosswill, Jack and Timmy, had +become so High Church that Friday was with them a meatless day? + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +After her visitors had gone, Mrs. Crofton had come back slowly, +languidly, to her easy-chair. + +It was too warm for a fire, yet somehow the fire comforted her, for she +felt cold as well as tired, and, yes, she could admit it to herself, +horribly disappointed. How stupid men were--even clever men! + +It was so stupid of Godfrey Radmore not to have come to see her, this the +first time, alone. He might have found it difficult to have come without +one of the Tosswill girls, but there was no reason and no excuse for his +being accompanied by that odious little Timmy. It was also really unkind +of the boy to have brought his horrid dog with him. Even now she seemed +to hear Flick's long-drawn-out howls--those horrible howls that at the +time she had not believed to be real. What a nervous, hysterical fool +she was becoming! How long would she go on being haunted by the now +fast-disappearing past? + +There came back to Enid Crofton the very last words uttered by Piper, the +clever, capable man who, after having been Colonel Crofton's batman in +the War, had become their general factotum in Essex:--"Don't you go and +be startled, ma'am, if you see the very spit of Dandy in this 'ere +village! As me and your new lad was cleaning out the stable-yard this +morning, a young gentleman came in with a dog as was 'is exact image. +After a bit o'course, I remembered as what we'd sent one of Juno's and +Dandy's pups to a place called Beechfield this time last year--'tis that +pup grown into a dog without a doubt!" + +It was certainly a bit of rank bad luck that there should be here, in +Beechfield, a dog which, whenever she saw it, brought the image of her +dead husband so vividly before her. + +She had just settled herself down, and was turning over the leaves of one +of the many picture papers which Tremaine had bought for her on their +jolly little journey on the day of her arrival at The Trellis House, when +there came a ring at the door. + +Who could it be coming so late--close to seven o'clock? Enid Crofton got +up, feeling vaguely disturbed. + +The new maid brought in a reply-paid telegram, and Mrs. Crofton tore +open the orange envelope with just a faint premonition that something +disagreeable was going to happen:--"May I come and stay with you for the +week-end? Have just arrived in England. Alice Crofton." + +Thank Heaven she had been wrong as to her premonition! This portended +nothing disagreeable--only something unexpected. The sender of this +telegram was the kind, opulent sister-in-law whom she always thought of +as "Miss Crofton." + +Going over to her toy writing-table, she quickly wrote on the reply-paid +form:--"Miss Crofton, Buck's Hotel, Dover Street. Yes, delighted. Do come +to-morrow morning. Excellent eleven o'clock train from Waterloo.--Enid." + +As she settled herself by the fire she told herself that a visit from +Miss Crofton might be quite a good thing--so far as Beechfield was +concerned. Her associations with her husband's sister were wholly +pleasant. For one thing, Alice Crofton was well off, and Enid +instinctively respected, and felt interested in, any possessor of money. +What a pity it was that Colonel Crofton had not had a fairy godmother! +His only sister had been left £3,000 a year by a godmother, and she lived +the agreeable life so many Englishwomen of her type and class live on the +Continent. While her real home was in Florence, she often travelled, and +during the War she had settled down in Paris, giving many hours of each +day to one of the British hospitals there. + +The young widow's mind flew back to her one meeting with Alice Crofton. +It was during her brief engagement to Colonel Crofton, and the latter's +sister, without being over cordial, had been quite pleasant to the +startlingly pretty little woman, who had made such a fool of her brother. + +But at the time of Colonel Crofton's death, his sister had been truly +kind. She had telegraphed £200 to her sister-in-law from Italy, and this +sum of ready money had been very useful during that tragic week--and even +afterwards, for the insurance people had made a certain amount of fuss +after Colonel Crofton's sad suicide, "while of unsound mind," and this +had caused a disagreeable delay. + +The new tenant of The Trellis House had her lonely dinner brought in to +her on a tray, and then, perhaps rather too soon--for she was not much of +a reader, and there was nothing to while away the time--she went upstairs +to her pleasant, cosy bedroom, and so to bed. + +But, try as she might, she found it impossible to fall asleep; for what +seemed to her hours she lay wide awake, tossing this way and that. At +last she got up, and, drawing aside the chintz curtain across one of the +windows, she looked out. The window was open, and in the eerily bright +moonlight the upper part of the hill on which Beechfield village lay +seemed spread before her. There were twinkling lights in many of the +windows--doubtless groups of happy, cheerful people behind them. She +felt horribly lonely and depressed as well as wide awake to-night. + +In her short, healthy life, Enid Crofton had only had one attack of +insomnia. During the ten days that had followed her husband's sudden +death--for the inquest had had to be put off for a day or two--she +had hardly slept at all, and the doctor who had been so kind a friend +during that awful time, had had to give her a strong narcotic. To his +astonishment it had had no effect. She had felt as if she were going +mad--the effect, so he had told her afterwards, of the awful shock she +had had. + +To-night she wondered with a kind of terror whether that terrible +sleeplessness which had ended by making her feel almost lightheaded was +coming back. + +She turned away from the window, and, getting into bed again, tried to +compose her limbs into absolute repose, as the doctor had advised her to +do. And then, just as she was mercifully going to sleep, there floated +in, through the open window, a variant on a doggerel song she had last +heard in Egypt:-- + + "The angels sing-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling, + They've got the goods for me. + The bells of hell ring ting-a-ling-a-ling + For you, as you shall see." + +Enid Crofton sat up in bed. She felt suddenly afraid--horribly, +desperately afraid. As is often the case with those who have drifted away +from any form of religion, she was very superstitious, and terrified of +evil omens. During the War she had been fond of going first to one and +then to another of the fashionable sooth-sayers. + +They had all agreed as to one thing--this was that her husband would die, +and of course she had thought he would be killed at the Front. But he had +come through safe and sound, and more--more _hateful_ than ever. + +One fortune-teller, a woman, small, faded, commonplace-looking, yet with +something sinister about her that impressed her patrons uncomfortably, +had told Enid Crofton, with a curious smile, that she would have yet +another husband, making the third. This had startled her very much, for +the woman, who did not even know her name, could only have guessed that +she had been married twice. Enid Crofton was not given to making +unnecessary confidences. With the exception of her sister-in-law, none of +the people who now knew her were aware that Colonel Crofton had been her +second husband. + +She lay down again, and in the now dying firelight, fixed her eyes on the +chintz square of the window curtain nearest to her. She shut her eyes, +but, as always happens, there remained a square luminous patch on their +retinas. And then, all at once, it was as if she saw, depicted on the +white, faintly illuminated space, a scene which might have figured in one +of those cinema-plays to which she and her house-mate, during those happy +days when she had lived in London, used so often to go with one or other +of their temporary admirers. + +On the white, luminous background two pretty little hands were moving +about, a little uncertainly, over a window-ledge on which stood a row of +medicine bottles. Then, suddenly the two pretty hands became engaged in +doing something which is done by woman's hands every day--the pouring of +a liquid from one bottle into another. + +Enid Crofton did not visualise the owner of the hands. She had no wish to +do so, but she did see the hands. + +Then there started out before her, with astonishing vividness, another +little scene--this time with a man as central figure. He was whistling; +that she knew, though she could not hear the whistling. It was owing to +that surprised, long-drawn-out whistling sound that the owner of the +pretty hands had become suddenly, affrightedly, aware that someone was +there, outside the window, staring down, and so of course seeing the task +on which the two pretty little hands were engaged. + +Now, the owner of that pair of now shaking little hands had felt quite +sure that no one could possibly see what they were engaged in doing--for +the window on the ledge of which the medicine bottles were standing +looked out on what was practically a blank wall. But the man whose long, +surprised whistle had so suddenly scared her, happened at that moment to +be sitting astride the top of the blank wall, engaged in the legitimate +occupation of sticking bits of broken bottles into putty. The man was +Piper, and doubtless the trifling incident had long since slipped his +mind, for that same afternoon his master, Colonel Crofton, had committed +suicide in a fit of depression owing to shell shock. + +Enid Crofton opened her eyes wide, and the sort of vision, or +nightmare--call it what you will--faded at once. + +It was a nightmare she had constantly experienced during the first few +nights which had succeeded her husband's death. But since the inquest she +had no longer been haunted by that scene--the double scene of the hands, +the pretty little hands, engaged in that simple, almost mechanical, +action of pouring the contents of one bottle into another, and the vision +of the man on the wall looking down, slantwise, through the window, and +uttering that queer, long-drawn-out whistle of utter surprise. + +When at last Mrs. Crofton had had to explain regretfully to clever, +capable Piper that she could no longer afford to keep him on, they had +parted the best of friends. She had made him the handsome present of +twenty-five pounds, for he had been a most excellent servant to her late +husband. And she had done more than that. She had gone to a good deal of +trouble to procure him an exceptionally good situation. Piper had just +gone there, and she hoped, rather anxiously, that he would do well in it. + +The man had one serious fault--now and again he would go off and have a +good "drunk." Sometimes he wouldn't do this foolish, stupid thing for +months, and then, perchance, he would do it two weeks running! Colonel +Crofton, so hard in many ways, had been indulgent to this one fault, or +vice, in an otherwise almost perfect servant. When giving Piper a very +high character Mrs. Crofton had just hinted that there had been a time +when he had taken a drop too much, but she had spoken of it as being +absolutely in the past. Being the kind of woman she was, she wouldn't +have said even that, had it not been that Piper had got disgracefully +drunk within a week of his master's death. She had been very much +frightened then, though not too frightened to stay, herself, within +hail of the man till he had come round, and to make him a cup of strong +coffee. When, at last, he was fit to do so, he had uttered broken words +of gratitude, really touched at her kindness, and frightfully ashamed of +himself. + +Lying there, wide awake, in the darkness and utter stillness of +Beechfield village, Enid Crofton reminded herself that she had treated +Piper very well. In memory of the master whom he had served she had also +given him, before selling off her husband's kennel, two prize-winners. +But it is sometimes a mistake to be too kind, for on receiving this last +generous gift the man had hinted that with a little capital he could set +up dog-breeding for himself! She had had to tell him, sadly but firmly, +that she could not help him to any ready money, and Piper had been what +she now vaguely described to herself as "very nice" about it, though +obviously disappointed. + +At the end of their little chat, however, he had said something which had +made her feel rather uncomfortable:--"I was wondering, ma'am, whether +Major Radmore might perhaps be inclined for a little speculation? I +wouldn't mind paying, say, up to ten per cent, if 'e'd oblige me with +a loan of five hundred pounds." + +She had been astonished at the suggestion--astonished and unpleasantly +taken aback. He had surprised her further by going on:--"I believe as +what the Major is coming 'ome soon, ma'am. Perhaps then I might venture +to ask you to say a word for me? Major Radmore was known in the regiment +as a very kind gentleman." + +"I'll do what I can, Piper." She had said the words with apparent +earnestness, but, deep in her heart, she had thought the request totally +unreasonable. + +And now it was this conversation which came back to her as she moved +restlessly about in her bed. She wondered uneasily whether she had made +a mistake. Her capital was very small, and she was now living on her +capital, but after all, perhaps it would have been wiser to have given +Piper that £500. She was quite determined not to mix up Piper with +Godfrey Radmore, but she had a queer, uncomfortable feeling that she had +not done with this man yet. + +At last she fell into a heavy, troubled, worried sleep--the kind of sleep +from which a woman always wakes unrefreshed. + +But daylight brought comfort to Enid Crofton, and after she had had her +early cup of tea and had enjoyed her nice hot bath, she felt quite cheery +again, and her strange, bad night faded into nothingness. She was young, +she was strong, above all she was enchantingly pretty! She told herself +confidently that nothing terrible, nothing _really_ dreadful ever happens +to a woman who is as attractive as she knew herself to be to the sex +which still holds all the material power there is to hold in this strange +world. + +During the last three weeks, she had sometimes wondered uneasily whether +Godfrey Radmore realised how very pretty she was. There was something so +curiously impersonal about him--and yet last night he had very nearly +kissed her! + +She laughed aloud, gaily, triumphantly, as she went down to her late +breakfast. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +At the moment that Enid Crofton was telling herself that everything was +going fairly well with her, and that nothing could alter the fact that +she was now, and likely to remain for a long time, a woman likely to +attract every man with whom she came in contact--Godfrey Radmore, +following Janet Tosswill after breakfast into the drawing-room of Old +Place, exclaimed deprecatingly:--"I feel like Rip Van Winkle!' + +"Do you?" She turned to him and smiled a little sadly. "It's _you_ that +have changed, Godfrey. Everything here is much the same. As for me, I +never see any change from one year to another." + +"But they've all grown up!" he exclaimed plaintively. "You can't think +how odd it seems to find a lot of grown-up young ladies and gentlemen +instead of the jolly little kids who were in the nursery with Nanna nine +years ago. By the way, Nanna hasn't changed, and"--he hesitated, then +brought out with an effort, "Mr. Tosswill is exactly the same." + +She felt vexed that he hadn't included Betty. To her step-mother's fond +eyes Betty was more attractive now than in her early girlhood. "I think +the children have improved very much," she said quickly. "Jack was a +horrid little prig nine years ago!" + +She hadn't forgiven Radmore. And yet, in a sense, she was readjusting her +views and theories about him, for the simple reason that he, Godfrey +Radmore, had changed so utterly. From having been a hot-tempered, +untameable, high-spirited boy, he was now, or so it seemed to her, a +cool, restrained man of the world, old for his years. In fact it was he +who was now a stranger--but a stranger who had most attractive manners, +and who had somehow slipped very easily into their everyday life. Janet +liked his deferential manner to the master of the house, she enjoyed his +kindly and good-humoured, if slightly satirical dealings with Jack and +with pretty Rosamund, and she was very grateful to him for the way he +treated queer, little Timmy, her own beloved changeling child. + +And now something happened that touched her, and made her suddenly feel +as if she was with the old Godfrey Radmore again. + +"Look here," he said, in a low, hesitating voice, "I want to tell you, +Janet, that I didn't know till yesterday about George. You'll think me a +fool--but somehow I always thought of him as being safe in India." And +then with sudden passion he asked:--"How can you say that everything is +the same in Old Place with George not here? Why, to me, George was as +much part of Old Place as--as Betty is!" + +"We all thought you knew--at least I wasn't sure." + +"Thank God _he_ didn't think so poorly of me as that," he muttered, and +then he looked away, his eyes smarting with unshed tears. "Nothing will +ever be the same to me again without George in the world." + +As she said nothing, he went on with sudden passion:--"Every other +country in Europe has changed utterly since the War, but England seemed +to me, till last night, exactly the same--only rather bigger and more +bustling than nine years ago." He drew a long breath. "Timmy and I went +into the post-office last evening, and Cobbett asked me to go in, and see +his wife. I thought I remembered her so well--and when I saw her, Janet, +I didn't know her! Then I asked after her boys--and she told me." + +"It's strange that a man who went through it all himself should feel like +that," she said slowly. + +The door opened suddenly and Rosamund's pretty head appeared: "There's a +message come through saying that your car's all right, and that it will +be along in about an hour," she exclaimed joyfully. To Rosamund, Godfrey +Radmore was in very truth a stranger, and a very attractive stranger at +that. + +As a rule, after breakfast, all the young people went their various ways, +but this morning they were all hanging about waiting vaguely for Godfrey +to come and do something with one or all of them. Rosamund was longing to +ask him whether he knew any of the London theatrical managers; Tom was +wondering whether Godfrey would allow him to drive his car; Dolly and +Timmy, as different in everything else as two human beings could well +be, each desired to take him into the village and show him off to their +friends. The only one of the young people who was not really interested +in Radmore was Jack Tosswill. He was engaged just now in looking +feverishly for an old gardening book which he had promised to lend Mrs. +Crofton, and he was cursing under his breath because the book had been +mislaid. + +As Rosamund looked in, her step-mother and Radmore both stopped speaking +abruptly, and so after a doubtful moment, she withdrew her head, and shut +the door behind her. + +"Tell me about George," he said, without looking at her. + +"I think Betty would like to tell you," she answered slowly: "Ask her +about him some time when you're alone together." + +"Where is she now?" he asked abruptly. + +"In the kitchen I think--but she won't be long." + +Jack, looking ruffled and uneasy, very unlike his quiet, cool self, burst +into the room. "I can't think where that old shabby green gardening book +has gone, Janet. Do you know where it is?" + +"You mean 'Gardening for Ladies'?" + +"Yes." + +"What on earth d'you want it for?" + +"For Mrs. Crofton. Her garden's been awfully neglected." + +"I'll find it presently. I think it's in my bedroom." + +Again the door shut, and Janet turned to Radmore: "Your friend has made +a conquest of Jack!" She spoke with a touch of rather studied unconcern, +for she had been a little taken aback last evening when Timmy had told +her casually of his own and his godfather's call at The Trellis House. + +"My friend?" Radmore repeated uncertainly. + +"I mean Mrs. Crofton. The coming of a new person to live in Beechfield is +still quite an event, Godfrey." + +"I don't think she'll make much difference to Beechfield," again he spoke +with a touch of hesitation. "To tell you the truth, Janet, I rather +wonder that she decided to live in the country at all. I should have +thought that she would far prefer London, and all that London stands for. +But I'm afraid that she's got very little money, and, of course, the +country _is_ cheaper than town, isn't it?" + +"I suppose it is. But Mrs. Crofton can't be poor. I know she paid a +premium for the lease of The Trellis House." + +"That's odd." Radmore spoke in an off-hand manner, but Janet, watching +him, thought he felt a little awkward. He went on:--"I know that Colonel +Crofton was hard up. He told me so, quite frankly, the last time I saw +him. But of course she may have had money of her own." + +Janet looked at him rather hard. A disagreeable suspicion had entered her +mind. She wondered whether there was anything like an "understanding" +between the man she was talking to and the tenant of The Trellis House. +If so, she wished with all her heart that Godfrey Radmore had kept away. +Why stir up embers they had all thought were dead, if he was going to +marry this very pretty but, to her mind, second-rate little woman, as +soon as a decent time had elapsed? + +"What are your plans for the future?" she asked. "Are you going to settle +down, or are you going to travel a bit?" ("After all, he won't be able to +marry Mrs. Crofton for at least another six months," she said to +herself.) + +"Oh, I mean to settle down." His answer was quick, decisive, final. + +He went on: "My idea is to find a place, not too far from here, that +I can buy; and my plan is to go about and look for it now. That's why +I've hired a motor for a month. Perhaps you'd lend me Timmy, and, if it +wouldn't be improper, one of the girls, now and again? We might go round +and look about a bit." + +And then he walked across to where she was standing, and put his hand on +her arm, "How about you?" he asked, "why shouldn't I take you and Timmy a +little jaunt just for a week or so--that would be rather fun, eh?" + +She smiled and shook her head. + +He took a step back. "Look here, Janet--do try and forgive me--I'm a more +sensible chap than I was, honest Injun!" + +"I'm beginning to think you are," she cried, and then they both burst out +laughing. + +He lingered a moment. He was longing, longing intensely, to ask her +certain questions. He wanted to know about Betty--what sort of a life +Betty had made for herself. He still, in an odd way, felt responsible +for Betty--which was clearly absurd. + +And then Janet Tosswill said something that surprised him very much. "I +think you'd better go round and see some of the people in the village +to-day. I was rather sorry you went off straight to The Trellis House +last evening. You know how folks talked, even in the old days, in +Beechfield?" + +He looked uneasy--taken aback, and she felt, if a little ashamed, glad +that she had made that "fishing" remark. + +There was a pause, and then he said with a touch of formality: "Look +here, Janet? I'd like you to know that though I've become quite fond of +Mrs. Crofton, I'm only fond--nothing more, you understand? Perhaps I'll +make my meaning clearer when I tell you that I was the only man in Egypt +who knew her who wasn't in love with her." + +He saw her face change and, rather piqued, he asked: "Did you think I +was?" + +"I thought that you and she were great friends--" + +"Well, so we are in a way. I saw a great deal of her in London." + +"And you went straight off to see her the moment you arrived here." + +"Well, perhaps I was foolish to do that." + +What an odd admission to make. He certainly had changed amazingly in the +last nine years! + +Then it was Janet who surprised him: "Don't make any mistake," she said +quickly. "There's no reason in the world why you shouldn't marry Mrs. +Crofton--after a decent interval has elapsed. All I meant to say--and +I'd rather say it right out now--is that as most people know that her +husband hasn't been dead more than a few weeks, you ought to be rather +careful, all the more careful if--if your friendship should come to +anything, Godfrey." + +"But it won't!" he exclaimed, with a touch of the old heat, "indeed it +won't, Janet. To tell you the truth, I don't think I shall ever marry." + +"_I_ certainly shouldn't if I were a rich bachelor," she said laughing; +and yet somehow what he had just said hurt her. + +As for Radmore, he felt just a little jarred by her words. Had she quite +forgotten all that had happened in that long ago which, in a sense, +seemed to belong to another life? He hadn't, and since his arrival +yesterday certain things had come back in a rushing flood of memory. + +"I've something to do in the garden now." Janet was smiling--she really +did feel perhaps rather absurdly relieved. Like Timmy, she didn't care +for Mrs. Crofton, and the mere suspicion that Godfrey Radmore had come +back here to Old Place in order to carry on a love affair had disturbed +her. + +"By the way, how's McPherson?" he asked abruptly. "He _is_ a splendid +gardener and no mistake! I've never seen a garden looking more beautiful +than yours does just now, Janet. I woke early this morning and looked +out of my window. I suppose McPherson's about--I'll go out and speak to +him." + +Her face shadowed. "McPherson," she said slowly, "was one of the first +men to leave Beechfield. He was perfectly fit, and he made up his mind to +go at once. You know, Godfrey--or perhaps you don't know--that the Scotch +glens emptied first of men?" + +"D'you mean...?" + +She nodded. "He was killed at the second battle of Ypres. He was sent to +the Front rather sooner than most, for he was a very intelligent man, and +really keen. I've got a boy now, a lad of seventeen--not half a bad sort, +but it does seem strange to give him every Saturday just double the money +I used to give McPherson!" + +She went out, through into the garden, on these last words, and again +there came over Radmore a feeling of poignant sadness. How strange that +he should have spent those weeks in London, knowing so little, nay, not +knowing at all, what the War had really meant to the home country. + +He opened the door into the corridor, and listened, wondering where they +had all gone. He had some business letters to write, and he told himself +that he would go and get them done in what he still thought of in his +mind as George's room. He had noticed that the big plain deal writing +table was still there. + +He went upstairs, and when he opened the bedroom door, he was astonished +to find Rosamund kneeling in front of George's old play-box, routing +among what looked like a lot of papers and books. + +"I'm hunting for a prescription for father," she said, looking up. "Timmy +thinks he put it in here one day after coming back from the chemist's at +Guildford." She looked flushed, and decidedly cross, as she went on: "No +one's taught Timmy to put things in their proper place, as we were taught +to do, when we were children!" + +Radmore felt amused. She certainly was very, very pretty, and did not +look much more than a child herself. + +"Look here," he said good-naturedly, "let me help. I don't think you're +going the right way to work." He felt just a little bit sorry for Timmy; +Rosamund was raking about as if the play-box was a bran-pie. + +Bending down he took up out of the box a bundle of envelopes, copybooks, +and Christmas cards. Then he sat himself down on a chair in the window, +and began going through what he held, carefully and methodically. + +Suddenly through the open door there came a cry of "Miss Rosamund, I want +you!" + +Rosamund got up reluctantly. "Nanna's a regular tyrant!" + +"Leave all this to me," he said. "I'll find the prescription if it's +here." + +She went off, and almost at once he came to a folded bit of paper. +Perhaps this was the prescription? He opened it, and this is what he +read:-- + + March 12, 1919. This is the happiest day of my life. One of my + godmothers has died and left me £50. I am going to buy two nanny-goats, + a boy and a girl. They will have kids, and I shall make munny. We shall + then have a propper cook, and I shall never help Betty wash up any + more. I wish my other godmother would die. She is very genrus and + kind--she would go strait to Heaven. But she is very hellfy. + +Poor little Timmy! Dear little unscrupulous child of nature! Would Timmy +wish him, Godfrey Radmore, dead, if some accident were to reveal to him +what a great difference it would make to them all? He hoped not. But he +couldn't feel sure, for, from being well-to-do the Tosswills must have +become poor, painfully and, to his mind, unnaturally poor. + +Further search proved the prescription was not in the play-box, and he +went downstairs. Still that same unnatural silence through the house. +Where could Timmy be? Somehow he felt that he wanted to see Timmy and +find out about the nanny-goats. He feared his godson's expectations of +wealth had not been fulfilled, but he supposed that there was a "propper +cook," probably the lack of her had been quite temporary. + +He wandered into the drawing-room. In the old days all five sitting-rooms +had been in use. Now four of them were closed, and the drawing-room was +everybody's meeting place. Dolly was there working a carpet-sweeper +languidly. + +"Where's everybody?" he asked. + +"I think Betty and Timmy are still in the scullery. I don't know where +Rosamund is." + +"I suppose _I_ can go into the scullery?" + +She looked at him dubiously. "Yes, if you'd like to--certainly. Betty +loves cooking and all that sort of thing. I hate it--so in our division +of labour, I do the other kind of housework." She looked ruffled and he +told himself, a little maliciously, that she was not unlike a lazy, +rather incompetent, housemaid. "If it's Timmy you want," she continued, +"I'll go and see if he can come." + +"Please don't trouble. I'll find him all right." + +Radmore went out into the passage. As the baize door, which shut off the +kitchen quarters, opened, he saw his godson and Rosamund before they saw +him, and he heard Rosamund say, in a cross tone: "It only means that +someone else will have to help her; I think it's very selfish of you, +Timmy." + +From being full of joy Timmy's face became downcast and sullen. + +"Hullo!" Radmore called out, "I want you to show me the garden, Timmy. +Where's Betty?" + +"She's in the scullery, of course. I tell you I _have_ done, Rosamund. +You _are_ a cruel pig--" + +"Come, Timmy, don't speak to your sister like that." + +It ended in the three of them going off--Rosamund to look for the +prescription, and the other two into the garden. + + * * * * * + +Nanna waddled into the scullery: "I'll wipe up them things, Miss +Betty," she said good-naturedly; "you go out to Mr. Godfrey and Master +Timmy--they was asking for you just now." + +Betty hesitated--and then suddenly she made up her mind that, yes, she +would do as Nanna suggested. + +In early Victorian days women of Betty Tosswill's class and kind worked +many of their most anxious thoughts and fears, hopes and fancies, into +the various forms of needlework which were then considered the only +suitable kind of occupation for a young gentlewoman; and often Betty, +when engaged on the long and arduous task of washing up for her big +family party, pondered over the problems and secret anxieties which +assailed her. Though something of a pain, it had also been to her a great +relief to realise that the living flesh and blood Godfrey Radmore of +to-day had ousted the passionately devoted, if unreasonable and violent, +lover of her early girlhood. In the old days, intermingled with her deep +love of Radmore, there had been a protective, almost maternal, feeling, +and although Radmore had been four years older than herself, she had +always felt the older of the two. But now, in spite of the responsible, +anxious work she had done in France during the War, she felt that the +rôles were reversed, and that her one-time lover had become infinitely +older than she was herself in knowledge of the world. + +Old Nanna hoped that Miss Betty would go upstairs and change her plain +cotton dress for something just a little prettier and that she would put +on, maybe, a hat trimmed with daisies which Nanna admired. But Betty did +nothing of the sort. She washed her hands at the sink, and then she went +out into the hall, and taking up her big plain old garden hat went +straight out into the keen autumnal air. + +And then, as she caught sight of the tall man and of the little boy, +she stayed her steps, overwhelmed by a flood of both sweet and bitter +memories. + +During the year which had followed the breaking of her engagement there +had been corners and by-ways of the big, rambling old garden filled with +poignant, almost unbearable, associations of the days when she and +Godfrey had been lovers. There had been certain nooks and hidden oases +where it had been agony to go. She had considered all kinds of things as +being possible. Perhaps her most certain conviction had been that he +would come back some day with a wife whom she, Betty, would try to teach +herself to love; but never had she visioned what had now actually +occurred, that is Radmore's quiet, commonplace falling-back into the +day-to-day life of Old Place. + +All at once she heard Timmy's clear treble voice:--"Hullo! There's +Betty." + +Radmore turned and said something Betty did not hear, and the child went +off like an arrow from the bow. Then Radmore, turning, came towards her +quickly. She had no clue to the strange look of pain and indecision on +his face, and her heart began to beat, strangely. + +When close to her:--"Betty," he said in a low voice, "I want to tell you +that I didn't know about George till last night. How could you think I +did?" + +"I suppose one does think unjust things when one's in great trouble," she +answered. + +He felt hurt and angry and showed it. "I should have thought you would +all have known me well enough to know that I should have written at +once--at once. Why, the whole world's altered now that I know that George +is no longer in it! Perhaps that sounds foolish and exaggerated, as I +never wrote to him. But I think _you'll_ know what I mean, Betty? It was +all right, as long as I knew he was somewhere, happy." + +She said almost inaudibly:--"I think that he is happy somewhere. You +know--but no, you don't know--that George was a born soldier. Those +months after he joined up, and until he was killed, were, I do believe, +by far the happiest of his life. He always said they were." + +As he made no answer she went on:--"I'll show you some of his letters +if you like, and father will show you the letters that were sent to +us--afterwards." + +By now they had left the garden proper, and were walking down an avenue +which was known as the Long Walk. It was here that they two, with George +always as a welcome third, used to play "tip and run" and "hide and seek" +with the then little children. + +"Tell me something about the others," he said abruptly. "I'm moving in a +world unrealised." + +She smiled up into his face. Somehow that confession touched her, and +brought them nearer to one another. + +"Jack frightens me a bit, you know--he's so unlike George. And then the +girls? Is it true what Timmy says--that Rosamund wants to be an actress?" + +There was a slight tone of censorious surprise in his voice, and Betty +reddened. + +"I don't see why she shouldn't be an actress if she wants to be! Father's +making her wait till she's twenty-one." + +"Let me see," he said hesitatingly, "Dolly's older than Jack, isn't she?" + +"Oh, no. Dolly will only be twenty next Thursday." + +There came over her an overwhelming impulse to tell him something--the +sort of thing she could only have told George. + +"You know that pretty old church at Oakford?" + +He nodded. + +"Well, Mr. Runsby is dead. They've got a bachelor clergyman now, and +Janet and I think that he's becoming very fond of Dolly! He's away just +now, or you would have already seen him. He's very often over here." + +"I should have thought--" He hesitated in his turn, but already he was +falling again into the way of saying exactly what he thought right out to +Betty--"that with you and Rosamund in the house, no one would look at +Dolly!" + +Betty blushed, and for a fleeting moment Godfrey saw the blushing, +dimpling Betty of long ago. + +"Rosamund has the utmost contempt for him. As for me, he never sees +me--I'm always in the kitchen when he comes here." She added with a touch +of the quiet humour he remembered, "I don't think Dolly's in any danger +from me!" + +"_Why_ are you always in the kitchen, Betty?" he asked. "Is it really +necessary?" + +"Yes, it really is necessary," she answered frankly. "Father's got much +poorer, and everything's about a hundred times as dear as it was before +the War. But you mustn't think that I mind. I like it in a way--and it +won't last for ever. Some of father's investments are beginning to +recover a little even now, and prices are coming down--" + +They had now come back to the garden end of the Long Walk. "I must go +now," she said. "Would you like me to send out one of the girls to +entertain you?" + +He shook his head. "No, I think I'll stroll about the village for a bit." + +They both felt as if the first milestone of their new relationship had +been set deep in the earth, and both were glad and relieved that it was +so. + +Radmore walked about a bit, admiring Janet's autumnal herbaceous borders, +and then he remembered a door that he had known of old which led from the +big kitchen garden into the road. If it was open he could step out +without walking across the front of the house. + +He turned into the walled garden, and walked quickly down a well-kept +path past the sun-dial to the door. It was open. He walked through it, +and then, with a rather guilty feeling--a feeling he did not care to +analyse--he made his way round the lower half of the village till he +reached the outside wall of The Trellis House. + +There he hesitated for a few moments, but even while he was hesitating he +knew that he would go in. Before he could turn the handle the door in the +garden wall was opened by Enid Crofton herself. Radmore was surprised to +see that she was dressed in a black dress, with the orthodox plain linen +collar and cuffs of widowhood. It altered her strangely. + +He was at once disappointed and a little relieved also, to find Jack +Tosswill in the garden with her. But soon the three went indoors, and +then, as had often been Mrs. Crofton's experience with admirers in the +past, each man tried to sit the other out. + +At last the hostess had to say playfully:--"I'm afraid I must turn you +out now, for I'm expecting my sister-in-law, Miss Crofton." + +And then they both, together, took their departure; Radmore feeling that +he had wasted an hour which might have been so very much more profitably +spent in going to see some of his old friends among the cottagers. As to +Jack Tosswill, he felt perplexed, and yes, considerably put out and +annoyed. He had been a good deal taken aback to see how close was the +acquaintance between Mrs. Crofton and Godfrey Radmore. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +There is nothing like a meal, especially a good meal, for inducing +between two people an agreeable sense of intimacy. When Enid Crofton and +her elderly sister-in-law passed from the dining-room of The Trellis +House into the gay-looking little sitting-room, with its old-fashioned, +brightly coloured chintz furnishings, and quaint reproductions of +eighteenth-century prints, the two ladies were far more at ease the one +with the other than before luncheon. + +Enid, in the plain black woollen gown, with its white linen collar and +cuffs, which she had discarded almost at once after her husband's +funeral, felt that she was producing a pleasant impression. As they sat +down, one on each side of the cheerful little wood fire, and began +sipping the excellent coffee which the mistress of the house had already +taught her very plain cook to make as it should be made, she suddenly +exclaimed:-- + +"I do want to thank you again for the money you sent me when poor Cecil +died! It was most awfully good of you, and very useful, too, for the +insurance people did not pay me for nearly a month." + +These words gave her visitor an opening for which she had waited during +the last hour: "I'm glad my present was so opportune," said Miss Crofton +in her precise, old-fashioned way. "As we have mentioned money, I should +like to know, my dear, how you are situated? I was afraid from something +Cecil told me last time he and I met that you would be very poorly left." + +She stopped speaking, and there followed a long pause. Enid Crofton was +instinctively glad that she was seated with her back to the window. She +was afraid lest her face should betray her surprise and discomfiture at +the question. And yet, what more natural than that her well-to-do, +kind-hearted sister-in-law should wish to know how she, Enid, was now +situated? + +Cecil Crofton's widow was not what ordinary people would have called a +clever woman, but during the whole of her short life she had studied how +to please, cajole, and yes--deceive, the men and women about her. +Unfortunately for her, Alice Crofton was a type of woman with whom she +had never before been brought in contact; and something deep within her +told her that she had better stick as close to the truth as was +reasonably possible with this shrewd spinster who was, in some ways, so +disconcertingly like what Enid Crofton's late husband had been, in the +days when he had been a forlorn girl-widow's protecting friend and ardent +admirer. + +Yet, even so, she began with a lie: "When my mother died last year she +left me a little money. I thought it wise to spend it in getting this +house, and in settling down here." She said the words in a very low +voice, and as Miss Crofton said nothing for a moment, she added +timidly:--"I do hope that you think I did right? I know people think +it wrong to use capital, but the War has changed everything, including +money, and one simply can't get along at all without paying out sums +which before the War would have seemed dreadful." + +"That's very true," said Miss Crofton finally. + +Enid, feeling on sure ground now, went on: "Why, I had to pay a premium +of £200 for the lease of this little house. But I'm told I could get that +again--even after living for a year or two in it." + +Miss Crofton began looking about her with a doubtful air: "I suppose you +mean to spend the winter here," she said musingly, "and then let the +house each summer?" + +"Yes," said Enid, "that is my idea." + +As a matter of fact, she had never thought of doing such a thing, though +she saw the point of it, now that it was put by her sister-in-law. She +hoped, however, that long before next summer her future would be settled +on most agreeable lines. + +"Then I suppose the balance of what your mother left you forms a little +addition to your pension, and to what poor Cecil was able to leave you?" + +As the other hesitated, Miss Crofton went on, in a very friendly +tone:--"I hope you won't think it interfering that I should speak as I am +doing? I expected to find you much less comfortably circumstanced, and I +was going to propose that I should increase what I had feared would be a +very small income, by two hundred a year." + +Enid was as much touched by this unexpected generosity as it was in +her to be, and it was with an accent of real sincerity that she +exclaimed:--"Oh, Alice, you _are_ kind! Of course two hundred a year +would be a _great_ help. Nothing remains of what my mother left me. But +you must not think that I'm extravagant. I sold a lot of things, and that +made it possible for me to take over The Trellis House exactly as you see +it. But even during the very few days I have been here I have begun to +find how expensive life can be, even in a village like this." + +"All right," said Miss Crofton. She got up from her easy chair with a +quick movement, for she was still a vigorous woman. "Then that's settled! +I'll give you a cheque for £100 to-day--and one every six months as +long that is, as you're a widow." Then she smiled a little satirically, +for Enid had made a quick movement of recoil which Alice Crofton thought +rather absurd. + +"It's early to think of such a thing, no doubt," she said coolly. "But +still, I shall be very much surprised, Enid, if you do not re-make your +life. I myself have a dear young friend, very little older than you are, +who has been married three times. The War has altered the views and +prejudices even of old-fashioned people." + +"I want to ask you something," said Enid, "d'you think I ought to tell +people that I have already been married twice?" + +Miss Crofton told herself quickly that such questions are always put with +a definite reason, and that she probably would not be called upon to pay +her sister-in-law's allowance for very long. + +"I don't think you are in the least bound to tell anyone such a fact +about yourself, unless"--she hesitated,--"you were seriously thinking of +marrying again. In such a case as that I think you would be well advised, +Enid, to tell the man in question the fact before you become obliged to +reveal it to him." + +There was a pause, and then Miss Crofton abruptly changed the subject by +saying something which considerably disturbed her young sister-in-law. + +"I should be much obliged, my dear, if you would tell me a few details as +to my poor brother's death. Your letter contained no particulars at all," +and as the other made no immediate answer, Miss Crofton went on:--"I know +there was an inquest, for one of my friends in Florence saw a report of +it in an English paper. Perhaps you would kindly let me see any newspaper +account or cuttings you may have preserved?" + +"I have kept _nothing_, Alice!" Enid Crofton uttered the words with a +touch of almost angry excitement. Then, perhaps seeing that the other was +very much surprised, she said more quietly:--"The inquest was a purely +formal affair--the Coroner himself told me that there must always be an +inquest when a person died suddenly." + +"Oh, but surely the question was raised, and that very seriously, as +to whether Cecil took what he did take on purpose, or by accident? I +understood from my friend that the account of the inquest she saw in some +popular Sunday paper was headed 'An Essex Mystery.'" + +Enid felt as if all the blood in her body was flowing towards her face. +She congratulated herself that she was sitting with her back to the +light. These remarks, these questions made her feel sick and faint. Yet +she answered, composedly:--"Both the Coroner and the jury felt _sure_ he +had taken it on purpose. Poor Cecil had never been like himself since the +unlucky day, for us, that the War ended!" And then to Miss Crofton's +surprise and discomfiture Enid burst into tears. + +The older lady got up and put her hand very kindly on the younger one's +shoulder:--"I'm sorry I said anything, my dear," she exclaimed; "I'm +afraid you went through a much worse time than you let me know." + +"I did! I did!" sobbed Enid. "I cannot tell you how terrible it was, +Alice." + +Then she made a determined effort over herself, ashamed of her own +emotion. Still neither hostess nor guest was sorry when there came a +knock at the door, followed a moment later by the entry into the room of +a stranger who was announced by the maid as "Miss Pendarth." + +Enid Crofton got up, and as she shook hands with the newcomer she +tried to remember what it was that Godfrey Radmore had said of her +old-fashioned looking visitor. That she was a good friend but a bad +enemy? Yes, that had been it. Then she remembered something else--the +few kind words scribbled on a visiting card which had been left at The +Trellis House a day or two ago. + +She turned to her sister-in-law:--"I think Miss Pendarth knew poor Cecil +years and years ago," she said softly. + +"Are you--you must be Olivia Pendarth?" There was a touch of emotion in +Alice Crofton's level voice. + +"Yes, I am Olivia Pendarth." + +Enid was surprised--not over pleased by the revelation that these two +knew one another. + +"I suppose it's a long time since you met?" she said pleasantly. + +"Miss Crofton and I have never met before," said Miss Pendarth quietly. +"But I knew your husband very well in India, when he and I were both +young. My brother was in his regiment." + +"The dear old regiment!" exclaimed Miss Crofton. + +Enid Crofton smiled a little to herself. It amused her to see that these +two old things--for so she described them to herself--had so quickly +become friends. "The Regiment!" How sick she had got of those two words +during her second married life! She was sorry that Alice, whom she liked, +should be so queerly like Cecil. Even their voices were alike, and she +had uttered the two words with that peculiar intonation her husband +always used when speaking of any of his old comrades-in-arms. + +All the same Miss Pendarth's sudden appearance had been a godsend. Enid +hated going back to the dreadful time of her husband's death. + +And then, when everything seemed going so pleasantly, and when Enid +Crofton was still feeling a glow of joy at the thought of the cheque for +£100, one of those things happened which seem sometimes to occur in life +as if to remind us poor mortals that Fate is ever crouching round the +corner, ready to spring. The door opened, and the buxom little maid +brought in two letters on the salver she had just been taught to use. + +One of the envelopes was addressed in a clear, ordinary lady's hand; the +other, cheap and poor in quality, was in a firm, and yet unformed, +handwriting. + +Enid glanced at the two elder ladies; they were talking together eagerly. +She walked over to the bow-shaped window, and opened the commoner +envelope: + + Dear Madam, + + I hope you will excuse me writing to tell you that my husband has had + to leave Mr. Winter's situation. Piper considers he has been treated + shameful, and that if he chose he could get the law on Mr. Winter. I am + writing to you unknown to Piper. If you could see me I think I could + explain exactly what it is I want Piper to get. There do seem a + difficulty now in getting jobs of Piper's sort, but from what he has + told me there were one or two other jobs you heard of that might have + suited him. + + Yours respectfully, + Amelia Piper. + +Enid Crofton stared down at the signature with a sensation of puzzled +dismay. _Piper married?_ This was indeed a complication, and a +complication which in her most anxious communings she had never thought +of. The man had always behaved like a bachelor--for instance he had +always made love to the maids. There also came back to her the memory of +something her husband had once said, with one of his grimly humorous +looks:--"Piper's a regular dog! If he'd been born in a different class +of life he'd have been a real Don Juan." She now asked herself very +anxiously how far a married Don Juan of any class confides in his wife? +Does he tell her his real secrets, or does he keep them to himself? +Judging by her own experience the average man who loves a woman is only +too apt to tell her not only his own, but other people's secrets. + +Slowly she put the letter back in its envelope. She had gone to a great +deal of trouble, and even to some little expense, over procuring Piper a +really good situation. She had seen not only his new employer, but also +what she liked doing far less, his new employer's wife; and she had got +him extraordinarily good wages, even for these days. It was too bad +that he should worry her, after all she had done for him. As for his +wife--nothing would induce her to see Mrs. Piper. Neither did she wish +Piper to come down to Beechfield. She was particularly anxious that the +man should not learn of Godfrey Radmore's return to England. +Unfortunately Radmore was on the lookout for a good manservant. + +She took up the other letter. It was a nice, prosperous-looking, well +addressed envelope, very different from the other. Perhaps this second +letter would contain something that would cheer her up. But alas! when +she opened it, she found it was from Mrs. Winter, Piper's late employer's +wife. + +Poor Enid Crofton! As she stood there reading it, she turned a little +sick. Piper had got drunk the very first day he had been in his new +situation. While drunk he had tried to kiss a virtuous young housemaid. +There had been a regular scene, which had ended in the lady of the house +being sent for. There and then Piper had been turned out neck and crop. + +It was not only a justifiably angry letter, it was a very disagreeable +letter, the writer saying plainly that Mrs. Crofton had been very much to +blame for recommending such a man.... + +Feeling very much disturbed she turned and came back towards her two +visitors. They were now deep in talk, having evidently found a host of +common associations: "I find I ought to answer one of my letters at +once," she said. "Will you forgive me for a few moments?" + +They both looked up, and smiled at her. She looked so pretty, so fragile, +so young, in her widow's mourning. + +She went through into the dining-room. There was a writing-table in the +window, and there she sat down and put her head in her hands; she felt +unutterably forlorn, frightened too--she hardly knew of what. It had +given her such a horrible shock to learn that Piper was married.... + +Taking up a pen, she held it for a while poised in the air, staring out +of the window at the attractive though rather neglected old garden, in +which only this morning she had spent more than an hour with Jack +Tosswill. + +Then, at last, she dipped her pen in the ink, and after making two rough +drafts, she decided on the following form of answer to Mrs. Piper, +telling herself that it might be read as addressed to either husband or +wife:-- + + Mrs. Crofton is very sorry to hear that Piper has lost his good + situation. She will try and hear of something that will suit him. Mrs. + Crofton cannot see Mrs. Piper for the present, as she is leaving home + to start on a round of visits, but she will keep in touch with Mr. and + Mrs. Piper and hopes to hear of something that may suit Piper very + soon. + +She began by writing "Mr. Piper," on one of her pretty black-edged mauve +envelopes; then she altered the "Mr." to "Mrs." After all it was Piper's +wife who had written to her, and she suddenly remembered with a slight +feeling of apprehension, that Mrs. Piper, for some reason best known to +herself, had not told Piper that she was writing. On the other hand it +was quite possible that the husband and wife had concocted the letter +between them. + +Having addressed the envelope, she suddenly got up and ran up to her +bedroom. There she opened her dressing-table drawer. Quite at the back +lay an envelope containing four £5 notes. She took one of the notes, +and running down again, slipped it in the envelope and added a postscript +to her letter:-- + + Mrs. Crofton sends £5, which she hopes will be of use while Piper is + out of a situation. + +She went downstairs, giving her letter, on her way back to the +drawing-room, to the cook to take out to the post-box. + +As she opened the drawing room door, something which struck her as a +little odd happened. Her two visitors, the murmur of whose voices she had +heard in deep, eager converse while she was stepping across her hall, +abruptly stopped talking, and she wondered uneasily what they could have +been saying that neither wished her to hear. + +As a matter of fact that sudden silence was owing to a kindly, +old-fashioned, wholly "ladylike" instinct, on the part of the two older +women. Miss Crofton had been talking of her brother's death, confiding +to Miss Pendarth her desire to learn something more as to how it had +actually come about. With what was for her really eager sympathy, Miss +Pendarth had offered to write to a friend in Essex, in order to discover +the name of the local paper where, without doubt, a full account of the +inquest on Colonel Crofton must have been published. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Saturday, Sunday, Monday, slipped away, and on Tuesday there seemed no +reason why Godfrey Radmore should leave Old Place. And so he stayed on, +nominally from day to day, settling down, as none of them would have +thought possible that anyone now a stranger could settle down, to the +daily round and common task of the life led by the Tosswill family. After +two or three days he even began to take command of the younger ones, and +Janet was secretly amused to see how he shamed both Rosamund and Dolly +into doing something like their full share of the housework. + +In relation to the two younger girls, his attitude was far more that +of a good-natured, rather cynical, elder brother than was his attitude +to Betty. Into her special department, the kitchen, he seldom intruded, +though when he did so it was to real purpose. Thus, Dolly's twentieth +birthday was made by him the excuse for ordering from a famous London +caterer a hamper containing enough cold and half-cooked food to keep them +junketing for two or three days. Janet was rather puzzled to note that +Betty, alone of them all, seemed to look askance at the way Radmore spent +his substance in showering fairy-godfather-like gifts on the inmates of +Old Place. + +The happiest of them all was Timmy. Most men would have been bored by +having so much of a child's company, but Radmore was touched and +flattered by the boy's devotion, and that though there was a side of his +godson which puzzled and disturbed him. Now and again Timmy would say +something which made Radmore wonder for a moment if he had heard the +words aright, but he followed the example silently set him by all the +others of taking no notice of Timmy's claim both to see and foresee more +than is vouchsafed to the ordinary mortal. + +Miss Crofton had also stayed on in Beechfield, but only a day longer than +she had intended to do--that is, till the Tuesday. She and Miss Pendarth +had met more than once, striking up something like a real friendship. But +this, instead of modifying, had intensified Miss Pendarth's growing +prejudice against the new tenant of The Trellis House. She felt convinced +that the pretty young widow had made her kind sister-in-law believe that +she was far poorer, and more to be pitied, than she really was. + +Life in an English village is in some ways like a quiet pool--and, just +as the throwing of a pebble into such a pool causes what appears to +create an extraordinary amount of commotion on the surface of the water, +so the advent of any human being who happens to be a little out of the +common produces an amount of discussion, public and private, which might +well seem to those outside the circle of gossip, extravagant, as well as +unnecessary. + +The general verdict on Mrs. Crofton had begun by being favourable. Both +with gentle and simple her appealing beauty told in her favour, and very +soon the village people smiled, and looked knowingly at one another, as +they noted the perpetual coming and going of Jack Tosswill to The Trellis +House. No day went by without the young man making some more or less +plausible excuse to call there once, twice, and sometimes thrice. + +It was noticed, too, by those interested in such matters--and in +Beechfield they were in the majority--that Mr. Godfrey Radmore, whose +return to Old Place had naturally caused a good deal of talk and +speculation--was also a frequent visitor at The Trellis House. Now and +again he would call there in his car, and take Mrs. Crofton for a long +drive; but they never went out alone--either Dolly or Rosamund, and +invariably Timmy, would be of the party. + +As the days went on, each member of the Tosswill family began to have a +definite and, so to speak, crystallised view of Enid Crofton. Rosamund +had become her champion, thus earning for the first time in her life the +warm approval of her brother Jack; but Dolly and Tom grew rather jealous +of their sister's absorption in the stranger. Rosamund was so very often +at The Trellis House. In fact, when Jack was not to be found there, +Rosamund generally was. But she had soon discovered that her new friend +preferred to see her visitors singly. Betty kept her thoughts as to Mrs. +Crofton to herself--for one thing the two very seldom met. But Janet +Tosswill was more frank. With her, tepid liking had turned into dislike, +and when she alluded to the pretty widow, which was not often, she would +tersely describe her as "second-rate." + +Now there is no word in the English language more deadly in its vague +import than that apparently harmless adjective. As applied to a human +being, it generally conveys every kind of odious significance, and +curiously enough it is seldom applied without good reason. + +Mrs. Crofton had gentle, pretty manners, but her manner lacked sincerity. +She was not content to leave her real beauty of colouring and feature to +take care of itself; her eye-brows were "touched up," and when she +fancied herself to be "off colour" she would put on a suspicion of rouge. +But what perhaps unduly irritated the mistress of Old Place were Mrs. +Crofton's clothes! To such shrewd, feminine eyes as were Janet +Tosswill's, it was plain that the new tenant of The Trellis House had +taken as much pains over her widow's mourning as a coquettish bride takes +over her trousseau. + +Janet Tosswill was far too busy a woman to indulge in the village game +of constant informal calls on her neighbours. She left all that sort of +thing to her younger step-daughters; and as Mrs. Crofton never came to +Old Place--making her nervous fear of the dogs the excuse--Janet only saw +the new tenant of The Trellis House when she happened to be walking about +the village or at church. + +But for a while, at any rate, an untoward event drove the thoughts +of most of the inmates of Old Place far from Mrs. Crofton and her +peculiarities, attractive or other. + + * * * * * + +One day, when Radmore had already been at Beechfield for close on a +fortnight, Timmy drew him aside, and said mysteriously: "Godfrey, I want +to tell you something." + +Radmore looked down and said pleasantly, though with a queer inward +foreboding in his mind: "Go ahead, boy--I'm listening." + +"Something's going to happen to someone here. I saw Dr. O'Farrell last +night, I mean in a dream. You were driving him in your car through our +gate. Last time I dreamt about him Dolly had measles; she was awfully +ill; she nearly died." + +As he spoke, Timmy kept looking round, as if afraid of being overheard. +"I don't mean to tell anyone else," he added confidentially. "You see it +upsets Mum, and makes the others cross, if I say things like that. But +still, I just thought I'd tell _you_." + +Radmore was impressed, disagreeably so, in spite of himself; but: "Look +here, Timmy," he said chaffingly. "The Greeks have a proverb about the +bearer of ill-tidings; don't let yourself ever become that, old man! +Have you ever heard, by the by, about 'the long arm of coincidence'?" + +Timmy nodded. + +"Don't you think it possible that your having dreamt about Dr. O'Farrell +just before Dolly was taken ill may have been that long arm of +coincidence--and nothing more? I can't help thinking that probably your +mother said something about sending for Dr. O'Farrell--for people don't +get measles in a minute, you know; they are seedy for some days +beforehand--and that made you dream of him. Eh?" + +But Timmy answered obliquely, as was rather his way when brought to book +by some older person than himself. "I think this time it's going to be an +accident," he said thoughtfully. + +And an accident it was! Old Nanna, who, in spite of her age, had become +the corner-stone of the household as regarded its material well-being, +slipped on the back staircase, and sprained her leg, and of course it was +Radmore who went off in his car to fetch and bring back Dr. O'Farrell. + +A slight alleviation to their troubles was brought about by Miss +Pendarth, who was going off on a visit the very day the accident +happened, and who practically compelled Janet to accept the temporary +service of her own excellent servant. It was her readiness to give that +sort of quick, kindly, decisive help which made so many of those who had +the privilege of her acquaintance regard Miss Pendarth with the solid +liking which is founded on gratitude. + +But the help, offered and accepted in the same spirit, could not go on +for long, for Miss Pendarth came home after a four days' absence; and, +for the first time in many months, Janet Tosswill made time to pay a +formal call at Rose Cottage in order that she might thank her old friend. +She intended to stay only the time that strict civility enjoined, and she +would have been surprised indeed had she been able to foresee what a +pregnant and, to her, personally, painful train of events were to follow +as a result of the quarter of an hour she spent in Miss Pendarth's +old-fashioned upstairs sitting-room where only privileged visitors were +ever made welcome. + +"Will you come upstairs to-day, Janet? I have something about which I +want to consult you." + +And then, when they had sat down, Miss Pendarth said abruptly: "While I +was in Essex I came across some people who had been acquainted with Mrs. +Crofton and her husband." + +Janet looked across at the speaker with some surprise. "What an odd +thing!" she exclaimed, and she did think it rather odd. + +But Olivia Pendarth was a very honest woman--too honest, some people +might have said. "It was not exactly odd," she said quickly, "for, to +tell you the truth, I made it my business while there to make certain +enquiries about the Croftons. In fact, I partly went to Essex for that +purpose, though I did not tell my friends so." + +The visitor felt rather shocked, as well as surprised. Surely Olivia +Pendarth's interest in her neighbours' concerns was, to say the least +of it, excessive. But the other's next words modified her censorious +thoughts. + +"Colonel Crofton and one of my brothers were in the same regiment +together. I knew him quite well when he and I were both young, and when +Miss Crofton came to see her sister-in-law a fortnight ago, I offered to +make certain enquiries for her." + +There was a touch of mystery, of hesitation in the older lady's voice, +and Janet Tosswill "rose" as she was perhaps meant to do. "What sort of +enquiries?" she asked. "I thought Miss Crofton was on the best of terms +with her sister-in-law." + +"So she is; but she wanted to know more than Mrs. Crofton was inclined to +tell her about the circumstances--the really extraordinary circumstances, +Janet--concerning Colonel Crofton's death. And now I'm rather in a +quandary as to whether I ought to tell her what I heard, and indeed as to +whether I ought even to send her the report of the inquest which appeared +in a local paper, and which I at last managed to secure." + +"Of course I know that Colonel Crofton committed suicide." Janet Tosswill +lowered her voice instinctively. "That poor, second-rate little woman +seems to have told Rosamund as much, and Godfrey Radmore confirmed it." + +"Yes, I suppose one ought to say that there is no real doubt that he +committed suicide." Yet Miss Pendarth's voice seemed to imply that there +was some doubt. + +She went on: "It was suggested at the inquest that the chemist who made +up a certain heart tonic Colonel Crofton had been in the habit of taking +for some time, had put in a far larger dose of strychnine than was +right." + +Janet Tosswill repeated in a startled tone: "Strychnine! You don't mean +to say the poor man committed suicide with that horrible poison?" + +Miss Pendarth looked up, and Janet was struck by her pallor and look of +pain. "Yes, Janet; he died of a big dose of strychnine, and the medical +evidence given at the inquest makes most painful reading." + +"It _must_ have been a mistake on the part of the chemist. No sane man +would take strychnine in order to commit suicide. Besides, how could he +have got it?" + +"There was strychnine in the house," said Miss Pendarth slowly. "When +Mrs. Crofton was in Egypt it was prescribed for her. You know how people +take it by the drop? A chemist out there seems to have given her a much +greater quantity than was needed, and in an ordinary, unlabelled medicine +bottle, too." The speaker waited a moment, then went on: "Though she +brought it back to England with her, she seems to have quite forgotten +that she had it. But _he_ must have known it was there, for after his +death the bottle was found in his dressing room." + +"What a dreadful thing! And how painful it must have been for her!" + +"Yes, I think she did go through a very dreadful time. But, Janet, what +impressed me most painfully, and what I am sure would much distress Miss +Crofton were I to tell her even only a part of what I heard, was the fact +that the husband and wife were on very bad terms. This was testified to, +and very strongly, by the only woman servant they had at the time of his +death." + +"I never believe servants' evidence," observed Janet Tosswill drily. + +"The Coroner, who I suppose naturally wished to spare Mrs. Crofton's +feelings, told the jury that it was plain that Colonel Crofton was a very +bad-tempered man. But the people with whom I was staying, and who drove +me over to look at the God-forsaken old house where the Croftons lived, +said that local feeling was very much against her. It was thought that +she really caused him to take his life by her neglect and unkindness." + +"What a terrible idea!" + +"I fear it's true. And now comes the question--ought I to tell his sister +this? Some of the gossip I heard was very unpleasant." + +"Do you mean that there was another man?" + +"Other men--rather than another man. She was always going up to London to +enjoy herself with the various men friends she had made during the War, +and the only guests they ever entertained were young men who were more or +less in love with her." + +Janet smiled a little wryly. "There's safety in numbers, and after all +she's extraordinarily attractive to men." + +"Yes," said Miss Pendarth, "there _is_ safety in numbers, and it's said +that Colonel Crofton was almost insanely jealous. They seem to have led a +miserable existence, constantly quarrelling about money, too, and often +changing their servants. On at least one occasion Mrs. Crofton went away, +leaving him quite alone, with only their odd man to look after him, for +something like a fortnight. Colonel Crofton's only interest in life was +the terriers which he apparently bred with a view to increasing his +income." + +"They can't have been so very poor," said Janet abruptly. "Look at the +way she's living now." + +"I feel sure she's living on capital," said Miss Pendarth slowly, "and I +think--forgive me for saying so--that she hopes to marry Godfrey Radmore. +I'm sure that's why she came to Beechfield." + +"You're wrong there! She settled to come here before Godfrey came home." + +"I'm convinced that she knew he was coming home soon." + +Janet got up. "I must be going now," she exclaimed. "There's a great deal +to do, and only Betty and I to do it." + +"I suppose Godfrey Radmore will be leaving now?" + +"I hope not, for he's a help rather than a hindrance. He takes Timmy off +our hands--" + +"--And he's so much at The Trellis House. I hear he dined there last +night." + +"Yes, with Rosamund," answered Janet shortly. + +Miss Pendarth accompanied her visitor down and out to the wrought-iron +gate. There the two lingered for a moment, and than Janet Tosswill +received one of the real surprises of her life. + +"Colonel Crofton and I were once engaged. I went out to India to stay +with my brother, and it happened there. _Now_ we should have married. But +things were very different _then_. When my father found Captain Crofton +was not in a position to make what was then regarded as a proper +settlement, he declared the engagement at an end." + +Janet felt touched. There was such a depth of restrained feeling in her +old friend's voice. Somehow it had never occurred to her that Olivia +Pendarth could ever have been in love! + +"It must be very painful for you to have her here," she said +involuntarily. + +"In a way, yes. But I suspected she was his widow from the first." + +"I think that, if I were you, I would say nothing to his sister," +observed Janet. + +"Very well. I will take your advice." + +She changed the subject abruptly. "Let me know if Kate can be of any more +use. She's quite anxious to go on helping you all. She's got so fond of +Betty: she says she'd do anything for her." + +"We're managing all right now, and Godfrey really is a help, instead of a +hindrance. He actually suggested that he should do the washing-up this +morning!" + +"That's the best thing I've ever heard of Godfrey Radmore," exclaimed +Miss Pendarth. "I sincerely hope--forgive me for saying so, Janet--that +there's really nothing between him and Enid Crofton. I should be sorry +for my worst enemy to marry that woman, if the things I was told about +her were true." + +"I don't believe that he is thinking of her, consciously--" Janet +Tosswill spoke slowly, choosing her words. + +"Of course she's making a dead set at him. But there's safety in numbers, +even here," observed the other, grimly. "I hear that your Jack simply +lives at The Trellis House. The whole village is talking about it." + +Jack? Janet Tosswill felt vexed by what she considered a bit of stupid, +vulgar, village gossip. "Jack's the most level-headed young man about +women I've ever known," she said, trying to speak pleasantly. "If anyone +has fallen in love with Mrs. Crofton, it's our silly little Rosamund!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +The morning after Janet Tosswill's call at Rose Cottage, Rosamund +followed her step-mother into the drawing-room immediately after +breakfast, and observed plaintively that it did seem strange that "Enid" +was never asked to Old Place. "We take anything from her, and never give +anything back," she said. + +Janet, who had a certain tenderness for the pretty black sheep of the +family, checked the sharp retort which trembled on her lips. Still, it +was quite true that Rosamund had more than once been kept to lunch at The +Trellis House, and that on the day of Nanna's accident Mrs. Crofton had +issued a sort of general invitation to supper to the young people of Old +Place--an invitation finally accepted, at Betty's suggestion, by Godfrey +Radmore and Rosamund. + +Janet admitted to herself that they did owe Mrs. Crofton some civility. +If the thing had to be done, it might as well be done at once, and so, +when Rosamund had reluctantly gone upstairs to do her share of the +household work, his mother beckoned Timmy into the drawing-room, and told +him that she would have a note ready for him to take to The Trellis House +in a few minutes. + +"Oh, Mum, do let Jack take it!" the boy exclaimed. "I can't go to The +Trellis House with Flick, and it's such a bore to shut him up." + +"Why can't Flick go with you?" + +"Mum! Don't you remember? Mrs. Crofton is _terrified_ of dogs. Do let +Jack take it!" + +"But are you sure Jack is going there this morning?" she asked, and then +she remembered Miss Pendarth's ill-natured remark. + +"He goes there every morning," said Timmy positively, "and this morning +he's going there extra early, as he's lending Mrs. Crofton our best +preserving pan. She wants to make some blackberry jam." + +And then there occurred one of those odd incidents which were always +happening in connection with Timmy and with which his mother never knew +quite how to deal. He screwed up his queer little face for a moment, +shaded his eyes with his hand, and said quietly: "I think Jack is just +starting down the drive now. You'll catch him if you'll open the window +and shout to him, Mum--it's no good my going after him--he wouldn't come +back for _me_." + +Janet Tosswill got up from her writing-table. She opened the nearest +window and, stepping out, looked to her right. Yes, there was Jack's +neat, compact figure sprinting down the long, straight avenue towards the +gate. He was holding a queer-looking, badly done up parcel in his hands. + +"Jack! Jack! Come here for a minute--I want you," she called out in her +clear, rather high-pitched voice. + +He slackened, and it was as if she could see him hesitating, wondering +whether he dare pretend he had not heard her. Then he turned and ran back +down the drive and across the wide lawn to the window. + +"What is it?" he asked breathlessly. "I'm late as it is! I'm taking one +of our preserving pans to The Trellis House. The fruit was all picked +yesterday." + +"I won't be a moment. I want you to take a letter for me to Mrs. Crofton. +I'm asking her to come in to dinner to-night." + +She turned back into the room and, sitting down, took up her pen: "Timmy? +Go into the scullery, and help Betty for a bit." + +After her little son had left the room, she called out to Jack, "Do come +inside; it fidgets me to feel that you're standing out there." + +After what seemed to Jack Tosswill a long time, though it was only three +minutes, his step-mother turned, and held out her note: "She needn't +write--a verbal answer will do. If she can't come we shall have done the +civil thing." + +And then, thinking aloud, she went on: "Somehow I don't expect her to +stay long in Beechfield. She's too much of a London bird." + +"I don't suppose she would have come at all if she had known what a +beastly, inhospitable place Beechfield is," said Jack sharply. Though he +was in such a hurry to be off, he waited in order to add: "She's been +here nearly a month, and you've never called on her yet--it's too bad!" + +Janet Tosswill flushed deeply. Jack had not spoken to her in such a tone +since he was fifteen. + +"What nonsense! She must be indeed silly and affected," she exclaimed, +"if she expected me to pay her a formal call, especially as we had her in +to supper the very first day she was here! I might retort by saying that +she might have sent or called to know how poor old Nanna was! Everyone in +the village has done so--but then your friend, Jack, is not what my +father used to call '18 carat'!" + +"I think it's we who are not '18 carat,'" he answered furiously. "We have +shown Mrs. Crofton the grossest discourtesy, and I happen to know that +she feels it very much." + +Janet Tosswill looked at her elder stepson with a feeling of blank +amazement. It had often astonished her to notice how completely Jack had +his emotions and temper under control. Yet here he was, his face aglow +with anger, his voice trembling with rage. + +Poor Janet! She had had long days of fatigue and worry since the old +nurse's accident, and suddenly she completely lost her temper. "I don't +want to say anything unkind about the little woman, but I do think her +both silly and second-rate. I took a dislike to her when she behaved in +such a ridiculous manner over Flick." + +"You were almost as frightened as she was," said Jack roughly. + +"It's quite true that I was frightened for a moment, but only because +I was afraid for Timmy." + +"I can tell you one thing--she won't come here again to supper unless +I can give her my word that all our dogs are really shut up. And I fear +I must ask you to undertake to see that Timmy does not let Flick out +after I _have_ shut him up." + +Janet Tosswill held out her hand. "I think you'd better give me that note +back," she said curtly. "We certainly don't want anyone here of the kind +you have just described. From something Godfrey said to me it's clear +that Mrs. Crofton's horror of dogs is just a pose she thinks makes her +interesting. Why, her husband bred terriers; Flick actually came from +there! And Godfrey says that she herself had a little dog called by the +absurd name of 'Boo-boo' to which she was devoted." + +"'Boo-boo' was the exception that proves the rule," answered Jack hotly. +"As for Colonel Crofton, it was beastly of him to breed terriers, knowing +how his wife felt about dogs! She told me herself she would never have +married him if she had known there was any likelihood of that coming to +pass. She feels about dogs as some people feel about cats." + +"I never heard such nonsense!" + +"Nonsense?" he repeated in an enraged tone. "It isn't nonsense! The best +proof that that horror of dogs is instinctive with her is the effect that +she herself has on every dog she comes across. That was shown the evening +she was here." + +"Really, Jack, that's utterly absurd! Flick was not thinking of her at +all. Something in the garden had frightened him. Your father feels sure +that it was a snake which he himself killed the next morning." And then, +for she was most painfully disturbed by this scene between herself and +Jack, she said quietly: "I'm sorry that Mrs. Crofton ever came to +Beechfield. I didn't think there was anyone in the world who would make +you speak to me as you have spoken to me now." + +"I hate injustice!" he exclaimed, a little shamefacedly. "I can't think +why you've turned against her, Janet. It's so mean as well as so unkind! +She has hardly any friends in the world, and she thought by the account +Godfrey gave of us that _we_ should become her friends." + +"It's always a woman's own fault if she has no friends, especially when +she's such an attractive woman as Mrs. Crofton," said Janet shortly. She +hesitated, and then added something for which she was sorry immediately +afterwards: "I happen to know rather more about Mrs. Crofton than most of +the people in Beechfield do." + +She spoke with that touch of mysterious finality which is always so +irritating to a listener who is in indifferent sympathy with a speaker. + +"What d'you mean?" cried Jack fiercely. "I insist on your telling me what +you mean!" + +Janet Tosswill told herself with Scotch directness that she had been a +fool. But if Jack was--she hardly knew how to put it to herself--so--so +bewitched by Mrs. Crofton as he seemed to be, then perhaps, as they had +got to this point, he had better hear the truth: + +"Mrs. Crofton made herself very much talked about in the neighbourhood of +the place where she and her husband settled after the War. She was so +actively unkind, and made him so wretched, that at last he committed +suicide. At least that is what is believed by everyone who knew them in +Essex." + +"I suppose a woman told you all this?" he said in a dangerously calm +voice. + +"Yes, it was a woman, Jack." + +"Of course it was! Every woman, young or old, is jealous of her because +she's so pretty and--so--so feminine, and because she has nothing about +her of the clever, hard woman who is the fashion nowadays! The only +person who does her justice in this place is Rosamund." + +"I disapprove very much of Rosamund's silly, school-girlish, adoration of +her," said Janet sharply. + +She was just going to add something more when she saw Timmy slipping +quietly back into the room. And all at once she felt sorry--deeply +sorry--that this rather absurd scene had taken place between herself and +Jack. She blamed herself for having let it come to this pass. + +"I daresay I'm prejudiced," she exclaimed. "Take this note, Jack, and +tell Mrs. Crofton that Flick shall be securely shut up." + +"All right." Jack shrugged his shoulders rather ostentatiously, and +disappeared through the window, while Janet, with a half-humorous sigh, +told herself that perhaps he was justified in condemning in his own mind, +as he was certainly doing now, the extraordinary vagaries of womankind. +She turned back to her writing-table again. However disturbed and worried +she might feel, there were the weekly books to be gone through, and this +time without Nanna's shrewd, kindly help. + +Suddenly she started, for Timmy's claw-like little hand was on her arm: +"Mum," he said earnestly, "do tell me what Colonel Crofton was really +like? Did that lady--you know, I mean the person Jack thinks is jealous +of Mrs. Crofton--tell you what he was like?" + +"No--yes--oh, Timmy! I'm afraid you must have been listening at the door +just now?" + +"I didn't like to come in," he said, wriggling uneasily. "I've never +heard Jack speak in such an angry way before. He was in a wax, wasn't he? +But, Mum, do tell me what Colonel Crofton looked like--I do _so_ want to +know." + +She put down her pen, and turning, gazed down into the child's eager, +inquisitive little face. + +"Why should you wish to know, Timmy?" She spoke rather coldly and +sternly. + +She was sorry indeed now that she had been tempted to repeat what was +perhaps after all only the outcome of Miss Pendarth's unconscious +jealousy of the woman who had made a fool of the man she had loved as a +girl. It was unfortunately true that Olivia Pendarth had an unconscious +prejudice against all young and pretty women. + +"I want to know," mumbled Timmy, "because I think I do know what he was +like." + +"If you know what he was like, then there is nothing more to say." + +"I want to be sure," he repeated obstinately. + +"But how absurd, Timmy! Why should you want to know about a poor old +gentleman who is dead, and of whom you are not likely ever to hear +anything? I have often told you how horrid it is to be inquisitive." + +Timmy paused over that remark. "I want to know," he said in a low +mumbling voice, "because I think I have seen him." He did not look up at +his mother as he spoke. With the forefinger of his right hand he began +tracing an imaginary pattern on the blue serge skirt which covered her +knee. + +She looked around apprehensively. Yes, the door was shut. She remembered +that Dr. O'Farrell had told her never to encourage the child's +confidences, but, on the other hand, never to check them. + +"I first saw him the evening she came to supper," Timmy mumbled. "They +were walking together down the avenue. I thought he was a real old +gentleman. There was a dog with him, a terrier exactly like Flick, only a +little bigger. Of course I thought it was a real dog too. But now I know +that it wasn't. I know now that it was a ghost-dog. It is _that_ dog, +Mum, that frightens the other dogs who meet them--not herself, as she's +come to think." + +"Oh, Timmy,"--Janet felt acutely uncomfortable--"you know I cannot bear +to think that such things really happen to you. If you really think them +I'd rather know, but I'd so much rather, dear boy, that you didn't think +them." + +But Timmy was absorbed in what he was saying. "I know now that it was +Colonel Crofton," he went on, "because I've seen an old photograph of +him, Mum. Mrs. Crofton brought a tin box full of papers with her, and +there were some old photographs in it. There was one of an officer in +uniform, and it had written across it, 'Yours sincerely, Cecil Crofton.' +She tore it up the day after she came here, and threw it in the +waste-paper basket, but her cook took it out of the dustbin, and +that's how I saw it." + +"How disgusting!" exclaimed his mother, feeling herself now on firm +ground. "How often have I had to tell you, Timmy, not to go into other +people's kitchens and sculleries? No nice boy, no little gentleman, would +do such a thing. Of course it was seeing that photograph made you believe +you saw Colonel Crofton's--" + +She stopped abruptly, for she never, if she could help it, used the word +"ghost," or "spirit," to the child. + +"Up to now I've always supposed that animals had no souls, Mum, but now I +know they have. I know another thing, too," but there was a doubtful note +in his voice. "I suppose that ghost-dog hates Mrs. Crofton because she +was so unkind to his master. That's why he makes the other dogs fly at +her, I expect--or d'you think it's just because they're frightened that +they do it?" + +Janet Tosswill was an unconventional woman, also she was on terms of very +close kinship with her strange little son. Still, she reddened as she +drew him closer to her and said: "Look here, Timmy, I want to tell you +something. I'm sorry now I said what I did say to Jack about Mrs. +Crofton. I ought not to have said it--I'm ashamed of having said it! It +was told me by someone who is rather fond of repeating disagreeable, +sometimes even untrue, things." + +Timmy had also grown very red while his mother was making her little +confession. He took up her hand and squeezed it impulsively, as an older +person might have done. + +"I think I know who you mean," he said. "You mean Miss Pendarth?" + +"Yes," said his mother steadily, "I do mean Miss Pendarth. I think it +quite possible that poor little Mrs. Crofton was never really unkind to +Colonel Crofton at all." + +"But you wouldn't like Jack to marry her, Mum, would you?" + +Janet felt a shock of dismay go through her. There flashed into her mind +that sometimes most disturbing text--"Out of the mouths of babes and +sucklings...." + +"I shouldn't like it at all," she exclaimed, "and I think you're old +enough to understand that such a thing would be impossible. Jack won't +make enough money to keep a wife for years and years." She hesitated, and +then added, speaking to herself rather than to Timmy, "Still, I hope with +all my heart that he won't get foolish about her." + +"He _is_ foolish about her," said Timmy positively. "Even Nanna +thinks"--he waited a moment, then said carefully--"that he is past +praying for. She said yesterday to Betty that there were some things +prayers didn't help in at all, and that love was one of them. She says +that Jack's heart has gone out of his own keeping. Isn't that a funny +idea, Mum?" + +"It is a terrible idea," and, a little to her own surprise, tears rose to +Janet Tosswill's eyes. Timmy, looking up into her face, felt his heart +swell with anger against the person who was causing his mother to look as +she was looking now. + +He moved away a little bit, as if aware that what he was going to say +would not meet with her approval, and then he said in a peculiar voice, +a defiant, obstinate voice which she knew well: "I do wish that Mrs. +Crofton would die--I do hate her so!" + +Janet Tosswill looked straight into her little son's face. She felt that +she had perhaps made a mistake in treating Timmy as if he were grown up. +"My dear," she said very gravely, "remember the Bible says--'Thou shalt +not kill.'" + +"Of course I know _that_,"--he spoke with a good deal of scorn. "Of +course I want her to die a _natural_ death." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +"No, you mustn't come in; I'm tired. Besides, I've got someone coming to +tea." + +The ready lie slipped easily off Enid Crofton's tongue, as Jack Tosswill +looked down into her face with a strained, pleading look. They were +standing in the deserted road close to the outside door set in the +lichen-covered wall of The Trellis House. It was already getting dusk, +for they had been for a long walk. + +"I shall never, never forget to-day!" He gripped her hand hard as he +spoke, and she looked up and down the empty road a little apprehensively. +But no one was coming or going, and the group of little old cottages +opposite The Trellis House held as yet no twinkling lights. + +"I shall never forget it, either," she said softly. "But I really _must_ +go in now--you know we are meeting this evening?" + +"May I come and fetch you?" he asked. + +"No, I'd rather you didn't do that--if you don't mind," and then, seeing +his look of deep disappointment, she added, "Perhaps you will walk back +with me after dinner?" + +"Of course I will, but I'm afraid Radmore or one of the girls will want +to come too." + +As he gazed down into her face there was a look of infinite longing in +his eyes, and even she felt a certain touch of genuine emotion sweep over +her. It is so very, very delicious to be loved. + +"Good-bye, darling," he whispered huskily; and, before she had time to +stop him, he had taken her in his arms and kissed her, passionately, +lingeringly. Then, with no other word, he released her and went off +quickly down the road. + + * * * * * + +After Enid Crofton had shut the heavy door in the wall behind her, she +did not go straight along the path which led to her front door. Instead, +she turned in the gathering darkness to the left, and started walking +round the garden which in daylight looked so different, now that Jack +Tosswill had put in so many hard mornings' work at it. + +She felt more surprised and moved by what had happened this afternoon +than she would have thought possible. Poor Jack! Poor, foolish, adoring, +priggish boy! + +When he had come in this morning, bringing the note of invitation from +his step-mother, he had seemed excited and ill at ease. She had felt +vexed at his coming so early, as she was anxious to superintend the +jam-making herself. Enid Crofton had a very practical side to her +character, and she was the last person to risk the wasting of good sugar +and good fruit through the stupidity of an inexperienced cook. + +While Jack was still there one of her new acquaintances had come in for a +moment, for she had already made herself well liked in the neighbourhood, +and after the visitor had gone, Jack, exclaiming angrily that they were +never left in peace together, had begged her to go for a walk with him +that afternoon. This she had consented to do, after discovering that +Godfrey Radmore had gone up to London for the day. + +And then, during their walk, Jack had suddenly made her a pompous offer +of marriage! + +No wonder she smiled mischievously to herself, when pacing slowly up and +down the path between a row of espaliered apple trees. + +She told herself that in a sense it had been her fault. They were sitting +on a fallen tree trunk, in a lonely little wood, Jack, as he seldom was, +tongue-tied and dull. Piqued, she had twitted him on his silence. And +then, all at once, he had turned and, seizing her roughly, had kissed her +with the pent-up passion of a man in love who till now has never kissed a +woman. + +Pacing slowly in her dark garden, Enid Crofton's pulse quickened at +the recollection of those maladroit, hungry kisses. Something--a mere +glancing streak of the great shaft of ecstasy which enveloped Jack +Tosswill's whole being had touched her senses into what had seemed to +him marvellous response. + +When at last he had released her, and in words of at once triumphant and +humble adoration, had made her an offer of marriage, she had felt it an +absurd anti-climax to a very delicious and, even in her well-stored +memory, a unique experience. + +And now she remembered the last time a man had kissed her. It was quite +a little while ago, on the day she had taken possession of The Trellis +House. Of course Captain Tremaine had tipped the guard so that they +should have a carriage to themselves. But she had been uncomfortably +aware that he was half-ashamed of himself--that he remembered, all the +time, that she was a newly-made widow. + +Somehow Jack Tosswill hadn't remembered that. Jack hadn't thought of it. +But oh! how absurd he had been when his first rapture was over. Without +even waiting for an answer to his proposal, he had coolly suggested they +should wait till he had made a start at the Bar! At last she had managed +to make him listen to her plea that, till a year had elapsed, she could +not think of re-marriage. And he had believed her! + +All at once she told herself, a little ruefully, that she had perhaps +been foolish; that this affair, slight and altogether unimportant as it +was, might become a tiresome complication. Of course she could keep him +in order, but she was well aware that when a man had kissed her once, he +generally wanted to kiss her again, and very soon. + +In principle, she had no objection to Jack Tosswill's kisses. There was +something fresh, alluring, wholly delightful, even to so hardened a flirt +as was Enid Crofton, in being the object of a youth's first love. But she +told herself, almost fiercely, that she must make him understand very, +very clearly that, though they might sometimes kiss, they must never be +caught. Fortunately Jack was curiously cautious for so young a man. That +had been one of the reasons why she had been tempted to--well--to make +him lose his head. + +And then another figure, one of far greater importance and moment to +herself than poor Jack Tosswill, came and challenged Enid Crofton to +anxious attention. How did she stand with regard to Godfrey Radmore? + +She stopped in her pacing, and stared straight before her. For the first +time in her life she was quite at a loss as to what a man, of whom she +was seeing a great deal, really felt about her. + +Rosamund Tosswill was very young, and Enid secretly thought her very +stupid, but there could be no doubt as to her essential truthfulness. +Now, a day or two ago, Rosamund had said: "Isn't it funny of Godfrey? He +told Janet when he first came here that he had made up his mind to remain +a bachelor!" + +And yet they two, she, Enid, and Godfrey, had had something tantamount to +an emotional little scene the first time he had come to see her at The +Trellis House. True, it had only lasted two or three seconds, but while +it lasted it had been intense. Had Timmy Tosswill not burst into the room +in that stupid, inopportune way, Radmore would have certainly taken her +in his arms. Though Radmore was no innocent, high-principled boy, even +one kiss between them would have altered their whole attitude, the one to +the other. She would have seen to that. In her heart she had cursed Timmy +for his idiotic intrusion, and now she cursed him again. + +Lately she had thought Radmore was becoming aware of Jack Tosswill's +growing absorption in her, and she had suspected, as well as hoped, that +he was a trifle jealous. Now jealousy, as Enid knew well, is a potent +quickener of feeling between a man and a woman. It was unfortunate that +Radmore seemed to regard Jack Tosswill as a mere boy--a rather tiresome, +priggish boy. Still, that had its good side. Jack was only a very slight +complication after all! + +Again she cast a fleeting thought to Tremaine. In a sense he was her real +mate, her real soul, and, yes, body mate. If only he wasn't so poor! She +felt for a moment tempted to throw up everything--to do what he had so +urged her to do, what he was always writing and begging her to do. That +was to marry him quickly just before the end of his leave, and go out to +India with him. He wrote to her every day, and his last letter was in the +little silk bag now hanging on her arm. + +It was the kind of love-letter that Enid understood, and enjoyed +receiving: full of ardent, if rather commonplace, expressions, and of +comparisons, very pleasant to her vanity, between her pretty self and the +stupid, ugly women he said he was now meeting. He had been with his +people in Cornwall--but for that he would of course have come down to see +how she was getting on. In this particular letter he announced that he +was going to be in London very soon, and might he run down for a day? He +had added a question, chaffingly worded, and yet, as she well knew, +seriously intended. Did she think it would be improper for him to come +and spend two or three days with her? And now she told herself, very +decidedly, that of course she couldn't have him here--in stupid, +old-fashioned Beechfield. It would be a tiresome, useless complication. +But why shouldn't she go up to London for three or four days and have a +good time with him there? + +Enid was well aware that absence frequently makes the heart grow fonder, +and that distance does lend enchantment to the view. But she would not +have put it in those exact words. + +At last she began walking towards the house, telling herself that she +felt oddly tired, and that it would be very pleasant, for once, to have a +solitary cup of tea. Her house-parlourmaid was shaping very nicely. Thus +the girl had evidently brought the lamps into the sitting-room, though +she had forgotten to draw the curtains. + +Enid knocked and rang. She had a theory that the possession of a latchkey +by their mistress makes servants slow to answer the door. + +"There's a person waiting for you in the drawing-room, ma'am. She says +she's come down on purpose from London to see you. She came just after +you went out first." + +There swept over Enid Crofton a strong, sudden premonition of evil. She +realised that for the last ten days she had been secretly dreading that +this would happen to her. She blamed herself sharply, now that it was too +late, for having done nothing further to help the Pipers; but she had +hoped the five pounds would have kept them quiet. + +"I'll go upstairs and take off my things," she said wearily. "Bring me a +cup of tea in my bedroom--I don't want anything to eat--and then I'll +come down and see this person." She forced herself to add, "I suppose +it's a Mrs. Piper?" + +The girl answered at once, "She didn't give her name, ma'am. She just +said that she wanted to see you, and that it was urgent. She's not got +very long; she wants to catch the six o'clock train from Telford. She +wouldn't believe at first that you wasn't in." + +Enid found some comfort in those words, and she made up her mind that she +would linger upstairs as long as she possibly could, so as to cut short +her coming interview with the tiresome young woman. After all there was +very little to say. She had behaved in a kind and generous manner to her +late husband's servant, and she had already said she would do her best to +help him again. + +When she got upstairs she lit the two high brass candlesticks on the +dressing-table, and then, after she had taken off her hat and long black +woollen coat, she sat down in her easy-chair by the wood fire. Soon there +came a familiar rap and a welcome cup of tea. + +She was sipping it, luxuriously, when there suddenly came a very +different kind of rap on the door. It was a sharp, insistent knock, +and before she could call out "Come in," the door opened, and a +singular-looking figure advanced into the luxurious-looking, +low-ceilinged bedroom. + +"Excuse me coming up like this, Modam. But I'm afraid of losing my +train." + +The speaker was small and stout, with a sallow face which might once have +held a certain gipsy-like charm, for, in the candlelight, the luminous +dark eyes were by far its most arresting feature. She wore a small, +old-fashioned-looking, red velvet bonnet perched on her elaborately +dressed hair. + +Enid Crofton looked at her odd-looking visitor with astonishment. Who on +earth could this be? Certainly not Piper's wife. A feeling of intense +relief came over her when the strange-looking woman came towards her +with a soft, gliding step, and handed her a card on which was written: + + Madame Flora + + Ladies' wardrobes, gold teeth, and old jewellery purchased at the + highest prices known in the trade + +"I do 'ope you will excuse me coming up like this," she said again, and +her queer Cockney voice sounded quite pleasantly in Enid Crofton's ears. +"I've not got very long, and I've been 'ere since four o'clock." + +As she spoke she did not look at the pretty young lady sitting by the +fire. Her dark eyes were glancing furtively round the attractively +furnished bedroom, as if appraising everything that was there, from the +uncommon-looking high brass candlesticks on the dressing-table to the +pink silk covered eiderdown and drawn linen coverlid on the bed. + +Perhaps because she was so extraordinarily relieved, Enid Crofton spoke +to this somewhat impudent old-clothes woman very graciously. + +"I'm sorry," she began, "but I've nothing in the least suitable for you, +Madame Flora. It's a pity you wasted your time waiting for me. There are +several other people in Beechfield with whom I expect you might have done +business." She smiled as she spoke. + +"I wish I'd thought of that, Modam." The woman spoke with a touch of +regret. "But your maids expected you might be back any minute, and I did +want to meet you, for Piper's that down on 'is luck, I sometimes don't +know what to do with 'im! Instead of wanting to employ ex-soldiers, as in +course they ought ter, people seem just to avoid them--" + +"Piper?" repeated Enid Crofton in a low, hesitating voice. "Then are you +Mrs. Piper?" + +Was it conceivable that this strange-looking old thing was Piper's wife? + +"I've been Mrs. Piper eighteen years," replied Madame Flora composedly, +"but I've always kep' on my business, Modam. It's not much of a business +now, worse luck! Ladies won't part with their clothes, not when they're +dropping off them. In old days, if Piper was down, I was up, so we was +all right. But we've both struck a streak of bad luck." + +For a few moments neither of them spoke. Mrs. Crofton was staring, +astonished, at her visitor, and through her shallow mind there ran the +new thought of how very, very little any of us know of other people's +lives. After her first shock of dismayed surprise to find that Piper was +married at all, she had imagined Piper's wife as something young and, of +course, in a way, attractive and easily managed. + +"Did you ever come down to my house in Essex?" she asked, still trying to +speak pleasantly. + +"No, Modam, I never was there. Piper and I 'as always kep' clear of each +other's jobs, and I wouldn't be interfering _now_, but that the matter's +becoming serious. Piper's worse than no good when 'e's idle." She +hesitated, then went on, "If 'e's to keep off 'is failing, 'e must be +working." + +There was a pause, and then Enid Crofton spoke, in a low, uncertain tone. +"Believe me, Mrs. Piper, when I say that I really will do all I can for +him. But it's not easy now to hear of good jobs, and Piper doesn't seem +easy to suit." + +"You wouldn't care to take my 'usband on again yourself, Modam?" + +Again there followed that curious pause which somehow filled Enid with a +vague fear. + +"I wish I could," she said at last, "but I can't afford it, Mrs. Piper. +As a matter of fact, I've done a foolish thing in coming here, to +Beechfield, at all. Only the other day one of my husband's relations +advised me to let the house." + +"Piper thinks, Modam, as how you might 'elp 'im to a job with Major +Radmore." The name tripped quickly off the speaker's tongue, as if she +was quite used to the sound. + +Enid felt a throb of dismay. Did the Pipers know Godfrey Radmore was +back? + +"We was wondering," said the woman, "if you would give us the major's +address?" + +Then they didn't know he was back--or did they? + +"I don't know it." + +Enid Crofton was one of those women--there are more than a truthful world +suspects--who actually find it easier to lie than to tell the truth. But +she saw the look of incredulity which flashed over the sallow face of her +unwelcome visitor. + +"Mr. Radmore," she went on hastily, "is taking a motor tour. But he'll be +back in London soon, and I'll let you know the moment I know he's settled +down." + +"I should 'ave thought," said the woman, "that the Major would 'ave 'ad a +club where Piper could 'ave written." + +"If he has, I don't know it." + +And then, all at once, Enid Crofton pulled herself together. After all +the interview was going quite smoothly. Nothing--well, disagreeable--had +been said. + +She got up from her chair. "I hope you'll forgive me, Mrs. Piper, for +saying that Piper will never keep any job if he behaves as he did with +these last people--I had a very disagreeable letter from the lady." + +Mrs. Piper, alias Madame Flora, grew darkly red. + +"Piper 'ad a shock this last July," she said, moving a little farther +into the room, and so nearer to Enid Crofton. "The thing's been +a-weighing on 'is mind for a long time. It's something 'e won't exactly +explain. But it's on 'is conscience. Only yesterday 'e says to me, 'e +says, 'If I'm drinking, my dear, it's to drown care; I ought to have +spoken up very differently to what I done at the poor Colonel's inquest." + +The terrible little woman again took a step or two forward, and then she +waited, as if she expected the lady to say something. But Enid, though +she opened her lips, found that she could not speak. Hardly knowing what +she was doing, she sat down again. And, after what seemed to the owner of +the attractive, candle-lit room an awful silence, Mrs. Piper went on, +speaking now in quite a different tone--easy, confidential, and with a +touch of wheedling good nature in it. + +"Thanks to your late gentleman, Piper knows all about dogs, and all +'e requires, Modam, to set 'im up as a dogfancier, so to speak, is a +moderate bit o' money. As 'e says 'imself, five hundred pound would do it +easy. If I may make so bold, that's what reely brought me 'ere, Mrs. +Crofton. It do seem to us both, that, under the circumstances, you might +feel disposed to find the money?" + +Enid looked down as she answered, falteringly: "I told Piper some time +ago that it was quite impossible for me to do anything of the kind." + +In her fear and distress she uttered the words more loudly than she was +aware, and the woman looked round at the closed door with an apprehensive +look: "Don't speak so loud. We don't want to tell everyone our business," +she said sharply. + +Now she came quite close up to her victim, for by now Enid Crofton knew +that she was in very truth this woman's victim. + +"You think it over," whispered Madame Flora. "We're not in a 'urry to a +day or two. And look here, Modam, I'll be open with you! If you'll do +that for Piper, it'll be in full discharge of anything you owe 'im--d'you +take my meaning?" + +Enid Crofton got up slowly from her chair almost as an automaton might +have done. She wanted to say that she did not in the least know what Mrs. +Piper _did_ mean. But somehow her lips refused to form the words. She was +afraid even to shake her head. + +"I told you a fib just now"--Mrs. Piper's voice again dropped to a +whisper. "Piper's made a clean breast o' the matter to me, and I do think +as what it's common justice to admit that my 'usband's evidence at that +inquest was worth more than twenty-five pound to you. It wasn't what +Piper said; _it was what 'e didn't say that mattered_, Mrs. Crofton. It's +been on 'is mind awful--I'll take my Bible oath on that. But 'live and +let live,' that's my motter. We don't want to do anything unkind, but +we're in a fix ourselves--" + +"I haven't got five hundred pounds," said Enid Crofton desperately; +"that's God's truth, Mrs. Piper." + +To that assertion Madame Flora made no direct answer; she only observed, +in a quiet conversational tone, and speaking no longer in a whisper. "The +insurance gent told Piper as what 'e was not entirely satisfied, and 'e +said as 'e'd be pleased to see Piper any time if anything 'appened as +could throw further light on the Colonel's death. 'An extraordinary +occurrence'--that's what the insurance people's gentleman called it, Mrs. +Crofton--'an extraordinary occurrence.'" + +And then Enid was stung into saying a very unwise thing. "The Coroner did +not think it an extraordinary occurrence," she said quietly. + +"'E says sometimes as what 'e ought to give 'imself up and say what 'e +saw," went on Mrs. Piper with seeming irrelevance. + +There was another brief pause: "If you 'aven't got five hundred pounds, +Modam, I take it the insurance money has not yet been paid, for it was a +matter of two thousand pounds--or so Piper understood from that party +what came down to make enquiries." + +Enid Crofton looked at her torturer dumbly. She did not know what to +say--what to admit, and what to deny. + +"Think it over," said the terrible little woman. "We're not in a 'urry to +a day or two. We'll give you a fortnight to find the money." + +She put her hand, fat, yet claw-like, on Mrs. Crofton's shoulder. +"There's nothing to look so frightened about," she said a little gruffly. +"Piper and me aren't blackmailers. But we've got to look out for +ourselves, same as everybody else does. It's Piper's idea--that five +hundred pounds is. 'E says 'twould ease 'is conscience to carry on the +pore old Colonel's dog-breeding. As for me, I'd just as lief 'ave 'im in +a good job--what gentlefolk call 'a cushy job'--with a gentleman like +this Major Radmore seems to be. But there! Piper's just set on them nasty +dogs, and 'e's planned it all out." + +"Five hundred pounds is a great deal of money." Enid Crofton spoke in a +dull, preoccupied tone. + +"Not so much as it used to be, not by any manner of means," said +Mrs. Piper shrewdly. "Think it over, Mrs. Crofton--and let us know +what you _can_ do. Perhaps it needn't be paid all in one; but best to +write to Piper next time. 'E says 'e'd like to feel you and 'im were +partners-like. I'll tell 'im I arranged for you to 'ave ten days to a +fortnight to think it over." + +"Thinking won't make money," said Enid in a low voice. + +"Such a beautiful young lady as yourself, Modam, can't find it difficult +to put 'er 'and on five hundred pounds," murmured Mrs. Piper, and as she +said the words there came a leering smile over her small, pursed-up +mouth. + +And then, turning, she glided across the candle-lit room, and noiselessly +opening the door, she slid through it. + +Enid Crofton sank farther back into her chintz-covered easy-chair. She +was trembling all over, and her hands were shaking. She had not felt so +frightened as she felt now, even during the terrible moments which had +preceded her being put in the witness-box at the inquest held on her +husband's body; and with a feeling of acute, unreasoning terror, she +asked herself how she could cope with this new, dreadful situation. + +What, for instance, did that allusion to the insurance company mean? She +had had the two thousand pounds, and she had spent about a quarter of it +paying bills of which her husband had known nothing. Then the settling +in at The Trellis House had cost a great deal more than she had expected. +Of course she had some left, but five hundred pounds would make a hideous +hole in her little store. + +What could the Pipers do to her? Could they do anything? The sinister +woman's repetition of Piper's curious remark, "'E says sometimes as what +'e ought to give 'imself up, and say what 'e saw," came back to her with +sickening vividness. + +She looked round her, timorously. The candles on her dressing-table gave +such a poor light. How stupid of a village like Beechfield not to have +electric light! She stood up and rang for a hot-water bottle. At any rate +she might as well try to get a little beauty sleep before dressing to go +to the Tosswills. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +Although no definite suggestion or order had been issued by Janet +Tosswill, it was understood by everyone in Old Place that special honour +was to be paid to Mrs. Crofton this evening. + +Janet, when giving Betty a slight but vigorous sketch of the scene which +had taken place between herself and Jack, observed, "If she's _that_ sort +of woman I think we ought to give her a proper dinner, don't you?" And +Betty heartily agreed. + +This was the reason why Betty herself, Tom, who acted as butler, and +Timmy, who was supposed to help generally both in the kitchen and in the +dining-room, did not sit down to table with the others. + +Mrs. Tosswill's sarcastic observation was so far justified in that Enid +Crofton did feel vaguely gratified to find herself treated to-night far +more as a guest of honour than she had been on the first occasion when +she had come to the house. The guest herself had done honour to the feast +by putting on the most becoming of her diaphanous black evening dresses, +and, as she sat to the right of her host, each of her three feminine +critics admitted to their secret selves that she was that rather rare +thing, a genuinely pretty woman. Features, colouring, hair, were all as +near perfection as they well could be, while her slight, rounded figure +was singularly graceful. + +How fortunate it is that we poor mortals cannot see into each other's +hearts and minds! Who, looking at Jack Tosswill's composed, secretive, +self-satisfied face, could have divined, even obscurely, his state of +mingled pride, ecstasy, and humble astonishment at his own good fortune? +To him the lovely young woman sitting next his father was as much his own +as though they had already been through the marriage ceremony, and he +felt awed and uplifted as well as triumphantly glad. + +As for Godfrey Radmore, he also was affected rather more than he would +have cared to admit even to himself by the presence of Enid Crofton this +evening. + +She had become to him something of a mystery, and there is always +something alluring in a mystery, especially if the mystery be young, and +endowed with that touch of pathos which makes feminine beauty always a +touch more attractive to the masculine heart. He was aware that she +preferred to see him alone, and this flattered him. While he was able +to assure himself confidently that he was in no sense in love with her, +his heart certainly beat a little quicker on the comparatively few +occasions when he went over into her garden, or, better still, into her +little sitting-room, and found her by herself. He also thought it very +good-natured, if a little tiresome, of her, to put up with so much of +the company of a prig like Jack, and of a selfish girl like Rosamund. + +To-night Radmore wondered, not for the first time, why Janet Tosswill did +not like Enid Crofton, for he felt, somehow, that there was no love lost +between them. He told himself that he must ask Betty to try to become +friends with her. Instinctively he relied on Betty's judgment, and that +though he saw very little of her, considering what very old friends he +and she were. And then, when he was thinking these secret, idle thoughts, +he became suddenly conscious that Betty was not among those sitting at +the full dining-table. + +When Tom came in, bearing a huge soup tureen, and looking, it must be +confessed, very red and embarrassed, Janet observed composedly that the +person on whom they had relied to help them to-night had failed them at +the last moment, and they had decided that it would be simpler for them +to wait on themselves. + +Radmore muttered to his neighbour, Rosamund, "Where's Betty?" + +"In the kitchen. She's the only one of us who knows how to cook. She +_loves_ cooking. She'll come into the drawing-room later if she's not too +tired." + +Radmore felt indignant. It was too bad that Betty, whom he vividly +remembered as the petted darling of the house, should now have become--to +put it in a poetical way--the family Cinderella! But as the dinner went +on, and as the soup was succeeded by some excellent fish, as well as by +roast chicken, a particularly delicious blackberry fool, and a subtly +composed savoury, he began to wonder whether some good professional cook +had not been got in after all. He could hardly believe that Betty had +cooked and dished up this really excellent dinner. + +All through the meal Timmy flitted in and out, bringing round and +removing the plates, but it was Tom who did most of the waiting. + +At last Janet, catching Enid Crofton's eye, got up and delivered +as parting injunction, "Please don't stay too long behind us, +gentlemen--we're going to have coffee in the drawing-room." + +Jack Tosswill sprang to the door, and tried to catch Mrs. Crofton's eye +as she passed out first, but of course he failed, and as he came back to +the table, he observed: "I do hope Betty won't be too tired to come into +the drawing-room. Mrs. Crofton was saying the other day that she wished +she knew her better." He was in a softened mood, the kind of mood which +makes a man not only say, but think, pleasant things. + +And then Mr. Tosswill made one of his rare practical remarks. "I have +always thought that every woman ought to be taught cooking," he said +musingly. "We have certainly just had a very good dinner; I must remember +to tell Betty how much I enjoyed that savoury." + +"Did Betty cook it all?" asked Radmore. + +It was Jack who answered, "Yes, of course she did. Early in the War there +was a great shortage of cooks in some of the country hospitals, and so +Betty asked a friend of ours to allow her to spend a few weeks in her +kitchen. So now we have the benefit of all she learnt there." + +Five minutes later the three men stood at the open door of the +drawing-room, and at once Radmore saw that Betty was not there. That was +really too bad! What selfish girls her sisters were! + +Acting on an impulse he could not have analysed, he stepped back into the +corridor and walked quickly towards the green baize door which led to the +kitchen quarters. Just as he reached it, the door burst open, and Tom, +rushing through, almost knocked him over. + +"Hullo! Steady there! Where are you going?" + +"I'm so sorry, Godfrey, but I'm in the devil of a hurry, for I've got to +clear the dining-room. Once that's done, my work's over, and I can go +into the drawing-room." Tom was grinning good-humouredly. "I say, Mrs. +Crofton does look a peach to-night, doesn't she?" + +Even as he spoke, he was hooking the door back. Then he hurried into the +dining-room without waiting for an answer. + +Godfrey went on with rather hesitating steps down the broad, +stone-flagged passage. According to tradition, this part of Old Place was +mediæval, and it was certainly quite different from the rest of the +house. He felt a little awkward for he knew he had no business there, +and when he got to the big, vaulted kitchen, he stopped and looked round +him dubiously. The fire in the old-fashioned, wasteful range had been +allowed to die down, and on the round wooden table in the middle of the +room were heaped up the dinner plates and dishes. + +Suddenly he noticed that the door which led into the scullery was ajar, +and he heard Betty's clear, even voice saying: "When you've tidied +yourself up a bit, run down and let me see how you look. I'm afraid +they're not likely to play any games this evening. It's a real, proper +dinner-party, you know, Timmy." + +Then he heard his godson's eager voice. "Oh, Betty, do come too! Mrs. +Jones can do the washing-up to-morrow morning. If you want to dress I'll +hook you up." + +"I'm too tired to go up and dress," and Betty's voice did sound very +weary. There was a despondent note in it, too, which surprised the man +standing in the kitchen. Excepting during the few moments, to him +intensely moving and solemn moments, when they had spoken of George +within a day or two of his return to Beechfield, he had always seen Betty +extraordinarily cheerful. + +"You can go just as you are," he heard Timmy say eagerly. "You could +pretend you'd just been to a fancy ball as a cook!" He added, +patronizingly, "If you put on a clean apron, you'll look quite nice." + +Radmore did not catch the answer, but he gathered that it was again in +the negative, and a moment later Timmy's little feet scampered up the +uncarpeted flight of stairs which led into the upper part of the house. + +Walking forward, he quietly pushed open the scullery door, and for some +seconds he stood unseen, taking in the far from unattractive scene before +him. + +The scullery of Old Place was a glorified kind of scullery, for, just +before the War, Janet had spent a little of her own money on "doing it +up." Since then she had often congratulated herself on the fact that in +the days when the process was comparatively cheap, she had had the +scullery walls lined five feet up with black and white tiles matching the +linoleum which covered the stone floor. + +Against this background Betty Tosswill was now standing, a trim, neat +figure, in her pink cotton gown and big white apron. She was engaged in +washing, drying, and polishing the fine old table glass which had been +used that evening. + +It was such a relief to her to be alone at last! For one thing, though +Timmy and Tom both loved her dearly, their love never suggested to them +that it must be disagreeable to her to hear them constantly bickering +the one with the other, and they would have been surprised indeed had +they known how their teasing squabbles had added to the strain and +fatigue of serving the elaborate dinner she had just cooked. + +She felt spent, in body and in mind, and in the mood when a woman craves, +above all things, for solitude. + +"Look here, Betty, can't I do anything to help?" + +She started violently, and gave a little cry, while the stem of the +wine-glass she held in her hand snapped in two. But Radmore, to her +relief, did not notice the little accident. + +"There isn't anything to do, thank you." She tried to speak composedly +and pleasantly. "I'm going to leave most of the washing-up to the woman +who comes in every morning to help us." + +"Then why don't you come into the drawing-room now? I heard what Timmy +said--and it's quite true!" + +"What Timmy said just now?" She turned and looked at him, puzzled. + +Godfrey Radmore, in his well-cut dress clothes and the small, but +perfect, pearl studs in the shirt of which she had heard Jack openly envy +the make and cut, seemed an incongruous figure in the Old Place scullery. + +He blundered on. "Timmy said that you look as if you had been at a fancy +dress ball as a cook. He ought to have said 'cordon bleu,' for I've never +eaten a better dinner!" + +And then to his aghast surprise, Betty sat down on one of the wooden +chairs near the table where she had been standing and burst into tears. +"I don't want to be a 'cordon bleu,'" she sobbed. "I _hate_ cooking--and +everything connected with cooking." Then, feeling ashamed of herself, she +pulled a clean handkerchief out of her apron pocket, and dabbed her eyes. +"I'm just tired out, that's what it is!" she exclaimed, trying to smile. +"We had a worrying half-hour, thinking the fish was not going to arrive. +You see, Janet dislikes poor Mrs. Crofton so much that she suddenly made +up her mind that it was her duty to kill the fatted calf, and in such a +case I have to do the killing!" + +"It's such a waste for you to be doing the things you are doing now." He +spoke with a touch of anger in his voice. "Why, you and I hardly ever see +one another! After all, even if you've forgotten the old times, _I_ often +remember them--I mean the times when you and I and George were so much +together and such good pals. I love every brick of Old Place because of +those days." He was speaking with deep feeling now. "Sometimes I feel as +if I should like to run away--it's all so different here from what it +used to be." + +He saw a kind, moved, understanding look come over her eyes, and firm, +generous mouth, and quickly, man-like, he pressed his advantage. + +"Look here," he said coaxingly, "don't you think we might hit on some +kind of compromise? Won't you allow me just to get some sort of temporary +housekeeper who can look after things while poor Nanna is laid up?" + +She shook her head. "I don't think any of us would like that," she said. +"But I daresay I have become too much of a Martha." + +She got up, feeling painfully afraid that she was going to cry again. +"I don't see why I shouldn't do as Timmy said--change my apron, I mean, +and go into the drawing-room. For one thing, I should like to see Mrs. +Crofton's dress. Tom says she looks a regular peach! That's his highest +form of praise, you know." + +Radmore suddenly resolved to say something which had been on his mind of +late. "Don't you think that Jack's making rather a fool of himself over +that pretty little lady?" + +Betty looked across at him with the frank, direct gaze that he remembered +so well. "I'm afraid he is," she answered. "He and Janet had quite a row +about her this morning. He seemed to think we had been rude to her; he +was most awfully huffy about it. But I suppose saying anything only makes +things worse in such a case, doesn't it?" + +"I don't see why I shouldn't speak to _her_. She and I know each other +pretty well. She was a desperate little flirt when I first knew her in +Egypt." And then, as he saw a look cross her face to which he had no +clue, he added hastily:--"She's quite all right, Betty. She's quite a +straight little woman." + +"I'm sure she is," said Betty cordially. + +She was wondering, wondering, wondering what Godfrey really thought of +Enid Crofton? Whether or no there had been a touch of jealousy in what he +had said about Jack just now? He had said the words about Jack's making a +fool of himself very lightly. Still there had been a peculiar expression +on his face. + +During the last fortnight, while doing the hundred and one things which +fell to her share, Betty had given the subject of Enid Crofton and +Godfrey Radmore a good deal of thought, while telling herself all the +time that, after all, it was none of her business--now. + +All at once she became aware that Radmore was looking hard at her. "Look +here," he exclaimed, coming up close to where she was again engaged in +drying and polishing the heavy old crystal goblets. "I want to ask you +a favour, Betty. It's absurd that I should be here, with far more money +than I know what to do with, while the only people in the world I care +for, are all worried, anxious, and overworking themselves. Janet says +it's impossible to get a cook. What I want to do if you'll let me--" he +looked at her pleadingly, and Betty's heart began to beat: thus was he +wont to look at her in the old days, when he wanted to wheedle something +out of her. + +"What I want to do," he went on eagerly, "is to go up to London to-morrow +morning and bring back a cook in triumph! Life has taught me _one_ +thing,--that is that money can procure anything." As she remained silent, +he added in a tone of relief, "There, that's settled! You go up to bed +now. I'll be off early in the morning, and we'll have a cook back by +lunch-time." + +"Indeed you won't!" She faced him squarely. "I know you mean very kindly, +Godfrey--I know exactly how you feel. I've often felt like that myself; +you feel that + + "'Sympathy without relief + Is like mustard without beef.' + +"That's the organ-grinder's motto, and a very good motto, too. But we're +the exception which proves the rule. We're grateful for your sympathy, +but we don't want your relief." + +As he gazed at her, both dismayed and very exasperated, she went on, +speaking a little wildly:--"Mustard's a very good thing. I think I needed +a little mustard just now to binge me up!" + +"But that's perfectly absurd!" he exclaimed. "Why not have the beef as +well as the mustard? And look here. I don't think it's fair to me." He +stood, looking straight at her, his face aglow with feeling. And again +it was as if the old Godfrey of long ago, the Godfrey that had been +impetuous, hot-tempered, unreasonable, and yet so infinitely dear to her, +who stood there, so near to her that had she moved, he must have touched +her. She sat down, and unseen by him, she put her two hands on the edge +of the well-scrubbed table, and pressed her fingers down tightly. Then +she smiled up at him, and shook her head. + +"You're treating me like a stranger," he protested doggedly; "however +badly I've behaved, I've not deserved that." + +He was looking down at her hair, the lovely fair hair which had always +been her greatest beauty--the one beauty she now shared with Rosamund. He +wondered if it would ever grow long again. And yet now he told himself +that he did not want to see her different from what she had become. + +"Treating you like a stranger? You're the first visitor we've had to stay +at Old Place since the Armistice." + +As he said nothing, she went on, a little breathlessly, "D'you remember +what a lot of people used to come and go in the old days? That was one of +the nice things about Janet. She loved to entertain our friends, even +our acquaintances. But now we never have anybody. It shows how we feel +about you that we are having you here, like this. But we can only do it +if you'll take us as we are." + +"Of course I take you as you are," he said aggrieved, "but I don't see +why I shouldn't do my little bit, when it's so easy for me to do it. +People talk such rot about money! They'll take anything in the world but +money from those who--" he hesitated, and then boldly brought out the +word--"love them." + +"And yet," said Betty quietly, "you yourself contemptuously rejected the +money that father wanted to give you when he could well afford it--the +day you left Beechfield nine years ago." + +He hesitated, unutterably astonished, and yes, very much moved, too, at +this, her first reference to their joint past. + +"I know I did," he said at last, "and I was a fool to do it. That cheque +of Mr. Tosswill's would have made all the difference to me during certain +awful weeks in Australia when I didn't know where to turn for a shilling. +I've been right up against it--the reality of things, I mean--and I know +both how much and how little money counts in life. It counts a lot, +Betty." + +"I've been up against the reality of things, too," said Betty slowly, +"and I've learnt how very little money counts. You'd have known that, if +you'd been with the French Army. That was the difference between the +French and the English. The French _poilu_ had no money at all, and the +English Tommy had plenty. But it made no difference in the big things." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +Meanwhile Timmy, upstairs, had performed what was for him quite an +elaborate toilet. He possessed a new Eton suit of which he was secretly +proud, for in this as in so many things unlike most little boys, he took +great care of his clothes, and had an almost finicking dislike to what +was rough or untidy. His two younger sisters' untidiness was a perpetual +annoyance to him, and he still felt sore and angry at the way Rosamund +had upset his toy-box when looking for that old prescription. + +To-night he felt queerly excited and above himself. After-dinner coffee +had been made in a way Betty had learnt in France, and she had foolishly +allowed him to drink a cup of the strong, potent, delicious fluid. This +had had a curious effect on him, intensifying his already acute +perceptions, and making him feel both brave and bold as well as +wary--wary Timmy Tosswill always was. + +And now he was eagerly debating within himself whether he could carry +out an experiment he had an eager wish to try. It had filled his mind, +subconsciously, ever since he had slipped quickly in front of his brother +Jack to open the front door to Mrs. Crofton, a couple of hours ago. + +Mrs. Crofton was very much of a town lady, and she had actually been +accompanied, during her short progress through the dark village, by her +parlourmaid. When Timmy opened the front door, she had been engaged in +giving the girl a few last directions as to how a lighted candle was to +be left out for her in her hall, for she had brought her latchkey with +her. After ringing the bell, the lady and her maid had moved away from +the door a little way, and Timmy, staring out at the two figures, who +stood illumined by the hall light out on the gravel carriage drive, had +seen Something Else. + +He did not invariably see Mrs. Crofton accompanied or companioned by that +of which he had spoken to his mother. Sometimes days would go by and he +would see nothing, though he was a constant, if never a welcome, visitor +at The Trellis House. + +Then all at once, sometimes when she was in the garden, at other times +in the charming little parlour, Timmy would see the wraith of Colonel +Crofton, and the wraith of Colonel Crofton's terrier, Dandy, looking as +real as the flesh-and-blood woman beside whom they seemed to stand. +Sometimes they appeared, as it were, intermittently, but now and again +they would stay quite a long time. + +As long as he could remember, Timmy had been aware of what Nanna +expressed by the phrase "things that were not there," and he was so +accustomed to the phenomena that it did not impress his own mind as +anything very much out of the way, or strange. + +Dr. O'Farrell had always shown a keen interest in Timmy's alleged visions +and presentiments. Like so many country doctors of the old school, he +was a man not only of great natural shrewdness, but of considerable +intellectual curiosity, and, from his point of view, by far the most +inexplicable of the little boy's assertions had concerned a long vanished +building which had stood, for something like three centuries, close to +the parish church, right on the main street of the village. + +One Easter Sunday, Timmy, coming out of church, had excitedly exclaimed +that he saw to his right a house where no house had been up to yesterday. +His sisters had laughed at him and his mother had snubbed him. But when +Janet had told Dr. O'Farrell of her little boy's latest and most peculiar +claim to having seen something which was not there, the doctor had gone +home and looked up an old county history, to find that up to Waterloo +year there had still been standing in the pretty little hamlet of +Beechfield, a small Elizabethan manor-house which had figured in the +Titus Oates conspiracy. + + * * * * * + +But to return to the evening of Mrs. Crofton's second visit to Old Place. + +Timmy had given his mother his word of honour that Flick should not be +released from the stable till their visitor had left. But no casuist +ever realised more clearly than did Timothy Tosswill, the delicate +distinctions which spread, web-like, between the spirit, and the letter, +of a law. And while he moved nimbly about his bedroom, the plan, or +rather the plot he had formed, took formal shape. + +Josephine, Timmy's white Angora cat, was now established in a comfortable +basket in a corner of the scullery. There she lay, looking like a ball of +ermine, with her two ten-days old kittens snuggling up close to her. +Josephine was a nervous, fussy mother, but she was devoted to her master, +and he could do with her anything he liked. + +Very softly he crept past Nanna's door, and as he started walking down +the back staircase, he heard voices. + +Then Betty and Godfrey were still in the scullery? That was certainly a +bit of bad luck, for though he thought he could manage his godfather, he +knew he couldn't deceive Betty. Betty somehow seemed to know by instinct +when he, Timmy, was bent on some pleasant little bit of mischief. + +He need not have been afraid, for as he slowly opened the door at the +bottom of the stairs, Betty exclaimed, "I'm going into the drawing-room +after all! But first I must run upstairs and make myself tidy. You two go +on, and I'll follow as soon as I can." + +She ran past Timmy, and at once the boy said firmly to Radmore, "I'm +going to take my cat, Josephine, into the drawing-room. Ladies who hate +dogs nearly always like cats." + +"I don't think Mrs. Crofton cares for cats," answered Radmore carelessly. + +"Oh, yes, she does--and the other day she said The Trellis House was +overrun with mice. Betty thinks it would be a very good home for one of +Josephine's new kittens." + +Even while he was speaking, the big white cat had left her basket and was +walking round her master, purring. He stooped down and lifted her up. + +"If Mrs. Crofton sees Josephine, she will simply long to have one of her +kittens! Will you bring along the white one, Godfrey--the one we call +Puff? We do so want to find him a good home." + +Radmore walked across to where the big basket stood on the floor, and +peered into it dubiously: "Why, Timmy, they're tiny! Poor little +wretches! I wouldn't dream of bringing one of them along--it would be +sheer cruelty. Of course you can bring the cat if you feel like it, but +I shouldn't if I were you." + +"I'll only take her in for a minute." + +Timmy felt just a little sorry Radmore had refused to bring Puff along, +for he was well aware that a cat is never so fierce as when she imagines +she is defending her young. + +They went off together, Radmore in front, Timmy, hugging Josephine, +behind. Just outside the drawing-room door the boy stopped for a moment, +and shifted the cat's weight from one arm to the other. There had come +over him a rather uncomfortable premonition of evil, but he now felt +strung up to go through with his experiment. + +From within the drawing-room there came the sound of laughter and +talking. It was evident that the party was going well, and that everyone +in there was merry and at their ease. + +"Would you mind opening the door, Godfrey?" There was a slight quiver of +apprehension in Timmy's voice. + +Radmore opened the door, and for a fleeting moment he saw an attractive, +placid scene spread out before him. + +The two girls, in their pretty light dresses, were standing by the wood +fire. On the sofa, to their left, with the light from one of the lamps +focussed full on her, sat Mrs. Crofton, her bare left arm hanging over +the side of the low couch. Jack, perched on the arm of a big chair, was +looking at her, all his soul in his eyes. Mr. Tosswill sat some way off +under a shaded reading lamp; his wife, knitting, not far from him. Tom +was surreptitiously reading a book in a corner behind the sofa. + +And then, all at once, Radmore found himself whirled into an unutterable +scene of confusion and terror. + +As Timmy walked through the open door Josephine had leapt out of his arms +on to the floor. For a flashing second the cat stood on the carpet, her +white fur all abristle, her back arched, and her tail lashing furiously +in the air. Then, uttering a hoarse cry of rage and fear, she sprang +towards Mrs. Crofton, and dug first her claws, and then her teeth, into +the white arm that hung over the side of the couch.... Josephine's +terrified victim gave a fearful cry, everyone in the room got up and +rushed forward, and at that exact instant Betty came into the +drawing-room. Sweeping a piece of embroidery off the piano, she threw it +over the cat's head, took up the now struggling, helpless bundle, and +rushed out of the room with it. + +Then followed a scene of appalling confusion. Enid, completely losing +control of herself, screamed and screamed and screamed. + +Few people, fortunately for themselves, have ever heard a woman scream, +and some of those present felt they would never forget the sound. In +the minds of most of the grown-up people there was the same unspoken +question--had the cat suddenly gone mad? Had she got hydrophobia? + +They all crowded round their unfortunate guest--all but Timmy, who stood +aside with a look in which remorse, fear, and triumph struggled for +mastery on his queer little face. + +And then at last, when Mrs. Crofton lay back, moaning, on the sofa, +surrounded by her distracted and horrified hosts, somebody suggested that +Dr. O'Farrell should be sent for, and Jack rushed into the hall to find +Betty already at the telephone. + +Meanwhile Janet Tosswill was doing her best to persuade the victim of +Josephine's savage aggression to come upstairs and await the doctor +there; but, shudderingly, Enid Crofton refused to stir. + +A slight diversion was created when Betty came in with a basin of warm +water, soap, and a sponge. Again everyone crowded round the sofa, and +Jack and Radmore both felt alarm, as well as horror, when they saw the +wounds made by the cat's claws and the cat's teeth. + +While her arm was being bathed, Mrs. Crofton grew so pale that Janet +feared she was going to faint, and Rosamund was sent flying up to the +medicine cupboard to get some brandy. + +Dr. O'Farrell was at home when telephoned for, but the quarter of an hour +which elapsed before he reached Old Place seemed very long to some of the +people waiting there. The doctor came in smiling, but his face altered +and grew very grave when he saw Mrs. Crofton's arm, and heard the +confused, excited account of what had happened. + +To the patient he made light of the whole matter, but while someone was +putting on Mrs. Crofton's overshoes and while her evening cloak was being +brought in he moved a little aside with Jack, Mr. Tosswill, and Radmore. +None of them noticed that Timmy was hovering on the outskirts of the +group. + +"I want to say," he began in a low voice, "that of course that cat will +have to be kept under observation, or else she'll have to be destroyed +and her body sent up to town to make sure of--you know what! Meanwhile, +no one must go near her. Where is she now?" + +Mr. Tosswill looked vaguely round. "I think Betty took her into the +kitchen," he said slowly, and then he called out, "Betty?" + +The girl came up. "Yes, father?" + +"What did you do with Timmy's cat?" + +"I put her back in the scullery, with her kittens. They only opened their +eyes yesterday. Of course Timmy ought never to have brought her into the +drawing-room." + +Dr. O'Farrell looked much relieved. He turned round: "Oh, she's just had +kittens, has she? That probably accounts for the whole thing." + +Mrs. Crofton roused herself. "I do hope that horrible cat will be killed +at once," she cried hysterically. "I can't stay in Beechfield if she's +left alive." + +Dr. O'Farrell answered soothingly, "Don't you fret, Mrs. Crofton. She's a +vicious brute, and shot she shall be." + +No one noticed that Timmy had heard every word of this conversation; no +one noticed the expression on his face. + +It had been arranged that the doctor should take Mrs. Crofton home in his +car, and that only when she was comfortably in bed should those ugly +little wounds be properly dressed. + +As the doctor was hurrying down the passage into the hall, he was +surprised to see Timmy at his elbow and to hear the boy's voice pipe up: +"If my cat's not mad, she won't have to be killed, doctor, will she?" He +asked the question in a quiet, matter-of-fact tone. + +"Yes, my little friend, mad or not mad, she's deserved death--and no one +must go near her till the fell deed is done!" And then, as he suddenly +caught sight of Timmy's strained, agonised face, he added kindly: "She'll +be in the cats' heaven before she knows she's touched. I'll come down in +the morning and I'll shoot her through the window myself--I'm a dead +shot, Timmy, my boy." + +As Janet came along, Timmy burst out crying, and his mother, distracted, +turned to Radmore. "Oh, Godfrey, do get him away upstairs! He's tired +out, that's what it is. Unfortunately the cat belongs to him, and he's +very fond of her--he's almost as fond of Josephine as he is of Flick." + +Radmore put his hand on his godson's shoulder. "Come, Timmy, don't cry. +It's unmanly." + +But Timmy, instead of making an effort to control himself, wrenched +himself away and ran down the long corridor towards the kitchen. Even as +a tiny child he had hated to be caught crying. + +There followed an absurd scene at the front door, Jack and Rosamund +almost quarrelling as to which of them should accompany Mrs. Crofton +home. In the end they had both gone, and Janet, ordering everyone else +to bed, sat up, wearily awaiting their return, for neither of them had +thought of taking a latchkey. + +Poor Janet! Her thoughts were sad and worried thoughts, as she waited, +trying to read, in the drawing-room. At the very last, Betty had lingered +for a moment after the others, and she had noticed that the girl's eyes +were full of tears. + +"Why, Betty, what's the matter? I don't think we need really worry over +Mrs. Crofton." + +"I'm not thinking of Mrs. Crofton. I can't bear the thought of poor +Josephine being shot to-morrow morning." + +"Oh, my dear, don't _you_ turn sentimental! I never did like that poor +cat; to me there's always been something queer and uncanny about her." + +"You've never liked cats," Betty answered, rather aggressively. "Timmy +and I are devoted to Josephine--so is Nanna." + +Janet had checked the contemptuous words trembling on her lips. Abruptly +she had changed the subject: "I want to tell you, Betty, how splendidly +the dinner went off to-night. Your cooking was first chop!" + +Betty at once softened. But all she said was: "I would give anything for +Mrs. Crofton to leave Beechfield, Janet. Did you see Jack's face?" + +"Yes, and I do feel worried about it. Yet one can't do anything." + +"I suppose one can't. But it's too bad of her. I think her a horrid +woman. Jack is just a scalp to her. I don't mind her flirtation with +Godfrey--that's much more reasonable!" + +Then she had hurried off upstairs without waiting for an answer, and her +step-mother, looking back, rather wondered that Betty had said that. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +Two hours later Janet Tosswill, after having tried in vain to read +herself to sleep, got out of bed and put on her dressing gown. Somehow +she felt anxious about Timmy. She had gone to his room on her way up +to bed; but, hearing no sound, she had crept away, hoping that he had +already cried himself to sleep. + +All sorts of curious theories and suspicions drifted through her mind as +she lay, tossing this way and that, trying to fall asleep. She wondered +uneasily why Timmy had brought Josephine at all into the drawing-room. +Of course there had been nothing exactly wrong in his doing so, though, +as Betty had justly remarked, it was a stupid thing to do so soon after +the birth of the cat's kittens. And Timmy was not stupid. + +Janet told herself crossly that it was almost as if Mrs. Crofton had the +evil eye, as far as animals were concerned! There had come back to her +the unpleasant scene which had occurred on the first evening their late +guest had come to Old Place, when Flick, most cheerful and happy-minded +of terriers, had behaved in such an extraordinary fashion. But +disagreeable as that affair had been, it was nothing to what had happened +to-night. + +She felt she would never forget the scene which had followed on the white +cat's attack on Mrs. Crofton. And yet, while concerned and sorry, she had +been shocked at the poor young woman's utter lack of self-control. + +It was quite true, as Betty had somewhat bitterly remarked, that she, +Janet Tosswill, did not care for cats. Unfortunately there was a certain +sentimental interest attached to Josephine, for she had been brought from +France as a kitten, a present from Betty to Timmy, by an officer who had +been George's closest pal. She was also ruefully aware that old Nanna +would very much resent the disappearance of "French pussy," as she had +always called Josephine. As for Timmy, Janet had never seen her boy look +as he had looked to-night since the dreadful day that they had received +the War Office telegram about George. + +Leaving her room, she walked along the corridor till she came to Timmy's +door. She tried the handle, and, finding with relief that the door was +unlocked, walked in. At once there came a voice across the room, "Is that +you, Mum?" + +"Yes, Timmy, it's Mum." + +Shutting the door, she felt her way across the room and came and sat down +on Timmy's bed. He was sitting up, wide awake. + +She put her arms round him. "I'm so sorry," she said feelingly; "so +sorry, Timmy, about your poor cat! But you know, my dear, that if--if she +were left alive, we could never feel comfortable for a single moment. You +see, when an animal has done that sort of thing once, it may do it +again." + +"Josephine would never do it again," said Timmy obstinately, and he +caught his breath with a sob. + +"You can't possibly know that, my dear. She would of course have other +kittens, and then some day, when some perfectly harmless person happened +to come anywhere near her, she would fly at him or her, just as she did +at Mrs. Crofton." + +"No, she wouldn't--she didn't do anything like that when she had her last +kittens." + +"I know that, Timmy. But you heard what Dr. O'Farrell said." + +"Dr. O'Farrell isn't God," said Timmy scornfully. + +"No, my dear, Dr. O'Farrell is certainly not God; but he is a very +sensible, humane human being--and the last man to condemn even an animal +to death, without good reason." + +There was a rather painful pause. Janet Tosswill felt as if the child +were withdrawing himself from her, both in a physical and in a mental +sense. + +"Mum?" he said in a low, heart-broken voice. + +"Yes, my dear?" + +"I want to tell you something." + +"Yes, Timmy?" + +"It's I who ought to be shot, not Josephine. It was all my fault. It had +nothing to do with her." + +"I don't know what you mean, Timmy. You mustn't talk in that exaggerated +way. Of course it was foolish of you to bring the cat into the +drawing-room, but still, you couldn't possibly have known that she would +fly at Mrs. Crofton, or you wouldn't have done it." + +"I _did_ think she'd fly at Mrs. Crofton," he whispered. + +Janet felt disagreeably startled. "What d'you mean, Timmy? D'you mean +that you saw the cat fly at her before it happened?" + +She had known the boy to have such strange, vivid premonitions of events +which had come to pass. + +But Timmy answered slowly: "No, I don't mean that. I mean, Mum, that I +wanted to try an experiment. I wanted to see if Josephine would see what +Flick saw--I mean if she'd see the ghost of Colonel Crofton's dog. She +did, for the dog was close to Mrs. Crofton's arm--the arm hanging over +the side of the sofa, you know." + +"Oh, Timmy! How very, very wrong of you to do such a thing!" + +"I know it was wrong." Timmy twisted himself about. "But it's no good you +saying that to me now--it only makes me more miserable." + +"But I _have_ to say so, my boy." Janet was not a Scotch mother for +nothing. "I have to say so, Timmy, and I shall not be sorry this +happened, if it makes you behave in a different way--as I hope it +will--the whole of your life long." + +"It won't--I won't let it--if anything is done to Josephine!" + +But she went on, a little desperately, yet speaking in a quiet, collected +way: "I believe the things you say, Timmy. I believe you do see things +which other people are not allowed to see. But that ought to make you +far, far more careful--not less careful. Try to be an instrument for +good, not for evil, my dear, dear child." + +Timmy did not answer at once, but at last he said in a queer, muffled +voice: "If I were to tell Dr. O'Farrell what I did, do you think it would +make any difference? Do you think that he'd let Josephine go on being +alive?" + +"No," his mother answered, sadly, "I don't think it would make any +difference." + +"I thought by what the doctor said at first that they were going to take +Josephine somewhere to see if she was really mad," said Timmy in a +choking voice, "just as they did to Captain Berner's dog last year." + +Janet Tosswill got up from her little boy's bed. She lit a candle. Poor +Timmy! She had never seen the boy looking as he was looking now; he +seemed utterly spent with misery. + +"I'll tell you what I'll do, my dear. I'll speak to Dr. O'Farrell myself +in the morning, and I'll ask him whether something can't be done in the +way of a reprieve. I'll tell him we don't mind paying for Josephine to be +sent away for a bit to a vet." + +Hope, ecstatic hope, flashed into Timmy's tear-stained face. "You mean to +a man like Trotman?" + +"Yes, that's what I do mean. But I mustn't raise false hopes. I fear Dr. +O'Farrell has made up his mind; he promised Mrs. Crofton the cat should +be shot. Still, I'll do my _very_ best." + +Timmy put his skinny arms round his mother's neck. + +"I'm glad you're my mother, Mum," he muttered, "and not my step-mother." + +She smiled for the first time. "That's rather a double-edged compliment, +if I may say so! But I suppose it's true that I would do a good deal more +for you than I would for any of the others." + +"I didn't mean _that_," exclaimed Timmy, shocked. "I only meant that I +wouldn't love you as well. I don't mean ever to be a step-father--I shall +start a lot of boys and girls of my own." + +"All right," she said soothingly, "I'm sure you will. Lie down now, and +try to go to sleep." She hoped with all her heart that the boy would +sleep late the next morning, as he very often did when tired out, and +that the execution, if execution there must be, would be over by the time +he woke. + +She bent down, tucked him up, kissed him, blew out the candle, and then +went quickly out of the room. + + * * * * * + +As soon as his mother had shut the door, Timmy sat up in bed, and then +he gave a smothered cry. It was as if he had seen flash out into the +darkness his beloved cat's wistful face, her beautiful, big, china-blue +eyes, gazing confidently at him, as if to say, "You'll save me, Master, +won't you?" + +He listened intently for a few minutes, then he slipped down and felt his +way to the door. He opened it; but there came no sound from the sleeping +house. Closing the door very, very softly, he lit his candle and rapidly +dressed himself in his day clothes, finally putting on a thick pair of +walking shoes, and over them goloshes. Timmy hated goloshes, and never +wore them if he could help it, but he had read in some detective story +that they deadened sound. + +Then he blew his candle out, and again he went across to the door and +listened. Opening it at last, he slithered along the familiar corridor +till he reached the three shallow steps which led up to the comparatively +new part of Old Place. There he felt his way with his fingers along the +wall to the room which had always been called, as long as he could +remember, "George's room." Turning the handle of the door slowly, he saw, +to his great surprise and gladness, that his godfather was not asleep. + +Radmore was sitting up in bed, reading luxuriously by the light of four +candles which he had placed on a table by his bedside. + +"Hello!" he exclaimed, as his godson's odd-looking little figure shuffled +across the room. "Why, what's the matter?" He spoke very kindly, for +Timmy's face was scared, his eyes red-rimmed with crying. + +"Come to have a chat, old boy? Why, Timmy--" as he suddenly realised the +boy was fully dressed, "whatever have you been doing? I thought you'd +gone to bed ever so long ago!" + +"I've been in bed a long time," answered Timmy, sidling up close to his +bed, "but I've just had a talk with Mum. I've come to ask you, Godfrey, +if you'll help me with something very important." He added: "Even if +you won't help me, I trust you to keep my secret." + +"Of course I'll keep your secret, old son." + +"I'm going to take Josephine and her kittens to Trotman," Timmy announced +solemnly. "I've been wondering, coming along the passage, if you would +take us there in your motor. But if you don't feel you want to do that, +I'm going to walk. It's not very far, only seven miles if one goes by +footpaths, and I could get a lift back." + +"Trotman?" repeated Radmore. "Who's Trotman?" + +It was Timmy's turn to be surprised. "I thought everyone--I mean every +man--in the world, knew about Trotman! Why, there was an account of him +once in the _London Magazine_. He's the famous vet--he lives at Epsom." + +Radmore lay back, and whistled thoughtfully. + +Timmy went on eagerly. "Last year there was a man near here who thought +he had a mad dog--and he took _him_ to Trotman. Trotman kept him for ever +so long, and it turned out that the dog was not mad at all. I _know_ that +Josephine isn't mad." + +"I don't think she's mad," said Radmore frankly, "but she's a pretty +vicious brute, Timmy. Is this the first time she's ever flown at anyone?" +He looked searchingly at his godson. + +"The very first time of all," answered the boy passionately. "I know why +Josephine flew at Mrs. Crofton--at least she didn't fly at her--at Mrs. +Crofton. She flew at the dog Mrs. Crofton always has with her." + +Radmore gave the child a long, steady look. + +"Come, Timmy, you know as well as I do that Mrs. Crofton had no dog with +her." + +"She had a dog with her," repeated Timmy obstinately. "It's not a dog +_you_ can see, but I see him and Flick sees him. I wanted to see if +Josephine would see him too. That's why I took her in there. So if she's +shot it will be all my fault." His voice broke, and, covering his face +with his hands, he turned his back on the bed and its occupant. + +Radmore stared at the small heaving back. There could be no doubt that +Timmy was speaking the truth _now_. "All right," he said quickly. "I'll +do what you want, Timmy. So cheer up! I suppose you've got a big basket +in which you can put your cat and her kittens? While I put on some +clothes, you can go and get her ready. But I advise you for your own sake +to be quiet. Our game will be all up, if your mother wakes. I simply +shouldn't dare to disobey _her_, you know." He smiled quizzically at the +child, and, as he mentioned Janet, he lowered his voice instinctively. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +However long Radmore lives, he will never forget that strange drive +through the autumn night. Fortunately, from the two conspirators' point +of view, there were only old-fashioned stables at Old Place, and +Radmore's car was kept in the village in a barn which had been cleverly +transformed by the blacksmith into a rough garage. + +While he dressed, and, indeed, after he joined the boy downstairs, he had +puzzled over Timmy--over the mixture of cruelty and kindness the child +had shown that evening. He could not but recall, with a feeling of +discomfort, the simple, innocent way in which the boy had explained why +he wanted to take his cat, Josephine, into the drawing-room--really +to do a kindness to the mistress of The Trellis House! It was somewhat +disagreeable to reflect how he, Radmore, who rather prided himself on +his knowledge of human nature, had been taken in. + +Off the two started at last, creeping out of one of the back doors. But +in his agitation over the business of getting the cat and her kittens +safely out of Old Place, Timmy had forgotten to put on a coat. They +were halfway down the avenue before Radmore noticed that the boy was +shivering, and then, mindful of Janet, he ordered him to go back and get +the warmest coat he could. + +And then, while he waited impatiently in the avenue, Radmore visualised +the extraordinary scene which had taken place in the drawing-room last +evening. Had the cat really seen anything of a supernatural nature? Or +was it only that she had been frightened by being suddenly brought into +a room full of people? If so, it was perhaps natural that she had blindly +flown at the one stranger there. + +At last Timmy returned, and they started off, neither speaking a word +until they were clear of the village. Radmore thought he knew every inch +of the way, for he and Betty had once cycled together all over the +countryside. He checked a sigh as he thought of those days--how happy he +had been, with that simple, unquestioning happiness which belongs only to +extreme youth. He wondered if Betty ever remembered those far-off days. +They had come very near, the one to the other, last evening, and yet, +from his point of view, theirs was an unsatisfactory kind of friendship. +It was as if she was always holding something back from him. And then, +while he was thinking of Betty, the little boy sitting by his side +suddenly observed: + +"Perhaps we might tell Betty--I mean when we get back again--where +Josephine and her kittens are? She was awfully upset last night; almost +as upset as I was. You see, Josephine's a French cat. She was brought +home--I mean to England, you know--by the officer who now wants to marry +Betty." Timmy uttered these words in a very matter-of-fact voice. Then, +for a moment, he forgot Betty, for the car swerved suddenly. + +"The officer who wants to marry Betty?" repeated Radmore. "I didn't know +there was an officer who wanted to marry Betty." + +"Nobody's supposed to know," said Timmy composedly. "But Mum and I, as +well as father, know. Only a very vulgar sort of girl lets anyone know +when someone wants to marry her. Mr. Barton is so ridiculous about Dolly, +following her about and always looking at her, that we all know it, +though Mum wonders sometimes if he knows it himself. But neither Dolly +nor Rosamund knows about Betty's man. Luckily, they were away when he +last came here and saw father. The first time Betty meant him to send +the kitten in a basket from London. She even gave him the money for +Josephine's fare, but he _would_ give it back to father. He brought her +himself because he wanted to see father, and talk to him about Betty and +George." + +"Then he knew George, too?" + +"Yes, that's how he got to know Betty, when she was in France, you know, +and why she gave him the kitten to bring home on leave. He knew all about +_us_, and when father called me into the study to take Josephine, he +said: 'Is this Timmy?' And then after that he just went straight on about +Betty, as if I wasn't there. He said that if he got through, he meant to +wait--he didn't mind how long, if only Betty would say 'Yes' in the end." + +"Has he been here since Betty came home?" asked Radmore abruptly. + +Somehow this revelation astonished and discomfited him very much. It had +never occurred to him that Betty might marry. + +"No," said Timmy. "He has never come again, for he's in Mesopotamia; but +he writes to Betty, and then she writes back to him. You see he was a +friend of George's--that makes her like him, I suppose." + +They drove on for a while in silence, and then Timmy enquired, rather +anxiously: "You won't tell Betty I've told you, will you, Godfrey? I +don't think she wants anyone to know. He sent me a lovely picture +postcard once--it was to Timmy Tosswill, Esq.--and then I asked Betty +whether she meant to marry him, as he was such a nice sort of man. She +was awfully angry with me for knowing about it, and she began to cry. So +you won't say anything to her, will you?" + +"No, of course I won't," said Radmore hastily. + +They were now emerging on the wide sweep of down commanding the little +old country town which stands to the whole world as the racing capital of +England. To their left, huge and gaunt against the night sky, rose the +Grand Stand. + +"Where does Trotman hang out?" asked Radmore. "Shan't we have a devil of +a difficulty in knocking him up?" + +"I don't think we shall," said his small companion, confidently. "You see +there must always be some sick animal for someone to sit up with. I'd +rather be nurse to a dog than to a woman, wouldn't you?" + +They turned into the steep road leading into the town, flashing past +shuttered villas set in gardens, till they reached a labyrinth of quaint, +narrow, walled thoroughfares dating from the 18th century. + +"We're very near now," said Timmy. "Isn't it funny, Godfrey, to feel that +everybody's asleep but us?" They had come to a corner where high walls +enclosed what might once have been the kitchen garden of a Georgian +manor-house. + +"Here it is!" cried the boy. + +Radmore stopped the car and then he jumped out and struck a match. Over +a door, set in the wall, stood out in clear lettering the words, "John +Trotman, Veterinary Surgeon." Feeling a little doubtful of what their +reception would be like, he pulled the bell. There was a pause, a long +pause, and then they heard the sound of light, quick footsteps, and the +door was unlocked. + +"Who's there? What is it?" came in a woman's voice, and a quaint figure, +dressed in a short, dark dressing-gown, and looking not unlike Noah's +wife, appeared holding a lantern in her hand. She had a kindly, shrewd +face, and when Radmore said apologetically, "I'm sorry to disturb you, +but the matter is really urgent, and we've brought a sick animal many +miles in order that it may benefit by Mr. Trotman's skill," her face +cleared, and she said cordially: "All right, sir, come right in." + +As they walked along through a curious kind of trellised tunnel, Timmy +carrying Josephine and her kittens, there arose an extraordinary chorus +of sounds in which furious barking predominated. + +"You have a regular menagerie here," said Radmore, smiling. + +"Why, yes, sir," she answered simply, "but they'll all quiet down after a +bit. They're startled like, hearing strange footsteps." + +She led them into the house, and so through into a pleasant little +parlour, full of the good 18th Century furniture which may still be found +in the older houses of an English country town. Sporting prints--some of +considerable value--hung on the walls. There was still a little fire +alight in the deep grate, throwing out a warmth that was comforting to +both the man and the boy. + +"If you'll wait here, I'll get my husband." + +While Mrs. Trotman had left the room, Radmore remarked: "I've made up my +mind what to say to Trotman, so please don't interrupt." + +And Timmy listened silently to the explanation his godfather gave of +Josephine's strange behaviour of the night before. It was an explanation +that squared with the facts--at any rate, according to the speaker's +point of view--for Radmore told the famous vet that the cat, upset by the +sight of a strange dog, had flown at a lady and bitten her. He added +frankly that the doctor had suggested that the animal should be kept +under observation, and then he managed to convey that money was no +object, as the cat was a cherished pet sent from France during the War. + +Everything was soon arranged, for Mr. Trotman was a man of few words. +Radmore gave his own name and the address of Old Place, and then, just +before leaving the house, he put down a £5 note on the table. + +The sturdy, grizzled old man took up the note and held it out to his new +client. "I'd rather not take this, sir, if you don't mind," he said a +little gruffly. "We'll send you in a proper bill in due course. You +needn't be afraid. The cat shall have every care, and of course, if +things should go wrong--you know what I mean--I'll at once give you a +telephone call. But, as far as I can tell, you're right, and it was just +fear for her young made her behave so." He turned to his wife. "Now then, +mother, you just get back to bed! I'll see to these gentlemen, and to +poor pussy." + +They shook hands with Mrs. Trotman, and then the famous vet took them +down the trellised path and stood in the doorway till they got into the +car. + +"I'm glad to have met you, Mr. Trotman," Radmore called out heartily. +"I'd like to come over here one day, and go over your place." + +As they raced up towards the Downs, Radmore suddenly turned to Timmy: +"The more time goes on, the more it's borne in on me that there's nothing +like the old people of the old country." And as the boy, surprised, said +nothing for once, he went on, "I hope that the stock won't ever give +out." + +"How d'you mean?" + +"Well, take those two people, that man and woman. We get them out of +their warm, comfortable bed in the middle of the night, they knowing +nothing about us, except that we bring a cat which may be mad; and yet +they take it all in the day's work; they're civil, kindly, obliging--and +the man won't take money he hasn't earned! I call that splendid, Timmy. +You might almost go the world over before you'd find a couple like +that--anywhere but in England." + + * * * * * + +They drove on and on, and then all at once, Radmore, glancing down to his +left, saw that Timmy had fallen asleep. Now Timmy, asleep, looked like an +angelic cherub, and so very different from his usual alert, inquisitive, +little awake self. And there welled up in Radmore's heart the strangest +feeling of tenderness--not only for Timmy but for the whole of the +Tosswill family--not only for the Tosswill family, but for the whole of +this sturdy, quiet, apparently unemotional world of England to which he +had come back. + +The human mind and brain work in mysterious ways. Radmore will never +know, to the day of his death, the effect that this curious night drive +had on the whole of his future life. He was not a man to quote poetry, +even to himself, but to-night there came into his mind some words he had +heard muttered by a corporal in Gallipoli: + + "What do they know of England + Who only England know?" + +When he had left his homeland, now nearly ten years ago, he had been in a +bitter mood. It had seemed to him that his own country was rejecting him +with scorn. But now his heart swelled proudly at the thought of the old +country--of all that she had endured since then. He had thought England +altered and very much for the worse, when he was in London on his two +brief "leaves" during the War, but now he knew how unchanged his country +was--in the things that really matter.... + +When he had come back for good, this summer, he had looked forward to an +easy, selfish life--the sort of life certain men whom he had envied as a +boy used to lead before the war. + +Radmore knew, as every man who has lived to the age of thirty-two must +know, that marriage brings with it certain cares, responsibilities, and +troubles, and so he had deliberately made up his mind to avoid marriage, +though he had been conscious the while that if he fell violently in love, +then, perhaps, half knowing all the time that he was a fool, he might +find himself pushed into marriage with some foolish girl, or what was +perchance more likely, with a pretty widow. + +To-night he realised with a sort of shame that there were moments--he +was glad that they were only moments--when he felt uneasily yet strongly +attracted to Enid Crofton, and that though he knew how selfish, how +self-absorbed and, yes, how cruel she could be. For well he knew she had +been cruel to her elderly husband. He was sorry now that she had come to +Beechfield. She had become an irritating, disturbing element in his life. + +Radmore had looked at every eligible property within a radius of twenty +miles of Old Place, but though some of them did not fall far short of the +ideal he had in his mind, he hadn't felt as if he wanted any of them. +They were too trim, too new--in a word, too suburban. Even the very old +houses had been transformed by their owners much as The Trellis House had +been transformed, into something to suit modern taste. He told himself +that he must begin looking again--looking in real dead earnest, going +farther afield. + +Absorbed in his thoughts, he had driven on and on, almost mechanically, +till suddenly they came to four cross-roads. He drew up under a +sign-post, jumped out and struck a match, and as he read the painted +words he realised, with vexation, that he had gone a good bit out of his +way. There was nothing for it now but to go on till they struck the +Portsmouth Road. It was the quietest hour of the twenty-four, and it was +very unlikely they would meet with anyone who could put them right. + +And then, while going up a lane, which he knew to be at any rate in the +right direction, he came to a park gate. Just within was a lodge, and in +one of the windows of the lodge there shone a light. Again Radmore +stopped the car and jumped out, Timmy still heavily asleep. + +He went up to the door of the lodge and rapped with his knuckles. It +opened and revealed a young woman, fully dressed. "What do you want?" she +exclaimed, in a frightened voice. + +"I've lost my way," he said, "and seeing a light in your window, I +ventured to knock. I've no idea where I am--I want to get to Beechfield." + +"Beechfield? Why, you're nigh forty miles from there," she said, +surprised. + +"Can you tell me how I can get on to the Portsmouth Road?" + +"Aye, I think I could do that; but stop your engine, please--I've a +little girl in here as is very ill." + +He ran out and did what she asked. Then he came back, and as she took him +into her tiny living-room, he saw that there were tears rolling down her +tired face. + +"Is your child very ill?" he asked. + +She nodded. "Doctor says if she can get through the next two days she may +be all right." + +"Is your husband with you?" + +She shook her head. "I'm a widow, sir; my husband was killed in the War. +I'm only caretaking here. When the house up there is sold, they'll turn +me out." + +"I'm looking for a country house. Perhaps I'll come over and see it one +day. Is it an old house?" + +"Well," she said vaguely, "it isn't a new house, sir. It's a mighty fine +place, and they do say it's going dirt cheap." And then she added slowly, +"There's a map hanging in the kitchen. It was hanging up yonder in the +servants' hall but I brought it down here, as so many people asks the +way." + +It was an old-fashioned country road map, and Radmore, bending down, saw +in a moment where he was, and the best way home; and then feeling in a +queer kind of mood, a mood in which a man may do a strange and unexpected +thing, he took out of his pocket the £5 he had offered to Mr. Trotman. + +"Look here," he said, "I'd like you just to take this and get your little +girl whatever you think necessary when she's on the mend. She'll want a +lot of care, eh?" + +Twice the woman opened her mouth, and found she couldn't speak. + +He held out his hand, and she squeezed it with her thin, work-worn +fingers. "I do hope God will bless you, sir!" she said. And he went back +to the car, feeling oddly cheered. + + * * * * * + +It was past five when Radmore and Timmy crept like burglars through one +of the back doors of Old Place. He sent the boy straight up to bed, but +he himself felt hopelessly wide awake, so he went out of doors again, +into Janet's delightful scented garden, and tramped up and down a bit to +get warm. Suddenly he knew that he was hungry. Why shouldn't he go into +the scullery and brew himself a cup of tea? + +As he went into the kitchen, he saw on the table a kettle, a spirit +stove, a cup and saucer, tea caddy and teapot, even a thermos full of hot +water--everything ready to make an early cup of tea. He left the thermos +alone, and filled up the kettle at the scullery sink. + +Radmore was still very much of an old campaigner. Still it was a long +time since he had made himself a cup of tea, and he became a little +impatient for the cold water took a long time to boil. + +The kettle was just beginning to sing, when the door which led to the +flight of stairs connecting the scullery with the upper floors of the +house opened quietly, and Betty appeared--Betty, in a becoming blue +dressing-gown, which intensified the peachy clearness of her skin, +and the glint of pale gold in the shadowed fairness of her hair. Morning +was Betty's hour. As the day wore on, she was apt to become fagged and +worried, especially since Nanna's accident. + +Just for a moment she looked very much taken aback, then she smiled, +"I've come down to make a cup of tea for Nanna." + +"So I suppose, but _you_ must have a cup first. See, I'm making some for +you." + +"Are you?" She tried not to show the surprise she felt. + +"While you're having it, we'll make Nanna a cup of tea with the water in +the thermos there. But where's the milk?" + +He saw her face from merry become sad. "I always save some milk for +Josephine," she said. "I'll go and get it now. But we mustn't use it all; +I must save some for that poor cat." + +"You'll have to go a long way to give milk to Josephine," he observed. + +She looked at him, startled, and going to the scullery door, glanced +quickly at the corner where stood the now empty basket. + +"Where is she?" she exclaimed--and her whole face lightened. "Oh, +Godfrey, have you managed to hide her away?" + +He nodded. "Yes, ever so many miles away, where no one will find her." + +"What do you mean?" She could not conceal her astonishment--her +astonishment and her intense relief. + +"Timmy and I spirited her away," he went on, "to a cat's paradise where +she's going to be kept under observation." + +"Won't Dr. O'Farrell be very angry?" + +"I don't think he'll mind as much as he'll pretend to. The moment he was +told about her kittens he knew that the cat wasn't mad at all." + +"The person who will be angry," exclaimed Betty, "is Mrs. Crofton! I +thought it horribly cruel of her to say what she did last night." + +"It was rather vindictive," he said reflectively. "On the other hand, you +must remember that she'd had an awful shock. I don't wonder she felt +angry with Josephine, eh?" He looked a little quizzically, a little +deprecatingly, over at Betty. + +"Still it seemed so--so unnecessary that she should _ask_ for the cat to +be killed." Betty was now bustling about the kitchen with a heightened +colour. + +Radmore poured out a cup of tea. "Now then," he said, "do come and sit +down quietly, and take your tea, Betty." Rather to his surprise, she +meekly obeyed. + +Presently she asked him, "But why have you got up so early?" + +And then he told her the story of his and Timmy's night expedition, +ending up with: "I intend going round to Dr. O'Farrell's house about +eight o'clock. It wouldn't be fair to let the old fellow come down here +to indulge his sporting instincts, eh?" + +To that Betty made no answer, and as the water was now boiling she went +across to the dresser and brought a clean cup and saucer. "Now then, +Godfrey, this cup is for you. Nanna can wait a little longer for hers." + +He sat down opposite to her, and into both their minds there came the +thought that if they had married and gone out to Australia they would +have often sat thus together in the early morning. + +And then, when Nanna's cup of tea was at last ready, together with some +nice thin bread and butter cut, he asked, "Can't I carry the tray up for +you?" + +She shook her head, smiling. + +"I suppose you'll be down again soon? Isn't there anything else I can +help you with?" + +But this time Betty shook her head even more decidedly than before. + +"Oh, no!" she exclaimed. "I've got to make Nanna comfortable for the day, +and it's a long business, for she's dreadfully particular. As a matter of +fact, Rosamund and Dolly will be down before I am. They'll start +everything going for breakfast. They've been very good lately, you know! +Perhaps you'd like to give _them_ a hand?" + +He looked at her hard. There was just the flicker of a mischievous smile +on her face. + +"I suppose I ought to help them," he said without enthusiasm. "But I'll +go and have a bath now. You'll let me be your scullion when you're +getting lunch ready, eh, Betty?" He added hastily, "I think Timmy ought +to stay in bed all day to-day. You _will_ let me take the place of Timmy, +won't you, Betty?" + +"That will be very kind of you," she replied demurely. And then, before +she could say a word of protest, he had taken the heavy tray out of her +hands. "You'll find me much more useful than Timmy," he said, with a +touch of his old masterfulness. "Now you lead the way up, and I'll hand +you over the tray at Nanna's door." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +Some three or four hours later, Miss Pendarth, attired in a queer kind +of brown smock which fell in long folds about her tall, still elegant +figure, and with a gardening basket slung over her arm, stood by the +glass door giving into her garden, when suddenly she heard a loud double +knock on her stout, early Victorian knocker. + +She turned quickly into her morning room. Who could it be? She knew the +knock and ring of each of her neighbours, and this was none of them. + +Her maid hurried out of the kitchen, and a moment later she heard a man's +voice exclaim: "Will you kindly give this note to Miss Pendarth? I will +return for the answer in about an hour." + +Miss Pendarth knew the voice, and, stepping out of her morning room, she +called out: "Come in just for a few minutes, Mr. Radmore." + +In the old days she had always called him "Godfrey," but when Timmy had +brought him to call within a day or two of his return to Beechfield, she +had used the formal mode of address. + +Radmore had to obey her, willy-nilly, and as he came down the hall +towards her, she was struck by the keenness and intelligence of his +dark face. She told herself grudgingly that he had certainly improved +amazingly, at any rate in outward appearance, during the last ten years. + +"Do let us go into your garden," he said courteously. "I hear that you +are still Mrs. Tosswill's only rival!" + +She softened, in spite of herself. The Godfrey Radmore of ten years ago +would not have thought of saying such a civil, pleasant thing. + +They walked through the glass door, and proceeded in silence down the +path. The herbaceous borders were in fuller beauty than anything the Old +Place garden could now show, but Radmore paid no further compliment, and +it was she who broke the silence. + +"You must see amazing changes at Old Place," she said musingly. "The rest +of Beechfield has altered comparatively little, but Old Place is very +different, with George gone, and all those young people who were children +when you went away, grown up. As for Timmy, he was little more than a +baby ten years ago." + +"Timmy is my godson," said Radmore quickly. Her allusion to George had +cut him. + +Miss Pendarth turned on him rather sharply. "Of course I know that! I +remember his christening as if it was yesterday. It must be twelve or +thirteen years ago. I can see you and Betty standing by the font--" and +then she stopped abruptly, while Radmore blushed hotly under his tan. + +He said hastily: "Timmy's a dear little chap, but I confess I can't make +him out sometimes." + +Miss Pendarth turned and looked at him. She knew everything there was to +know about Timmy Tosswill. His mother had early confided in her, and she +never spoke of the child to other people. Like so many gossips, when +really trusted with a secret, Miss Pendarth could keep a confidence--none +better. + +But she felt that Godfrey Radmore was entitled to know the little she +could tell him, so "Timmy is a very queer child," she said slowly, "but +I can't help thinking, Mr. Radmore--" + +"Do call me Godfrey," he exclaimed, and at once she went on: + +"Well, Godfrey, I think a certain amount of his oddity is owing to the +fact that he's never been to school or mixed with other boys. I'm told +he's a good scholar, but he's a shocking speller! Where's the good of +knowing Latin and Greek if you can't spell such a simple word as +chocolate--he spells it 'chockolit.' Still, I'm bound to admit the child +sees and foresees more than most human beings are allowed to see and +foresee." + +And then, as Radmore remained silent, she went on: "Do you yourself +believe in all that sort of thing, Godfrey--I mean second sight, and so +on?" + +Radmore answered frankly: "Yes, I think I do. I didn't before the War--I +never gave any thought to any of these subjects. But during the War +things happened to me and to some of my chums which made me believe, +in a way I never had believed till then, in the reality of another state +of being--I mean a world quite near to this world, one full of spirits, +good and evil, who exercise a certain influence on the living." + +They had come to a circular stone seat which was much older even than +this old garden, and Miss Pendarth motioned her visitor to sit down. + +"It isn't a new thing with Timmy," she said. "As a matter of fact, even +before you left Beechfield, Dr. O'Farrell regarded the child as being in +some way abnormal." + +"D'you mean while he was still a baby?" asked Radmore. + +"Well, when he had just emerged from babyhood. But I doubt if anyone knew +it but Timmy's parents, the doctor, myself, and yes, I mustn't forget +Nanna. He was a very extraordinary little child. He spoke so very early, +you know." + +"I do remember that." + +"Unfortunately," went on Miss Pendarth, "it's difficult to know when +Timmy is telling the truth, or what he believes to be the truth, about +his gift. I think that often--and I know that Betty agrees with me--the +boy invents all kinds of fantastic tales in order to impress the people +about him." + +"As far as I can make out," said Radmore slowly, "he's always told _me_ +the truth." + +"I'll tell you something curious that happened--let me see, about seven +years ago. You remember an old man we used to call Gaffer John? He had +Wood Cottage, and lived in a very comfortable sort of way." + +"Of course I remember Gaffer John! He was well over ninety when I left +Beechfield, and he had been valet years ago to one of Queen Victoria's +cousins." + +"Yes, that's the man I mean. At last he was found dead in his chair. He +had what was by way of being rather a grand funeral. Timmy, for some +reason or other (I think he had a cold), wasn't allowed to attend the +funeral, and as he was set on seeing it, Janet said that he might come +and see it from one of my windows. Well, after the funeral was over, he +stayed on with me for a few minutes, and suddenly he exclaimed: 'Gaffer +John isn't dead at all, Miss Pendarth.' I naturally answered, 'Of course +he is, Timmy. Why, we've just seen him buried.' And then he said: 'Don't +you see him walking out there, along the road, quite plainly? He's behind +an old gentleman dressed up for a fancy ball.' Then, Godfrey, the child +went on to describe the kind of uniform which would have been worn +seventy years ago by a staff officer. I couldn't help being impressed, in +spite of myself, for I'd never given Timmy the slightest encouragement to +talk in that sort of way, and it's the only time he's ever done it, with +me." + +"What does his mother really think of this queer power of his?" asked +Radmore. "I've never liked to talk to her about it." + +"It's difficult to say. In some ways Janet Tosswill's a very reserved +woman. But I'll tell you another curious thing about the child." +Instinctively she lowered her voice. + +"The day before poor George was killed, Timmy cried and cried and cried. +It was impossible to comfort him--and he wouldn't give any reason for his +grief. Both Janet and Betty were dreadfully upset. They thought he had +some pain that he wouldn't tell them of, and they would have sent for Dr. +O'Farrell, but they knew he was away, some miles off, at a very difficult +case. Betty actually came in and asked if _I_ would try to make him say +what was the matter! But of course I could do nothing with him. I think +you know that he was passionately fond of George." + +"What does Dr. O'Farrell think of it all?" + +"He's convinced that Timmy has got a kind of peculiar, rare, +thought-reading gift. He won't hear of its being in any sense +supernatural. I haven't spoken to him about it lately, but the last time +he mentioned the child, he told me he was sure that what he called the +boy's 'subconscious self' would in time sink into its proper place." + +"I wonder if it will?" exclaimed Radmore. "I don't see why it should." + +"No, nor do I, excepting that, as time goes on, Timmy has become much +more like a normal boy than he used to be. I'm convinced that very often +he pretends to see things that he doesn't see. He loves frightening the +village people, for instance, and some of them are really afraid of him. +They think he can heal certain simple ailments, and they're absolutely +certain that he can what they call 'blight' them!" + +"What a very convenient gift," observed Radmore drily. "I've known a good +many people in my time I should have liked to 'blight'!" + +Even as he spoke, an unpleasant question was obtruding itself. Was it +possible that Timmy had a "scunner" against poor little Enid Crofton? + +"D'you think the child has a jealous disposition?" he asked abruptly. + +Miss Pendarth looked round at him, rather surprised by the question. +"He's never any occasion to be jealous," she said shortly. "Betty and +Janet both worship him, and so does his old nurse. I don't think he cares +for anyone else in the world excepting these three. Perhaps I ought to +make an exception in _your_ favour--from what I'm told he cherishes a +romantic affection for _you_." + +Miss Pendarth went on: "Mind you--I think there's often a touch of malice +about the boy! Timmy wouldn't be at all averse to doing mischief to +anyone he didn't like, or whom he thought ill of." + +"There are a good many grown-up people of whom one can say that," +observed Radmore. + +And then, almost as if the other had seen into his mind, Miss Pendarth, +with a touch of significance in her voice, observed musingly: "I fancy +Timmy doesn't much like the pretty young widow who has taken The Trellis +House. The first evening Mrs. Crofton came to see the Tosswills, she got +an awful fright. Timmy's dog, Flick, rushed into the room and began +snarling and growling at her. There was a most disagreeable scene, and +from what one of the girls said the other day, it seems to have +prejudiced the boy against her." + +Radmore looked straight into Miss Pendarth's face. Then she hadn't yet +heard about last night? + +There was a slight pause. + +"Yes," said Radmore at last. "I'm afraid that Timmy does dislike Mrs. +Crofton." + +"Perhaps," said Miss Pendarth slowly, "the boy has more reason to dislike +her than we know." As Radmore said nothing, she went on: "Mrs. Crofton is +behaving in a very wrong, as well as in a very unladylike, way with Jack +Tosswill." + +Radmore moved uneasily in his seat. It was time for him to escape. This +was the Miss Pendarth of long ago--noted for the spiteful, dangerous +things she sometimes said. + +He got up. "Jack certainly goes to see her very often," he said, "but I +don't think that's her fault. Forgive me for saying so, Miss Pendarth, +but you know what village gossip is?" + +"I'm afraid that she's giving Jack a great deal of deliberate +encouragement. Even her servants believe that he regards himself as +engaged to her." + +"What absolute nonsense!" exclaimed Radmore vigorously. "Why, if it comes +to that, Rosamund's quite as much at The Trellis House as Jack is, and +even _I_ go there very often!" + +"Yes, I know you do; at one time you were first favourite," said Miss +Pendarth coolly. + +She had never been lacking in courage. + +"And yet I can assure you," he exclaimed in a challenging tone, "that I, +at any rate, am not at all in love with Mrs. Crofton." + +"Sit down, Godfrey. There's something I want to ask you." + +Unwillingly he obeyed. + +"I think you knew Colonel Crofton?" + +"Yes, and I liked him very much." + +"I'm afraid from what I've heard that she wasn't a particularly good wife +to him." Radmore was surprised at the feeling in her voice, but he asked +himself irritably how the devil had Miss Pendarth heard anything of the +Croftons and their private affairs? + +He got up again, feeling vexed with himself for having come in to Rose +Cottage. + +She also rose from the stone seat. + +"Stop just one moment, Godfrey. I didn't realize that you knew Mrs. +Crofton as well as you seem to do. I do beg of you to convey to her that +she ought to be more prudent. I'm quite serious as to the talk about Jack +Tosswill. They seem to have gone on a walk together yesterday afternoon, +and the girl at the post-office, who is often sent long distances with +telegrams and messages, saw them in the North Wood kissing one another." + +Godfrey uttered an exclamation of surprise and disgust. + +How extraordinary that a woman of Miss Pendarth's birth and breeding +should listen to, and believe, low village gossip! + +"Really," he said at last, "that's too bad! I can't understand, Miss +Pendarth, how you can believe such a story--" He nearly added, "or allow +it to be told you!" + +"I wouldn't believe everybody," she said in a low voice, "but I do +believe Jane Nichol. She's a sensible, quiet, reserved girl. She seems to +have passed quite close to them, but they were so absorbed in themselves +that they didn't see her. She told no one but her aunt, and her aunt told +me. I'm sorry to say I do believe the story, and I think you will agree +that what may be sport to your pretty friend might mean lifelong +bitterness to such a boy as Jack Tosswill." She added earnestly, "Can't +you say just a word to her?" + +"Well, no, I don't see how I can! Still I promise you to try to do it if +I get the chance." + +He felt sharply disturbed and annoyed, and yet he didn't believe a word +of that vulgar story! Of course it was foolish of Enid Crofton to go for +a long walk alone with Jack Tosswill. That sort of thing was bound to +make talk. What would the village people think if they knew how often he, +Radmore, and Mrs. Crofton had dined and lunched together during the three +weeks that he had been there? Thank Heaven, they didn't know, and never +would. + +"Did you ever read the report of the inquest on Colonel Crofton?" asked +Miss Pendarth meaningly. + +"I hadn't the chance. I was still in Australia," he said shortly. + +"If you'll wait a moment I'll bring it to you," was the, to him, +astonishing reply. + +Miss Pendarth walked off with her quick, light footsteps towards the +house, and Radmore, gazing after her, told himself that she was indeed +a strange woman. In some ways he had liked her far better to-day than he +had ever liked her before, but the low, silly bit of gossip she had just +told him filled him with disgust. + +Very soon she was back, holding in her hand a newspaper. + +An inquest of the kind that was held on Colonel Crofton is a godsend to +any local sheet, and Radmore saw at a glance that this county paper had +made the most of it. + +"Will you read it here, if you're not in a hurry? I don't want it taken +away; so while you're reading it, I'll go and do some potting over +there." + +She disappeared into a glass-house built across a corner of her garden, +and he settled down to read the long newspaper columns. + +Soon his feeling quickened into intense interest. The local Essex +reporter had a turn for descriptive writing, and, as he read, Godfrey +Radmore saw the scene described rise vividly before him. He seemed to +visualise the intensely crowded little court-house, the kindly coroner, +the twelve good men and true, and the motley gathering of small town and +country folk drawn together in the hope of hearing something startling. + +Yet the facts were simple enough. Colonel Crofton had died from either an +accidental, or a deliberate, over-dose of strychnine. And his death had +been a terrible one. + +The outstanding points of interrogation were: Had he consciously added +to a tonic which he was taking an ounce or more of the deadly drug? Or, +as some people were inclined to believe, had the local chemist by some +mistake or gross piece of carelessness, put a murderous amount of +strychnine into a mixture which had been prescribed for his customer +about a fortnight before? + +But for the fact that a bottle of nux vomica had been actually found on +the ledge of the dead man's dressing-room window, it would have gone hard +with the chemist. But there the bottle had been found, and in her +evidence, evidently given very clearly and simply, Mrs. Crofton had +explained that, during the war, while in Egypt, she had palpitations of +the heart, and so many drops of diluted strychnine had been ordered her. + +When asked why there was so large a bottle full of the deadly stuff, she +had answered that it had come from the Army Stores, where they always did +things in a big and generous way. At that there had been laughter in +Court. + +Mrs. Crofton had further explained that, as a matter of fact, she had +brought the bottle back to England without really knowing that she had +done so; and that she had never given it a thought till it had been +found, as described, after her husband's death, by the doctor who had +been called in to attend Colonel Crofton in his agonizing seizure. + +One thing stated by Mrs. Crofton much surprised Radmore. She had +asserted, quite definitely, that her husband had suffered from +shell-shock. That Radmore believed to be quite untrue. + +With quickened, painful interest he read her account of how odd and how +cranky Colonel Crofton had become when wholly absorbed in his hobby of +breeding wire-haired terriers. How, when one of his dogs had failed to +win a prize, he would go about muttering to himself, and visiting his +annoyance and disappointment on those about him. + +She had drawn a sad picture of the last long months of their joint life +together and Radmore began to feel very, very sorry for her.... What an +awful ordeal the poor little woman had gone through! + +The doctor's evidence made painful reading, but what had really clinched +the matter was the evidence of one Piper, the Croftons' general odd man +and trusted servant. He had been Colonel Crofton's batman during part of +the war, and was evidently much attached to him. When Piper repeated the +words in which his master had once or twice threatened to take his own +life, his evidence had obviously made a strong impression on both coroner +and jury. + +Radmore remembered Piper with a faint feeling of dislike. It was Piper +who had prepared the puppy, Flick, for the cross-country journey to +Beechfield, and Radmore had given the man a handsome tip for all the +trouble he had taken. + +Yes, he had not liked Piper; so much he remembered. He had thought the +man self-assertive, over self-confident, while disagreeably cringing in +manner. + +He read through the coroner's charge, which was given fully, very +attentively. It was quite clear that the coroner was strongly biased, +if one could put it that way, in Mrs. Crofton's favour. He had spoken +touchingly of the difficult time the poor young lady had had with her +husband. Then he had recalled that the Colonel's own favourite terrier, +Dandy, on which he had built great hopes, had only been commended, +instead of winning, as he had hoped, the first prize at an important +show, and that had thoroughly upset him. Indeed, according to Piper's +evidence, he had used the exaggerated phrase, "My life is no longer worth +living." Finally the coroner had touched lightly, but severely, on +evidence tendered by a spiteful ex-woman-servant of the Croftons who had +drawn a very unpleasant picture of the relations existing between the +husband and wife. + +Yet when the verdict of _felo de se_ had been returned, there had been +murmurs in Court, at once sharply checked by the coroner. + +Radmore felt surprised. Surely everyone present should have rejoiced from +every point of view. Had a different verdict been returned, it would have +put the unfortunate chemist in a very difficult position, and might +easily have ruined his business. + +Though Radmore was grateful to Miss Pendarth for allowing him to read the +report, it had an effect very different from that she had intended, for +it made him pity Mrs. Crofton intensely. Somehow he had never realised +what a terrible ordeal the poor little woman had been through. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +A week later Enid Crofton lay in her drawing-room on the one couch which +The Trellis House contained. She looked very charming in her new guise +of invalid. + +Several people had already called to know how she was, including Jack +Tosswill and his father, but no visitor had yet been admitted. Now it was +past four, and she was expecting the doctor--also, she hoped, in due +course, Godfrey Radmore. That was why she had come downstairs, after +having had an early cup of tea in her bedroom, and lain herself on the +sofa. + +The door opened, and as his burly form came through the door, Dr. +O'Farrell told himself that he had seldom if ever attended such an +attractive looking patient! She was still very pale, for the shock had +been great; but to-day, for the first time since her widowhood, she had +put on a pink silk jacket, and it supplied the touch of colour which was +needed by her white cheeks. She had made up her mind that even a little +rouge would be injudicious, but she had just used her lip-stick. It was +pleasant to know that she had every right to be an interesting invalid +with all an interesting invalid's privileges. + +And yet, well acquainted as she was with the turns and twists of +masculine human nature, Mrs. Crofton would have been surprised to +know how suddenly repelled was the genial Irishman when she exclaimed +eagerly:--"I do hope that horrible cat has been killed! Didn't I hear +you say that you meant to shoot her yourself?" + +It was not without a touch of sly satisfaction that Dr. O'Farrell +answered:--"That was my intention certainly, Mrs. Crofton. But I was +frustrated. The cat and her kittens vanished--just entirely away!" + +"Vanished?" she exclaimed. "Then perhaps someone else has killed her?" + +"Bless you, no. I'm afraid that the brute has still got her nine lives +before her! She was spirited away by that broth of a boy. Timmy +Tosswill's a good hater and a good lover, and that's the truth of it! I +wasn't a bit surprised when I got the news that my services wouldn't be +wanted--that the cat wasn't any longer at Old Place." + +"D'you mean you don't know what's happened to the horrible creature?" she +exclaimed vexedly. + +"That's just what I do mean, Mrs. Crofton. That smart little fellow just +spirited the creature away." + +As he spoke, sitting with his back to the window, he was observing his +pretty patient very closely. She had reddened angrily and was biting her +lips. What a little vixen _she_ was, to be sure! And suddenly she saw +what he was thinking. + +"I'd like to put a question to you, Mrs. Crofton." + +"Do!" she insisted, but his question, when it came, displeased her. + +"Is it true that that wasn't the first time you'd had an unpleasant +experience with an animal at Old Place?" + +Dr. O'Farrell had not meant to ask his patient this question to-day, but +he really felt curious to know the truth concerning something Godfrey +Radmore had told him that morning. + +"Yes," she answered, slowly, "the first time I was in Old Place, Timmy +Tosswill's dog frightened me out of my wits." + +"That's very strange," said the doctor, "Flick's such a mild-mannered +dog." + +Enid Crofton lifted herself up from her reclining position. "Dr. +O'Farrell! I wouldn't say so to anyone but you, but don't you think +there's something uncanny about Timmy Tosswill? My little maid told me +last night that the village people think he's a kind of--well, I don't +know what to call it!--a kind of boy-witch. She says they're awfully +afraid of him, that they think he can do a mischief to people he doesn't +like." As he said nothing for a moment, she added rather defiantly:--"I +daresay you think it is absurd that I should listen to village gossip, +but the truth is, I've a kind of horror of the child. He terrifies me!" + +Dr. O'Farrell looked round the room as if he feared eavesdroppers. He +even got up and went to see if the door was really shut. "That's very +curious," he said thoughtfully. "Very curious indeed. But no, I'm not +thinking you absurd, Mrs. Crofton. The child's a very peculiar child. +Have you ever heard of thought transference?" + +She looked at him, astonished. "No," she answered, rather bewildered, "I +haven't an idea what you mean by that." + +"Well, you've heard of hypnotism?" + +"Oh, yes, but I've never believed in it!" + +To that remark he made no answer, and he went on, more as if speaking +to himself than to her:--"We needn't consider what the village people +say. Timmy just tries to frighten them--like all boys he's fond of his +practical joke, and of course it's a temptation to him to work on their +fears. But the little lad certainly presents a curious natural +phenomenon, if I may so express myself." + +She looked at him puzzled. She had no idea what he meant. + +"If that child wasn't the child of sensible people, he'd have become +famous--he'd be what silly people call a medium." + +"Would he?" she said. "Do you mean that he can turn tables and do that +sort of thing?" + +The doctor shook his head. "What I mean is that in some way as yet +unexplained by science, he can create simulacra of what people are +thinking about, or of what may simply be hidden far away in the recesses +of their memory. In a sort of way Timmy Tosswill can make things seem to +appear which, as a matter of fact, are not there. But how he does it? +Well, I can't tell you _that_." + +Enid Crofton stared at Dr. O'Farrell. It was as if he were speaking to +her in a foreign language, and yet his words made her feel vaguely +apprehensive. Surely Timmy could not divine the hidden thoughts of the +people about him? She grew hot with dismay at the idea. + +The doctor bent forward, and looked at her keenly: "I should like to ask +you another question, Mrs. Crofton. Have you in your past life ever had +some very painful association with a dog--I mean any very peculiar +experience with a terrier?" + +The colour receded from her face. She was so surprised that she hardly +knew what to answer. + +"I don't think so. My first experience of a really disagreeable kind was +when that boy's terrier flew at me. It's true that I've always had a +peculiar dislike to dogs--at least for a long time," she corrected +herself hastily. She added after a moment's pause, "I expect you know +that Colonel Crofton bred dogs?" + +"Aye, and that very dog, Flick, was bred by your husband--isn't that so?" + +"I believe he was." + +She was wondering anxiously why he asked her this question, and her mind +all at once flew off to Piper and Mrs. Piper, and she felt sick with +fear. + +"I ask you these questions," said the doctor very deliberately, "because, +according to Mrs. Tosswill, Timmy thinks, or says he thinks, that you are +always accompanied by--well, how can I put it?--by a phantom dog." + +"A phantom dog?" + +She stared at him with her large dark eyes, and then, all at once, she +remembered Dandy, her husband's terrier, who, after his master's tragic +death, had refused all food, and had howled so long and so dismally that, +in a fit of temper, she had herself ordered him to be destroyed. + +She lay back on her pretty, frilled pillow, and covered her face with the +hand belonging to the arm that was uninjured. + +"Oh," she gasped out, "I see now. What a horrible idea!" + +"Then you have no painful associations with any one particular terrier +apart from Flick?" persisted Dr. O'Farrell. + +He really wanted to know. According to his theory, Timmy's subconscious +self could in some utterly inexplicable way build up an image of what was +in the minds of those about him. + +"Perhaps I have," she confessed in a very low voice. "My husband had a +favourite terrier called Dandy, Flick's father in fact. The poor brute +got into such a state after his master's death that he had to be sent to +one of those lethal chambers in London. The whole thing was a great +trouble, and a great pain to me." + +Dr. O'Farrell felt a thrill of exultation run through him. To find his +theory thus miraculously confirmed was very gratifying. + +"That's most interesting!" he exclaimed, "for Timmy, even the very first +time he saw you walking down the avenue towards the front door of Old +Place, thought you were followed by a dog uncommonly like his terrier, +Flick. His theory seemed to be that both Flick and the cat did not fly at +_you_, but at your invisible companion." + +"My invisible companion?" + +He saw the colour again receding from her face. "Don't for a moment +believe _I_ think there is any phantom dog there," he said soothingly. +"All I believe--and what you have told me confirmed my theory--is that +Timmy Tosswill can not only see what's in your subconscious mind, but +that he can build up a kind of image of it and produce what is called, I +believe, in the East, collective hypnotism. I should never be surprised, +for instance, if someone else thought they saw you with a dog--that is +as long as that boy was present. It's a most interesting and curious +case." + +"It's a very horrible case," said Enid faintly. + +She felt as if she were moving in a terrible nightmare world, +unsuspected, unrealised by her till then. + +"All abnormality is unpleasant," said the doctor cheerfully, "I always +thought the boy would grow out of it, and, to a certain extent, he _has_ +grown out of it. You'll hardly believe me, Mrs. Crofton, when I tell +you that, as a little child, Timmy actually declared he could see +fairies and gnomes, 'the little people' as we call them in my country! +I think that's what first started this queer reputation of his among +the village folk. I tell you he's anything but a welcome guest in the +cottages--people with evil consciences, you know!" The doctor laughed. +"They're afraid of Master Timmy, that's what the bad folks in Beechfield +are--they think he can 'blight' them, bring ill-luck on them. Well, well, +I mustn't stop, gossiping here with you, though it's very pleasant. By +the way, I'll ask you to keep all I've said to you to yourself--not +but what the boy's parents know quite well what I think about him!" + +Then followed a few professional questions and answers, and then the +doctor went off, well satisfied with his visit. + +After Dr. O'Farrell had gone, Enid Crofton lay back and shut her eyes. +Her nerves had by no means recovered from the horrible experience, +and she felt a sort of utter distaste to Beechfield and to everybody +there--with the one exception of Godfrey Radmore. She promised herself +fiercely that if Radmore did what she was always telling herself secretly +he would surely end by doing, then she would make it her business to see +that they never, either of them, came back to this horrible place any +more. + +Apart from anything else, Jack Tosswill was already beginning to be more +of a complication than was pleasant to one in her weak, excited state. +He had left a letter when he called that morning--an eager, ardent +love-letter, entirely assuming that they were engaged to be married. + +She took it out of the pretty fancy bag, which lay on her pale blue silk +eiderdown, and read it through again with a mixture of amusement and +irritation. It was a long letter, written on the cheap, grey Old Place +notepaper, very unlike another love-letter she had had to-day, written +on nice, thick, highly-glazed letter-paper which had a small coronet +embossed above the address. In that letter Captain Tremaine urgently +asked to be allowed to come down for the next week-end. He pointed out +that his leave was drawing to a close, and that they had a lot of things +to discuss. He, too, considered himself engaged to her, but somehow she +didn't mind that. She told herself pettishly that Providence has a way of +managing things very badly. If only Tremaine had Radmore's money, even +only a portion of his money, how gladly she would leave England behind +her, and start a new, free, delightful life in India! Tremaine knew the +kind of grand, smart people she longed to know. He was staying with some +of them now. + +Just as this thought was drifting through her mind, the door opened +and she hurriedly stuffed Jack's letter beneath her silk quilt. +Radmore walked in, and his face softened as he looked down on the pale, +fragile-looking girl--for she did look very much like a girl--lying on +the sofa. + +"I've brought you a lot of messages from Old Place," he began. "They +really are most awfully miserable about you!" + +"I'm glad the cat hasn't been killed after all," she said weakly. + +She had at last seen the look of recoil on Dr. O'Farrell's face, and she +was now trimming her sails accordingly. + +"That's very magnanimous of you." Radmore smiled. He was surprised, and a +little touched, too. "May I sit down?" + +He drew up a chair, and then he touched the hand belonging to the +bandaged arm. "I do hope you are fairly free from pain?" he said +solicitously. + +"It does hurt a good deal." + +There was a pause; his hand was still lying protectingly over her hand. + +She lay quite still--a vision of lovely Paris frocks, a Rolls-Royce +running smoothly by a deep blue sea, a long rope of pearls, flashed +before her inner consciousness. Then she was awakened from this dream of +bliss by Radmore's next words:--"My godson's going to write you a letter +of apology," he said. + +And then, to her chagrin, he took his hand away; it was as though Timmy's +malign influence had fallen between them. His very tone changed; it was +no longer tender, solicitous--only kindly. + +"Mr. Radmore, I want to tell you something. I'm horribly afraid of +Timmy!" + +There was an accent of absolute sincerity in her low voice. She went +on:--"Dr. O'Farrell has been talking to me about him. He seems a most +strange, unnatural child. The village people believe that he has +supernatural powers. Do you believe that?" + +"I don't quite know what I think about Timmy," he answered hesitatingly. +He felt acutely uncomfortable, also rather shocked that Dr. O'Farrell had +said anything about a child who might, after all, be regarded as his +patient. But Enid Crofton was looking at him very intently, and so he +went on:-- + +"I've never spoken to any of them about it, but, yes, if you ask me for +my honest opinion, I do think the child has very peculiar powers." + +And then, all at once, Enid Crofton burst into tears. "Timmy terrifies +me," she sobbed. "I wish he never came near me! He hates me--I feel it +all the time. I'm sure he made that cat fly at me!" + +Radmore remained silent--he didn't know what to say, what to admit. He +wondered uncomfortably how she had come so near the truth. + +"Come, come," he said, bending forward, "you mustn't feel like that. I +don't think the child hates you, but I do think that he loves trying +experiments with that queer power of his. I'm afraid he wanted to see +whether the cat would behave as the dog had done." + +"That's what I mean," she exclaimed, dabbing her eyes, "that's exactly +what I mean! I don't want to hurt his feelings, or to make a fuss, but I +should be so grateful if you could manage to prevent his coming here. I +don't want to make you vain," she smiled, very winningly, "but sometimes +I do feel that 'two's company.' Since I've been here I've hardly ever +seen you alone. I used to enjoy our talks in London! I feel, I know that +you're the only friend I've got in Beechfield." + +"That's rather hard on Jack Tosswill," and though he smiled, he looked at +her significantly. + +Enid was so surprised that for a moment her composure gave way, and the +colour rushed into her pale face. Then she pulled herself together. "It +really hasn't been my fault," she said plaintively. + +"I'm sure it hasn't. But in a village one has to be careful. Would +it surprise you to hear that as I came along this morning, one of +the inhabitants of Beechfield spoke to me of you and Jack, and +suggested--forgive me for saying so--not only that the boy was very much +in love with you but that you--well--encouraged him!" + +Enid Crofton sat up. "I've always heard that villages were far more +wicked places than towns, and now I know it's true!" + +"Steady on," he said smiling, "forgive me for having repeated a silly bit +of gossip. But, after all, what you said just now is quite true--I am +your oldest friend by a long way, and so I feel I ought to give you a +word of warning. I do think the poor boy _is_ very fond of you, eh?" + +Enid Crofton put out her hand and took his in hers. She squeezed it +convulsively. "I feel so miserable," she sobbed, "so miserable and +lonely!" + +"Do you, dear--" And then they both started violently, and Radmore moved +his chair away with a quick movement, for the door behind them had swung +open, and Jack Tosswill, quite unaware of the other man's presence, came +through it, and at once began speaking eagerly, excitedly, in a voice so +unlike his usual "home" voice that Radmore hardly recognised it:-- + +"I'm so glad you're downstairs. I came this morning I hope you got +my--" and then he saw the other man, and checked himself abruptly. + +He had given the beloved woman he regarded as his future wife, his most +solemn word of honour that no one should suspect that they were more than +mere acquaintances. So, after a perceptible pause, he concluded, lamely, +"my step-mother's message." + +"Yes, I did; thank you very much." + +He saw that she had been crying, and his heart welled up with tenderness, +and with angry, impatient annoyance against Radmore's presence. + +Why didn't the stupid fellow go? Surely he must realise, surely there +must be something in the atmosphere, which must tell even the blindest of +onlookers, how things were between him, Jack Tosswill, and the invalid? + +But Radmore was quite impervious to the atmosphere of emotion and +strain--or so it seemed. On and on he sat, Enid Crofton languidly making +conversation with them both in turn, until at last Rosamund came in, and +both men rose to leave together. + +And then something curious happened. Radmore, even while conscious that +he was a fool, felt a violent desire to see Enid Crofton again and very +soon, alone. He was trying to make up a form of words to convey this to +her before the other two, when good fortune seemed to favour him, for +brother and sister began--as they were wont to do--wrangling together. + +Seeing his opportunity he bent down a little over Mrs. Crofton's couch in +order to suggest to her that he should come again to-morrow. And then, in +a flash, the whole expression of his face altered and stiffened. Half +under the lace coverlet over the eiderdown a letter written on familiar +looking pale grey notepaper was sticking out, and he couldn't help +seeing the words:--"My own darling angel." + +Straightening himself quickly and hardly knowing what he was saying, he +exclaimed, "I do hope you'll soon feel all right again." + +And then he saw that she was aware of what had happened for she became +even whiter than she had been before. Every bit of colour fled from her +face--except for the unnaturally pink lips. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +As he walked away from The Trellis House Radmore felt terribly disturbed, +and maddened with himself for feeling so disturbed. + +After all, Enid Crofton meant very little to him! He even told himself +that he had never really liked, still less respected, her and yet there +had been something that drove him on, that allured him, that made him +feel as he had felt to-night. But for the accident of his having seen +that letter from poor foolish Jack Tosswill he might, by this time +to-morrow, have been in the position of Enid Crofton's future husband! +The knowledge turned him sick. + +Just now he felt that he never wished to see her again. + +As he walked on, leaving the village behind him, and emerging on the +great common which stretched between Beechfield and the nearest railway +station--he asked himself whether or no it was possible that she had +genuinely fallen in love with Jack Tosswill? + +And then he stayed his steps suddenly. He had remembered the look of +terror, the look of being "found out," which had crossed her face, when +she had realised that he had seen that fatally revealing corner of her +love-letter. + +Why had she looked like that? And then, all at once, he knew. It was for +him that Enid Crofton had come to Beechfield, for him, or rather for his +money. He felt hideously disturbed as certain tiny past happenings +crowded on his memory. He felt he would give half his possessions were it +possible thereby to transplant The Trellis House hundreds of miles from +Beechfield. + +He threw a rueful thought to Jack Tosswill. Miss Pendarth had been right, +after all. That sort of experience might well embitter the whole of the +early life of such a priggish, self-centred youth; and while he was +chewing the cud of these painful, troubling thoughts there came a woman's +voice out of the darkness. + +"Does this lead on into Beechfield, sir? I want to find The Trellis +House. I've been there once before, but it was broad daylight then." + +Radmore peered at the speaker: a thin, medium-sized woman she seemed to +be; obviously not one of the country folk--by her accent a Londoner. + +"Go straight on, and in about a quarter of an hour, you'll find The +Trellis House on your right. But you'd better enquire as soon as you get +into the village itself. Is it Mrs. Crofton's house that you want to +find?" + +"Yes, that's the place I'm bound for," said the woman. + +"Look here," said Radmore good-naturedly. "I was only going for a walk. +I'll take you along to The Trellis House. You might easily miss it." + +He turned, and they began walking along the road side by side. + +"I suppose Mrs. Crofton 'asn't gone away yet, I'm sure to find 'er there, +sir?" There was a doubting, almost a resentful, tone in the mincing +voice. + +"I think she's at home. Isn't she expecting you?" Radmore had taken the +woman for a superior servant. + +"She's not expecting me exactly, but me and my 'usband have been 'oping +for a letter from Mrs. Crofton. As nothing's come, I thought I'd just +come down and see 'er. My 'usband asked 'er to get the address of a +gentleman who 'e thinks might 'elp 'im--Major Radmore. I don't suppose +as what you've ever 'eard of 'im, sir?" + +Radmore said quietly, "I know Major Radmore rather well. May I ask your +name?" + +She hesitated, then answered:--"Mrs. Piper, sir. My 'usband was Colonel +Crofton's dog-breeding assistant, and 'e's about to start for 'imself in +the same line, if 'e can get the money that's been promised 'im. If 'e +can't get that money--well, 'e'll have to go into service again, and 'e +thought that Major Radmore, who's a kind, generous gentleman, might 'elp +'im to a job." + +Radmore felt amused, interested, and, yes, a little touched. Evidently +his distaste for Piper had not been reciprocal. + +"I suppose to start dog-breeding requires a good bit of money," he said. + +"Well, sir, it's this way. Fancy dogs fetch a good bit more money than +they did. Such a lot o' breeding stopped during the War. But what with +one thing and another, and prices 'aving gone up so, Piper says 'twould +be no good going in for such a thing under a matter of £500. But we've +got good hopes of getting the money," said the woman composedly. + +"Have you indeed?" + +Then he felt rather ashamed of the little game he was playing with this +no doubt excellent woman. + +"Look here, Mrs. Piper," he exclaimed, "perhaps I ought to tell you +frankly that _my_ name is Radmore. I no longer call myself 'Major +Radmore.' My address for the present is Old Place, Beechfield. But +Beechfield alone would find me, and I hope your husband will let me +know if I can do anything for him." + +"There now! Could one ever hope for such a thing coming to pass as my +meeting you, sir, accidental like?" + +Mrs. Piper was genuinely moved and excited. She felt that Providence, in +whom she only believed when she was in trouble, had done her a good turn. +For a moment or two she remained silent, thinking intently, wondering +whether she dared take advantage of this extraordinary chance--a chance +that might never occur again. + +"I take it, sir," she said at last, "that you are a friend of Mrs. +Crofton's?" + +"Of course I am well acquainted with the lady you name." There came a +tone of reserve, instantly detected by the woman's quick ear and quicker +mind, into the speaker's voice. "And I had a great regard for your +husband's late employer, Colonel Crofton," he added. + +"Aye, 'e was a good gentleman and no mistake," said Mrs. Piper feelingly. + +She was wondering how far she dare go. She knew the man walking by her +side was very rich; Piper had called him a millionaire. + +"I 'ope you won't think me troublesome, sir, if I tells you 'ow matters +are between Mrs. Crofton and my 'usband?" + +There came no immediate answer to her question. Still she decided to go +on. + +"Piper was with the Colonel a long time, sir. And after the poor +gentleman's death Mrs. Crofton promised Piper that she'd oblige 'im in +the matter of financing 'is new business." + +Radmore was very much surprised. He felt certain that Enid Crofton had +no money to spare, then he told himself that women are sometimes very +foolish, especially if any matter of sentiment is in question. But +somehow he would not have thought that particular woman would ever be +tempted to show herself impulsively generous. + +"You spoke just now, Mrs. Piper, as if there was some doubt about the +money?" + +"Did I, sir? Well, one can never tell in this world. But I think Mrs. +Crofton _will_ find the money." She added, almost in a whisper, "It's to +'er interest to do so, sir." + +"To her interest?" repeated Radmore. "What exactly do you mean?" + +"I don't quite understand it myself, sir." Mrs. Piper spoke with a touch +of light indifference in her voice, "Piper don't tell me very much. I was +in Islington, conducting a little business I've got, when Colonel Crofton +came by 'is sad death. Mrs. Crofton spoke to Piper most feelingly, sir, +about the service 'e'd done her by what 'e said at the inquest. I've +always 'ad my belief, sir, that Piper might 'ave said something more and +different that would have been, maybe, awkward for Mrs. Crofton." She +waited a moment, realising that she had burnt her boats. "Do you take my +meaning, sir?" + +"No," said Radmore sternly, "I don't take your meaning at all, Mrs. +Piper. I don't in the least understand what you meant to imply just now." + +A most disturbing suspicion had begun to assail him. Was this woman, with +her low, mincing voice, and carefully chosen words, something of a +blackmailer? + +They walked on in silence for a few minutes, and on her side, Mrs. Piper +began to doubt very much whether she had acted for the best in being so +honest--"honest" was the word she used to herself. But she told herself +that now she had started, perhaps she had better go straight on with it. + +"It's my belief that Piper did ask Mrs. Crofton to speak to you, sir, +about the matter, and I thought, maybe, that she 'ad done so. 'Ave I your +permission to say, sir, that I met you in the road, and that the subject +cropped up as it were?" + +"You can say anything you like," said Radmore coldly. + +He could not ask this strange, sinister woman to remain silent, yet the +thought that Enid Crofton was about to be told that he and this Mrs. +Piper had discussed her affairs was very disagreeable to him. + +Radmore was tempted for a moment to do a quixotic act, to say to the +woman, "I will find this money for your husband; don't trouble Mrs. +Crofton," and but for what had happened not an hour ago he would almost +certainly have done so. But now he felt as if he never wanted to hear +Enid Crofton's name mentioned again, and he would have given a good deal +to obliterate her and her concerns entirely from his memory. + +They were now, much to his relief, close to The Trellis House: "I will +ring the bell for you," he said courteously, and then, without waiting +for her thanks, he hurried off towards Old Place. + + * * * * * + +The next evening Jack Tosswill drew Radmore aside. "Look here," he said +awkwardly, "I wonder if you'd kindly wait a bit after the others have +gone to bed? I want to ask you something, Godfrey." + +"Of course I will, old chap." Radmore looked hard into the young man's +moody, troubled face, and came to a certain conclusion. Doubtless Enid +Crofton had given Jack his dismissal, and the foolish fellow was going to +pour it all out. He felt he was in for a disagreeable, not to say +painful, half hour. Few people of a kindly disposition even reach the age +Radmore had reached without having had more than one such talk with a +young man crossed in love. + +As soon as they settled themselves down, each with his pipe, in front +of the drawing-room fire, Jack began, speaking obviously with a great +effort, and yet with a directness and honesty which the older man +admired:-- + +"Look here, Godfrey? It's no use beating about the bush. I want to know +if you can lend me £500, and I want to say at once that I don't know when +I shall be able to pay you back. Still, I shall be able to pay you +interest. I suppose one pays the bank rate? I don't know anything about +those things. Of course, you may ask why don't I go to my father, but--" + +Radmore stopped him. "It's all right, old chap. I'll give you a cheque +this evening before we go to bed." + +"I say--" Jack turned round. "You're a good fellow, Radmore; I wouldn't +do it, only--only--" + +"I know," said Radmore coolly. "I quite realise it isn't for yourself. I +suppose it's to oblige a pal. You needn't tell me anything more about it. +As a matter of fact I meant to ask you whether you'd take a present from +me of just that sum. I don't suppose you know how I feel about you all. +George and I were just like brothers. He'd have given me anything." + +"No, no! I want this to be a business transaction, Godfrey." He said the +words just a little fiercely. + +"So it shall be--if you want it that way. I'll go and get my cheque book +now." + +When he came back, the cheque made out in his hand, he said thoughtfully, +"I hope your friend hasn't got into the sort of scrape which means that +one has to pay money of a--well, of a blackmailing sort? There's no end +to _that_, you know." + +Jack Tosswill looked surprised. "Good Heavens, no! He's only being rushed +over a bill--legal proceedings threatened--you know the sort of thing?" + +"I've made out the cheque to self and endorsed it," observed Radmore. + +"Thanks awfully. You _are_ a good sort. I am far more grateful than I can +say, far more than--than--if it was only for myself--" + +He stopped abruptly, and there was an awkward pause. Then Jack, speaking +rather breathlessly, asked an odd question:-- + +"You knew Crofton very well, didn't you, Godfrey? What kind of a chap was +he?" + +He brought out the question with an effort. But he did so want to know! +For the first time in his self-confident, comfortable, young life Jack +Tosswill was in love and full of painful, poignant, retrospective +jealousy. + +Radmore looked away, instinctively. "I liked Colonel Crofton, I always +got on with him--but he was not popular. He was not at all happy when I +knew him, and unhappy people are rarely popular." + +He was wondering whether he had better say anything to Jack--whether the +favour he had just done him gave him the right to speak. + +"I suppose he was at least thirty years older than Mrs. Crofton?" + +Radmore nodded, and then they neither spoke for a few moments. Each was +waiting for the other to say something, and at last Jack asked another +question. + +"They didn't get on very well together, did they?" + +"When I first knew them they seemed to be all right. But he was very +jealous of her, and he had cause to be, for most of the fellows out there +were in love with her, and well, not to put too fine a point on it, she +liked it!" He hesitated. "She was rather too fond of telling people that +her husband wasn't quite kind to her." + +"I think that was very natural of her!" exclaimed Jack, and Radmore felt +a surge of pity for the young fellow. Still he forced himself to go on: +"It's no use pretending. She was--and still is--a tremendous flirt." + +Jack made a restless movement. + +"I'm afraid you think me rather a cad for saying that, and I wouldn't say +it to anyone but you. She was bred in a bad school--brought up, so I +understood from a man who had known her as a girl, in Southsea, by a +widowed mother as pretty as herself. Her first husband--" + +"But--but surely Colonel Crofton was her first husband?" + +"No," again Radmore avoided looking at his companion, "she's been married +twice. Her first husband, a good-looking young chap in the 11th Hussars, +died quite soon after the marriage, the two of them having 'blued' all +they had between them. I suppose she foolishly thought there was nothing +left for it but for her to marry Colonel Crofton. And the real trouble +was that Colonel Crofton was poor. I fancy they'd have got on perfectly +well if he had had pots of money." + +"I--I don't agree to that," Jack said hotly. + +"I'm afraid it's true. But we really oughtn't to discuss a woman, even as +we are doing now. The only excuse is that we're both so fond of her," +said Radmore lightly. + +But even as he spoke he felt heavy-hearted. Jack Tosswill had got it very +badly, far worse than he had suspected, and somehow he didn't believe +that the medicine he had just administered had done the young man any +good. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +Two days went by, and now Saturday had come round again. + +In a sense nothing had happened during those two days, and to some of the +inmates of Old Place the week had seemed extremely long and dull. + +Mrs. Crofton had suddenly gone up to town for two nights, and both Jack +and Rosamund, in their very different ways, felt depressed and lonely in +consequence. But she was coming back to-day, and Rosamund was going to +meet her at the station with the Old Place pony cart. + +At breakfast Rosamund suggested that perhaps Godfrey might like to motor +her there instead, but to her vexation he didn't "rise" at all. He simply +observed, rather shortly, that he was going on a rather long business +expedition: and Rosamund retorted, pertly, "Business on a Saturday? How +strange!" to receive the dry reply: "Yes, it does seem strange, doesn't +it?" + +Half an hour later Betty and Timmy were busily engaged in washing up the +breakfast things when Godfrey Radmore strolled into the scullery. + +"I thought that I was always to be in on this act?" he exclaimed. And it +was true that he had fallen into the way of helping to wash up, turning +what had always been a very boresome task into what Timmy to himself +called "great fun" for while Radmore washed and dried the plates and +dishes, he told them funny things about some of his early experiences in +Australia. + +"We've done quite well without you. We're nearly through," said Betty +merrily. Somehow she felt extraordinarily light-hearted to-day. + +Her visitor--for very well she knew he was her visitor rather than +Timmy's--came a little nearer, and shut the scullery door behind him. + +"Look here," he said mysteriously, "I want just us three to take a secret +expedition to-day. I think I've found my house of dreams! If you'll then +both run upstairs and put on your things, we could go there and be back +in quite good time for tea." + +"For tea?" repeated Betty, startled. "But who would look after lunch?" + +"There's plenty of delicious cold mutton in the house," said Radmore +decidedly. He added with a certain touch of cunning: "I did ask your +mother, Timmy, if she'd come too, but she can't leave the house this +morning: she's expecting a very important telephone message--something +to do with the garden. She'll see about lunch, for she's particularly +anxious,"--he turned to Betty,--"that _you_ should have a good blow this +time. We shall get a little lunch while we are out, and be home by four." + +"Let's take lunch with us," broke in Timmy eagerly. "We can eat it +anywhere." He had always had a passion for picnics. + +Betty was the last human being to make any unnecessary fuss. Also, +somehow, she felt as if to-day was not quite like other days. She could +not have told why. "All right. I'll cut some sandwiches, and then I'll go +and get ready," she said. + +Janet was in the hall when Betty came down. + +"That's right," she said heartily, "I'm glad you're going to have a real +outing at last!" + +She took the girl in her arms and kissed her, and Betty felt touched. Her +step-mother was not given to affectionate demonstration. And then, all at +once, Janet looked round and said in a low voice: "Betty, I'm dreadfully +worried about Jack. D'you think it's conceivably possible that there's +anything _serious_ between him and Mrs. Crofton?" + +Betty hardly knew what to answer. For some days past she had felt quite +sure that there was something between those two. Jack had been so odd, so +unlike himself, and once he had said to her, "Betty, I do wish you'd make +friends with Mrs. Crofton. After all you're my sister ..." and then they +had been, perhaps fortunately, interrupted. But if there was anything +between Jack and the fascinating widow, Rosamund, who was so devoted to +Enid Crofton, knew nothing of it. + +"I really can't say," she answered at last, "I've hardly ever felt so +doubtful about anything in my life! Sometimes I think there is, and +sometimes I think there isn't." + +"I'm afraid there's no doubt as to what _he_ feels. I happen to know +she's just had a very good offer for The Trellis House--seven guineas a +week for six months. But she seems to have settled in here for good and +all, doesn't she?" + +"I wonder if she really has," said Betty. And then she grew a little +pink. + +Deep in her heart she had felt quite convinced that Mrs. Crofton had come +to Beechfield for Godfrey Radmore, and for no other reason. Now she +wondered if she had been unjust. + +"How I wish she'd stay away _now_, even for a few days longer!" exclaimed +Janet. + +At that moment Timmy rushed into the hall, Radmore drove up in his motor, +and in a couple of minutes the three were off--Janet looking after them, +a touch of wistful longing and anxiety in her kind heart. + +She had hoped somehow, that Godfrey would persuade Betty to go alone with +him to-day, and she was wondering now whether she could have said a word +to Timmy. Her child was so unlike other little boys. If selfish, he was +very understanding where the few people he cared for were concerned, and +his mother had never known him to give her away. + +But the harm, if harm there was, was done now, and for some things she +was not sorry to get rid of Timmy for some hours. There had arisen +between the boy and his eldest half-brother a disagreeable state of +tension. Timmy seemed to take pleasure in teasing Jack, and Jack was +not in the humour to bear even the smallest practical joke just now. + + * * * * * + +On and on sped the party in the motor, Timmy sitting by his godfather in +front, Betty, in lonely state, behind. + +They hadn't gone very far before the countryside began to have all the +charm of strangeness to Betty Tosswill, and she found herself enjoying +the change of scene as only a person who has been cooped up in one +familiar place for a considerable time can enjoy it. + +"Why, we must be on the borders of Sussex!" she called out, at a point +where Radmore, slowing down, was consulting a sign-post. He turned round +and nodded. + +They started again. And then something rather absurd happened. Betty's +hat blew off! It was an ordinary, rather floppy hat, and she had tied it +on, as she thought, securely with a veil under her chin. + +Both Timmy and Radmore jumped out to pick the hat up, and as they came +back towards the car, Timmy exclaimed: "It's a shame that Betty hasn't +got a proper motor bonnet! Rosamund's got a lovely one." + +"Why hasn't Betty got one?" + +"Because they're so expensive," said Timmy simply. He went on, "When I've +got lots of money, I shall give Betty heaps of beautiful clothes; but +only one very plain dress apiece to Rosamund and Dolly." + +"Betty! You ought to have a motor bonnet," called out Radmore as he came +up to the car. + +Her fair hair, blowing in the wind, formed an aureole round her face. She +looked very, very different to the staid Betty of Old Place. + +She answered merrily: "So I will when my ship comes home! I had one +before the War, and I stupidly gave it away." + +"Surely we might get one somewhere to-day," suggested Radmore. + +"Get one to-day--what an extraordinary idea? Motor bonnets don't grow on +hedges--" + +But when they were going through--was it Horsham?--Radmore, alone of the +three, espied a funny little shop. It was called "The Bandbox": its +woodwork was painted bright green, and in the window were three hats. + +"Now then," he exclaimed, slowing down, "this, I take it, is where motor +bonnets grow. At any rate we'll get down and see." + +"What a lark!" cried Timmy delightedly. "Please, _please_ Betty, don't +make yourself disagreeable--don't be a 'govvey'!" + +And Betty, not wishing to be a "govvey," got out of the car. + +"But I've no money with me," she began. + +"I wouldn't let you pay for what's going to be a present," said Radmore +shortly. "You're the only inhabitant of Old Place to whom I haven't given +a present since I've been home." + +Home? It gave Betty such pleasure to hear him call it that. + +They all three marched into the tiny shop where the owner of "The +Bandbox," described by Timmy to his mother, later, as a "rather +spidery-looking, real lady," sat sewing. + +She received them with a mixture of condescension and pleasure at the +thought of a new customer, which diverted Radmore, who was new to the +phenomenon of the lady shopkeeper. But when it came to business, she +took a very great deal of trouble, bringing out what seemed, at the time, +the whole of her considerable stock, for "The Bandbox" was cleverly lined +with deep, dust-proof cupboards. + +At last she produced a quaint-looking little blue and purple bonnet, with +an exquisitely soft long motor veil of grey chiffon. + +"My sister is at Monte Carlo," she observed, "and when she was passing +through Paris she got me a dozen early autumn models. I have already +copied this model in other colours, but this is the original motor +bonnet. May I advise that you try it on?" + +It was in its way a delightful bit of colour, and Betty hardly knew +herself when she looked in the glass and saw what a very pretty +reflection was presented there. She was startled--but oh, how pleasantly +startled--to see how young she still could look. + +"Of course you must have that one," said Radmore, in a matter of fact +tone, "and leave the horrid thing you wore coming here behind you." Then +he turned to Timmy:--"Now then, don't you think _you_ could choose +something for your mother?" + +The lady of the shop turned patronisingly towards the little boy. She +went across to a corner cupboard and opened what appeared to be a rather +secret receptacle. Though she had not been in business long, she already +realised what an advantage it is to deal, as regards feminine fripperies, +with a man-customer. Also, Radmore, almost in spite of himself, looked +opulent. + +"I think I have the very thing!" she explained. "It's a little on the +fantastic side, and so only suits a certain type of face." + +As she spoke she brought out a miniature brown poke bonnet which was +wreathed with one uncurled ostrich feather of a peculiar powder blue +tint. She put it deftly on Betty's head, then stepped back and gazed +delightedly into the smiling face and dancing eyes of her new client. + +"I have kept this back," she began, "hoping I should come across a +bride-elect whom it might really suit, for it would make a perfect +'going-away' hat! But it is so extraordinarily becoming to _this_ lady, +that I feel I ought to let _her_ have it!" + +She turned appealingly to Radmore, but Timmy intervened:--"That's not my +mother!" he cried, going off into fits of laughter. "We want a hat for my +_mother_. That's only my sister!" + +The shop-lady looked vexed, and Radmore felt awkward. He realised that he +and Betty had been taken for husband and wife, Timmy for their spoilt +little boy. + +"I'm quite sure I could find something that would suit Janet," exclaimed +Betty, hastily taking off the delightful bit of headgear. + +She put on the motor bonnet again, and then she went over to where a +black garden hat, with just one rose on the brim, and with long blue +velvet strings, was lying on a table. + +"I think Timmy's mother would look very nice in this," she said smiling. + +The black hat was slipped into a big paper-bag, and handed to Timmy. Then +Radmore exclaimed: "Now then, we've no time to lose! Help your sister +into the car, Timmy, while I stop behind and pay the bill." + +The bill did not take a minute to make out, and Radmore was rather +surprised to find that the three hats--for he bought three--cost him not +far short of fifteen pounds between them, though the lady observed +pleasantly, "Of course I can afford to sell my hats at a _much_ less +price than London people charge." + +To Betty's eyes, Godfrey looked rather funny when he came out of the gay +little painted door with a flower-covered bandbox slung over his right +arm. + +She had thought it just a little mean that the shop-woman should give +Timmy Janet's hat in a paper-bag. Though Betty would have been horrified +indeed at the prices paid by Radmore, she yet suspected that "The +Bandbox" lady asked quite enough for her pretty wares to be able to throw +in a cardboard box, so "Is that for Janet's hat?" she called out. + +"This," he said, looking up at her, "is that queer-looking brown thing +with the blue feather that suited you so well. Of course I meant you to +have it too." + +Betty felt at once disturbed, and yet, absurdly pleased. "I'm afraid it +was very expensive," she began. And then suddenly Radmore told himself +that after all the poke bonnet had been cheap indeed if the thought of it +could bring such a sparkle into Betty's eyes, and such a vivid while +delicate colour to her cheeks. + +There came a day, as a matter of fact the day when Betty wore that +quaint-looking bonnet for the first time, when she did venture to ask +Godfrey what it had cost. He refused to tell her, simply saying that +whatever he had paid he had had the best of the bargain as it had been +worth its weight in gold. Even so it is very unlikely that she will ever +know what that queer little bonnet, which she intends to keep as long as +she lives, really meant to Godfrey Radmore--how it had suddenly made him +feel that here was the young Betty of nine years ago come back, never to +disappear into the mists of time again. + +Something else happened in the High Street of that little Sussex town. +Radmore decided that it was Timmy's turn to sit behind, and the boy gave +in with a fairly good grace; though after they had left the houses behind +them and were again moving swiftly between brown hedges, he called out +patronisingly:--"The back of your head looks very nice now, Betty--quite +different to what it looked in that horrid old hat you left in the shop." + +At last the car slowed down in front of a gate, on one side of which was +a big board. On this board was painted a statement to the effect that the +historic estate of Doryford House was to be let or sold, furnished or +unfurnished, "Apply to the principal London agents." + +The finding of the place had not been quite easy, and Radmore drew a +breath of relief as he helped Betty down. + +"When Timmy and I were last here," he said hurriedly, "there was a child +very ill at the lodge. So I think I'd better go and just find how things +are." + +He was hoping with all his heart that the news he would see on the +mother's face would be good news. Somehow he felt that it would be of +happy augury for himself. + +As he rang the bell his heart was beating--a feeling of acute suspense +had suddenly come over him, of which he was secretly ashamed, for it was +almost entirely a selfish distress. And then, when the door opened, he +saw that all was well, for the young woman's worn face was radiant. + +"Is that you, sir? Oh, I did hope that you would come again!" she +exclaimed, "The doctor says that my little girl's certain to get well. I +was terrible anxious the day before yesterday, but now though she's weak +and wan, you'd hardly know she'd been bad, sir." + +"I wonder if you could give me the keys of Doryford House?" began +Radmore. "I want to go over it, and we need not trouble you to come with +us." + +"I'm supposed always to go up with visitors," she said hesitatingly, +"even if I leaves them there," but she looked troubled at the thought of +leaving her child. Then, all at once, Radmore had a happy inspiration. + +"Would you feel easier if we left the little boy we've brought with us in +charge? He's very intelligent. He might sit in your kitchen." + +She looked across to where Betty Tosswill and Timmy were standing. "Why, +yes!" she exclaimed, relieved. "If the young gentleman don't mind, +perhaps he would sit with Rosie. 'Tain't nothing infectious, you know, +sir, and it would please her like to have a visitor. She's got a book in +which there's a picture of a little sick girl and someone coming to see +her. She said to me yesterday, 'No one comes to see me, mother, 'cepting +doctor.'" + +Radmore went off to the other two. + +"The woman evidently feels that she ought to come up herself to the +house. But she's nervous about leaving her little girl. I was wondering +whether Timmy would mind staying and amusing the child? We might have +our picnic in the house itself, if it's in any way possible." + +"What sort of a little girl is she?" began Timmy, but his godfather cut +him short. + +"Never mind what sort of a little girl she is--she's longing for a +visitor, and you will be the first one to see her since she's been ill." + +He turned to Betty. "Perhaps you'd like to go in and see what sort of a +place it is? Meanwhile I'll open the gate and get the car through." + +Betty and Timmy followed the woman through the kitchen of the lodge to a +bedroom, where lay a pale-faced little girl of six. On the patchwork +counterpane were a pair of scissors and a big sheet of paper. It was +evident that the child had been trying to amuse herself by cutting out +patterns. As the visitors came in, she sat up, and her little face +flushed with joy. Here was her dream come true! Here were some +visitors--a beautiful lady in a peculiarly lovely blue bonnet, and a +pleasant-looking young gentleman too! + +Timmy, who was quite unshy, went up to her bedside. "Good-morning," he +said in a polite, old-fashioned way. "I'm sorry you're ill, and I hope +you'll soon be quite well. I've come to look after you while your mother +goes up to the house with my godfather and my sister. If you like, I'll +cut you some beautiful fairy figures out of that paper, and then we can +pretend they're dancing." + +He looked round and espied a chair, which he brought up close to the bed. + +Rosie was far too excited and shy to speak. + +"What's your name?" he began. "Mine is Timothy Godfrey Radmore Tosswill." + +The little girl whispered "Rosamund." + +"I've got a sister called Rosamund; now, isn't that curious?" cried +Timmy. + +He had already seized the scissors, and was engaged in cutting out some +quaint, fantastic looking little figures. + +After the others had left the room, Rosamund's mother turned to Betty. "I +never saw such a nice, kind, young gentleman!" she exclaimed. "He fair +took my breath away--a regular little doctor he'd make." + + * * * * * + +Houses are like people--they have their day, their hour, even, one feels +inclined to add, their moods of sadness and of joy, of brightness and of +dulness. + +To-day the white Corinthian-looking building called Doryford House was at +its best, in the soft lambent light of an autumn day. For a moment, when +the long, pillared building first came into view, Radmore had felt a +thrill of unreasonable disappointment. He had hoped, somehow, for a +red-brick manor-house--a kind of glorified Old Place. But a few minutes +later, when the mahogany front doors had been unlocked, and they passed +into a light, circular hall and so into a delightful-looking sunny +drawing-room filled with enchanting examples of 18th century furniture, +he began to think that this was, after all, a very attractive house. + +"In what wonderful order everything seems to be!" he exclaimed. "Have the +people to whom the place belongs only just left it?" + +"It's this way, sir. The gentleman to whom it belongs has several other +homes--he don't care for this place at all. But it's all kep' up +proper--one of the gardeners sees to the furnace--and about all this here +furniture, anybody who takes the house unfurnished, or buys the place, +will be able to keep what they likes at a valuation. Perhaps you and your +lady would like to go over the house by yourselves? People often do, I +notice. If you'll excuse me, I'll just nip away. I wants to go to the +village for a few minutes--that is if your little boy will be so kind as +to stay with my Rosie till I'm back." + +"I'm sure he will," said Radmore heartily. He told himself that it was +very natural that everyone should think that he and Betty were married. + +The front door shut behind the caretaker, and the two left behind began +going through the ground floor of the great empty house. Their progress +gave Betty an eerie feeling. She felt as if she was in a kind of dream; +the more so that this was quite unlike any country house into which she +had ever been. + +They finally came to the last living-room of all, and both exclaimed +together: "This is the room I like best of all!" + +It was an octagon library, lined with mahogany bookcases filled with +bound books which looked as though they hadn't been disturbed for fifty +years. The wide, fan-shaped window looked out on a formal rose garden. + +And then, all at once, Radmore's quick eye detected a concealed door in +the wall, on which there were encrusted the sham book titles often to be +found on the doors of an old country home library. Quickly he went across +and, opening it, found it gave straight on to a corkscrew staircase. + +Filled with a queer sense of adventure, he motioned Betty to go up first, +in front of him. + +The staircase led up to a tiny lobby, into which opened a most beautiful +bedchamber, a replica as to shape and size of the library beneath. + +The furniture there interested Betty, for she had never seen anything +like it, except once in a château near Arras. It was First Empire, and on +the pin-cushion, lying on the ornate dressing-table, someone had written +in a fine Italian hand on an envelope, the words: "This room was +furnished from Paris in 1810. The bed is a replica of a bed made for the +Empress Josephine." + +They went on through many of the rooms on the upper floor, full to-day of +still, sunny late autumn charm. + +Radmore scarcely spoke at all during their curious progress through the +empty house, and Betty still felt as if in a dream. She had asked herself +again and again if he could really be thinking of buying this stately +mansion. + +The mere possibility of such a thing meant that he must be thinking of +marrying Mrs. Crofton, and also that he must be much richer than any of +them knew. + +At last they came down a wide staircase which terminated in a corridor +leading into the circular hall, and then it was Betty who broke what was +becoming an oppressive silence: + +"Shall we go on and see the kitchen and the servants' quarters, Godfrey?" + +"No; they're sure to be all right." + +Again came what seemed to Betty a long, unnatural silence. + +"Do you really like the house?" he asked at last. + +"I like it very much," she said frankly. "But wouldn't it cost a +tremendous lot of money, Godfrey? It would be a pity not to buy it +exactly as it stands. It all seems so--so--" + +"I know! As if the furniture had grown there," he broke in. + +"So beautiful and so--so unusual," Betty went on diffidently. + +"I'm afraid I'm a commonplace person, Betty. I like a room to be +beautiful, but I like comfort, and I think this is a very comfortable +house. I feel, somehow, as if happy, good people had lived here. I like +that, too." + +He was standing by one of the round pillars which carried out the type of +architecture which had been the fashion at the time Doryford was built; +and he was gazing at her with what seemed to her a rather odd expression +on his dark face. Was he going to tell her of his hopes or intention with +regard to Mrs. Crofton? + +Betty felt, for the first time that day, intensely shy. She walked away, +towards the big half-moon window opposite the front door. A wide grass +gallop, bordered with splendid old trees, stretched out as if +illimitable, and she began gazing down it with unseeing eyes. + +He came quickly across the hall, and stood by her. Then he said slowly, +"I'm wondering, wondering, wondering if I shall ever be in this house +again!" + +"You must think it well over," she began. + +But he cut her short. "It depends on _you_ whether Doryford becomes my +home or not." + +"On me?" she repeated, troubled. "Don't trust to my taste as much as +that, Godfrey." + +"But you do like it?" he asked insistently. + +"Of course I like it. If it comes to that, I don't know that I've ever +been in so beautiful and perfect a house. And then, well perhaps because +we've everything so shabby at Old Place, I do like to see everything in +such apple-pie order!" + +A little disappointed, he went on, "I fear it isn't your ideal house, +Betty? Not your house of dreams?" + +And then, all at once, she knew that she couldn't answer him, for tears +had welled up in her eyes, and choked her speech. + +Her house of dreams? Betty Tosswill's house of dreams had vanished, she +thought, for ever, so very long ago. Betty's house of dreams had been +quite a small house--but such a cosy, happy place, full of the Godfrey +of long ago, and of good, delicious dream children.... + +She turned her head away. + +"Well," he exclaimed, "that's that! We won't think about this house +again. We'll go and look at another place to-morrow." + +His matter-of-fact, rather cross, tone made her pull herself together. +What a baby he was after all! + +"Don't be absurd, Godfrey. I don't believe if we were to look England +through, that I should see a house I thought more delightful than this +house. I'm a little overawed by it, that's all! You see I've never dwelt +in marble halls--" + +"Oh, one gets used to that!" + +"Yes, I expect one does." + +"Whether I buy this place depends on you," he said obstinately. + +"Well, then, if I'm to decide, I say buy it!" She turned and smiled at +him a little tremulously, keeping her head well down--her face shadowed +by the deep brim of her motor-bonnet. + +More and more was this like a scene out of a dream to Betty Tosswill. In +a way, it was, of course, natural that she and Godfrey should be alone, +and that he should turn to her as his closest friend. And yet it seemed +strange and unnatural, too. But Betty had a very generous nature--and to +this man, who was looking at her with such an eager, searching look, she +felt in a peculiar relation. So she repeated, with greater ease and +lightness, "Let's settle, here and now, that this is to be the future +residence of Godfrey Radmore, Esquire! Timmy's a little bit like a cat, +you know. He'll simply adore this house. He'll love all the pretty things +in it. Perhaps you'd run him up in the motor presently, while I stay with +the little girl and that nice woman?" + +And then all at once he took a step forward and roughly took her two +hands in his: "Betty," he said, "don't you understand? I shall never +enter this house again unless you're willing to come and share it with +me. No place would be home to me without you in it. Why, Old Place is +only home now because you're there." + +She looked at him with a long, searching, measuring look; a look that +was, unconsciously, full of questioning; but her hands remained in his +strong grasp. + +"Don't you know that I've always been yours?" he asked--"that I shall +always be yours even if you won't have me--even if I end by marrying +another woman, as I daresay I shall do if you won't have me, for I'm a +lonely chap--" And then something in her face made him add: "Try to love +me again, Betty. I want you to say to yourself--'a poor thing but mine +own.' Do, my dear." + +And then Betty burst out crying, and found herself clasped in his arms, +strained to his heart, while his lips sought and found her soft, +tremulous mouth. + +He was gentle with her, gentle and strangely restrained. And yet as the +happy moments went by in that silent, sunny house, something deep in her +still troubled heart told her that Radmore really loved her--loved her as +perhaps he had not loved her ten years ago, in his hot, selfish, +impulsive youth. + +"We needn't tell anyone for a little while, need we?" she whispered at +last. + +She had shared her life, given her services to so many during the last +nine years, and she longed to keep this strange new joy a secret for a +while. + +"If you like, we need never tell them at all," he answered. "We can just +go out, find a church, and be married!" + +"Oh, no; that wouldn't be fair to Janet." And yet the notion of doing +this fascinated her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + +And meanwhile what had been going on at Old Place? Outwardly very little, +yet one long-expected, though when it happened, surprising, thing had +occurred. Also Janet, as the day went on, felt more and more worried +about Jack. + +He wandered in and out of the house like an unhappy, unquiet spirit, for +the sudden departure of Enid Crofton for London two days before had taken +him utterly by surprise, the more so that she had left no address, and +he was suspicious of--he knew not what! It was reasonable to suppose she +had gone to pay the debt for which he had provided the money; but then +why keep her address in town secret from him? + +At last, this morning, there had come a postcard to Rosamund, asking to +be met at the station, alone, with the Old Place pony-cart. It was a +reasonable request, for the funny little vehicle only held two people and +a minute quantity of luggage. Still Jack had felt annoyed she had not +asked him to meet her. She seemed to him absurdly over-cautious. + +About ten minutes before the motoring party's return, Rosamund hurried in +with a casual message that Enid was very tired, and so had gone straight +to bed; that she hoped some of them would come in and see her on the +morrow, Sunday. In any case they would all meet at church. + +Jack was puzzled, hurt, and bitterly disappointed, and at once he went +off to write a note which should be, while wildly loving, yet clear in +its expressions of surprise that she had not sent him some sort of +message appointing a time for their next meeting. He found the letter +unexpectedly difficult to write, and he had already torn up two +beginnings, when the door behind him burst open, and, turning round +irritably, he saw Timmy rush across to a window and shout exultantly, +"Mum? We're back! And we've brought Josephine and her kittens. Mr. +Trotman said she'd be all right now." + +Jack Tosswill jumped up from his chair. It was as if his pent-up feelings +of anger had found a vent at last: "You have, have you?" he cried in an +enraged voice. "Then I'll see to the shooting of the brute this very +minute!" + +Quick as thought, Timmy rushed back to the door and turned the key in the +lock. Then he bounded again to the open window. "Mum!" he screamed at the +top of his voice. "Come here--I'm frightened!" + +Janet Tosswill, walking quickly across the lawn, was horrified at the +look of angry despair on the child's face. + +"What's happened?" she asked, and then, suddenly, she saw Jack's blazing +eyes. + +"J-Janet," he began, stuttering in his rage, "either that cat is shot +to-day, or I leave this house for ever." + +Even in the midst of poor Janet's agitation, she could not help smiling +at the melodramatic tone in which the usually self-contained Jack uttered +his threat. Still-- + +"It was very, very wrong of you, Timmy, to bring back your cat to-day," +she said sternly. "Had I known there was any idea of such a thing I +should have absolutely forbidden it. Josephine is not fit to come back +here yet; you know what Dr. O'Farrell said." + +The colour was coming back into Timmy's face. He had a touching belief in +his mother's power of saving him from the consequences of his own naughty +actions. + +"I'm very sorry," he began whimperingly. "It was not my fault, Mum. Even +Mr. Trotman said there was nothing the matter with her." + +And now Jack was beginning to repent of his hasty, cruel words. He was as +angry as ever with Timmy, but he was ashamed of having spoken as he had +done to Janet--the woman who, as he knew deep in his heart, was not only +the best of step-mothers, but the best of friends, to his sisters and +himself. + +"Of course I don't mind her being at Trotman's, but I do very much object +to her being here," he said ungraciously. + +"I'll see about her being sent back to Epsom to-day," said Janet quietly. +She turned to her son: "Now then, Timmy, I'm afraid we shall have to ask +poor Godfrey to start back at once after tea." + +"Oh, I say," called out Jack awkwardly. "I don't want the cat to go as +soon as that, Janet. To-morrow will do all right. All I ask is that the +brute shall be taken away before it has a chance of seeing Mrs. Crofton +again." + +"Very well; the cat shall go to-morrow." + +Drawing her little boy quickly after her, Janet left the drawing-room, +crossed the corridor, walked into the empty schoolroom, and then, to +Timmy's unutterable surprise, burst into bitter tears. + +Now Timmy had never seen his mother cry--and she herself was very much +taken aback. She would have given a great deal to have been left alone +just then to have her cry out, but Timmy's scared little face touched +her. + +"I can't think why you did it," she sobbed. "I always thought you were +such an intelligent boy. Oh, Timmy, surely you understood how angry it +would make Jack and Rosamund if you brought Josephine back now, to-day?" + +"I never thought of them," he said woefully. "We were so happy, +Mum--Godfrey, Betty and I. Oh, why are people so horrid?" + +"Why are people so selfish?" she asked sadly. "I'm surprised at Betty; I +should have thought that she, at least, would have understood that the +cat must stay away a little longer." + +"It wasn't Betty's fault," said Timmy hastily. He waited a moment, then +added cunningly, "It was really Mr. Trotman's fault; he said Josephine +ought to come home." + +But his mother went on a little wildly: "It isn't an easy job, taking +over another woman's children--and doing the very best you can for them! +To-day, Timmy, you've made me feel as if I was sorry that I ever did it." + +"Sorry that you married Daddy?" asked Timmy in an awe-struck voice. + +Janet Tosswill nodded. + +"Sorry that I was ever born?" cried Timmy. He flung his skinny arms round +her bent neck. + +She looked up and smiled wanly. "No, Timmy, I shall never be able to say +that, however naughty you may be." + +But Timmy was not to be let off yet. + +"What happened to-day has hurt me very, very much," she went on. "It will +be a long time before I shall feel on the old, happy terms with Jack +again. Without knowing it, Timmy, you've pierced your mother's heart." + +But even as she uttered these, to Timmy, dreadful words, Janet Tosswill +got up, and dried her eyes. "Now then, we must go and see about Josephine +being shut up in some place of safety, where she and her kittens will not +offend the eyes of Jack and Rosamund. How about the old stable?" + +She was her own calm, satirical, determined self again. But Timmy felt, +perhaps for the first time in his life, deeply conscious of sin. His +mother's phrase made him feel very uneasy. Had he really pierced her +heart--could a mother's heart be permanently injured by a wicked child? + +It was a very mournful, dejected, anxious boy who walked into the kitchen +behind Janet Tosswill. + +Timmy had a very vivid imagination, and during the drive back he had +amused himself by visualising the scene when he would place Josephine and +her kittens in their own delightful, roomy basket in the scullery. It +would be such fun, too, introducing Flick to the two kittens! At Betty's +suggestion, Flick had been shut out from the scullery after Josephine's +kittens were born, and that though the dog and the cat got on extremely +well together. In fact, Flick was the only creature in the world with +whom Josephine, since she had reached an approximately mature age, ever +condescended to play. + +And now poor Josephine and her kittens were to be banished to the old +stable, and to-morrow driven back ignominiously to Epsom, all because of +that tiresome, hateful Mrs. Crofton! + +There was no one in the kitchen, and it did not look as tidy as it +generally looked; though the luncheon things had been washed up, they had +not been put away. + +Mother and son walked on into the scullery to find Betty there, boiling +some water over a spirit lamp. "Betty? How very delightful you look!" her +step-mother exclaimed. "Just like an old picture, child! Wherever did you +get that charming motor-bonnet?" + +And then Timmy chipped in: "_I_ thought of it," he said triumphantly; "it +was _my_ idea, Mum, but Godfrey paid for it. He said he hadn't given +Betty a proper present yet, so he _had_ to pay for it, and, and--" + +Janet was just a little surprised. She was very old-fashioned in some +ways, and she had brought up her step-daughters to be, as regarded money +matters at any rate, as old-fashioned as herself. It seemed to her very +strange that Betty had allowed Godfrey Radmore to give her such a present +as a hat! Yet another thing puzzled her. She had understood that the +three of them were going off some way into Sussex to look at a house, but +they had evidently been up to London. Motor bonnets don't grow on country +hedges. + +"Where's the cat?" she asked, looking round. + +"Godfrey has taken her up to the nursery," said Betty, "partly to show +her to Nanna, and partly because we thought it would be better for her to +be quiet up there than down here." + +"Oh, Mum--do say that she can stay up there," cried Timmy pleadingly. "I +hate the thought of her being in that dark old stable!" + +"Very well; put her in the night nursery." + +Even as she spoke, Janet was still gazing at her eldest step-daughter. +Betty certainly looked extraordinarily charming this afternoon. It showed +that the child required more change than she had had for many a long day. +They had got too much, all of them, into thinking of her as a stand-by. +After all she was only eight and twenty! Janet, with a sigh, looked back +to the days when she had been eight and twenty, a very happy, independent +young lady indeed, not long before she had met and married her quiet, +wool-gathering John, so losing her independence for ever. + +"I suppose you haven't heard the great news," she exclaimed, forgetting +that Timmy was there. + +"What news?" asked Betty. + +She glanced at her step-mother. Surely Janet hadn't been crying? Janet +never cried. She had not cried since that terrible day when the news had +come of George's death. + +"What news?" she asked again. + +"Mr. Barton--I really can't call him Lionel yet--came over this afternoon +and--and--" + +Timmy rushed forward in front of his mother, his little face all aglow: +"Oh, Mum! You don't mean to say that he's popped?" he cried. + +"Timmy, don't be vulgar!" exclaimed Janet severely. + +Betty began to laugh a little wildly. "How very, very strange that it +should have happened to-day--" + +"I don't think it's strange at all," said Janet quietly. "The strange +thing is that it hasn't happened before! But there it is--they're engaged +now. He seems to have told her that he thought it wrong to make his offer +until he had saved £100. She has gone over to Oakford, and they are busy +making an inventory of the things they will have to buy." + +"Has he actually saved £100?" asked Betty. + +"No, he never could have done that. He's had a legacy left him, and he +seems to think that £100 will start them most splendidly and comfortably +on their married life. He _is_ a fool!" + +The door which gave on to the stairs which led from the scullery to the +upper floor opened, and Godfrey Radmore stepped down. "Am I the fool?" he +asked pleasantly. + +Janet answered, smiling: "No, no; you're anything but that. I was only +telling Betty that Dolly and Mr. Barton are engaged at last." She turned +to Betty. "Of course, he's coming to supper to-night. I've been wondering +what we can do in the way of something extra to celebrate the occasion. +We _were_ going to have cold mutton." + +"At any rate I'll go and see what the village pub. can produce in the way +of champagne," exclaimed Godfrey. He turned to his godson. "Timmy? Run up +and look at Josephine and her kittens. I've put them in the old night +nursery for a bit." + +And then, when the boy had gone, he went up to Janet and, to her +surprise, put his arm through hers: "I'm glad about Dolly," he said +heartily. + +"It proves how very little one really knows of human nature." She sighed, +but it was a happy sigh. "I was beginning to believe that he would never +what Timmy calls 'pop,' and yet the poor fellow was only waiting to be a +little forward in the world. Someone's left him £100, so he felt he could +embark on the great adventure. Your father and I have already talked it +over a little"--she turned to Betty--"and we think we could squeeze out +£100 a year somehow." + +"I think we could," said Betty, hesitatingly. "After all, £1 is now only +what 8/- was before the War." + +"But not to us," cried Janet; "not to us!" + +And then, to the utter discomfiture of both her companions, she began to +laugh and cry together. + +Godfrey rushed over to the sink. He took up a cup, filled it with water, +rushed back to where Janet was standing, shaking, trembling all over, +making heroic efforts to suppress her mingled tears and laughter, and +dashed the water into her face. + +"Thank you," she gasped; "thank you, Godfrey! I'm all right now. I may as +well tell you both the truth. There's been a row--an awful row--between +Jack and Timmy, and it thoroughly upset me. It was only over the +cat--over Josephine--but of course it proved that what Betty and I were +talking about this morning is true. Jack's madly in love with Mrs. +Crofton--and--and--it's all so pitiful and absurd--" + +"I doubt if you're quite fair to Mrs. Crofton, Janet," said Godfrey, in a +singular tone. "I fancy she really does care for Jack. Of course it seems +odd to all of us, but still, after all, odder things have been known! If +you ask me whether they will marry in the end--that's quite another +matter. If you ask me whether they're engaged, well, yes, I'm inclined to +think they are!" + +Even Betty felt violently disturbed and astonished. + +"Oh, Godfrey!" she exclaimed. "D'you really think that?" + +"I can't tell you what makes me think so, or rather I'd rather not tell +you. But I don't think you need worry, if you'll only take a long view. +They can't marry yet, and long before they could marry, she'll have got +tired of him, and fond of someone else." + +Betty gave him a quick look. Was he really unconscious of the reason why +Mrs. Crofton had come to Beechfield? + +Through her mind in a flash there crowded the many small, almost +imperceptible, impressions made on her mind by the new tenant of The +Trellis House. Enid Crofton in love with Jack? Betty shook her head. The +idea was absurd. And yet Godfrey had spoken very decidedly just now. But +men, even very shrewd, intelligent men, are at a hopeless disadvantage +when dealing with the type of woman to which Enid Crofton belonged. + +As for Janet she exclaimed, with sudden passion, "I would give anything +in this world to see Mrs. Crofton leave Beechfield for ever--" She +stopped abruptly, for at that moment the staircase door to her right +burst open, and Timmy stepped down into the scullery. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + +Since she had had the horrid accident which had laid her up, Timmy had +not gone to see his old Nanna nearly as often as he ought to have done. +Nanna herself, however, with the natural cunning of those who love, had +made certain rules which ensured her a regular, daily glimpse of the +strange little being she had had under her charge, as she would have +expressed it, "from the month." Nanna did not desire his attendance +before breakfast for she would not have considered herself fit to be +seen by him till she herself was neat and tidy. Like all the women of +her class and generation, the Tosswills' old family nurse was full of +self-respect, and also imbued with a stern sense of duty. Timmy stood +far more in awe of her than he did of his mother. + +One of the stated times for Timmy's visits to the old night nursery +was just before he had to start for church each Sunday, and on this +particular Sunday, the day after that on which had occurred Dolly's +engagement, and Mrs. Crofton's return from London, he came in a few +moments before he was expected, and began wandering about the room, doing +nothing in particular. At once Nanna divined that he had something on his +mind about which he was longing, yet half afraid, to speak to her. She +said nothing, however, and at last it came out. + +"I want you to lend me your Bible," he said, wriggling himself about. "I +want to take it to church with me." + +This was the last thing Nanna had expected the boy to ask, for, of +course, Timmy had a Bible of his own, a beautiful thin-paper Bible, which +she herself had given him on his seventh birthday, having first asked his +mother's leave if she might do so. The Bible was in perfect condition. It +stood on a little mat on his chest of drawers, and not long before her +accident Nanna had gone into his bedroom, opened the sacred Book, and +gazed with pleasure on the inscription, written in her own large, +unformed handwriting, on the first page: + + Timothy Godfrey Radmore Tosswill on his seventh birthday from his + loving nurse, + + Emily Pew. + +All this being so, his mother, or even his sister, Betty, would at once +have enquired, "Why don't you take your own Bible to church?" But somehow +Nanna thought it best not to put this question, for a lie, shocking on +any day, is more shocking than usual, or so she thought, if uttered on a +Sunday. So, after a moment's hesitation, she replied: "Certainly, Master +Timmy, if such is your wish. But I trust you will be very careful with +it, my dear." + +"I will be very, very careful!" he exclaimed. "And I will bring it +straight back to you up here after church." + +He threw her a grateful look. He did more, and Nanna felt amply rewarded +as he climbed up on her bed and, putting his arms round her neck, kissed +her on each cheek. + +"I hope," she said impressively, "that you are going to be a good boy in +church--a boy that Nurse can be proud of." + +Nanna never called herself "Nanna" to the children. + +"I am always very good in church," cried Timmy, offended. "I don't +see why you should go and spoil everything by saying that!" With +these cryptic words he slid off the bed, taking with him the large +old-fashioned Bible which always lay by Nanna's bedside. + +Dolly, and Rosamund, who was Dolly's stable-companion, were attending the +service held by Dolly's fiancé, Lionel Barton, in the next parish. As for +Betty, her heart was very full, and as she did her morning's work and +while she dressed herself for church, she still felt as if she was living +through a wonderful dream. + +Jack, who did not always go to church, had elected to go to-day; so had +Tom and Godfrey; and thus, in spite of the absence of the two younger +girls, quite a considerable party filed into the Tosswill pew. + +All the people belonging to Old Place were far too much absorbed in their +own thoughts on this rather strange Sunday morning to give any thought to +Timmy. So it was that he managed, after a moment's thought, to place +himself between his father and his godfather. He judged, rightly, that +neither of them would be likely to pay much attention to him or to his +doings. + +When the rather nervous young rector had got well away with his sermon, +and had begun to attract the serious attention of Mr. Tosswill and of +Godfrey Radmore, Timmy very quietly drew out of his little, worn tweed +coat a long sharp pin. Wedging the Bible, as he hoped reverently, but +undoubtedly very securely between his knees, he thrust the pin firmly in +the middle of the faded, gilt-edged leaves of Nanna's Bible, where there +were already many curious little brown dots caused by similar punctures, +the work of Nanna herself. + +Having done this, Timmy carefully lifted the Bible from between his knees +and let it fall open at the page the pin had found. The text where the +point rested ran as follows: + + Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. + +His father's eyes flickered for a moment and fixed themselves on Timmy +with a worried, disturbed expression. As a child he himself would have +been sternly reproved for reading, even the Bible, during a sermon, but +he supposed that Janet knew better than his own mother had done. Timmy +certainly loved Janet far, far more than he, John Tosswill, had loved his +own good mother. So he averted his eyes from his little son, and tried to +forget all about him. + +But John Tosswill did not know his Janet. Though three off from +Timmy, she had become aware that her son was bending over a very big, +shabby-looking book, instead of sitting upright, listening sedately. She +gave him one glance, and Timmy, with a rather confused and guilty look, +hurriedly shut Nanna's Bible, and turned his mind to the sermon. He had +seen what he wanted to see; and further, he had made a mental note of the +page and place. + +At last the service was over, and the congregation streamed out of +church. Timmy hung back a little, behind his mother. He did not wish +her to see that he had Nanna's Bible instead of his own, but she was +far too full of her own exciting and anxious thoughts to give any +attention to her little boy. Rather to her surprise, she found her mind +dwelling persistently on Enid Crofton. It was at once a relief and a +disappointment not to see the young widow's graceful figure, and her +heart ached when she saw the cloud come down over Jack's face. + +All at once she felt a detaining gesture on her arm, and turning, she +found Miss Pendarth at her elbow. They generally had a little talk after +church, for it was often the only time in the week when these two, both +in their several ways busy women, felt that they had a few minutes to +spare for gossip. + +"I wonder if you could come in to Rose Cottage for a minute? I want to +show you something which I think will interest you as much as it has me." + +Neither of them noticed that Timmy had crept up quite close and was +listening eagerly. In a village community the gossip holds a place apart, +and Olivia Pendarth, though by no means popular with the young people of +Old Place, nevertheless had her value as the source of many thrilling +tales. + +Janet Tosswill hesitated. "I wish I could come back with you," she said +at last, regretfully. "But I promised to go straight home this morning." + +She debated within herself whether she should say anything here and now +about Dolly's engagement; then she made up her mind not to do so yet. + +Miss Pendarth, slightly lowering her voice, went on: "Perhaps I might +come in this afternoon, and bring what I want to show you with me? It's a +full report of the inquest held on Colonel Crofton." + +Janet looked up quickly. "I confess I should very much like to read +that," she exclaimed, and then she added, "but I shan't be in this +afternoon. I've promised to go over to Oakford." + +That much information she would vouchsafe her old friend. + +A slightly satirical look came over Miss Pendarth's face. She told +herself how foolish it was of Janet to suppose for a single moment that +that good-looking young clergyman was ever likely to make an offer to +tiresome, stupid, untidy Dolly Tosswill! + +"I wonder if you would lend me the paper?" Janet suggested hesitatingly. +"Timmy could go for it now, and I would send it you back the moment I had +read it." + +"Very well," said the other, not very graciously. "I suppose Timmy can be +trusted to be careful of it? I went to great trouble to get a copy, and I +don't think I should be able to get another." She added slowly: "I got it +at the request of Colonel Crofton's sister, but I have not yet sent it to +her because I thought it would distress her too much." + + * * * * * + +A few minutes later Timmy was gazing round the hall of Rose Cottage with +eager, inquisitive eyes. Miss Pendarth did not care for children, and +though Timmy frequently came to her door with a note, he was very seldom +invited inside the house. + +Even now his hostess said rather sharply: "Run out into the garden, +Timmy, while I go upstairs and find an envelope big enough in which to +put the paper for your mother. I daresay I shall be away five minutes, +for I want you to take her a note with it." + +The boy went through the glass door into the garden. He walked briskly up +the path, kicking a pebble as he went, and then he sat down on the bench +where, not so very long ago, Olivia Pendarth and Godfrey Radmore had sat +discussing the curious and tragic occurrence which still filled Miss +Pendarth's mind. + +Timmy asked himself what exactly was the meaning of the word inquest? Why +had a paper printed what Miss Pendarth called a full account of the +inquest on Colonel Crofton's death? Was it "inquest" or "henquest"? +His agile mind swung back to the mysterious words he had heard Mrs. +Crofton's ex-man-servant utter in the stable-yard of The Trellis House. + +At last Miss Pendarth opened the door giving into the garden, and Timmy, +jumping up, hurried down the path toward the house. He then saw that she +held a neat-looking brown paper roll in her hand, and over the roll was +slipped an india-rubber band. + +"I thought it a pity to waste a big envelope," she observed, "so I have +done up the newspaper and my note to your mother into a roll. Will you +please ask your mother to put it back exactly as it is now--with the +india-rubber band round it? These bands have become so very expensive. +She need not send it back. I will call for it to-morrow morning about +twelve. Mind you give it to her at once, Timmy. I don't want to have a +thing like that left lying about." + +Timmy slipped into Old Place by a back way often used by the young +people, for it was opposite a garden door set in the high brick wall +which gave on to one of the by-ways of the village. + +But instead of seeking out his mother, as he ought at once to have done, +he went upstairs and so into what had been the day nursery. There he +locked the door, and having first put Nanna's Bible on the big, round +table, at which as a baby boy he had always sat in his high chair, he +went over to the corner where Josephine was peacefully reposing with her +kittens, and sat down on the floor by the cat's basket. + +Very carefully he then slipped the india-rubber band off the roll of +brown paper which had been confided to him by Miss Pendarth. He spread +out the sheet of newspaper, putting aside the brown paper in which it had +been rolled, as also Miss Pendarth's open letter to his mother. And then, +with one hand resting on his cat's soft, furry neck, he read through the +long account of the inquest held on Colonel Crofton's death. As he worked +laboriously down the long columns, Timmy's freckled forehead became +wrinkled, for, try as he might, he could not make out what it was all +about. The only part he thoroughly understood was the description of +Colonel Crofton's last hours; the agony the dying man had endured, the +efforts made by the doctor, not only to save his life, but to force him +to say how the virulent poison had got into his system--all became +vividly present to the boy. + +Timmy felt vexed when he realised, as he could not help doing, that Mrs. +Crofton had looked very pretty when she was giving evidence at the +inquest; in fact, the descriptive reporter had called her "the dead man's +beautiful young widow." + +And then, all at once, he bethought himself of Miss Pendarth's letter to +his mother. + +Now Timmy was well aware that it is not an honourable thing to read +other people's letters; on the other hand, his mother always left Miss +Pendarth's notes lying about on her writing table, and more than once she +had exclaimed: "Betty? Do read that note, and tell me what's in it!" + +And so, after a short conflict between principle and curiosity, in which +curiosity won, he began to read the letter. As he did so, he realised +that it formed a key to the newspaper report he had just read, for Miss +Pendarth's letter ran: + + My dear Janet, + + I am longing to talk over the enclosed with you. I was lately in Essex, + and when we meet I will tell you all that was said and suspected there + at the time of Colonel Crofton's death. + + _Someone we wot of got off very lightly._ You will realise from even + this rather confused report that _someone_ must have put the bottle of + strychnine into the unhappy man's bedroom--also that he absolutely + denied having touched it. No one connected with the household, save of + course Mrs. Crofton, had ever seen the bottle until after his death. + + It is a strange and sinister story, but I remember my father used to + say that Dr. Pomfrett (who for fifty years was the great medical man of + _our_ part of the world) had told him that not one murder in ten + committed by people of the educated class was ever discovered. + + I think you know that Mrs. C. has had a very handsome offer for The + Trellis House from that foolish Mrs. Wallis, but I believe that up to + yesterday she had not vouchsafed any answer. + + Your affectionate, + + Olivia Pendarth. + + P.S.--Please burn this note as soon as read. I don't want to be had up + for libel. + +Timmy read the letter twice through. Then he very carefully folded up the +newspaper in its original creases, put Miss Pendarth's letter inside, and +made as tidy a roll as he could with the help of the brown paper. Finally +he slipped on the india-rubber band, and scrambling up from the floor, +unlocked the door. Taking Nanna's Bible off the round table, he went into +his own bedroom and there laboriously copied out, with the help of a very +blunt pencil, the text where the pin had rested in church. Then he took +the Bible into Nanna's room. + +"What's that you're holding?" she asked suspiciously. + +"It's something I have to give to Mum." + +Somehow the sight of Nanna, sitting up there in her big armchair, made +him feel extremely guilty, and he was relieved when she said mildly: "You +run along and give it to her, then." + +He found his mother in his father's study, and they both stopped abruptly +when he came in. Timmy supposed, rightly, that they had been speaking of +Dolly and her engagement. + +Janet took the roll of paper from her boy and slipped off the band +absently: "What's this?" she exclaimed. And then, "How stupid of me! I +remember now." She turned to her husband. "It's an account of the inquest +held on Colonel Crofton. What a tremendous long thing! I shall have to +put it aside till after lunch." + +She did, however, read through Miss Pendarth's letter. + +"Oh! John," she said, smiling, "this letter is _too_ funny! Olivia +Pendarth may be a good friend, but she's certainly a good hater. She +simply loathes Mrs. Crofton." Then, deliberately, she went over to the +fireplace and, lighting a match, set fire to the letter. + +Timmy watched the big sheet of paper curling up in the flame. He was glad +indeed that he had read the letter before it was burnt, but he made up +his mind that when he was a grown-up man, he also would burn any letter +that he thought the writer would prefer destroyed. In a way Janet was her +son's great exemplar, but he was apt to postpone following the example he +admired. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + +It was after seven, on the evening of that same Sunday, that Enid +Crofton, after having spent the whole day in her bedroom, came down to +her pretty, cheerful, little sitting-room. + +She had returned from London in an anxious, nervous, strung-up frame of +mind. For the first time in her life she did not know what it was she +really wanted, or rather she was uncertain as to what it would be best +for her to do. + +The thought of seeing Jack Tosswill, of having to fence and flirt with +him in her present disturbed state of mind, had been intolerable. That +was the real reason why she had stayed upstairs all to-day. He had called +three times, and the third time he had brought with him a letter even +more passionately loving, while also even more angry and hurt in tone, +than the one which she had received from him the day before. + +As she read this second epistle she had told herself, with something like +rage, that it was not her fault that what she had intended should be a +harmless flirtation had caused such havoc. Still, deep in her heart she +was well aware that but for the havoc she had caused, she could never +have confided to him her urgent need of the five hundred pounds which he +had procured with such surprising ease. + +Jack had been quite honest with the woman he loved. He had told her of +his talk with Radmore, of Radmore's immediate, generous response, and the +cheque he had given which he, Jack, handed to her as a free gift. + +She had gone up to London fully intending to see the Pipers after she had +cashed the cheque. But when it came to the point she had shirked the +second half of her programme, telling herself, with perhaps a certain +amount of truth, that by waiting till the last day of grace allowed her +by that terrible old-clothes woman she would get better terms. Perhaps +then they would be satisfied with three hundred pounds, or even less, +and acting on that hope, she had expended a portion of the money in +purchasing a few of the pretty dress etceteras which are so costly +nowadays. + +Apart from the time occupied by those pleasant purchases, she had spent +every waking minute of the day with Harold Tremaine, lunching and dining +at the big smart restaurants which both her soul and her body loved, +going to the play, and listening in between to the most delightful +love-making.... + +Small wonder that during that long, dull Sunday, spent perforce in her +bedroom, Enid Crofton's mind often took refuge in the thought of the only +man now in her life with whom all her memories and all her relations had +been, and were, absolutely satisfactory. Captain Tremaine was a simple, +happy, cheerful soul. Though he was always what he called "dashed short," +when with a woman he flung about his money right royally. Also he was an +expert, not a teasing, lover. He knew, so Enid reminded herself +gratefully, when to stop, as well as when to begin, making love. How +unlike inexpert, tiresome Jack Tosswill! And yet he also was in dead +earnest. He knew exactly what he wanted, and more than once, in a +chaffing, yet serious, fashion, he had assured her that she had best +submit at once, as he always "got there in the end." What he wanted was +that they should be married, by special license, within a week from +now, so that they might go back to India, a happy, honeymooning couple, +in a fortnight! And while he was with her, describing in eloquent, eager +language what their life would be like and what a delightful, jolly time +they would have, Enid had been sorely, sorely tempted to say "yes." + +And yet? Though Tremaine was Enid Crofton's ideal of what a lover, even a +husband, should be, and she had never liked any man as well, she knew +with a painful, practical knowledge the meaning of the words "genteel +poverty." Tremaine's regiment would not remain for ever in India, and +then would begin the enforced economies, the weary struggle with an +inadequate income she had known with Colonel Crofton. No, no--it wasn't +good enough!--or at any rate not good enough as long as there was a hope +of anything better. Even so, it was comfortable to know that Harold +Tremaine would still be there, a second string to her bow, in six months' +or a year's time. + +It was of all this that she thought, a little despondently, as she +settled herself down in the easy chair close to the little wood fire. +In a few moments her supper would be brought in by her pleasant-faced, +rosy-cheeked parlourmaid. Enid Crofton was dainty and particular as to +her food. The bad cooking she had had to endure during those miserable +months she had spent in Essex, after her husband had been demobilised, +had proved a very real addition to her other troubles. + +She had brought a nice sweetbread with her from London yesterday, and she +was now looking forward to having it for her supper. + +All at once there came a ring at the front door, and a feeling of keen, +angry annoyance shot through her. Of course it was Jack--Jack again! He +would ask tiresome, inconvenient questions about the mythical woman +friend, the almost sister, for whom she had required the money, and she +would have to make up tiresome, inconvenient lies. Also he would want to +kiss her, and she did so want her dinner! + +She stood up--and then the door opened and, instead of Jack, Timmy +Tosswill came through it. For the first time in their acquaintance she +was glad to see the boy, though she told herself that of course he had +brought her a letter--another of those odious, reproachful letters from +Jack. + +"Good evening, Timmy," she spoke, as she always did speak, pleasantly. +"Have you brought me a message from Rosamund? I hope she hasn't thrown me +over? I'm expecting her to lunch to-morrow, you know." + +"I didn't know," he said gravely, "and I've not brought a message from +anyone, Mrs. Crofton. My coming is a secret." + +"A secret?" Again she spoke easily, jokingly; but there came over her a +strange, involuntary feeling of repulsion for the odd-looking child. + +He came up close to her, and, putting his hands behind his back, began to +stare fixedly beyond her, at the empty space between her chair and the +white wall. + +There crept over Enid Crofton a sensation of acute discomfort. She +stepped back, and sat down in her low, easy-chair. What was Timmy looking +at with that curious, fixed stare? + +It was in vain that she reminded herself that no sensible person now +believes in ghosts, and that she had but to press the bell on the other +side of the fireplace to ensure the attendance of her cheerful servant. +These comforting reflections availed her nothing, and a wave of fear +advanced and threatened to engulf her. + +After what seemed to her an interminable pause, but which was really less +than a minute, Timmy's eyes met hers, and he said abruptly, "Is it true +that someone has asked you to go to India? Rosamund says it is." + +She gave a little gasp of relief. On her way home from the station in the +Old Place pony-cart, she had told her companion that while in London she +had met a man who had fallen in love with her in Egypt, during the War. +Further, that this handsome, brilliant, rich young soldier had urged her +to marry him and go off to India with him at once. She was surprised as +well as dismayed by this quick betrayal of her confidence. What a goose +Rosamund was! + +"Yes, Timmy," she bent forward and smiled a little, "it is quite true +that I have been asked to go to India, but that doesn't mean that I'm +going." + +"I would, if I were you," said the child gravely. + +"Would you?" Again she smiled. "But I've only just come to Beechfield. +I hope you're not in a hurry to get rid of me?" + +"No," he said, "I'm not in a hurry, exactly. It's you who ought to be in +a hurry, Mrs. Crofton." He waited a moment and then added: "India is a +very nice place." + +"Yes, indeed. Full of tigers and leopards!" she said playfully. + +"I should go as soon as you can if I were you." + +She looked at him distrustfully. What exactly did he mean? + +_"Someone we wot of got off very lightly at the inquest."_ + +His voice sank almost to a whisper, but Enid Crofton felt as if the +terrible sentence was being shouted for all the world to hear. + +Timmy's eyes were now fixed on the gay-looking blue rug spread out before +the fender to his right. He was remembering something he had done of +which he was ashamed. + +Then he lifted his head and began again staring at the space between Mrs. +Crofton's chair and the wall. + +Enid Crofton opened her mouth and then she shut it again. What did the +boy know? What had he seen? What had he been told? She remembered that +Mr. Tosswill was a magistrate. Had the Pipers been down to see him? + +"There were some people," went on the boy, and again he spoke in that +queer, muffled whisper, almost as if the words were being dragged out of +him against his will, "who thought"--he stopped--"who thought," he +repeated, "that Colonel Crofton did not take that poison knowingly." + +She told herself desperately that she must say something--something +ordinary, something of no account, before a power outside herself forced +her to utter words which would lead to horror incalculable. + +Speaking in such a loud discordant voice that Timmy quickly moved back a +step or two, she exclaimed: "I was not going to tell anybody yet--but as +you seem so anxious to know my plans, I will tell you a secret, Timmy. +I _am_ going to India after all! A splendid strong man, an officer and a +gentleman who would have won the V.C. ten times over in any other war, +and who would _kill_ anyone who ever said a word against me, has asked me +to be his wife, and to go out to India very, very soon." + +"And have you said you will?" he asked. + +"Of course I have." + +"And will you be married soon?" went on her inquisitor. + +"Yes, very soon," she cried hysterically. "As soon as possible!" + +"Then you will have to leave Beechfield." + +She told herself with a kind of passionate rage that the child had no +right to ask her such a silly, obvious question, and yet she answered at +once: "Of course I shall leave Beechfield." + +"And you will never come back?" + +"I shall never, _never_ come back." And then she added, almost as if in +spite of herself, and with a kind of strange, bitter truthfulness very +foreign to her: "I don't like Beechfield--I don't agree that it's a +pretty place--I think it's a hideous little village." + +There was a pause. She was seeking for a phrase in which to say +"Good-bye," not so much to Timmy as to all the others. + +"Will you go away to-morrow?" he asked, this time boldly. And she +answered, "Yes, to-morrow." + +"Perhaps I'd better not tell any of them at Old Place?" It was as if he +was speaking to himself. + +She clutched at the words. + +"I would far rather you did not tell them--I will write to them from +London. Can I trust you not to tell them, Timmy?" + +He looked at her oddly. "Jack and Rosamund will be sorry," he said +slowly. And then he jerked his head--his usual way of signifying +"Good-bye" when he did not care to shake hands. + +Turning round he walked out of the room, and she heard the front door +bang after him, as also, after a moment or two, the outside door set in +the garden wall. + +Enid Crofton got up. Though she was shaking--shaking all over--she walked +swiftly across her little hall into the dining-room. There she sat down +at the writing-table, and took up the telephone receiver. "9846 Regent." + +It was the number of Harold Tremaine's club. She thought he would almost +certainly be there just now. + +She then hung up the receiver again, and, going to the door which +led into the kitchen, she opened it: "Don't bring in my supper yet. +I'll ring, when I'm ready for it." She then went back to the little +writing-table and waited impatiently. + +At last the bell rang. + +"I want to speak to Captain Tremaine. Is he in the Club? Can you find +him?" + +She felt an intense thrill of almost superstitious relief when the answer +came: "Yes, ma'am. He's in the Club. I'll go and fetch him." + +She remembered with relief that Tremaine had told her that no one could +overhear, at any rate at his end, what was being said or answered through +the telephone--but she also remembered that it was not the same here, in +The Trellis House. + +Judging others by herself, as most of us do in this strange world, she +felt sure that her two young servants were listening behind the door. +Still, in a sense there was nothing Enid Crofton liked better than +pitting her wits against other wits. So when she heard the question, +"Who is it?" she simply answered, "Darling! Can't you guess?" + +In answer to his rapturous assent, she said quietly, "I've made up my +mind to do what you wish." + +And then she drank in with intense delight the flood of eager, exultant +words, uttered with such a rush of joy, and in so triumphant a tone, that +for a moment she thought that they must be heard, if not here, then +there, if not there, then here. But, after all, what did it matter? She +would have left this hateful place for ever to-morrow! + +And then came a rather difficult moment. She did not wish to tell her +servants to-night that she was leaving The Trellis House to-morrow, and +yet somehow she must convey that fact to Tremaine. + +As if he could see into her mind, there came the eager question, "Can you +come up to-morrow, darling? The sooner, the better, you know--" + +She answered, "I will if you like--at the usual time." + +He said eagerly, "You mean that train arriving at 12.30--the one I met +you by the other day?" + +And again she said, "Yes." + +He asked a little anxiously, "How about money, my precious pet? Are you +all right about money?" + +For once her hard, selfish heart was touched and she answered truly: "You +need not bother about that." + +And then there came a whispered, "Call me darling again, darling." + +And she just breathed the word "Darling" into the receiver, making a +vague resolution as she did so that she would be, as far as would be +possible to her, a good wife to this simple-hearted, big baby of a man +who loved her so dearly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + +Timmy went straight home. He entered the house by one of the back ways +and crept upstairs. Late that afternoon he had gratified Nanna by sharing +her high tea, and so he was not expected in the dining-room. + +He felt intensely excited--what perhaps an older person would have called +uplifted. He wandered about the corridors of the roomy old house, his +hands clasped behind his back, thinking over and exulting in his great +achievement. He felt just a little bit uneasy as to the contents of the +letter Mrs. Crofton had said she would write explaining her departure. As +to certain things, Timmy Tosswill was still very much of a child. He +wondered why their enemy, for so he regarded her, should think it +necessary to write to anyone, except perhaps to Rosamund, who, after all, +had been her "pal." He was disagreeably aware that his mother would not +have approved of the method he had used to carry out what he knew to be +her ardent wish, and he wondered uncomfortably if Mrs. Crofton would +"give him away." + +At last he opened the door of what was now his godfather's bedroom, and +walked across to the wide-open window. All at once there came over him a +feeling of wondering joy. He seemed to see, as in a glass darkly, three +figures pacing slowly along the path which bounded the wide lawn below. +They were Godfrey Radmore, Betty, and with them another whom he knew was +his dear brother, George. George, whom Timmy had never seen since the +day, which to the child now seemed so very long ago, when, rather to his +surprise, his eldest brother had lifted him up in his arms to kiss him +before going out to France at the end of his last leave. And as he gazed +down, tears began to run down his queer little face. + +At last he turned away from the window, and as he went towards the door +he saw the outline of a paper pad on the writing table which in old days +George and Godfrey had shared between them. + +Blinking away his tears, he took up the pad, and carried it down the +lighted passage to his own room. There he sat down, and with a pencil +stump extracted from his waistcoat pocket, he wrote: + + Dear Mum, + + This is from Timmy. I hope you don't still feel the pierce. + + Your affectionate son, + Timothy Godfrey Radmore Tosswill. + +He put the bit of paper into a grubby envelope in which he had for some +time kept some used French stamps; then, licking down the flap, he left +his room and went into his mother's, where he propped up the envelope on +the fat pin-cushion lying on her dressing-table, remembering the while +that so had been propped an anonymous letter written many years before +by a vengeful nursery maid, who had been dismissed at Nanna's wish. + + * * * * * + +Monday morning opened badly for more than one inmate of Old Place. Dolly +and her lover had discovered with extreme surprise that one hundred +pounds would only achieve about a fifth of that which they considered +must be done before his vicarage would be fit for even the most +reasonable of brides. With Dolly this had produced an extremely +disagreeable fit of bad temper--of temper indeed so bad that it had been +noticed by Godfrey Radmore, who had followed Janet into the drawing-room +after breakfast to ask what was the matter. + +Jack Tosswill had gone off as early as he felt he decently could go, to +The Trellis House, only to find its mistress gone--and gone, which +naturally much increased his disappointment and anger, only ten minutes +before his arrival! He had interviewed both servants, they only too +willing, for his infatuation was by now known to the whole village. But +what they had to say gave him no comfort--indeed, it was almost exactly +what the house-parlourmaid had said last week, when Enid had gone off to +town, leaving no address behind her. This time, however, she had said she +would telephone from town. + +As he was turning away, feeling sick at heart, the cook suddenly +vouchsafed the information that her mistress had left a letter for Mrs. +Tosswill, and that The Trellis House odd man, on his way back from the +station, where he had gone with Mrs. Crofton, for she had taken two +large trunks this time, would deliver it at Old Place. + +But when he reached home the letter had not yet been delivered, and Jack, +half consciously desiring to visit his misery on someone else, hunted up +Timmy in order to demand why Josephine and her kittens had not been sent +back to Epsom ere now. There had followed a lively scrap, leaving them +both in a bad mood; but at last it was arranged that Godfrey, Betty and +Timmy should motor to Epsom with the cat and her kittens after luncheon. + +The morning wore itself slowly away. Only two of the younger people were +entirely happy--Betty, doing her usual work, and Godfrey Radmore. Even he +was more restless than usual, and kept wandering in and out of the +kitchen in a way which Rosamund, who was helping Betty, thought very +tiresome. As for Timmy, his mother could not make him out. He seemed +uncomfortable, and, to her practised eye, appeared to have something on +his conscience. + +Three times in one hour Jack came into the drawing-room and asked his +step-mother whether she had not yet had a letter from The Trellis House. +Now Jack Tosswill had always been reserved, absurdly sensitive to any +kind of ridicule. Yet now he scarcely made an effort to conceal his +unease and suspense. Indeed, the third time he had actually exclaimed, +"Janet! Are you concealing anything from me?" And she had answered, +honestly surprised, "I don't know what you mean, Jack. I've had no +communication from Mrs. Crofton of any kind. Are you sure she wrote +me a letter?" And he had answered in a wretched tone: "Quite sure." + +And then, about five minutes before luncheon, and luncheon had to be a +very punctual meal at Old Place, for it was the one thing about which its +master was particular, Timmy came in with a letter in his hand, and +sidling up to his mother, observed with rather elaborate unconcern: "A +letter for you, Mum." + +She looked at him quite straight. "Has this letter only just been left, +my dear?" + +He answered rather hurriedly: "It came a little while ago, but I put it +in my pocket and forgot it." + +Janet broke the seal, for the letter was sealed, and then she called out +to her son, who was making for the door: "Don't go away, Timmy. Betty +will ring the lunch bell in a moment." + +Unwillingly he turned round and stood watching her while she read the +four pages of closely written handwriting. But, rather to his relief, +she made no remark, and the bell rang just as she put the letter back in +its envelope. Then she slipped it in her pocket, for Janet Tosswill was +one of the very few women in England who still had a pocket in her dress. + +Giving him what he felt to be a condemnatory look, but in that he was +wrong, for she was too surprised, relieved, and, yes, disturbed, to +think of him at all, she motioned the boy to go before her into the +dining-room. + +As the Sunday joint was always served cold on Monday, they were all +there, even Betty, but owing, as at any rate most of them believed, to +the unfortunate discovery made by Dolly that the pre-war pound was now +only worth about seven and six, it was rather a mournful meal. + +At last Rosamund went out to get the coffee, and then Janet addressed +her son: "Timmy," she observed, "I have something I wish to say to the +others, so will you please go and have your orange with Nanna?" + +Timmy obeyed his mother without a word, and then, after the coffee had +come in and been poured out, Janet said slowly: + +"I've had a letter from Mrs. Crofton, and as she asks me to tell you all +what is in it, I think it will be simpler if I read it out now." + +She waited a moment, gathering up her courage, wondering the while +whether she was doing the best thing by Jack. On the whole she thought +_yes_. There are blows which are far better borne among one's fellows +than in solitude. + +She wished to make her reading as colourless as possible, but she could +not keep a certain touch of sarcasm out of her voice as she read aloud +the first two sentences: + + "Dearest Mrs. Tosswill, + + "You have always been so kind to me that I feel I must write and tell + you why I am leaving the dear Trellis House and delightful Beechfield." + +She looked up, but no one spoke; Jack was staring straight before him, +and she went on: + + "To my _utter_ surprise a very old friend of my late husband's and mine + has asked me to be his wife. He is going back to India in a fortnight, + and so, much as I shrink from the thought of all the bustle and hurry + it will involve, I feel that as it must be now or never, it must be + _now_, and the fact that I have a good offer for The Trellis House + seemed to me a kind of sign-post. + + "Though perhaps I ought not to say so, he is a splendid soldier and did + extremely well in the war. He won a bar to his M.C., which my husband + once told me would have won him a V.C. in any other war. + + "He is anxious that I should not come down to Beechfield again. The + time is so short, and there is so much to be done, that I fear I shall + not see any of you before I leave for India. I would have liked + Rosamund to come to my wedding, but we shall be married very quietly, + and the day and hour will probably be fixed at the last minute. + + "I am purposely not telling you where I am staying as I do not want to + give you the bother of answering this rather unconventional letter. As + for presents I have always hated them. + + "All the business about The Trellis House is being done by a kind + solicitor I know, who arranged about the lease for me. + + "Might I ask you to remember me very kindly to everybody, and to give + my special love to Rosamund and to sweet Miss Betty? I wish I had known + her better. + + "Again thanking you for your kindness, and assuring you I shall always + look back to the happy days I spent at Beechfield, + + "Believe me to remain, + Yours very sincerely, + Enid Crofton." + +There was a long pause. Jack was now crumbling up his bread and then +smoothing out the crumbs with a kind of mechanical, steam-roller movement +of his right-hand forefinger. + +Rosamund was the first to speak. "Why, she hasn't even told us his name!" +she exclaimed. "How very funny of her!" + +And then Godfrey Radmore spoke, just a thought more sharply than usual: +"I'm not at all surprised at that. She wants to start quite clear again." + +Betty said quietly: "That's natural enough, isn't it?" But her heart was +full of aching sympathy for her brother. She felt, rather than saw, his +rigid, mask-like face. + +They all got up, and slowly began to disperse. After all, there was only +one among them to whom this news was of any real moment. + +Janet, feeling curiously tired, went into the drawing-room. The moment +she had finished Enid Crofton's letter she had begun to torment herself +as to whether she had done right or wrong after all? + +To her relief Godfrey Radmore came into the drawing-room. "I want to put +those two unfortunate people out of their misery, Janet. Shall I tell +Dolly, or will you tell her, that I want to give her a thousand pounds as +a wedding present?" + +Janet had very strong ideas of what was right and wrong, or perhaps it +would be better to say of what was meet and proper. + +"I don't think they could take a present of that sort from you," she said +very decidedly. "These are hard times, Godfrey, even for rich people. But +you always talk as if you were made of money!" + +"Do I?" + +He looked taken aback, and even hurt. + +"No, no," she said, "I don't mean that, but I'm upset to-day. What with +one thing and another, I hardly know what I'm saying." She caught herself +up. "I'll tell you what I think would be reasonable. As you are so kind, +give Dolly a hundred pounds. It will make a real difference." + +"No," he said, "it's going to be a thousand." + +"I'm quite sure that John would not allow Dolly to accept it." + +Radmore knew that when Janet invoked John, it meant that she had made up +her mind as to what must be. + +He went to the door, opened it, and called out in what seemed to Janet a +very imperious tone: "Betty?" And yet no glimmer of the truth came into +Janet's mind. + +"It's no good sending for Betty," she said sharply. "There are things +that can be done, and things that can't be done." + +As she uttered that very obvious remark, Betty appeared. + +"Yes," she said a little breathlessly. "Yes, Godfrey, what is it? We have +just started washing up--" + +He took her hand and led her in front of Janet. "We have got to tell her +_now_," he said. "We must do it for Dolly's sake; I never saw anyone +looking so woe-begone as she has looked all the morning." + +And then, at last, Janet began to understand. + +"I don't think Mr. Tosswill will be able to object to Dolly's _brother_ +giving her a thousand pounds," he said, and then, very much to Janet's +surprise, he suddenly threw his arms round her, and gave her a great hug. + + + + * * * * * + + + +By MRS. BELLOC LOWNDES + +WHAT TIMMY DID +FROM OUT THE VASTY DEEP +THE LONELY HOUSE +GOOD OLD ANNA +LOVE AND HATRED +LILLA: A PART OF HER LIFE +THE RED CROSS BARGE + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT TIMMY DID*** + + +******* This file should be named 17381-8.txt or 17381-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/3/8/17381 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: What Timmy Did</p> +<p>Author: Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes</p> +<p>Release Date: December 23, 2005 [eBook #17381]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT TIMMY DID***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (https://www.pgdp.net/</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>WHAT TIMMY DID</h1> + +<h2>BY MRS. BELLOC LOWNDES</h2> + +<h3>AUTHOR OF "FROM OUT THE VASTY DEEP," "THE LONELY HOUSE," "LOVE AND +HATRED," "GOOD OLD ANNA," "THE CHINK IN THE ARMOUR," ETC.</h3> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h4>Copyright, 1922,<br /> +By George H. Doran Company</h4> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII</a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>WHAT TIMMY DID</h2> + + +<p>"Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling from the power of the +dog."—<i>Psalms</i> xxii, 20.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + + +<p>The telephone bell rang sharply in the sunlit and charming, if shabby, +hall of Old Place.</p> + +<p>To John Tosswill there was always something incongruous, and recurringly +strange, in this queer link between a little country parish mentioned in +Domesday Book and the big bustling modern world.</p> + +<p>The bell tinkled on and on insistently, perhaps because it was now no +one's special duty to attend to it. But at last the mistress of the house +came running from the garden and, stripping off her gardening gloves, +took up the receiver.</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill was John Tosswill's second wife, and, though over forty, +a still young and alert looking woman, more Irish than Scotch in +appearance, with her dark hair and blue eyes. But she came of good +Highland stock and was proud of it.</p> + +<p>"London wants you," came the tired, cross voice she knew all too well.</p> + +<p>"I think there must be some mistake. This is Old Place, Beechfield, +Surrey. I don't think anyone can be ringing us from London."</p> + +<p>She waited a moment impatiently. Of course it was a mistake! Not a soul +in London knew their telephone number. It had never been put on their +notepaper. Still, she went on listening with the receiver held to her +ear, and growing more and more annoyed at the futile interruption and +waste of time.</p> + +<p>She was just going to hang up the receiver when all at once the +expression of her face altered. From being good-humoured, if slightly +impatient, it became watchful, and her eyes narrowed as was their way +when Janet Tosswill was "upset" about anything. She had suddenly heard, +with startling clearness, the words:—"Is that Old Place, Beechfield? If +so, Mr. Godfrey Radmore would like to speak to Mrs. Tosswill."</p> + +<p>She was so surprised, so taken aback that for a moment she said nothing. +At last she answered very quietly:—"Tell Mr. Radmore that Mrs. Tosswill +is here waiting on the 'phone."</p> + +<p>There was another longish pause, and then, before anything else happened, +Janet Tosswill experienced an odd sensation; it was as if she felt the +masterful, to her not over-attractive, presence of Godfrey Radmore +approaching the other end of the line. A moment later, she knew he was +there, within earshot, but silent.</p> + +<p>"Is that you, Godfrey? We thought you were in Australia. Have you been +home long?"</p> + +<p>The answer came at once, in the deep, resonant, once familiar voice—the +voice no one had heard in Old Place for nine years—nine years with the +war having happened in between.</p> + +<p>"Indeed no, Janet! I've only been back a very short time." (She noticed +he did not say how long.) "And I want to know when I may come down and +see you all? I hope you and Mr. Tosswill will believe me when I say it +wasn't my fault that I didn't come to Beechfield last year. I hadn't a +spare moment!"</p> + +<p>The tone of the unseen speaker had become awkward, apologetic, and the +listener bit her lips—she did not believe in his explanation as to why +he had behaved with such a lack of gratitude and good feeling last +autumn.</p> + +<p>"We shall be very glad to see you at any time, of course. When can we +expect you?"</p> + +<p>But the welcoming words were uttered very coldly.</p> + +<p>"It's Tuesday to-day; I was thinking of motoring down on Friday or +Saturday. I've got a lot of business to do before then. Will that be +all right?"</p> + +<p>"Of course it will. Come Friday."</p> + +<p>She was thawing a little, and perhaps he felt this, for there came an +eager, yearning note into the full, deep voice which sounded so oddly +near, and which, for the moment, obliterated the long years since she had +heard it last.</p> + +<p>"How's my godson? Flick still in the land of the living, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Thank heaven, yes! That dog's the one thing in the world Timmy cares +for, I sometimes think."</p> + +<p>He felt that she was smiling now.</p> + +<p>She heard the question:—"Another three minutes, sir?" and the hasty +answer:—"Yes, another three minutes," and then, "Still there, Janet?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I am. We'll expect you on Friday, Godfrey, by tea-time, and +I hope you'll stay as long as you can. You won't mind having your old +room?"</p> + +<p>"Rather not!" and then in a hesitating, shamefaced voice:—"I needn't +tell <i>you</i> that to me Old Place <i>is</i> home."</p> + +<p>It was in a very kindly voice that she answered: "I'm glad you still feel +like that, Godfrey."</p> + +<p>"Of course I do, and of course I am ashamed of not having written more +often. I often think of you all—especially of dear old George—" There +came a pause, then the words:—"I want to ask you a question, Janet."</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill felt quite sure she knew what that question would be. +Before linking up with them all again Godfrey wanted to know certain +facts about George. While waiting for him to speak she had time to tell +herself that this would prove that her husband and Betty, the eldest of +her three step-daughters, had been wrong in thinking that Godfrey Radmore +knew that George, Betty's twin, had been killed in the autumn of 1916. At +that time all correspondence between Radmore and Old Place had ceased for +a long time. When it had begun again in 1917, in the form of a chaffing +letter and a cheque for five pounds to the writer's godson, Betty had +suggested that nothing should be said of George's death in Timmy's +answer. Of course Betty's wish had been respected, the more so that Janet +herself felt sure that Godfrey did not know. Why, he and George—dear, +sunny-natured George—had been like fond brothers in the long ago, before +Godfrey's unfortunate love-affair with Betty.</p> + +<p>And so it was that when she heard his next words they took her entirely +by surprise, for it was such an unimportant, as well as unexpected, +question that the unseen speaker asked.</p> + +<p>"Has Mrs. Crofton settled down at The Trellis House yet?"</p> + +<p>"She's arriving to-day, I believe. When she first thought of coming here +she wrote John such a nice letter, saying she was a friend of yours, and +that you had told her about Beechfield. Luckily, The Trellis House was to +let, so John wrote and told her about it."</p> + +<p>Then, at last, came a more intimate question. The man's voice at the +other end of the telephone became diffident—hesitating:—"Are you all +right? Everything as usual?"</p> + +<p>She answered, drily. "Everything's quite as usual, thank you. Beechfield +never changes. Since you were last here there have only been two new +cottages built." She paused perceptibly, and then went on:—"I think that +Timmy told you that Betty was with the Scottish Women's Hospital during +the war? She's got one of the best French decorations."</p> + +<p>Should she say anything about George? Before she could make up her mind +she heard the words—"You can't go on any longer now. Time's up." And +Radmore called out hastily:—"Till Friday then—so long!"</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill hung up the receiver; but she did not move away from the +telephone at once. She stood there, wondering painfully whether she had +better go along and tell Betty <i>now</i>, or whether it would be better to +wait till, say, lunch, when all the young people would be gathered +together? After all Betty had been nineteen when her engagement to +Godfrey Radmore had been broken off, and so very much had happened since +then.</p> + +<p>And then, in a sense, her mind was made up for her by the fact that a +shadow fell across the floor of the hall, and looking up, she saw her old +friend and confidant, Dr. O'Farrell, blocking up the doorway with his big +burly body.</p> + +<p>"D'you remember Godfrey Radmore?" she asked as their hands met.</p> + +<p>"Come now, you're joking surely. Remember Radmore? I've good cause to; I +don't know whether I ever told you—" there came a slight, very slight +note of embarrassment into his hearty Irish voice—"that I wrote to the +good fellow just after the Armistice, about our Pat. That the boy's doing +as well out in Brisbane as he is, is largely owing to Radmore's good +offices."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Tosswill was surprised, and not quite pleased. She wondered why Dr. +O'Farrell had not told her at the time that he was writing to Godfrey. +She still subconsciously felt that Godfrey Radmore belonged to Old Place +and to no one else in Beechfield.</p> + +<p>"I didn't know about Pat," she said slowly. "But you'll be able to thank +him in person now, for he's coming on Friday to stay with us."</p> + +<p>"Is he now?" The shrewd Irishman looked sharply into her troubled face. +"Well, well, you'll have to let bygones be bygones—eh, Mrs. Toss? I take +it he's a great man now."</p> + +<p>"I don't think money makes for greatness," she said.</p> + +<p>"Don't you?" he queried drily. "I do! Come admit, woman, that you're +sorry <i>now</i> you didn't let Betty take the risk?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not at all sorry—" she cried. "It was all his fault. He was such +a strange, rough, violent young fellow!"</p> + +<p>The words trembled on the old doctor's lips—"Perhaps it will all come +right now!" But he checked himself, for in his heart of hearts he did +not in the least believe that it would all come right. He knew well +enough that Godfrey Radmore, after that dramatic exit to Australia, had +cut himself clean off from all his friends. He was coming back now as +that wonderful thing to most people—a millionaire. Was it likely, so +the worldly-wise old doctor asked himself, that a man whose whole +circumstances had so changed, ever gave a thought to that old boyish love +affair with Betty Tosswill?—violent, piteous and painful as the affair +had been. But had Betty forgotten? About that the doctor had his doubts, +but he kept them strictly to himself.</p> + +<p>He changed the subject abruptly. "It isn't scarlet fever at the +Mortons—only a bit of a red rash. I thought you'd like to know.</p> + +<p>"It's good of you to have come and told me," she exclaimed. "I confess +I did feel anxious, for Timmy was there the whole of the day before +yesterday."</p> + +<p>"Ah! and how's me little friend?"</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill looked around—but no, there was no one in the corridor of +which the door, giving into the hall, was wide open.</p> + +<p>"He's gone to do an errand for me in the village."</p> + +<p>"The boy is much more normal, eh?" He looked at her questioningly.</p> + +<p>"He still says that he sees things," she admitted reluctantly, "though +he's rather given' up confiding in me. He tells old Nanna extraordinary +tales, but then, as you know, Timmy was always given to romancing, and of +course Nanna believes every word he says and in a way encourages him."</p> + +<p>The doctor looked at Timmy's mother with a twinkle in his eye. "Nanna +isn't the only one," he observed. "I was told in the village just now +that Master Timmy had scared away the milk from Tencher's cow."</p> + +<p>A look of annoyance came over Mrs. Tosswill's face. "I shall have to +speak to Timmy," she exclaimed. "He's much too given to threatening the +village people with ill fortune if they have done anything he thinks +wrong or unkind. The child was awfully upset the other day because he +discovered that the Tenchers had drowned a half-grown kitten."</p> + +<p>"He's a queer little chap," observed the old doctor, "a broth of a boy, +if ye'll allow me to say so—I'd be proud of Timmy if I were his mother, +Mrs. Toss!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I <i>am</i> proud of him," she said smiling, "but still I always tell +John he's a changeling child—so absurdly unlike all the others."</p> + +<p>"Ah, but that's where <i>you</i> come in, me good friend. 'Twas a witch you +must have had among ye're ancestresses in the long ago."</p> + +<p>He gripped her hand, and went out to his two-seater, his mind still full +of his friend's strange little son.</p> + +<p>Then all at once—he could not have told you why—Dr. O'Farrell's mind +switched off to something very different, and he went back into the hall +again.</p> + +<p>"A word more with ye, Mrs. Tosswill. What sort of a lady has taken The +Trellis House, eh? We don't even know her name."</p> + +<p>"She's a Mrs. Crofton—oddly enough, a friend or acquaintance of Godfrey +Radmore. He seems to have first met her during the war, when he was +quartered in Egypt. She wrote to John and asked if there was a house to +let in Beechfield, quoting Godfrey as having told her it was a delightful +village."</p> + +<p>"And how old may she be?"</p> + +<p>"Her husband was a Colonel Crofton, so I suppose she's middle-aged. She's +only been a widow three months—if as long."</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill waited till Dr. O'Farrell was well away, and then she +began walking down the broad corridor which divided Old Place. It was +such a delightful, dignified, spacious house, and very dear to them all, +yet Janet was always debating within herself whether they ought to go on +living in it, now that they had become so poor.</p> + +<p>When she came to the last door on the left, close to the baize door +Which shut off the commons from the living rooms, she waited a moment. +Then, turning the handle, she walked into what was still called the +schoolroom, though Timmy never did his lessons there.</p> + +<p>Betty Tosswill, the eldest of John Tosswill's three daughters, was +sitting at a big mid-Victorian writing-table, examining the house-books. +She had just discovered two "mistakes" in the milkman's account, and she +felt perhaps unreasonably sorry and annoyed. Betty had a generous, +unsuspicious outlook on human nature, and a meeting with petty dishonesty +was always a surprise. She looked up with a very friendly, welcoming +smile as her step-mother came into the room. They were very good friends, +these two, and they had a curiously close bond in Timmy, the only child +of the one and the half-brother of the other. Betty was now twenty-eight +and there were only two persons in the world whom she had loved in her +life as well as she now loved her little brother.</p> + +<p>As her step-mother came close up to her—"Janet? What's the matter?" +she exclaimed, and as the other made no answer, a look of fear came +over the girl's face. She got up from her chair. "Don't look like that, +Janet,—you're frightening me!"</p> + +<p>The older woman tried to smile. "To tell the truth, Betty, I've had +rather a shock. You heard the telephone bell ring?"</p> + +<p>"You mean some minutes ago?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Who was it?"</p> + +<p>"Godfrey Radmore, speaking from London."</p> + +<p>"Is that all? I was afraid that something had happened to Timmy!" But, +even so, the colour flamed up into Betty Tosswill's face.</p> + +<p>Her step-mother looked away out of the window as she went on:—"It was +stupid of me to have been so surprised, but somehow I thought he was +still in Australia."</p> + +<p>"He was in England last year." Betty, not really knowing what she was +doing, bent over the peccant milkman's book.</p> + +<p>"He's coming down here on Friday. I think he realises that I haven't +forgiven him for not coming to see us last year. Still we must let +bygones be bygones."</p> + +<p>Then she wondered with a sharp touch of self-reproach what had made her +say such a stupid thing—a thing which might have, and indeed had, two +such different meanings? What she had <i>meant</i> had been that she must +forget the hurt surprise she and her husband had felt that Godfrey +Radmore, on two separate occasions, had deliberately avoided coming down +from London to what had been, after all, so long his home; in fact, as he +himself had said just now, the only home he had ever known.</p> + +<p>But what was this Betty was saying?—her face rather drawn and white, all +the bright colour drifted out of it—"Of course we must, Janet! Besides +Godfrey was not to blame—not at the last."</p> + +<p>Janet knew what Betty meant. That at the end it was she who had failed +him. But when their engagement had been broken off, Godfrey had been +worse than penniless—in debt, and entirely through his own fault. He +had gambled away what little money he had, and it had ended in his going +off to Australia—alone.</p> + +<p>Then an astounding thing had happened. Godfrey had had a fortune left him +by an eccentric old man in whose employment he had been as secretary for +a while. His luck still holding, he had gone through most of the war, +including Gallipoli, with only one wound, which had left no ill effects. +A man so fortunate ought not to have neglected his old friends.</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill, the step-mother completely merging into the friend, came +forward, and put her arms round the girl's shoulders. "Look here, Betty. +Wouldn't you rather go away? I don't suppose he'll stay longer than +Monday or Tuesday—"</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't think of going away! I expect he's forgotten all about that +old affair. It's a long time ago, Janet—nine years. We were both so +young, that I've forgotten too—in a sense." And then, as she saw that +the other was far more moved than she herself was outwardly, she +repeated: "It really has faded away, almost out of sight. Think of +all that has happened since then!"</p> + +<p>The other muttered, "Yes, that's true," and Betty went on, a little +breathlessly, "I'll tell you who'll be pleased—that's Timmy. He's got a +regular hero-worship of Godfrey." She was smiling now. "I hope he asked +after his godson?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed he did. After Flick too! By the way he wanted to know if Mrs. +Crofton was settled down in The Trellis House. I wonder if she's an +Australian?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think so," said Betty. "I think he met them in Egypt during the +war. He mentioned them in one of his letters to Timmy, and then, when he +was in England last year, he must have stayed with them, for that's where +Flick came from. Colonel Crofton bred terriers. I remember reading Timmy +a long letter signed 'Cecil Crofton' telling him all about how to manage +Flick, and he mentioned Godfrey."</p> + +<p>"I don't remember that—I must have been away."</p> + +<p>They were both glad to have glided on to a safe, indifferent subject.</p> + +<p>"I'll go back to my carnations now, but first I'd better tell your father +the news."</p> + +<p>"You—you—needn't remind father of anything that happened years ago, +Janet—need you?"</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill shook her head, and yet when she had shut the door behind +her in her husband's study, almost the first words she uttered, after +having told him of Godfrey Radmore's coming visit, were:—"I shall never, +never forgive him for the way he treated Betty. I hate the thought of +having to be nice to him—I wish Timmy wasn't his godson!"</p> + +<p>She spoke the words breathlessly, defiantly, standing before her old +John's untidy writing table.</p> + +<p>As she spoke, he rather nervously turned some papers over under his +hand:—"I don't know that he behaved as badly as you think, my dear. +Neither of them had any money, and at that time he had no prospects."</p> + +<p>"He'd thrown away his prospects! Then I can't forgive him for his +behaviour last year—never coming down to see us, I mean. It was so—so +ungrateful! Handsome presents don't make up for that sort of thing. I +used to long to send the things back."</p> + +<p>"I don't think you're fair," began Mr. Tosswill deprecatingly. "He did +write me a very nice letter, Janet, explaining that it was impossible for +him to come."</p> + +<p>"Well, I suppose we must make the best of it—particularly as he says +that he's come back to England for good."</p> + +<p>She went out of the room, and so into the garden—back to the border she +had left unwillingly but at which she now glanced down with a sensation +of disgust. She felt thoroughly ruffled and upset—a very unusual +condition for her to be in, for Janet Tosswill was an equable and +happy-natured woman, for all her affectionate and sensitive heart.</p> + +<p>She told herself that it was true the whole world had altered in the last +nine years—everything had altered except Beechfield. The little Surrey +village seemed to her mind exactly the same as it was when she had come +there, as a bride, fourteen years ago, except that almost everybody in +it, from being comfortably off, had become uncomfortably poor. Then all +at once, she smiled. The garden of Old Place was very different from the +garden she had found when she first came there. It had been a melancholy, +neglected, singularly ugly garden—the kind of garden which only costly +bedding-out had made tolerable in some prosperous early Victorian day. +Now it was noted for its charm and beauty even among the many beautiful +gardens of the neighbourhood, and during the War she had made quite a lot +of money selling flowers and fruit for the local Red Cross. Now she was +trying to coax her husband to take one of the glebe fields on a long +lease in order to start a hamper trade in fruit, vegetables and flowers. +Dolly, the one of her three step-daughters whom she liked least, was fond +of gardening, in a dull plodding way, and might be trained to such work.</p> + +<p>But try though she did to forget Godfrey Radmore, her mind swung +ceaselessly back to the man with whom she had just had that curious talk +on the telephone. She was sorry—not glad as a more worldly woman would +have been—that Godfrey Radmore was coming back into their life.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + + +<p>While Janet Tosswill was thinking so intently of Godfrey Radmore, he +himself was standing at the window of a big bedroom in one of those +musty, expensive, old-fashioned hotels, which, perhaps because they are +within a stone's throw of Piccadilly, still have faithful patrons all the +year round, and are full to bursting during the London Season. As to +Radmore, he had chosen it because it was the place where the grandfather +who had brought him up always stayed when he, Godfrey, was a little boy.</p> + +<p>Tall, well-built after the loose-limbed English fashion, and with a dark, +intelligent, rather grim cast of face, Radmore looked older than his age, +which was thirty-two. Yet, for all that, there was an air of power and of +reserved strength about him that set him apart from his fellows, and a +casual observer would have believed him cold, and perhaps a thought +calculating, in nature.</p> + +<p>Yet, standing there, looking out on that quiet, narrow street, he was +seething with varying emotions in which he was, in a sense, luxuriating, +though whether he would have admitted any living being to a share in them +was another matter.</p> + +<p>Home! Home at last for good!—after what had been, with two short breaks, +a nine years' absence from England, and from all that England stands for +to such a man.</p> + +<p>He had left his country in 1910, an angry, embittered lad of +twenty-three, believing that he would never come back or, at any rate, +not till he was an old man having "made good."</p> + +<p>But everything—everything had fallen out absolutely differently from +what he had expected it to do. The influence of Mars, so fatal to +millions of his fellow beings, had brought him marvellous, unmerited good +fortune. He had rushed home the moment War was declared, and after +putting in some time in a training which he hated to remember, he had at +last obtained a commission. Within a fortnight of having reached his +Mecca—the Front, he was back in England in the—to him—amazing guise of +wounded hero. But he had sent for none of his old friends for he was +still ashamed. After the Armistice he had rushed through England on his +way to Australia, putting in a few days with a Colonel and Mrs. Crofton, +with whom he had been thrown in Egypt. More to do his host a kindness +than for any other reason, Radmore had sent his godson, Timothy Tosswill, +a pedigree puppy, from the queer little Essex manor-house where the +Croftons were then making a rather futile attempt to increase their +slender means by breeding terriers.</p> + +<p>The days had slipped by there very pleasantly, for Radmore liked his +taciturn host, and Mrs. Crofton was very pretty—an agreeable playfellow +for a rich and lonely man. So it was that when it came to the point he +had not cared to look up any of the people associated with his early +youth.</p> + +<p>But now he was going to see them—almost had he forced himself upon them. +And the thought of going home to Old Place shook and stirred him to the +heart.</p> + +<p>To-day he felt quite queerly at a loose end. This perhaps, partly because +the lately widowed Mrs. Crofton, with whom he had spent a good deal of +his time since his arrival in London three weeks ago, had left town. She +had not gone far, only to the Surrey village where he himself was going +on Friday.</p> + +<p>When pretty Mrs. Crofton had told Radmore that she had taken a house at +Beechfield, he had been very much surprised and taken aback. It had +seemed to him an amazing coincidence that the one place in the wide world +which to him was home should have been chosen by her. But at once she had +reminded him, in her pretty little positive way, that it was he himself +who, soon after they had become first acquainted in Egypt, had drawn such +an attractive picture of the Surrey village. That, in fact, was why, in +July—it was now late September—when she, Enid Crofton, had had to think +of making a new home, Beechfield had seemed to her the ideal place. If +only she could hear of a house to let there! And by rare good chance +there had been such a house—The Trellis House! A friend had lent her +a motor, and she had gone down to look at it one August afternoon, and +there and then had decided to take it. It was so exactly what she +wanted—a delightful, old, cottagy place, yet with all modern +conveniences, lacking, alas! only electric light.</p> + +<p>All this had happened, so she had explained, after her last letter to +him, for she and Radmore had kept up a desultory correspondence.</p> + +<p>And now, with Janet Tosswill's voice still sounding in his ears, Godfrey +Radmore was not altogether sorry to feel a touch of loneliness, for at +times his good fortune frightened him.</p> + +<p>Not only had he escaped through the awful ordeal of war with only one bad +wound, while many of his friends and comrades—the best and bravest, the +most happily young, had fallen round him—but he had come back to find +himself transformed from a penniless adventurer into a very rich man. An +old Brisbane millionaire, into whose office he had drifted in the January +of 1914, and with whom he had, after a fashion, made friends, had re-made +his will in the memorable autumn of that year, and had left Radmore half +his vast fortune. Doubtless many such wills were made under the stress of +war emotion, but—and it was here that Radmore's strange luck had come +in—the maker of this particular will had died within a month of making +it. And, as so often happens to a man who had begun by losing what little +he had owing to folly and extravagance, Godfrey Radmore, though +exceptionally generous and kindly, now lived well within his means, and +had, if anything, increased his already big share of this world's goods.</p> + +<p>Now that he was home for good, he intended to buy a nice old-fashioned +house with a little shooting, and perchance a little fishing. The place, +though not at Land's End, must yet not be so near London that a fellow +would be tempted to be always going to town. It seemed to him amazing +that he now had it within his power to achieve what had always been his +ideal. But when he had acquired exactly the kind of place he wanted to +find, what those whom he had set seeking for him had assured him with +such flattering and eager earnestness he would very soon discover—what +then? Did he mean to live there alone? He thought yes, for he did not now +feel drawn to marriage.</p> + +<p>As a boy—it now seemed æons of years ago—it had been far otherwise. But +Betty Tosswill had been very young, only nineteen, and when he had fallen +on evil days she had thrown him over in obedience to her father's +strongly expressed wish. He had suffered what at the time seemed a +frightful agony, and he had left England full of revolt and bitterness.</p> + +<p>But to-day, when the knowledge that he was so soon going to Beechfield +brought with it a great surge of remembrance, he could not honestly tell +himself that he was sorry. Had he gone out to Australia burdened with a +girl-wife, the difficult struggle would have been well-nigh intolerable, +and it was a million to one chance that he would ever have met the man to +whom he owed his present good fortune. What he now longed to do was to +enjoy himself in a simple, straightforward way. Love, with its tremors, +uncertainties, its blisses and torments, was not for him, and in so far +as he might want a pleasant touch of half sentimental, half sexless +comradeship, there was his agreeable friendship with Mrs. Crofton.</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton? The thought of how well he had come to know her in the +last three weeks surprised him. When he had first met her in Egypt she +had been the young, very pretty wife of Colonel Crofton, an elderly +"dug-out," odd and saturnine, whose manner to his wife was not always +over-kindly. No one out there had been much surprised when she had +decided to brave the submarine peril and return to England.</p> + +<p>Radmore had not been the only man who had felt sorry for her, and who had +made friends with her. But unlike the other men, who were all more or +less in love with her, he had liked Colonel Crofton. During his visit to +Fildy Fe Manor, the liking had hardened into serious regard. He had been +surprised, rather distressed, to find how much less well-off they had +appeared here, at home, than when the Colonel had been on so-called +active service. It had also become plain to him—though he was not a man +to look out for such things—that the husband and wife were now on very +indifferent terms, the one with the other, and, on the whole, he blamed +the wife—and then, just before he had started for home again, had come +the surprising news of Colonel Crofton's death!</p> + +<p>In her letter to one who was, after all, only an acquaintance, the +young widow had gone into no details. But, just by chance, Radmore had +seen a paragraph in a week-old London paper containing an account of the +inquest. Colonel Crofton had committed suicide, a result, it was stated, +of depression owing to shell-shock. "Shell-shock" gave Radmore pause. He +felt quite sure that Colonel Crofton had never—to use a now familiar +paraphrase—heard a shot fired in anger. The fact that his war service +had been far from the Front had always been a subject of bitter complaint +on the old soldier's part.</p> + +<p>Radmore had written a sympathetic note to Mrs. Crofton, telling her the +date of his return, and now—almost without his knowing how and why—they +had become intimate, meeting almost daily, lunching or dining together +incessantly, Radmore naturally gratified at the admiration his lovely +companion—she had grown even prettier since he had last seen +her—obviously excited.</p> + +<p>And yet, though he had become such "pals" with her, and though he missed +her society at his now lonely meals to an almost ridiculous extent, +Radmore would have been much taken aback had an angel from heaven told +him that the real reason he had sought to get in touch with Old Place was +because Enid Crofton had already settled down at Beechfield.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + + +<p>After Timmy Tosswill had been to the village shop and done his mother's +errand, he wandered on, his dog, Flick, at his heels, debating within +himself what he should do next.</p> + +<p>Like most children who lead an abnormal, because a lonely, childhood, he +was in some ways very mature, in other ways still very babyish. He was at +once secretive and—whenever anything touched his heart—emotionally +expansive. To the indifferent observer Timmy appeared to be an +exceptionally intelligent, naughty, rather spoilt little boy, too apt +to take every advantage of a certain physical delicacy. This was also +the view taken of him by his half-brothers, and by two out of his three +step-sisters. But the three who really loved him, his mother, his nurse, +and his eldest half-sister, Betty, were convinced that the child was +either possessed of a curious, uncanny gift of—was it second sight?—as +his old nurse entirely and his mother half, believed, or, as Dr. +O'Farrell asserted, some abnormal development of his subconscious self. +All three were ruefully aware that Timmy was often—well, his mother +called it "sly," his sister called it "fanciful," his nurse by the good +old nursery term, "deceitful."</p> + +<p>It was this unlovable attribute of his which made it so difficult to know +whether Timmy believed in the positive assertions occasionally made by +him concerning his intimate acquaintance with the world of the unseen. +That he could sometimes visualise what was coming to pass, especially +if it was of an unpleasant, disturbing nature, was, so his mother +considered, an undeniable fact. But sometimes the gift lay in abeyance +for weeks, even for months. That had been the case, as Mrs. Tosswill had +told Dr. O'Farrell, for a long time now—to be precise, since March, +when, to the dismay of those about him he had predicted an accident in +the hunting field which actually took place.</p> + +<p>Timmy walked on up the steep bit of road which led to the upper part +of the beautiful old village which was, like many an English village, +shaped somewhat like a horseshoe—and then suddenly he stopped and gazed +intently into a walled stable-yard of which the big gates were wide open.</p> + +<p>Beechfield was Timmy Tosswill's world in little. He was passionately +interested in all that concerned its inhabitants, and was a familiar and +constant, though not always a welcome visitor to every cottage. Most of +the older village men and women had a certain grudging affection for the +odd little boy. They were all well aware of, and believed in, the gift +which made him, as the nurse had once explained to a crony of hers, "see +things which are not there," though not one of them would have cared to +mention it to him.</p> + +<p>Timmy had a special reason for wishing to know what was going on in this +stable-yard, so, after a moment's thought, he walked deliberately through +the gates as if he had some business there, and then he saw that two men, +one of whom was a stranger to him, were tidying up the place in a very +leisurely, thoroughgoing manner.</p> + +<p>The back door of The Trellis House, as the quaint-looking, long, low +building to the right was incongruously named, opened into the +stable-yard and by the door was a bench. Timmy walked boldly across the +yard and established himself on the bench and his dog, Flick, jumped up +and sat sedately by him. The little boy then took a small black book out +of his pocket. The book was called "The Crofton Boys" and Timmy had +chosen it because the name of the new tenant of The Trellis House was +Mrs. Crofton, a friend, as he was aware, of his godfather, Godfrey +Radmore. He wondered if she had any boys.</p> + +<p>The two men, busy with big new brooms, came up close to where Timmy was +sitting. When the child, obviously "one of the gentry," had walked into +the stable-yard, they had abruptly stopped talking; but now, seeing that +he was reading intently, and apparently quite uninterested in what they +were doing, they again began speaking to one another, or rather one of +them, a hard-bitten, shrewd-looking man, much the older of the two, began +talking in what was, though Timmy was not aware of it, a Cockney dialect.</p> + +<p>"You won't find 'er a bad 'un to work for, m'lad. I speak of folks as I +find them. I'm not one to take any notice of queer tales!"</p> + +<p>"Queer tales. What be the queer tales, Mister Piper?"</p> + +<p>Timmy knew this last speaker. He was the baker's rather sharp younger +son, and Mrs. Crofton had just engaged him as handy man.</p> + +<p>The older man lowered his voice a little, but Timmy, who, while his eyes +seemed glued to the pages of the book he held open, was yet listening +with all his ears, heard what followed quite clearly.</p> + +<p>"It ain't for me to spread ill tales after what I've told you, eh? But +the Colonel's death was a reg'lar tragedy, 'twas, and some there were who +said that 'is widder wasn't exactly sorry. 'E were a melancholy cove for +any young woman to 'ave to live with. But there, as my old mother used to +say, 'any old barn-door can keep out the draught!'"</p> + +<p>The younger man looked up:—"What sort o' tragedy?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"The Colonel pizened 'isself, and the question was—did 'e do it o' +purpose? Some said yes, and some said no. I was in it by a manner of +speaking."</p> + +<p>"You was in it?"</p> + +<p>The boy left off working, and gazed at the other eagerly:—"D'you mean +you saw him do it?"</p> + +<p>"I was the first to see 'im in his agony—I calls that being in it. And +I was called upon to give evidence at the inquest held on the corpse."</p> + +<p>The man looked round him furtively as he spoke. The little boy sitting by +the back door of the house caused him no concern, but he did not want +what he said to be overheard by the two new maid-servants who had arrived +at The Trellis House that morning.</p> + +<p>"There's always a lot of talk when folks die sudden," he went on, in a +sententious tone. "It was as plain as the nose on your face that the +Colonel, poor chap, 'ad 'ad what they called shell-shock. I'd heard 'im +a-talking aloud to 'isself many a time. 'E was a-weary of life 'e was. So +'tis plain 'e just thought 'e'd put an end to it, like many a better man +afore 'im."</p> + +<p>And then the youth said something that rather surprised himself, but his +mind had been working while the other had been talking.</p> + +<p>"Did anyone say different?" was his question and the other answered in +a curious tone: "Now you're askin'! Yes, there was some folk as did say +different. They argued that the Colonel never took the pizen knowingly. +'E was very keen over terriers—we bred 'em. The best of 'em, a grand +sire, was the very spit of that little dawg sitting up on that there +bench. Colonel bred 'em for profit, not pleasure. Mrs. Crofton, she +'ated 'em, and she lost no time either in getting rid of 'em after +'e was gone. They got on 'er nerves, same as 'e'd done. She give the +best—prize-winner 'e was—to the Crowner as tried the corpse. 'E'd known +'em both—was a bit sweet on 'er 'isself."</p> + +<p>The youth laughed discordantly. "Ho! Ho! She's that sort, is she?"</p> + +<p>But the other spoke up at once with a touch of sharpness in his voice.</p> + +<p>"She's a good sort to them as be'aves themselves, my lad. She give me a +good present. Got me a good, new soft place, too, that's where I'm going +to-morrer. I'm 'ere to oblige 'er, that's what I am—just to put you, +young man, in the way of things. Look sharp, please 'er, mind your +manners, and you may end better off than you know!"</p> + +<p>The lad looked at the speaker with a gleam of rather hungry curiosity in +his lack-lustre eyes.</p> + +<p>"Mark my words! Your missus won't be a widder long. Ever 'eard of a Major +Radmore?"</p> + +<p>The speaker did not notice that the little boy sitting on the bench +stiffened unconsciously.</p> + +<p>"Major Radmore?" repeated the listener. "Folk in Beechfield did know a +chap called Radmore. Lives in Australia, he does. He sent home some money +for a village club 'e did, but nothing 'as been done about it yet. Some +do say old Tosswill's sticking to the cash—a gent as what they calls +trustee of it all. But then who'd trust anyone with a load o' money? The +chap I'm thinking of used to live at Tosswill's a matter of ten years +ago."</p> + +<p>"Then 'tis the same one!" exclaimed the other eagerly, "and, if so, +you'll not lack good things. Likely as not the Major's your future +master. 'E's got plenty, and a generous soul too. Gave me a present last +year when he was a stopping at Fildy Fe Manor. The Major, 'e bought one +of our dawgs, and I sent it off for 'im to Old Place, Beechfield, damn +me if I don't remember it now—name of Tosswill too." He stopped short, +and then, as if he had thought better of what he was going to say, he +observed musingly: "Some says Jack Piper's a blabber—but they don't know +me! But one thing I'll tell you. The're two after the Missus, for all the +Colonel's 'ardly cold, so to speak, but I put my money on the dark one."</p> + +<p>He had hardly uttered these cryptic words when a pretty young woman +opened the door which gave on to the stable-yard from the house: +"Dinner-time!" she called out merrily.</p> + +<p>Both men dropped the brooms they were holding, and going towards the door +disappeared.</p> + +<p>As they did so, Timmy heard the words:—"<i>She's</i> a peach—thinks herself +one too—oh! the merry widder!"</p> + +<p>The little boy waited a moment. He took a long look round the sunny, and +now unnaturally tidy, stable-yard. Then he got up, shut his book, and put +it sedately into his pocket. Flick seemed unwilling to move, so Timmy +turned and called sharply:—"Flick! come along at once!"</p> + +<p>The dog jumped down and ran up to his master. Timmy walked across the +big, flat, white stones, kicking a pebble as he went. At last, when he +got close to the open gate, he hop-scotched, propelling the pebble far +into the road.</p> + +<p>He was extremely disturbed and surprised. He went over and over +again what he had heard the two men say. The absurd suspicion of his +father filled him with angry hurt disgust. Why only yesterday the plan +of the village clubhouse had come from the architect! And then that +extraordinary disconcerting hint about his godfather? Godfrey Radmore +belonged in Timmy's imagination, first to himself, secondly to his +parents, and then, in a much less close way, to the rest of the Tosswill +family. A sensation of strong-dislike to the still unknown new tenant of +The Trellis House welled up in his secretive little heart, and instead of +going on round the village, he turned back and made his way straight +home.</p> + +<p>As he walked along the short avenue which led to the front door of Old +Place he saw his mother kneeling on her gardening mat. He stepped up on +to the grass hoping to elude her sharp eyes and ears, but she had already +seen him.</p> + +<p>"Hullo, Timmy!" she called out cheerfully. "What have you been doing with +yourself all this time?"</p> + +<p>"I've been sitting reading in the stable-yard of The Trellis House."</p> + +<p>"That seems rather a funny thing to do, when you might have been here +helping your Mummy," but she said the words very kindly. Then suddenly +the mention of The Trellis House reminded her of Godfrey Radmore. "I've +got a great piece of news!" she exclaimed. "Guess who's coming here to +spend the week-end with us, Timmy?"</p> + +<p>He looked at her gravely and said:—"I think I know, Mum."</p> + +<p>She felt taken aback, as she so often was with her strange little son.</p> + +<p>"I don't think you do," she cried briskly.</p> + +<p>"I think it's"—he hesitated a moment—"Major Radmore, my godfather."</p> + +<p>She was very, very surprised. Then her quick Scotch mind fastened on the +one unfamiliar word. "Why <i>Major</i> Radmore?" she asked.</p> + +<p>Timmy looked a little confused. "I—I don't know," he muttered +unwillingly. "I thought he was a soldier, Mum."</p> + +<p>"Of course he <i>was</i> a soldier. But he isn't a soldier now."</p> + +<p>"Isn't it tea-time?" asked Timmy suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I suppose it is."</p> + +<p>As they walked towards the house together Janet was telling herself +uneasily that unless Timmy had met Dr. O'Farrell, it was impossible for +him to have learnt through any ordinary human agency that Godfrey Radmore +was coming to Beechfield. Though a devoted, she was not a blind mother, +and she was disagreeably aware that her little son never "gave himself +away." She did not wish to start him on a long romancing explanation +which would embody—if one were to put it in bald English—a lie. So she +said nothing.</p> + +<p>They were close to the door of the house when he again took her aback by +suddenly saying:—"I don't think Mrs. Crofton can be a very nice sort of +lady, Mum."</p> + +<p>(Then he had seen Mrs. Crofton, and <i>she</i> had told him.)</p> + +<p>"Why not, Timmy?"</p> + +<p>"I have a sort of feeling that she's horrid."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! If only for your godfather's sake, we must all try and like +her. Besides, my boy, she's in great trouble. Her husband only died two +or three months ago."</p> + +<p>"Some people aren't sorry when their husbands die," remarked Timmy.</p> + +<p>She pretended not to hear. But as they walked through into the hall +she heard him say as if to himself: "Some people are glad. Mrs. George +Pott"—the woman who kept the local beer-shop—"danced when <i>her</i> husband +died."</p> + +<p>"I wish, Timmy," said his mother sharply, "that you would not listen to, +or repeat low village gossip."</p> + +<p>"Not even if it's true, Mum?"</p> + +<p>"No, not even if it's true."</p> + +<p>When Janet had first come to Old Place as a bride, eager to shoulder what +some of her friends had told her would be an almost intolerable burden, +her husband's six children had been a sad, subdued, nursery-brought-up +group, infinitely pathetic to her warm Scotch heart. At once she had +instituted, rather to the indignation of the old nurse who was yet to +become in due time her devoted henchwoman, a daily dining-room tea, and +the custom still persisted.</p> + +<p>And now, to Timmy's surprise, his mother opened the drawing-room door +instead of going on to the dining-room. "Tell Betty," she said abruptly, +"to pour out tea. I'll come on presently."</p> + +<p>She shut the door, and going over to the roomy old sofa, sat down, and +leaning back, closed her eyes. It was a very unusual thing for her to +do, but she felt tired, and painfully excited at the thought of Godfrey +Radmore's coming visit. And as she lay there, there rose up before her, +wearily and despondently, the changes which nine years had brought to Old +Place.</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill, like all intelligent step-mothers, sometimes speculated +as to what her predecessor had really been like. Her husband's elder +children were so amazingly unlike one another, as well as utterly unlike +her own son Timmy.</p> + +<p>Betty, the eldest of her step-children, was her favourite, and she had +also been deeply attached to Betty's twin-brother, George. The two had +been alike in many ways, though Betty was very feminine and George +essentially masculine, and each of them had possessed those special +human attributes which only War seems to bring to full fruition.</p> + +<p>George had been out in France seven months when he had been killed at +Beaumont Hamel, and he had already won a bar to his Military Cross by an +action which in any other campaign would have given him the Victoria +Cross. As for Betty, she had shown herself extraordinarily brave, cool, +and resourceful when after doing some heavy home war work, she had gone +out with one of the units of the Scottish Women's Hospital.</p> + +<p>But Janet Tosswill admired and loved the girl more than ever since +Betty had come back, from what had perforce been a full and exciting +life, to take up the dull, everyday routine existence at Old Place where, +what with a bad investment, high prices, and the sudden leap in the +income-tax, from living pleasantly at ease they had become most +unpleasantly poor.</p> + +<p>Jack, who came next to Betty, though a long way after, and who had just +missed being in the war, was a very different type of young Englishman +from what George had been. He was clever, self-assertive, and already +known as a brilliant debater and as a sound speaker at the Oxford Union. +There need be no trouble as to Jack Tosswill's future—he was going to +the Bar, and there was little doubt that he would succeed there. One of +his idiosyncrasies was his almost contemptuous indifference to women. He +was fond of his sisters in a patronising way, but the average pleasant +girl, of whom the neighbourhood of Beechfield had more than its full +share, left him quite cold.</p> + +<p>The next in age—Dolly—was the most commonplace member of the family. +Her character seemed to be set on absolutely conventional lines, and the +whole family, with the exception of her father, who did not concern +himself with such mundane things, secretly hoped that she would marry a +young parson who had lately "made friends with her." As is often the case +with that type of young woman, Dolly was feckless about money, and would +always have appeared badly and unsuitably dressed but for the efforts of +her elder sister and step-mother.</p> + +<p>Rosamund, the youngest and by far the prettiest of the three sisters, was +something of a problem. Though two years younger than Dolly, she had +already had three or four love affairs, and when only sixteen, had been +the heroine of a painful scrape—the sort of scrape which the people +closely concerned try determinedly to forget, but which everyone about +them remembers to his or her dying day.</p> + +<p>The hero of that sorry escapade had been a man of forty, separated from +his wife. On the principle that "truth will out even in an affidavit," +poor Rosamund's little world was well aware that the girl, or rather the +child, had been simply vain and imprudent. But still, she had disappeared +for two terrible long days and nights, and even now, when anything +recalled the episode to her step-mother or to Betty, they would shudder +with an awful inward tremor, recollecting what they had both gone +through. That she had come back as silly and innocent a girl as she had +left, and feeling as much shame as she was capable of feeling, had been +owing to the tardily awakened sense of prudence and honour in the man to +whom she had run away in a fit of temper after a violent quarrel with—of +all people in the world—her brother Jack.</p> + +<p>Rosamund now ardently desired to become an actress, and after much secret +discussion with his wife, her father had at last told her that if she +were of the same opinion when she reached the age of twenty-one he would +put no obstacle in her way.</p> + +<p>As to Tom, the youngest of Janet Tosswill's step-children, he was "quite +all right." Though only fifteen months younger than Rosamund, whereas she +was as much of a woman as she ever would be, he was still a cheery, +commonplace schoolboy. He had been such a baby when Janet had married +that sometimes she almost felt as if he were her own child and that +though Tom's relation to her own son was peculiar. Theoretically the +two boys ought to have been pals, or at any rate good friends. But in +practice they were like oil and water—and found it impossible to mix. +When Tom was at home, as now, on his holidays, he spent most of his time +with a schoolfellow of his own age who lived about two miles from +Beechfield. In some ways Timmy was older now than Tom would ever be.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + + +<p>Timmy went on into the dining-room to find his brothers and sisters all +gathered there excepting Dolly. But as he sat down, and as Betty began to +pour out tea, Dolly came in from the garden with the words:—"Guess who +I've met and had a talk with?"</p> + +<p>She looked round her eagerly, but no one ventured an opinion. There were +so many, many people whom Dolly might have met and had a talk with, for +she was the most gregarious member of the Tosswill family.</p> + +<p>At last Timmy spoke up:—"I expect you've seen Mrs. Crofton," he +observed, his mouth already full of bread and butter.</p> + +<p>Dolly was taken aback. "How did you know?" she cried. "But it's quite +true—I <i>have</i> seen Mrs. Crofton!"</p> + +<p>"What is she like?" asked Jack indifferently.</p> + +<p>"How old is she?" This from Betty, who somehow always seemed to ask the +essential question.</p> + +<p>"D'you think she'll prove a 'stayer'?" questioned Tom.</p> + +<p>He had hoped that someone with a family of boys and girls would have come +to The Trellis House. It was a beautiful little building—the oldest +dwelling-house in the village, in spite of its early Victorian name. But +no one ever stayed there very long. Some of the older village folk said +it was haunted.</p> + +<p>"Did you speak to her, or did she speak to you?" asked Rosamund.</p> + +<p>And then again Timmy intervened.</p> + +<p>"I know more about her than any one of you do. But I don't mean to tell +you what I know," he announced.</p> + +<p>No one took any notice of him. By common consent efforts were always made +in the family circle to keep Timmy down—but such efforts were rarely +successful.</p> + +<p>"Well, tell us what's she like?" exclaimed Rosamund. "I did so hope we +should escape another widow."</p> + +<p>She had hoped for a nice, well-to-do couple, with at least one grown-up +son preferably connected, in some way, with the stage.</p> + +<p>Dolly Tosswill, still standing, looked down at her audience.</p> + +<p>"She's quite unlike what I thought she would be," she began. "For one +thing, she's quite young, and she's awfully pretty and unusual-looking. +You'd notice her anywhere."</p> + +<p>"Did you meet her in the post-office?" asked Betty.</p> + +<p>"No, at church. She only arrived this morning, and she said she felt so +lonely and miserable that when she heard the bell ring she thought she'd +go along and see what our church was like."</p> + +<p>"Oh, then she's 'pi'?" in a tone of disgust from Rosamund.</p> + +<p>"I'd noticed her in church, though she was sitting rather back, close to +the door," went on Dolly, "and I'd wondered who she was, as she looked so +very unlike any of the Beechfield people."</p> + +<p>"How do you mean—unlike?" asked Tom.</p> + +<p>"I can't explain exactly. I thought she was a summer visitor. And then +something so funny happened—"</p> + +<p>Dolly was sitting down now, and Betty handed her a cup of tea, grieving +the while to see how untidy she looked with her hat tilted back at an +unbecoming angle.</p> + +<p>"What happened?"</p> + +<p>"Well, as we came out of the church together, all at once that old, +half-blind, post-office dog made straight for her! He gave a most awful +howl, and she was so frightened that she ran back into the church again. +But of course I didn't know she was Mrs. Crofton <i>then</i>. I got the dog +into the post-office garden and then I went back into the church to tell +her the coast was clear. But she waited a bit, for she was awfully afraid +that he might get out again."</p> + +<p>"What a goose she must be"—this from Jack.</p> + +<p>"She asked if she were likely to meet any other dog in the road; so I +asked her where she lived, and then she told me she was Mrs. Crofton, and +that she had only arrived this morning. I offered to walk home with her, +and then we had quite a talk. She has the same kind of feeling about dogs +that some people have about cats."</p> + +<p>"That's rather queer!" said Tom suddenly, "for her husband bred +wire-haired terriers. Colonel Crofton sold Flick to Godfrey Radmore last +year—don't you remember?"</p> + +<p>He appealed to Betty, who always remembered everything.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said quietly, "I was just thinking of that. Colonel Crofton +wrote Timmy such a nice letter telling him how to manage Flick. It does +seem strange that she should have that feeling about dogs."</p> + +<p>Again Timmy's shrill voice rose in challenge. "I should hate <i>my</i> wife +not to like dogs," he cried pugnaciously.</p> + +<p>"It'll take you all your time to make her like <i>you</i>, old man," observed +Tom.</p> + +<p>"I've asked her in to supper to-night," went on Dolly, in her slow, +deliberate way, "so we shall have to have Flick locked up."</p> + +<p>"Whatever made you ask her to supper, Doll?" asked Jack sharply.</p> + +<p>Jack Tosswill had a hard, rather limited nature, but he was very fond +of his home, and unlike most young men, he had a curious dislike to the +presence of strangers there. This was unfortunate, for his step-mother was +very hospitable, and even now, though life had become a real struggle as +to ways and means, she often asked people in to meals.</p> + +<p>"Her cook didn't turn up," exclaimed Dolly. "And when she asked me if I +knew of any woman in the village who could come in and cook dinner for +her this evening, I said I was sure Janet would like her to come in and +have supper."</p> + +<p>"And I hope," chimed in Rosamund decidedly, "that we shall all dress for +dinner. Why should she think us a hugger-mugger family?"</p> + +<p>"I don't mean to change. I shall only wash my hands!" This from Timmy, +who was always allowed to sit up to dinner. His brothers and sisters were +too fond of their step-mother to say how absurdly uncalled-for they +thought this privilege.</p> + +<p>As everyone pretended not to have heard his remark, Timmy repeated +obstinately: "I shall only wash my hands."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Crofton won't care how <i>you</i> look," observed Jack irritably. "If we +didn't now live in such a huggery-muggery way, I should always dress. I +do everywhere else."</p> + +<p>Betty looked at him, and her face deadened. Though she would hardly have +admitted it, even to herself, she regretted the way in which everything +at Old Place was now allowed to go "slack." She knew it to be bad for her +sisters. It wasn't as if they did any real housework or gave useful help +in the kitchen. Dolly tried to do so in a desultory way, but in the end +it was she, Betty, who kept everything going in this big, rambling old +house, with the help of the old nurse and a day girl from the village.</p> + +<p>Timmy gave a little cackle, and Jack felt annoyed. He looked across at +his half-brother with a feeling akin to dislike. But Jack Tosswill was +truly attached to his step-mother. He was old enough to remember what a +change she had made in the then dull, sad, austere Old Place. Janet had +at once thrown herself into the task of being sister, rather than +step-mother, to her husband's children, and bountifully had she succeeded!</p> + +<p>Still, with the exception of Betty, they all criticised her severely, in +their hearts, for her weakness where her own child was concerned. And yet +poor Janet never made the slightest difference between Timmy and the +others. It was more the little boy's own clever insistence which got him +his own way, and secured him certain privileges which they, at his age, +had never enjoyed. Timmy also always knew how to manage his delicate, +nervous father. John Tosswill realised that Timmy might some day grow up +to do him credit. Timmy really loved learning, and it was a pleasure to +the scholar to teach his clever, impish, youngest son.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Meanwhile Janet, who had remained on in the drawing-room, got up from the +sofa and, going into the corridor, opened the dining-room door. For some +moments she stood there, unseen, watching the eager party gathered round +the table, and as she did so, she looked with a curious, yearning feeling +at each of the young folk in turn.</p> + +<p>How changed, how utterly changed, they all were since Godfrey Radmore had +last been in that familiar room! The least changed, of course, was Betty. +To her step-mother's partial eyes, Betty Tosswill, at twenty-eight, was +still an extraordinarily charming and young-looking creature. Had her +nose been rather less retroussé, her generous, full-lipped mouth just a +little smaller, her brown hair either much darker, or really fair, as was +Rosamund's, she would have been exceptionally pretty. What to the +discriminating made her so much more attractive than either of her +younger sisters was her look of intelligence and quiet humour. But of +course she looked not only older, but different, from what she had looked +nine years ago. Betty had lived a full and, in a sense, a tragic life +during four of the years which had elapsed since she and Radmore had +parted in this very room.</p> + +<p>Janet's eyes travelled past Betty to Jack. Just at that moment he was +looking with no very pleasant expression across at his little brother, +and yet there was something softer than usual in his cold, clear-cut +face. Janet Tosswill would have been touched and surprised indeed had +she known that it was the thought of herself that had brought that look +on Jack's face. Jack was twenty-one, but looked like a man of thirty—he +was so set, he knew so exactly what he wanted of life. As she looked at +him, she wondered doubtfully whether he would ever make that great career +his schoolmaster had so confidently predicted for him. He was so—so—she +could only find the word "conventional" to describe him.</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill passed over Dolly quickly. To-day Dolly looked a little +different from the others, for she was wearing a hat, and it was clear +that she had just come in from the village. Her step-mother noticed with +dissatisfaction that the over large brooch fastening Dolly's blouse was +set in awry, and that there were wisps of loose hair lying on her neck.</p> + +<p>As for Rosamund, she looked ill-humoured, frankly bored to-day—but oh, +how pretty and dainty, next to the commonplace Dolly! Rosamund's gleaming +fair hair curled naturally all over her head; she had lovely, +startled-looking eyes which went oddly with a very determined, if +beautifully moulded, mouth and chin.</p> + +<p>Betty was convinced that, given a chance, Rosamund would make a success +on the stage, but Betty was prejudiced. There had always been a curious +link of sympathy between the two sisters, utterly different as they were, +and many as were the years that separated them.</p> + +<p>Tom was the only one of the flock who presented no problem. He was far +more human than Jack, but, like Jack, absolutely steady and dependable.</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill's mind swung back to Godfrey Radmore. She wondered how he +would like the changes in Old Place, whether they would affect him +pleasantly or otherwise. She was woman enough to regret sharply their +altered way of life. When Godfrey had lived in Old Place, there had been +a good cook, a capable parlourmaid, and a well-trained housemaid, as well +as a bright-faced "tweenie" there, and life had rolled along as if on +wheels. It was very different now.</p> + +<p>She wondered if Betty or Timmy had told the others of Radmore's coming +visit. It was so strange, in a way, so painful to know that to most of +them, with the possible exception of Jack, he was only a name.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Betty, turning around, saw her step-mother. "Dolly has met Mrs. +Crofton, and she's utterly unlike what any of us thought she would be!" +she cried out. "She's young, and very pretty—quite lovely in fact! +Dolly asked her into supper to-night, as her cook has not yet arrived."</p> + +<p>She had a sort of prevision that Janet was now going to tell the others +about Godfrey Radmore, and she wanted to get away out of the room first. +But this was not to be. Janet Tosswill had a very positive mind—she +was full of what she had come in to say, and the new tenant at The +Trellis House interested her not at all, so as soon as she had sat down, +she exclaimed, "Perhaps Timmy has told you my news?"</p> + +<p>Then all turned to her, except Betty and Timmy himself.</p> + +<p>"What news?" came in eager chorus.</p> + +<p>"Godfrey Radmore is in England. He telephoned from London just now, and +he's coming down on Friday to spend a long week-end!"</p> + +<p>Rosamund was the only one who stole a look at Betty.</p> + +<p>"Godfrey Radmore here?" repeated Jack slowly. "It's queer he would want +to come—after the odd way he's behaved to us."</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is rather strange," Janet tried to speak lightly. "But there it +is! The whole world has turned topsy-turvy since any of us saw him last."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if he's still very rich," went on Jack.</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill felt startled. "Why shouldn't he be?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know—it only occurred to me that he might have lost some of +this money in the same way that he lost that first fortune of his."</p> + +<p>"It wasn't a fortune"—Betty's quiet voice broke in very decidedly—"and +most of it was lost by a friend of his, not by Godfrey himself at all. He +was too proud to say anything about it to father, but he wrote and told +George."</p> + +<p>A curious stillness fell over the company of young people. They were all +in their different ways very much surprised, for Betty never mentioned +her twin-brother. All at once they each remembered about Betty and +Godfrey—all except Timmy, who had never been told.</p> + +<p>"And now what's this about Mrs. Crofton?" asked Janet at last, breaking a +silence that had become oppressive. "Do I understand that she's coming to +supper to-night?"</p> + +<p>It was Betty who answered: "I hope you don't mind? Dolly thought it the +only thing to do, as the poor woman's cook hadn't arrived."</p> + +<p>"We mustn't forget to ask her in for lunch or dinner on one of the days +that Godfrey is here," observed Janet. "I gather they're friends. He +asked if she'd already come."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Timmy was supposed to prepare his lessons between tea and dinner, but +unlike the ordinary boy, he much preferred to wake early and work before +breakfast. This was considered not good for his health, and there was +a constant struggle between himself and his determined mother to force +him to do the normal thing. So after she had finished her tea, she +beckoned to her son, and he unwillingly got up and followed her into +the drawing-room. But before he could settle down at his own special +table Betty came in.</p> + +<p>"Janet, I want to ask you something before I go into the village. There +are one or two things we must get in, if Mrs. Crofton is coming this +evening—"</p> + +<p>The little boy did not wait to hear his mother's answer. He crept very +quietly out of the open window, which was close to his table, and then +made his way round to the first of the long French windows of the +dining-room. He was just in time to hear his brother Tom ask in a very +solemn tone: "I say, you fellows! Wasn't Betty once engaged to this +Radmore chap?"</p> + +<p>Timmy, skilfully ensconced behind the full old green damask curtains, +listened, with all his ears, for the answer.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Jack at last, with a touch of reluctance. "They were engaged, +but not for very long. Still, they'd been fond of one another for an age +and George was his greatest friend—"</p> + +<p>Rosamund broke in: "Do tell us what he's like, Jack! I suppose you can +remember him quite well?"</p> + +<p>Jack hesitated, rather uncomfortably.</p> + +<p>"Of course I remember Radmore very well indeed. He had quite a tidy bit +of money, as both his parents were dead. His snuffy old guardian had been +at Balliol with father. So father was asked to coach him. And then, well, +I suppose as time went on, and Betty began growing up, he fell in love +with her."</p> + +<p>"And she with him?" interposed Rosamund.</p> + +<p>"A girl is apt to like any man who likes her," said Jack loftily. "But I +believe 'twas he made all the fuss when the engagement was broken off."</p> + +<p>"But why was it broken off?" asked Rosamund.</p> + +<p>"Because he'd lost all his money racing."</p> + +<p>"What a stupid thing to do!" exclaimed Tom.</p> + +<p>"The row came during the Easter holidays," went on Jack meditatively, +"and there was a fearful dust-up. Like an idiot, Radmore had gone and put +the whole of the little bit of money he had saved out of the fire on an +outsider he had some reason to think would be bound to romp in first—and +the horse was not even placed!"</p> + +<p>"Poor fellow!" exclaimed Rosamund.</p> + +<p>"He rushed down here," went on Jack, "to say that he had made up his +mind to go to Australia. And he was simply amazed when father and Janet +wouldn't hear of Betty going with him."</p> + +<p>"Would she have liked to go?" asked Tom.</p> + +<p>"Well, yes—I believe she would. But of course it was out of the +question. Father could have given her nothing, even then, so how could +they have lived? There was a fearful rumpus, and in the end Godfrey went +off in a tearing rage."</p> + +<p>"Shaking the dust of Old Place off his indignant feet, eh?" suggested +Tom.</p> + +<p>"Yes, all that sort of thing. George was having scarlet fever—in a +London hospital—so of course he was quite out of it."</p> + +<p>"Then, at last Godfrey reopened communication via Timmy?" suggested the +younger boy.</p> + +<p>"Timmy's got the letter still," chimed in Rosamund. "I saw it in his +play-box the other day. It was rather a funny letter—I read it."</p> + +<p>"The devil you did!" from Tom, indignantly.</p> + +<p>She went on unruffled:—"He said he'd been left a fortune, and wanted to +share it with his godson. How much did he send? D'you remember?" She +looked round.</p> + +<p>"Five pounds!" said Dolly.</p> + +<p>"I wish <i>I</i> was his godson," said Tom.</p> + +<p>"And then," went on Dolly, in her precise way, "the War came, and nothing +more happened till suddenly he wrote again to Timmy from Egypt, and then +began the presents. I wonder if we ought to have thanked him for them? +After all, we don't <i>know</i> that they came from him. The only present we +<i>know</i> came from him was Flick."</p> + +<p>"And a damned silly present, too!" observed Jack, drily.</p> + +<p>"Do you think he's still in love with Betty?" asked Rosamund.</p> + +<p>"Of course he's not. If he was, he would have written to her, not to +Timmy. Nine years is a long time in a man's life," observed Jack +sententiously.</p> + +<p>"My hat! yes!" exclaimed Tom. "Poor Betty!"</p> + +<p>Jack got up, and made a movement as if he were thinking of going out +through the window into the garden. So Timmy, with a swift, sinuous +movement, withdrew from the curtain, and edging up against the outside +wall of the house, walked unobtrusively back into the drawing-room.</p> + +<p>When his mother—who had gone out to find something for Betty to take +into the village—came back, she was pleased and surprised to find her +little son working away as if for dear life.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + + +<p>Close on eight that same evening, Timmy Tosswill stood by the open centre +window of the long drawing-room, hands duly washed, and his generally +short, rough, untidy hair well brushed, whistling softly to himself.</p> + +<p>He was longing intensely for his godfather's arrival, and it seemed such +a long time off to Friday. A photograph of Radmore, in uniform, sent him +at his own request two years ago, was the boy's most precious personal +possession. Timmy was a careful, almost uncannily thrifty child, with +quite a lot of money in the Savings Bank, but he had taken out 10/- in +order to buy a frame for the photograph, and it rested, alone in its +glory, on the top of the chest of drawers that stood opposite his bed.</p> + +<p>There had been a time when Timmy had hoped that he would grow up to +look like his godfather, but now he was aware that this hope would +never be fulfilled, for Radmore, in this photograph, at any rate, had +a strongly-featured, handsome face, very unlike what his mother had once +called "Timmy's wizened little phiz."</p> + +<p>It seemed strange to care for a person you had never seen since you were +a tiny child—but there it was! To Timmy everything that touched his +godfather was of far greater moment than he would have admitted to +anyone. Radmore was his secret hero; and now, to-night, he asked himself +painfully, why had his hero left off loving Betty? The story he had +overheard this afternoon had deeply impressed him. For the first time he +began to dimly apprehend the strange and piteous tangle we call life.</p> + +<p>Suddenly there broke on the still autumn air the distant sound of sharp +barks and piteous whines. Much against his will, the little boy had had +to bow to the edict that Flick should be shut up in the stable. Dolly, +who so seldom bothered about anything, had seen to this herself, because +Mrs. Crofton, who was coming to supper, hated dogs. Timmy inhospitably +hoped that the new tenant of The Trellis House would very seldom honour +Old Place with a visit. It would be impossible for them always to hide +Flick away like this!</p> + +<p>He moved further into the pretty, old-fashioned room. Like most +old-fashioned country drawing-rooms of the kind, it was rather over-full +of furniture and ornaments. The piano jutted out at right angles to a +big, roomy sofa, which could, at a pinch, hold seven or eight people, the +pinch usually being when, for the benefit of Timmy, the sofa was supposed +to be a stage coach of long ago on its way to London. The Tosswills had +been great people for private theatricals, charades, and so on—Timmy's +own mother being a really good actress and an excellent mimic, but she +did not often now indulge in an exhibition of her powers.</p> + +<p>At last Timmy looked round at the clock. It was ten minutes to eight, and +his mother would not be down for another five minutes. So he went back to +the window. All at once he saw in the gathering twilight, two people +walking up the avenue which led to the house. The little boy felt +surprised. "Who can they be?" was his immediate thought.</p> + +<p>As far as he could make out the one was an elderly-looking +gentleman—Timmy could just see the rough grey Norfolk jacket and +knickerbockers—by whose side there walked, sedately, a wire-haired +terrier. What an extraordinary thing! Surely that dog, walking by the +stranger, was <i>Flick</i>—Flick, having escaped from the stable, and +behaving for all the world as if the stranger were his master. But again +there fell on his ears Flick's distant squeals of anger and annoyance and +he felt a queer sensation of relief.</p> + +<p>Timmy turned his attention to the other figure, that of the young lady +who, dressed all in black, tripped gracefully along by the side of her +companion. Evidently some tiresome old gentleman, and his equally +tiresome daughter. He told himself crossly that his absent-minded, +kind-hearted father, or his incurably hospitable mother, forgetting all +about Mrs. Crofton, had asked these two people in to supper. If that was +so, Timmy, who was as much at home in the kitchen as in the drawing-room, +knew that there would not be quite enough to go round comfortably. This +was all the more irritating, as he himself was looking forward to-night +to tasting, for the first time, an especially delicious dish. This was +lobster pie, for which Old Place had been famed before the War, but +which, owing to the present price of lobsters, was among the many +delightful things which the War had caused to vanish from poor little +Timmy's world. One of the few sensible people in the world who know +what other people really like in the way of a present had sent by +parcels-post a lot of lobsters to Timmy's mother—hence the coming +lobster pie to-night.</p> + +<p>Realising that the strangers must be very near the front door by now, he +edged towards the door of the drawing-room, meaning to make a bolt for it +into what was still called the schoolroom. He did not wish to be caught +by himself in the drawing-room. But he was caught, for the door suddenly +opened, and his mother came in.</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill "paid for dressing" as the old saying is. She looked +charming to-night, in a rather bright blue evening dress, and Timmy, +slipping his hand into hers, said softly: "You do look nice, Mum."</p> + +<p>She smiled, touched and pleased, for her child was not given to +compliments. Also, she had told herself, when glancing at her slim, +active figure in the early Victorian cheval glass which had belonged +to her husband's mother, that this blue dress was really <i>very</i> +old-fashioned, and would probably appear so to Mrs. Crofton.</p> + +<p>In view of Timmy's pleasant compliment, she did not like to ask him if he +had washed his hands and brushed his hair. She could only hope for the +best: "I hope we shall like Mrs. Crofton," she said meditatively. "You +know she's a friend of your godfather, my dear."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know that," he announced, in rather an odd voice, and she felt +just a little surprised. How did Timmy know that? Then she remembered her +husband had read aloud Mrs. Crofton's pretty, well-turned letter—the +letter which explained that the writer was looking out for a country +house, and would like to find one at Beechfield if possible, as her +friend, Godfrey Radmore, had described it as being the most beautiful +village in England.</p> + +<p>Timmy let go his mother's hand—then he looked searchingly into her face: +"Do you suppose," he asked, "that my godfather is in love with Mrs. +Crofton?"</p> + +<p>She was taken aback, and yes, shocked, by the question: "Of course not. +Whatever put such an extraordinary idea into your head, Timmy?"</p> + +<p>The words had hardly left her lips when the door opened, and the village +girl, who was staying on for two hours beyond her usual time because of +this visitor, announced in a breathless voice:—"Mrs. Crofton, ma'am."</p> + +<p>Timmy saw at once that the visitor was the young lady he had seen walking +up the avenue. Then the old gentleman and his dog—the dog which was +so extraordinarily like Flick—had only brought her as far as the door. +And then, while his mother was shaking hands with Mrs. Crofton, and +shepherding her towards the sofa, Timmy managed to have a good, long look +at the new tenant of The Trellis House.</p> + +<p>Grudgingly he admitted to himself that she was what most people—such +people, for instance, as Rosamund and Betty—would call "very pretty."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Crofton had a small three-cornered face, a ridiculously little, +babyish mouth, and a great deal of dark, curly hair which matched in a +queer kind of way the color of her big, pathetic-looking eyes. Timmy +told himself at once that he did not like her—that she looked "a muff". +It distressed him to think that his hero should be a friend of this +weak-looking, sly little thing—for so he uncompromisingly described Enid +Crofton to himself.</p> + +<p>Hostess and guest sat down on the big, roomy sofa, while Timmy moved +away and opened a book. He was afraid lest his mother should invite him +to leave the room, for he wanted to hear what they were saying. Timmy +always enjoyed hearing grown-up people's conversation, especially when +they had forgotten that he was present. All at once his sharp ears heard +Mrs. Crofton's low, melodious voice asking the question he had been +half-expecting her to ask: "Do you expect Mr. Radmore soon?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he's coming down on Friday." There was a pause, then Timmy heard +his mother say: "Have you known Godfrey Radmore long?"</p> + +<p>Janet really wanted to know. Somehow, she found it difficult to imagine +a friendship between Godfrey and this little fribble of a woman. But as +to that, Janet Tosswill showed less than her usual intelligence. She +still thought of Godfrey Radmore as of the rather raw, awkward, though +clear-headed and determined lad of twenty-three—the Radmore, that is, +of nine years ago.</p> + +<p>"My husband and I first met him in Egypt," said Mrs. Crofton +hesitatingly. The delicate colour in her cheeks deepened. "One day he +began to talk about himself, and he told me about Beechfield, what a +beautiful village it was, how devoted he was to you all!"</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill glanced at the clock. "It's already five minutes past +eight!" she exclaimed. "I must go and hurry my young people—their father +likes them to be absolutely punctual. The gong will go in a minute."</p> + +<p>After his mother had left the room, Timmy crept up close to the sofa, +and so suddenly appeared, standing with his hands behind his back, before +the visitor. She felt just a little startled; she had not known the +strange-looking boy was still there. Then she told herself quickly that +this surely must be Godfrey Radmore's godson—the child to whom he had +sent one of her late husband's puppies.</p> + +<p>There came over pretty Mrs. Crofton a slight feeling of apprehension and +discomfiture—she could not have told why.</p> + +<p>"When did you last see my godfather?" he asked abruptly, in an unchildish +voice, and with a quaintly grown-up manner.</p> + +<p>"Your godfather?" she repeated hesitatingly, and yet she knew quite well +who he meant.</p> + +<p>"I mean Major Radmore," he explained.</p> + +<p>She wondered why the disagreeable little fellow had asked such an +indiscreet question.</p> + +<p>Then, reluctantly, she made up her mind she had better answer it truly: +"I saw him the day before yesterday." She forced herself to go on +lightly. "I suppose you're the young gentleman to whom he sent a +puppy last year?"</p> + +<p>He nodded, and then asked another disconcerting question: "Did you leave +your dog outside? Dolly thought you didn't like dogs, so my terrier, +Flick, has been shut up in the stable. I suppose you only like your own +dog—I'm rather like that, too."</p> + +<p>"I haven't got a dog," she answered nervously. "It's quite true that I +don't like dogs—or, rather, I should like them if they liked me, but +they don't."</p> + +<p>"Then the dog that was with you belonged to the old gentleman?"</p> + +<p>"Old gentleman?" repeated Mrs. Crofton vaguely. This time she didn't in +the least know what the child was talking about, and she was relieved +when the door opened, and the Tosswill family came streaming through +it, accompanied by their step-mother.</p> + +<p>Laughing introductions took place. Mrs. Crofton singled out instinctively +her gentle, cultivated-looking host. She told herself with a queer sense +of relief, that he was the sort of man who generally shows a distantly +chivalrous regard for women. Next to her host, his eldest son, Jack +Tosswill, came in for secret, close scrutiny, but Enid Crofton always +found it easy and more than easy, to "make friends" with a young man.</p> + +<p>She realised that she was up against a more difficult problem in the +ladies of the family. She felt a little frightened of Mrs. Tosswill, of +whom Godfrey Radmore had spoken with such affection and gratitude. Janet +looked what Mrs. Crofton called "clever," and somehow she never got on +with clever women. Betty and Dolly she dismissed as of no account. +Rosamund was the one the attractive stranger liked best. There is no +greater mistake than to think that a pretty woman does not like to meet +another pretty woman. On the contrary, "like flies to like" in this, as +in almost everything else.</p> + +<p>But how did they regard her? She would have been surprised indeed had she +been able to see into their hearts.</p> + +<p>Mr. Tosswill, who was much more wideawake than he looked, thought her +a poor exchange for the amusing, lively, middle-aged woman who had +last lived at The Trellis House, and who had often entertained there a +pleasant, cultivated guest or two from London. Jack, though sufficiently +human to be attracted by the stranger's grace and charm, was inclined to +reserve his judgment. The three girls found her very engaging, and their +step-mother, if more critical, was quite ready to like her. As is often +the case with people who only care for those near and dear to them, the +world of men and women outside Janet Tosswill's own circle interested +her scarcely at all. She would make up her mind as to what any given +individual was like, and then dismiss him or her once for all from her +busy, over-burdened mind.</p> + +<p>One thing, however, both Janet and the three girls did notice—that was +the way their new acquaintance was dressed. Her black frock was not only +becoming, but had that indefinable look which implies thought, care, and +cost—especially cost. All four ladies decided immediately that Mrs. +Crofton must be much better off than she had implied in the letter she +had written to Mr. Tosswill some weeks ago.</p> + +<p>Timmy, alone of them all, on that first evening, felt strongly about +their visitor. Already he was jealous of the pretty, pathetic-looking +young widow. It irritated him to think that she was a friend of his +godfather.</p> + +<p>After they had all gone into the dining-room, and had sorted themselves +out, the guest being seated on her host's right, with Jack on the other +side of her, Janet announced: "This is supper, not dinner, Mrs. Crofton. +I hope you don't mind lobster? When I first came to Old Place, almost the +first thing I learnt was that it was celebrated for its lobster pie! +Since the War we have not been able to afford lobsters, but a kind friend +sent us six from Littlehampton yesterday, so I at once thought of our +dear old lobster pie!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Crofton declared that, far from minding, she adored lobsters! And +then after she had been served, Timmy's fears were set at rest, for his +mother, very improperly the rest of the family thought, served him next, +and to a generous helping.</p> + +<p>As the meal went on, the mistress of Old Place realised that she had made +one mistake about Mrs. Crofton; their visitor was far more intelligent, +though in a mean, rather narrow way, than she had at first supposed. +Also, Mrs. Crofton was certainly very attractive. As the talk turned to +London doings, his step-mother was amused to notice that Jack was becoming +interested in their guest, and eagerly discussed with her a play they had +both seen.</p> + +<p>And the visitor herself? During supper she began to feel most pleasantly +at home, and when she walked into the long, high-ceilinged sitting-room, +which had such a cosy, homelike look she told herself that it was no +wonder Godfrey Radmore liked the delightful old house, and these kindly, +old-fashioned, and—and unsuspicious people.</p> + +<p>Two tall Argand lamps cast a soft radiance over the shabby furniture and +faded carpet. It was a lovely evening, a true St. Martin's summer night, +and the middle one of the three long French windows was widely open on to +the fragrant, scented garden.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Crofton, a graceful, appealing figure in her soft, black chiffon +gown, hesitated a moment—she wondered where they wanted her to sit? +And then Mrs. Tosswill came forward and, taking her hand, led her to the +big sofa, while one of the girls fetched an extra cushion so that she +might sit back comfortably. The talk drifted to the War, and Enid Crofton +was soon engaged in giving an animated account of some of her own +experiences—how she had managed to spend a very exciting fortnight not +far from the Front, in a hospital run by a great lady with whom she had a +slight acquaintance. Soon, sooner than usual, Mr. Tosswill and his three +sons came into the drawing-room, and they were all talking and laughing +together happily when a most unlucky, and untoward, accident happened! +Timmy's dog, Flick, having somehow escaped from the stable, suddenly ran +in from the dark garden, straight through the window opposite the sofa +round which the whole of the party was now gathered together. When about +a yard from Mrs. Crofton, he stopped dead, and emitted a series of short, +wild howls, while his hair bristled and stood on end, and his eyes flamed +blood red.</p> + +<p>They were all so surprised—so extremely taken aback by Flick's +behaviour—that no one moved. Then Mrs. Crofton gave a kind of gasp, and +covering her face with her hands, cowered back in the corner of the sofa.</p> + +<p>Timmy jumped up from the stool where he had been sitting, and as he did +so, his mother called out affrightedly: "Don't go near Flick, Timmy—he +looks mad!"</p> + +<p>But Timmy was no coward, and Flick was one of the few living things he +loved in the world. He threw himself on the floor beside his dog. +"Flick," he said warningly, "what's the matter, old chap? Has anything +hurt you?" As he spoke he put out his skinny little arms, and Flick, +though still shivering and growling, began to calm down.</p> + +<p>The little boy waited a moment, Flick panting convulsively in his arms, +then he gathered the dog to him, and, getting up from the floor, walked +quickly through the open window into the garden.</p> + +<p>For a moment no one stirred—and then Mr. Tosswill, who had been sitting +rather apart from the rest of the party, got up and shut the window.</p> + +<p>"What a curious thing," he said musingly. "I have always regarded Flick +as one of the best tempered of dogs. This is the first time he has ever +behaved like this."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Crofton dragged herself up from her comfortable seat. Her face +looked white and pinched. In spite of her real effort to control herself, +there were tears in her eyes and her lips were trembling. "If you are on +the telephone," she said appealingly, "I should be so grateful if you +should send for a fly. I don't feel well enough to walk home." She tried +to smile. "My nerves have been upset for some time past."</p> + +<p>Janet felt vexed and concerned. "Jack will drive you home in our old pony +cart," she said soothingly. "Will you go and bring it round, Tom?"</p> + +<p>Tom slipped off, and there arose a babel of voices, everyone saying how +sorry they were, Dolly especially, explaining eagerly how she herself had +personally superintended the shutting up of the dog. As for Betty, she +went off into the hall and quietly fetched Mrs. Crofton's charming +evening cloak and becoming little hood. As she did so she told herself +again that Mrs. Crofton must be much better off than they had thought +her to be from her letter. Every woman, even the least sophisticated, +knows what really beautiful and becoming clothes cost nowadays, and Mrs. +Crofton's clothes were eminently beautiful and becoming.</p> + +<p>As Betty went back into the drawing-room, she heard the visitor say:—"I +was born with a kind of horror of dogs, and I'm afraid that in some +uncanny way they always know it! It's such bad luck, for most nice people +and all the people I myself have cared for in my life, have been dog +lovers."</p> + +<p>And at that Dolly, who had a most unfortunate habit of blurting out just +those things which, even if people are thinking of, they mostly leave +unsaid, exclaimed:—"Your husband bred terriers, didn't he? Flick came +from him."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Crofton made no answer to this, and Janet, who was looking at her, +saw her face alter. A curious expression of—was it pain?—it looked more +like fear,—came over it. It was clear that Dolly's thoughtless words had +hurt her.</p> + +<p>Suddenly there came the sound of a tap on the pane of one of the windows, +and Mrs. Crofton, whose nerves were evidently very much out of order, +gave a suppressed cry.</p> + +<p>"It's only Timmy," said Timmy's mother reassuringly, and then she went +and opened the window. "I hope you've shut Flick up," she said in a low +voice.</p> + +<p>"Of course I have, Mum. He's quite quiet now."</p> + +<p>As the boy came forward, into the room, he looked straight up into Mrs. +Crofton's face, and as she met the enquiring, alien look, she told +herself, for the second time that evening, what a pity it was that these +nice people should have such an unpleasant child.</p> + +<p>Tom came in to say that the pony cart was at the door, and that Jack was +waiting there for Mrs. Crofton.</p> + +<p>They all went out in the hall to see her off. It was a bright, beautiful, +moonlight night, and Rosamund thought the scene quite romantic.</p> + +<p>Mr. Tosswill handed his guest into the pony cart with his usual, rather +aloof, courtesy; and after all the good-byes had been said, and as Jack +drove down the long, solitary avenue, Enid Crofton told herself that in +spite of that horrible incident with the dog—it was so strange that +Flick should come, as it were, to haunt her out of her old life, the +life she was so anxious to forget—she had had a very promising and +successful evening. The only jarring note had been that horrid little +boy Timmy—Timmy and his hateful dog.</p> + +<p>And then suddenly Enid Crofton asked herself whether Godfrey Radmore was +likely to go on being as fond of Timmy Tosswill as he seemed to be now. +She had been surprised at the reminiscent affection with which he had +spoken of his little godson. But there is a great difference between an +attractive baby-child of three and a forward, spoilt, undersized boy of +twelve. About a week ago, while they were enjoying a delicious little +dinner in the Berkeley Hotel grill-room, he had said:—"Although of +course none of them know it, for the present at any rate, Master Timmy is +my heir; if I were to die to-night Timmy Tosswill would become a very +well-to-do young gentleman!"</p> + +<p>Even at the time they had been uttered, the careless words had annoyed +Enid Crofton; and now the recollection of them made her feel quite angry. +All her life long money had played a great part in this very pretty +woman's inmost thoughts.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + + +<p>Betty Tosswill sat up in bed and told herself that it was Friday morning. +Then she remembered what it was that was going to happen to-day.</p> + +<p>It was something that she had thought, deep in her heart, would never +happen. Godfrey Radmore was coming back—coming back into her life, and +into all their lives. Though everything seemed just the same as when he +had left Old Place, everything was different, both in a spiritual and +material sense. The War had made a deep wound, nay, far more than one +wound, in the spiritual body politic of Old Place. And it was of a very +material thing that Betty Tosswill thought first, and most painfully, +this morning. This was the fact that from having been in easy +circumstances they were now very poor.</p> + +<p>When Godfrey Radmore had gone out of their lives there had been a great, +perhaps even then a false, air of prosperity over them all. John Tosswill +was a man who had always made bad investments; but in that far-off time, +"before the War," living was so cheap, wages were so low, the children +were all still so young, that he and Janet had managed very well.</p> + +<p>Only Betty knew the scrimping and the saving Jack, at Oxford, and Tom, at +Winchester, now entailed on the part of those who lived at Old Place. +Why, she herself counted every penny with anxious care, and the stupid, +kindly folk who asked, just a trifle censoriously, why she wasn't "doing +something," now that "every career is open to a girl, especially to one +who did so well in the War," would perhaps have felt a little ashamed had +they discovered that she was housemaid, parlourmaid, often cook, to a +large and not always easily pleased family. They never had a visitor to +stay now—they simply couldn't afford it—and she hated the thought of +Godfrey, himself now so unnaturally prosperous, coming back to such an +altered state of things.</p> + +<p>Besides, that was not all. Betty covered her face with her hands, and +slow, bitter, reluctant tears began to ooze through her fingers. She had +tried not to think of Godfrey and of his coming, these last two or three +days. She had put the knowledge of what was going to happen from her, +with a kind of hard, defiant determination. But now she was sorry—sorry, +that she had not taken her step-mother's advice, and gone away for a long +week-end. Betty Tosswill felt like a man who, having suffered intolerably +from a wound which has at last healed, learns with sick apprehension that +his wound is to be torn open.</p> + +<p>Although not even Janet, her one real close friend and confidant, was +aware of it, Godfrey had not been the only man in Betty's life. There had +been two men, out in France, who had loved her, and lost no time in +telling her so. One had been killed; the other still wrote to her at +intervals, begging her earnestly, pathetically, to marry him, and +sometimes she half thought she would.</p> + +<p>But always Godfrey Radmore stood before the door of her heart, +imperiously, almost contemptuously, "shooing off" any would-be intruder. +And yet to-day she told herself, believing what she said, that she no +longer loved him. She remembered now, as if they had been uttered +yesterday, the cruel words he had flung at her during their last hour +together when he had taunted her with not giving up everything and going +off with him—and that though she had known that there was, even then, a +part of his acute, clever brain telling him insistently that she would +be a drag on him in his new life.... She had also been cut to the heart +that Godfrey had not written to her father when his one-time closest +friend, her twin-brother, George, had been killed.</p> + +<p>To-day for the first time, Betty Tosswill told herself that perhaps she +had been mistaken in doing right instead of wrong, in coming here to help +Janet with her far from easy task with the younger children, instead of +getting a good job, as she knew she could have done, after the War.</p> + +<p>There is a modern type of young woman, quite a good young woman, too, +who, in Betty's position, would have thought that it was far better that +she should go out and earn, say, three or four pounds a week, sending +half the money, or a third of the money, home. But poor Betty was no +self-deceiver—she was well aware that what was wanted at Old Place in +the difficult months, aye, and even years, which would follow the end of +the Great War, was personal service.</p> + +<p>And so she had come home, making no favour of it, settling into her often +tiring and tiresome duties, trying now and again to make Rosamund and +Dolly do their share. In a way they did try, but they were both very +selfish in their different ways, and only Janet knew all that everyone +of them owed to Betty's hard, continuous work, and sense of order. Not +that the girl was perfect by any means; now and again she would say a +very sharp, sarcastic word, but on the whole she was wonderfully +indulgent, kindly and understanding—more like a mother than a sister +to the others.</p> + +<p>Everyday life is a mosaic of infinitely little things, whatever those who +write and talk may say. Betty had come back and settled down to life at +home, mainly because her step-mother could no longer "carry on." Janet +could not get servants, and if she could have got them, she could not now +have paid them. Then there had been the silly, vulgar but highly +dangerous affair between Rosamund and their too attractive married +"billet". Had Betty been at home that business would almost certainly +have been checked in the bud. As for Dolly, she was worse than no good in +the home. But—a certain secret hope was cherished both by Janet and by +Betty concerning Dolly. The bachelor vicar of the next parish seemed to +find a strange pleasure in her society. He was away now in Switzerland +and he had written to Dolly a minute account of his long, tiresome +journey.</p> + +<p>She wondered, with a feeling of pain at her heart, what Godfrey would +think of them all. There had been such an air of charm and gaiety about +the place nine years ago. Now, beautiful in a sense as was the stately +Georgian house, lovely as was the garden, thanks to Janet's cleverness +and hard work, there was an air of shabbiness over everything though +Betty only fully realised it on the very rare occasions when she got away +for a few days for a change and rest with old friends.</p> + +<p>This summer her brother Jack had said a word to her, not exactly +complainingly, but with a sort of regret. "Don't you think we could +afford new furniture covers for the drawing-room?" and Betty had shaken +her head. They could afford <i>nothing</i> for the house—she alone knew how +very difficult it was to keep up Jack's own modest allowance.</p> + +<p>There had been a discussion between herself and Janet as to whether Mr. +Tosswill should start taking pupils again in his old age, but they had +decided against it, largely because they felt that the class of pupils +whom he had been accustomed to take before the war, and who could alone +be of any use from the financial point of view, could not now be made +really comfortable at Old Place. Betty was ashamed of feeling how much it +hurt her pride to know how concerned Godfrey would be to find how poor +they had become. She would not have minded this if he had been poor +himself. But she hated the thought of a rich Godfrey, who flung money +about over foolish, extravagant presents, discovering, suddenly, how +altered were their circumstances since the day when he had rushed out +of the house throwing the big cheque kind John Tosswill had shamefacedly +handed to him, on to the floor.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>After Betty had had her own cold bath, and had prepared a tepid one for +her father, she dressed quickly, and going over to the dressing-table +in the large, low-ceilinged room—a room which, in spite of the fact +that everything in it was old and worn, had yet an air of dainty charm +and dignity, for everything in it was what old-fashioned people call +"good"—she looked dispassionately at herself in the glass.</p> + +<p>Her step-mother had said, "You haven't changed one bit!" But that was +not true. Of course she had changed—changed very much, outwardly and +inwardly, since she was nineteen. For one thing, the awful physical +strain of her work in France had altered her, turned her from a girl into +a woman. She had seen many terrible things, and she had met with certain +grim adventures she could never forget, which remained all the more vivid +because she had never spoken of them to a living being.</p> + +<p>And then, as she suddenly told herself, with a rather bitter feeling of +revolt, the life she was leading now was not calculated to make her +retain a look of youth. Last week, in a fit of temper, Rosamund had said +to her:—"I only wish you could see yourself! You look a regular +'govvy'!" She had laughed—the rather spiteful words passing her by—for +she had never cared either for learning or teaching. But now, as she +gazed critically in her mirror, she told herself that, yes, she really +did look rather like a nice governess—the sort of young woman a certain +type of smart lady would describe as her "treasure". Forty or fifty years +ago that was the sort of human being into which she would have turned +almost automatically when poverty had first knocked at the door of Old +Place. Now, thank God, people who could afford to pay well for a +governess wanted a trained teacher, not an untrained gentlewoman for +their children.</p> + +<p>But Betty did not waste much time staring at herself. Throwing her head +back with what had become a characteristic gesture, she went off and +called her sisters and brothers before running lightly down the back +stairs.</p> + +<p>Nanna was already pottering about the kitchen. She had laid and lit the +fire, and put the kettle on to boil for Mrs. Tosswill's early cup of tea. +The old woman looked up as Betty came into the kitchen, and a rather +touching expression came over her old face. She had a strong, almost a +maternal affection for her eldest nurseling, and she wondered how Miss +Betty was feeling this morning. Nanna had been told of the coming visitor +by Timmy, but with that peculiar touch of delicacy so often found in her +class, she had said nothing about it to Betty.</p> + +<p>"Well, Nanna? I expect Mrs. Tosswill has told you that Mr. Radmore is +coming to-day, and that he's to have George's room."</p> + +<p>Nanna nodded. "It's quite ready, Miss Betty. I went in there yesterday +afternoon while you was all out. He'll find everything there just as he +left it. Eh, dear, I do mind how those dear boys loved their stamps and +butterflies."</p> + +<p>Betty sighed, a sharp, quick sigh. After calling Jack she had thought of +going into the room which had been her brother's and Godfrey's joint room +in the long, long ago. And then she had decided that she couldn't bear to +do so. The room had never been slept in since George had spent his last +happy leave for now there was never any occasion to put a visitor in what +was still called by Nanna "Master George's room."</p> + +<p>"I expect he'll arrive for tea," said Betty, "and I was wondering whether +we couldn't make one of those big seed cakes he and George used to be so +fond of."</p> + +<p>"That's provided for, too," said Nanna quietly.</p> + +<p>And then, all at once, almost as though she were compelled to do so by +something outside herself, Betty went across the kitchen and threw her +arms round her old nurse's neck and kissed her.</p> + +<p>"There, there," said Nanna soothingly, "do you mind much, my dearie!"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't think I do." Betty winked away the tears. "It's George I'm +really thinking of, Nanna."</p> + +<p>"But the dear lad is in the Kingdom of the Blessed, my dear. You wouldn't +have him back—surely?"</p> + +<p>"Not if he's really happier where he is," said the girl, "but oh, Nanna, +it's so hard to believe that." She went across to the big old-fashioned +kitchen range, and poured the boiling water into a little silver teapot. +Then she took the tray to her step-mother's room.</p> + +<p>Next she went down into the drawing-room—she always "did" that room +while Nanna laid the breakfast with the help of the village girl who, +although she was supposed to come in at seven, very seldom turned up +till eight. And then, while Betty was carefully dusting the quaint, +old-fashioned Staffordshire figures on the mantelpiece, the door opened, +and Nanna came in and shut it behind her. "There isn't any wine," she +began mysteriously. "Gentlemen do like a little drop of wine after their +dinner."</p> + +<p>"I think what father and Jack can do without, Mr. Radmore can do without, +too," said Betty. For the first time her colour heightened. "In any case, +I don't see how we can get anything fit to drink by this evening."</p> + +<p>"I was thinking, Miss Betty, that you might borrow a bottle of port wine +at Rose Cottage."</p> + +<p>"I don't think I can do that," said Betty decidedly, "you see, Miss +Pendarth's port is very good port, and we could never give her back a +bottle of the same quality."</p> + +<p>And then, as Nanna sidled towards the door, the old woman suddenly +remarked, a little irrelevantly:—"I suppose you've told Miss Pendarth +that Mr. Godfrey is coming, Miss Betty?"</p> + +<p>Betty looked round quickly. "No," she said, "I haven't had a chance yet. +Thank you for reminding me."</p> + +<p>The old woman slipped away, and Betty suddenly wondered whether Nanna had +really come in to ask that question as to Miss Pendarth. Somehow Betty +suspected that she had.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + + +<p>It was about eleven, when most of her household chores were done, that +Betty started off to pay an informal call on Miss Pendarth, in some ways +the most outstanding personality in the village of Beechfield.</p> + +<p>"Busybody"—"mischief-maker"—"a very kind lady"—"a disagreeable +woman"—"a fearful snob"—"a true Christian"—were some of the epithets +which had been, and were still, used, to describe the woman to whose +house, Rose Cottage, Betty Tosswill, with a slight feeling of discomfort +bordering on pain, began wending her way.</p> + +<p>Olivia Pendarth and her colourless younger sister, Anne, the latter +now long dead, had settled down at Beechfield in the nineties of the +last century. When both over thirty years of age, they had selected +Beechfield as a dwelling-place because of its quiet charm and nearness +to London. Also because Rose Cottage, which, in spite of its unassuming +name, was, if a small yet a substantial, red-brick house with a good +garden, paddock and stables, exactly suited them, as to price, and as to +the accommodation they then wanted. The surviving sister was now rather +over sixty, and her income was very much smaller than it had been, but it +never even occurred to her to try and sell what had become to her a place +of mingled painful and happy memories.</p> + +<p>In every civilised country a village is the world in little, though it +is always surprising to the student of human nature to find how many +distinct types are gathered within its narrow bounds. And if this is +true of village communities all over Europe, it is peculiarly true of +an English village.</p> + +<p>Miss Pendarth was a clever woman. Too clever to be really happy in the +life to which she had condemned herself. She had been born many years too +early to follow up any of the various paths now open to the intelligent, +educated woman. Yet she belonged, by birth and upbringing, to that +age-long tradition of command which perhaps counts for most of all to the +one class which has remained in England much the same for generations.</p> + +<p>The Pendarths had once been very great people in Cornwall, and long +records of the family are to be found in all county histories. Olivia +Pendarth was wordlessly very proud of their lineage, and it is no +exaggeration to say that she would have died rather than in any way +disgrace it.</p> + +<p>A woman of great activity, she had perforce no way of expending her +energies excepting in connection with the people about her, and always in +intention at least she spent herself to some beneficent purpose. Yet +there was a considerable circle who much disliked her and whom she +herself regarded with almost limitless scorn. These were the folk, idle +people most of them, and very well-to-do, who, having made fortunes in +London, now lived within a radius of five to ten miles round Beechfield.</p> + +<p>Miss Pendarth was on excellent terms with what one must call, for want of +a better name, the cottage class. To them she was a good, firm, faithful +friend, seeing them through their many small and great troubles, and +taking real pains to help their sons and daughters to make good starts +in life. Many a village mother had asked Miss Pendarth to "speak" to her +naughty girl or headstrong son, and as she was quite fearless, her words +often had a surprising effect. She neither patronised nor scolded, and it +was impossible to take her in.</p> + +<p>But when dealing with the affairs of those of her neighbours, who were +well-to-do, and who regarded themselves as belonging to her own class, it +was quite another matter. With regard to them and their affairs she was +what they often angrily accused her of being—a busy-body and even a +mischief-maker. Her lively mind caused her to take a great interest—too +great an interest—in the private affairs of people some of whom she +disliked, and even despised. She was also not as scrupulous as she might +have been in repeating unsavoury gossip. Yet, even so, so substantially +good a woman was she, that what some people called Miss Pendarth's +interfering ways had more than once brought about a reconciliation +between husband and wife, or between an old-fashioned mother and a +rebellious daughter. It was hopeless to try to keep from her the news of +any local quarrel, love-affair, or money trouble—somehow or other she +always found out everything she was likely to want to know—and she +almost always wanted to know everything.</p> + +<p>There was another fact about Miss Pendarth, and one which much +contributed to her importance even with the people who disliked and +feared her: she was the only inhabitant of the remote Surrey village who +was in touch with the world of fashion and society—who knew people whose +"pictures are in the papers." Now and again, though more and more rarely +as time went on, she would leave Rose Cottage to take part in some big +family gathering of the important and prosperous clan to which, in spite +of her own lack of means, she yet belonged, and with whom she kept in +touch. But she herself never entertained a visitor at Rose Cottage, for +a reason of which she herself was painfully aware and which the more +careless of those about her did not in the least realise. This reason was +that she was very, very poor. Before the War, her little settled income +had enabled her to live in comfort in a house which was her own. But now, +had not her one servant been friend as well as maid, she could not have +gone on living in Rose Cottage; and during the last year, as Betty +Tosswill perhaps alone had noticed, certain beautiful things, fine bits +of good old silver, delicate inlaid pieces of furniture, and a pair of +finely carved gilt mirrors, had disappeared from Rose Cottage.</p> + +<p>The house was situated in the village street, with, however, a paved +forecourt, in which stood two huge Italian oil jars gay from April to +November with narcissi, tulips, or pink geraniums. Miss Pendarth was +proud of the fine old Sussex ironwork gate and railing which separated +her domain from the village street. The gate was exactly opposite the +entrance to the churchyard, while at right angles stood the village post +office. From the windows of her drawing-room upstairs, the mistress of +Rose Cottage was able to see a great deal that went on in the village of +Beechfield.</p> + +<p>Miss Pendarth's appearance, as is so often the case with an elderly, +unmarried Englishwoman of her class, gave no clue to her clever, +decisive, and original character. She had a thin, rather long mouth, what +old-fashioned people call a good nose, and grey eyes, and she had kept +the slight, rather stiff, figure of her girlhood. She still wore her +hair, which was only now beginning to turn really grey, braided in the +way which had been becoming to her thirty years before. The effect, if +neat, was rather wig-like, and the one peculiar-looking thing about her +appearance. She always wore, summer and winter, a mannish-looking +tailor-made coat and skirt, and a plainly cut flannel or linen shirt. At +night—and she dressed each evening—she alternated between two black +dresses, the one a velvet dress gown, the other a sequin-covered satin +tea-gown.</p> + +<p>Such was the woman to whom Betty Tosswill had thought it just as well to +go herself with the news of Godfrey Radmore's coming visit to Old Place, +and as she walked slowly up the village street, the girl tried to remind +herself that Miss Pendarth had a very kind side to her nature. Of all the +letters Betty had received at the time of her brother's death, she had +had none of more sincerely expressed sympathy than that from this old +friend whom she was now going to see. And yet? Yet what pain and distress +Miss Pendarth had caused them all at the time of the Rosamund trouble! +Instead of behaving like a true friend, and, as far as possible, stopping +the flow of gossip, she had added to its volume, causing the story to be +known to a far larger circle than would otherwise have been the case. But +Betty, honesty itself, was well aware that her step-mother had made a +serious mistake in not telling Miss Pendarth what there was to tell. A +confidence she never betrayed.</p> + +<p>Betty also reminded herself ruefully that in the far-away days when +Godfrey Radmore had been so often an inmate of Old Place, there had been +something like open war between himself and Miss Pendarth, and when she +had heard of his extraordinary good fortune, she had not hidden her +regret that it had fallen on one so unworthy.</p> + +<p>As Betty went up to the iron gate and unlatched it, she half hoped that +the owner of Rose Cottage would be out. Miss Pendarth, unlike most of her +neighbours, always kept her front door locked—you could not turn the +handle and walk right into the house.</p> + +<p>To-day she answered Betty's ring herself, and with a smile of welcome +lighting up her rather grim face she drew the girl into the hall and +kissed her affectionately.</p> + +<p>"I was just starting to pay my first call on Mrs. Crofton. But I'm so +glad. Perhaps you'll be able to tell me something about her. I hear she +had supper with you the day she arrived!"</p> + +<p>As she spoke, she led the way into a little room off the hall. "I've been +trying to make out to what branch of the Croftons she belongs," she went +on reflectively. "There was a man called Cecil Crofton in my second +brother's regiment a matter of forty years ago."</p> + +<p>"She looks quite young," said Betty doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"Old enough to know better than to get herself talked about the first +hour she arrived," observed Miss Pendarth grimly.</p> + +<p>"I don't think she can have done that—"</p> + +<p>"Not only did she bring a man with her, a Captain Tremaine,—but just +before he left they had some kind of quarrel which was overheard by two +of the tradespeople who were calling to leave their cards."</p> + +<p>"How—how horrid," murmured Betty. But what really shocked her was that +Miss Pendarth should listen to that sort of gossip.</p> + +<p>"It was horrid and absurd too, for the man had turned the key in the lock +of the sitting-room, and it stuck for a minute or two when one of them +tried to unlock the door in answer to the maid's knock!"</p> + +<p>"What an extraordinary thing!"</p> + +<p>"I could hardly believe the story, but now that I've seen Mrs. Crofton, +I'm not so very much surprised!"</p> + +<p>"Then you have seen her?" Betty smiled.</p> + +<p>"I've just had a glimpse of her," admitted Miss Pendarth grudgingly, "as +she came out of church, a day or two ago, with your sister Dolly."</p> + +<p>"She's extraordinarily pretty, isn't she?"</p> + +<p>"Too theatrical for my taste. But still, yes, I suppose one must admit +that she will prove a very formidable rival to most of our young ladies. +I'm told she's a war widow—and she certainly behaves as if she were."</p> + +<p>"I don't think it's fair to say that!" Betty crimsoned. She felt a close +kinship to all those women who had lost someone they loved in the War.</p> + +<p>"You mean not fair to the war widows?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that is what I do mean. Only a few of them behave horridly—"</p> + +<p>There was a pause. Betty was trying to bring herself to introduce the +subject which filled her mind. But Miss Pendarth was still full of the +new tenant of The Trellis House.</p> + +<p>"I hear that Timmy's dog gave her a fearful fright."</p> + +<p>Betty felt astonished, well used as she was to the other's almost uncanny +knowledge of all that went on in the village. Who could have told her +this particular bit of gossip?</p> + +<p>"I wonder," went on the elder lady reflectively, "what made Mrs. Crofton +come to Beechfield, of all places in the world. Somehow she doesn't look +the sort of woman who would care for a country life."</p> + +<p>"Godfrey Radmore first told her of Beechfield," said Betty, and in spite +of herself, she felt the colour rise again hotly to her cheeks.</p> + +<p>"Godfrey Radmore?" It was Miss Pendarth's turn to be genuinely surprised. +"<i>Godfrey Radmore!</i> Then she's Australian? I thought there was something +odd about her."</p> + +<p>Betty smiled, but she felt irritated. In some ways Miss Pendarth was +surely very narrow-minded!</p> + +<p>"No, she's not Australian—at least I'm pretty sure she's not. They met +during the War, in Egypt. Her husband was quartered there at the same +time as Godfrey." She paused uncomfortably—somehow she found it very +difficult to go on and say what, after all, she had come here to say this +morning.</p> + +<p>"I suppose," said Miss Pendarth at last, "that Godfrey Radmore is back +in Brisbane by now. One of the strange things about this war has been the +way in which those who could have been best spared, escaped."</p> + +<p>In spite of herself, Betty smiled again. "Godfrey has come back to +England for good," she said quietly, "he's coming to-day for a long +week-end."</p> + +<p>"D'you mean," asked Miss Pendarth, "that he's coming to stay with this +Mrs. Crofton at The Trellis House?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" exclaimed Betty. (What odd ideas Miss Pendarth sometimes had.) +"He's coming to Old Place of course: he telephoned to Janet from London, +and proposed himself."</p> + +<p>"I think it's very good of you all to put up with him," said Miss +Pendarth drily, "I've never said so before, my dear, but I thought it +exceedingly ungrateful of him not to have come down here when he was in +England a year ago, I mean when he sent that puppy to your brother +Timmy."</p> + +<p>Betty remained silent, and for once her old friend felt—what she too +seldom did feel—that she might just as well have kept her thoughts to +herself.</p> + +<p>Miss Pendarth was really attached to Betty Tosswill, but she was one of +those people—there are many such—who find it all too easy to hurt those +they love.</p> + +<p>They both got up.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid you think me very uncharitable," said the older woman +suddenly.</p> + +<p>Betty looked at her rather straight. "I sometimes think it strange," she +said slowly, "that anyone as kind and clever as I know you are, does not +make more allowances for people. For my part, I wonder that Godfrey is +coming here at all. As I look back and remember all that happened—I +don't think that anyone at Old Place behaved either kindly or fairly to +him—I mean about our engagement."</p> + +<p>Miss Pendarth was moved as well as surprised by Betty's quiet words. The +girl was extraordinarily reserved—she very rarely spoke out her secret +thoughts. But Miss Pendarth was destined to be even more surprised, for +Betty suddenly put out her hand, and laid it on the other's arm.</p> + +<p>"I want to tell you," she said earnestly, "that as far as I am concerned, +everything that happened then is quite, quite over. I don't think that +Godfrey would have been happy with me, and so I feel that we both had a +great escape. I want to tell you this because so many people knew of our +engagement, and I'm afraid his coming back like this may cause a lot of +silly, vulgar talk."</p> + +<p>Miss Pendarth was more touched than she would have cared to admit even to +herself. "You can count on me, my dear," she said gravely, "and may I +say, Betty, that I feel sure you're right in feeling that you would have +been most unhappy with him?"</p> + +<p>As Betty walked on to the post office she was glad that <i>that</i> little +ordeal was over.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>John Tosswill was one of those men who instinctively avoid and put off +as long as may be, a difficult or awkward moment. That was perhaps one +reason why he had not made a better thing of his life. So his wife was +not surprised when, after luncheon, he observed rather nervously that he +was going out, and that she must tell Godfrey Radmore how sorry he was +not to be there to welcome him.</p> + +<p>As she remained silent, he added, rather shamefacedly:—"I'll be back in +time to have a few words with him before dinner."</p> + +<p>Poor Janet! She still loved her husband as much as she had done in the +days when he, the absent-minded, gentle, refined scholar, made his way +into her heart. Nay, in a sense, she loved him more, for he had become +entirely dependent on her. But though she loved and admired him, she no +longer relied on him, as she had once done; he had a queer way of failing +her at the big moments of life, and now, to-day, she felt it too bad of +him to shirk the moment of Godfrey Radmore's return. His presence would +have made everything easier, for he had never admitted either to himself +or her, that Godfrey had behaved in a strange or untoward manner.</p> + +<p>As she turned over the leaves of a nursery-man's catalogue and gazed at +the list of plants and bulbs she could not afford to buy, long-forgotten +scenes crowded on her memory.</p> + +<p>Radmore had been the violent, unreasonable element in the painful +episode, for Betty had behaved well, almost too well. The girl would have +thrown in her lot with her lover, but both her father and step-mother had +been agonised at the thought of trusting her to a man—and so very young +a man—who had made such a failure of his life. That he was going out to +Australia practically penniless—nay, worse than penniless, saddled with +debts of so-called honour—had been, or so they had judged at the time, +entirely his own fault.</p> + +<p>John Tosswill, who had a very clear and acute mind when any abstract +question was under discussion, had told Betty plainly that she would only +be a dangerous hindrance to a man situated as Radmore would be situated +in a new country, and she had submitted to her father's judgment.</p> + +<p>But how ironical are the twists and turns of life! If only they had known +what the future was to bring forth, how differently Betty's father and +step-mother would have acted! Yet now to-day, Janet tried to tell herself +that Betty had had a happy escape. Godfrey had been like a bull in the +net during those painful days nine years ago. He had shown himself +utterly unreasonable, and especially angry, nay enraged, with her, Janet, +because he had been foolish enough to hope that she would take his part +against Betty's father.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Acting on a sudden impulse, she went upstairs, and, feeling a little +ashamed of what she was doing, went into the room which was to be Godfrey +Radmore's. Then she walked across to where stood Timmy's play-box, in +order to find the letter which Betty's one-time lover had written to his +godson.</p> + +<p>The play-box had been George's play-box in the days of his preparatory +school, and it still had his name printed across it.</p> + +<p>She turned up the wooden lid. Everything in the box was very tidy, for +Timmy was curiously grown-up in some of his ways, and so she very soon +found the letter she was seeking for.</p> + +<p>It was a quaint, humorous epistle—the letter of a man who feels quite +sure of himself, and yet as she read it through rapidly, there rose +before her the writer as he had last appeared in a railing whirlwind +of rage and fury, just before leaving Old Place—he had vowed at the +time—for ever. She remembered how he had shouted at her, hurling bitter +reproaches, telling her she would be sorry one day for having persuaded +Betty to give him up. But though she, Janet Tosswill, had not forgotten, +he had evidently made up his mind, the moment he had met with his +unexpected and astonishing piece of good luck, to let bygones be bygones. +For, after that first letter to his godson, gifts had come in quick +succession to Old Place, curious unexpected, anonymous gifts, but even +Dolly had guessed at once from whom they came.</p> + +<p>No wonder the younger children were all excited and delighted at the +thought of his coming visit! Radmore was now looked upon as a fairy +godfather might have been. They were too young, too self-absorbed, to +realise that these wonderful gifts out of the blue never seemed to wing +their way to Betty or Janet. Yet stop, there had been an exception. Last +Christmas each had received an anonymous fairing—Betty, a beautiful +little watch, set in diamonds, and Janet, a wonderful old lace flounce. +Both registered parcels had come from London, Godfrey Radmore being known +at the time to be in Australia. But neither recipient of the delightful +gift had ever cared to wear or use it.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + + +<p>And meanwhile the man of whom every single human being in Old Place, +with the exception of the little village day girl, was thinking this +afternoon, was coming ever nearer and nearer to Beechfield in an ecstasy +of sentient joy at being "at home" again.</p> + +<p>As Radmore motored along the Portsmouth Road through the warmly-beautiful +autumn countryside, a feeling of exultation, of intense personal love +for, and pride in, the old country, filled his heart. Why had he stayed +in London so long when all this tranquil, appealing loveliness of wood, +stream, hill and hollow lay close at hand? There are folk who deny the +charm of Surrey—by whom this delicious county, with its noble stretches +of wild, fragrant uplands, and wide, deep valleys, is dismissed as +suburban. But though they would deny it vehemently, the eyes of such +folk are holden.</p> + +<p>As he was borne along through the soft, lambent air, everything he passed +appealed to his heart and imagination. Each of the small, yet dignified, +eighteenth-century houses, which add such distinction and grace to each +Surrey township—Epsom, Leatherhead, Guildford—gave him a comfortable +feeling of his country's well-being, of the essential stability of +England. Now and again, in some woodland glade where summer still +lingered, he would pass by happy groups engaged in black-berrying; +while on the road there waited the charabancs, the motor-cycles, the +pony-traps, which had brought them.</p> + +<p>Once, when they came to such a spot, he, Radmore, called out to his +chauffeur to stop. They were close to the crest of Boxhill, and below +them lay spread out what is perhaps the finest, because the richest in +human and historic associations, view in Southern England. As he stood up +and gazed down and down and down, to his right he saw what looked from up +here such a tiny toylike town, and it recalled suddenly a book he had +once read, as one reads a Jules Verne romance, "The Battle of Dorking," +a soldier's fairy-tale that had come perilously near being a prophecy.</p> + +<p>Before Radmore's eyes—blotting out the noble, peaceful landscape, rich +in storied beauty—there rose an extraordinarily vivid phantasmagoria of +vast masses of armed men in field grey moving across that wide, thickly +peopled valley of lovely villages and cosy little towns. He saw as in a +vision the rich stretches of arable land, the now red, brown, and yellow +spinneys and clumps of high trees, the meadows dotted with sleek cattle, +laid waste—while sinister columns of flames and massed clouds of smoke +rose from each homestead.</p> + +<p>"Drive on!" he called out, and the chauffeur was startled by the harsh +note in his employer's generally kindly voice.</p> + +<p>On they sped down the great flank of the huge hill, past the hostelry +where Nelson bid a last farewell to his Emma, on and on along narrow +lanes, and between high hedges starred with autumn flowers. And then, +when in a spot so wild and lonely that it might have been a hundred miles +from a town—though it was only some ten miles from Beechfield—something +went wrong with the engine of the car.</p> + +<p>Janet had proposed that tea should be at five o'clock, so as to give the +visitor plenty of time to arrive. But from four onwards, all the younger +folk were in a state of excitement and expectation—Timmy running +constantly in and out of the house, rushing to the gate, from whence a +long stretch of road could be seen, till his constant gyrations got on +his mother's nerves, and she sharply ordered him to come in and be quiet.</p> + +<p>At a quarter to five the telephone bell rang and Jack languidly went to +answer it. Then he came back into the drawing-room. "Radmore's had a +breakdown," he said briefly, "he's afraid he can't get here till seven."</p> + +<p>Here was a disappointing anti-climax!</p> + +<p>"Then we'd better all go and have our tea," said Timmy sententiously, and +everyone felt, in a dispirited way, that, as usual, Timmy had hit the +nail on the head.</p> + +<p>They all trooped into the dining-room, but Timmy was the only one who did +full justice to the cakes and scones which had been made specially in +Godfrey Radmore's honour: all the others felt cross and disappointed, +especially Tom and Rosamund, who had given up going to a tennis-party.</p> + +<p>Tea was soon over, for everyone talked much less than usual, and then +they all scattered with the exception of Timmy and Betty. Janet had +someone to see in the village; Tom persuaded Rosamund that they would +still be welcome at the tennis-party; Betty stayed to clear the table. +She, alone of them all, was glad of even this short respite, for, as the +day had gone on, she had begun to dread the meeting inexpressibly. She +knew that even Tom—who had only been seven years old when Godfrey went +away—would be wondering how she felt, and watching to see how she would +behave. It was a comfort to be alone with only Timmy who was still at +table eating steadily. Till recently tea had been Timmy's last meal, +though, as a matter of fact, he had nearly always joined in their very +simple evening meal. And lately it had been ordained that he was to eat +meat. But much as he ate, he never grew fat.</p> + +<p>"Hurry up!" said Betty absently. "I want to take off the table-cloth. We +can wash up presently."</p> + +<p>Timmy got up and shook himself; then he went across to the window, Flick +following him, while Betty after having made two tray journeys into the +kitchen, folded up the table-cloth. Timmy might have done this last +little job, but he pretended not to see that his sister wanted help. He +thought it such a shame that he wasn't now allowed the perilous and +exciting task of carrying a laden tray. But there had been a certain +dreadful day when...</p> + +<p>Betty turned round, surprised at the child's stillness and silence. Timmy +was standing half in and half out of the long French windows staring at +something his sister could not see.</p> + +<p>Then, all at once, Betty's heart seemed to stop still. She heard a voice, +familiar in a sense, and yet so unlike the voice of which she had once +known every inflection.</p> + +<p>"Hullo! I do believe I see Timothy Godfrey Radmore Tosswill!" and the +window for a moment was darkened by a tall, stalwart figure, which looked +as if it were two sizes larger than that which Betty remembered.</p> + +<p>The stranger took up Timmy's slight, thin figure as easily as a little +girl takes up a doll, and now he was holding his godson up in the air, +looking up at him with a half humorous, half whimsical expression, while +he exclaimed:—"I can't think where you came from? You've none of the +family's good looks, and you haven't a trace of your mother!"</p> + +<p>Then he set Timmy down rather carefully and delicately on the edge of the +shabby Turkey carpet, and stepped forward, into the dining-room.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if I may have a cup of tea? Is Preston still here?"</p> + +<p>"Preston's married. She has five children. Mother says it's four too +many, as her husband's a cripple." Timmy waited a moment. "We haven't got +a parlourmaid now. Mother says we lead the simple life."</p> + +<p>"The devil you do!" cried Radmore, diverted, and then, not till then, did +he suddenly become aware that he and his godson were not alone.</p> + +<p>"Why, Betty!" he exclaimed in a voice he tried to make quite ordinary, +"I didn't see you. Have you been there the whole time?"—the whole time +being but half a minute at the longest.</p> + +<p>And then he strode across the room, and, taking her two hands in his +strong grasp, brought her forward, rather masterfully, to the window +through which he had just come.</p> + +<p>"You're just the same," he said, but there was a doubtful note in his +voice, and then as she remained silent, though she smiled a little +tremulously, he went on:—</p> + +<p>"Nine years have made an awful difference to me—nine years <i>and</i> the +war! But Beechfield, from what I've been able to see of it, seems exactly +the same—not a twig, not a leaf, not a stone out of place!"</p> + +<p>"We didn't expect you for another hour at least," said Betty, in her +quiet, well-modulated voice.</p> + +<p>She was wondering whether he remembered, as she now remembered with a +kind of sickening vividness, the last time they had been together in this +room—for it was here, in the dining-room of Old Place, that they had +spent their last miserable, heart-broken moment together, a moment when +all the angry bitterness had been merged in wild, piteous tenderness, and +heart-break...</p> + +<p>"I had a bit of luck," he answered cheerfully, "as I went out of the +house where I had managed to get on to a telephone, there came a car down +the road, and I asked the man who was driving it if he would give me a +lift. My luck held, for he was actually breaking his journey for half an +hour here, at Beechfield!"</p> + +<p>He was talking rather quickly now, as if at last aware of something +painful, awkward, in the atmosphere.</p> + +<p>"Others all out?" he asked. "Perhaps you'll show me my room, godson?"</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't you like to see Nanna?" asked Timmy officiously. "She's so +looking forward to seeing you. She wants to thank you for the big +Shetland shawl she supposes you sent her last Christmas, and she has an +idea that the little real silver teapot she got on her birthday came from +you too. It has on it 'A Present for a Good Girl.'"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>As Radmore followed Timmy up the once familiar staircase, he felt +extraordinarily moved.</p> + +<p>How strange the thought that while not only his own life, but the lives +of all the people with whom he had been so intimately associated, had +changed—this old house had remained absolutely unaltered! Nothing had +been added—as far as he could see—and nothing taken away, and yet the +human atmosphere was quite other than what it had been ten years ago.</p> + +<p>Just now, in the moment of meeting, he had avoided asking Betty about +George. Betty's twin had been away at the time of Radmore's break with +Old Place—away in a sense which in our civilised days can only be +brought about by one thing, an infectious illness. At the time the +agonising debate was going on at Beechfield, he had been in a fever +hospital close on a month, and they were none of them to see him for +three more weeks. It had been at once a pain and a relief that he should +not be there—yet what good could a boy of nineteen have done?</p> + +<p>As to what had happened to George afterwards, Radmore knew nothing. He +believed that his friend had joined the Indian Civil Service. From +childhood George had always intended to make his career in India, his +maternal forebears having all been in the service of John Company.</p> + +<p>During the last few days Radmore had thought a great deal of George, +wondering what had happened to him during the war—whether, for instance, +he had at last managed, as did so many Anglo-Indian officials, to get +leave to join the Army? At one moment, before it had entered into his +mind to write to his little godson, he had thought of opening up +communications through George. But he had rejected the notion. The break +had been so complete, and George, after all, was so closely connected +with Betty! Considering that he had not mentioned Betty's brother, either +when speaking to Janet on the telephone two or three days ago, or again +just when he had made his unconventional re-entry into Old Place, it was +odd how the thought of Betty's twin haunted him as he followed his little +guide upstairs. Odd? No, in a sense very natural, for he and George often +raced each other up these very stairs. They had been such pals in spite +of the four years' difference between them.</p> + +<p>Radmore and Timmy were now in the kind of annex or wing which had been +added some fifty years after the original mansion had been built. The +lower floor of this annex consisted of one big room which, even in the +days of Radmore's first acquaintance with the Tosswills, was only used in +warm weather. Above it were two good bedrooms—the one still called +"George's room," over-looked the garden, and had a charming view of +bracken-covered hill beyond.</p> + +<p>Timmy opened the door with a flourish, and Radmore saw at once that only +one of the two beds was made up; otherwise the room was exactly the same, +with this one great outstanding difference—that it had a curiously +unlived-in look. The dark green linoleum on the floor appeared a thought +more worn, the old rug before the fireplace a thought more shabby—still, +how well things lasted, in the old country!</p> + +<p>He walked across to one of the windows, and the sight of the garden below +now in its full autumn beauty, seemed to bring Janet Tosswill vividly +before him.</p> + +<p>"Your mother as great a gardener as ever?" he asked, without turning +round, and Timmy said eagerly:—"I should think she is! And we're going +to sell our flowers and vegetables. <i>We</i> shall get the money now; the Red +Cross got it during the war."</p> + +<p>As his godfather remained silent, the boy went on insistently:—"Fifteen +shillings a week clear profit is £40 a year, and Mum thinks it will come +to more than that."</p> + +<p>Radmore turned round.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if any of you have yet met a lady who's just come to live +here—Mrs. Crofton?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, we've met her; in fact she's been to supper." Timmy spoke +without enthusiasm, but Radmore did not notice that.</p> + +<p>"I was wondering if you and I could go round and see her between now and +dinner?"</p> + +<p>"I <i>think</i> I could." There was a doubtful touch in Timmy's voice. He knew +quite well he ought to stay and help his sister to wash up the tea-things +and do certain other little jobs, but he also knew that if he asked Betty +to let him off, she would.</p> + +<p>"I shan't be a minute," he exclaimed, and a moment later Radmore heard +the little feet pattering down the carpetless back stairs, and then +scampering up again.</p> + +<p>Timmy ran in breathlessly. "It's all right!" he exclaimed, "I can go +with you—Mrs. Crofton has got The Trellis House—I'll show you the way +there."</p> + +<p>"Show me the way there?" repeated Radmore. "Why, I knew The Trellis House +from garret to cellar before you were born, young man."</p> + +<p>In the hall Timmy gave a queer, side-long look at his companion. "Do you +think we'd better take Flick?" he asked doubtfully, "Mrs. Crofton doesn't +like dogs."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, she does," Radmore spoke carelessly. "Flick was bred by Colonel +Crofton. I think she'll be very pleased to see him."</p> + +<p>Timmy would have hotly resented being called cruel, and to animals he was +most humane, yet somehow he had enjoyed Mrs. Crofton's terror the other +night, and he was not unwilling to see a repetition of it. And so the +three set out—Timmy, Radmore, and Flick. Somehow it was a comfort to the +grown-up man to have the child with him. Had he been alone he would have +felt like a ghost walking up the quiet, empty village street. The +presence of the child and the dog made him feel so <i>real</i>.</p> + +<p>The two trudged on in silence for a bit, and then Radmore asked in a low +voice:—"Is that busy-body, Miss Pendarth, still alive?"</p> + +<p>They were passing by Rose Cottage as he spoke, and Timmy at once replied +in a shrill voice:—"Yes, of course she is." And then, as if as an +afterthought, he remarked slyly:—"Rosamund often says she wishes she +were dead. Do you hate her, too?"</p> + +<p>"Hate's a big word," said Radmore thoughtfully, "but there was very +little love lost between me and that good lady in the old days."</p> + +<p>They passed the lych-gate of the churchyard, and then, following a sudden +impulse, Radmore turned into the post-office.</p> + +<p>Yes, his instinct had been right, for here, at any rate, was an old +friend, but a friend who, from a young man, had become old and grey. +Grasping the postmaster, Jim Cobbett, warmly by the hand Radmore +exclaimed:—"I'm glad to find you well and hearty, Cobbett." There +came the surprised: "Why, it's Mr. Radmore to be sure! How's the world +been treating you, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Better than I deserve, Cobbett."</p> + +<p>"Can you stay a minute, sir—Missus would like to see you, too?" The +speaker opened a door out of the tiny shop, and Radmore, followed by +Timmy and Flick, walked into a cosy living-room, where an old dog got +up and growled at them.</p> + +<p>"That dog," said Timmy in a hoarse whisper, "frightened poor Mrs. Crofton +very much the other day as she was coming out of church."</p> + +<p>For a moment Radmore thought the room was empty. Then, in the dim +lamp-light, a woman, who had been sitting by the fireplace, got up.</p> + +<p>"Here's Mr. Radmore come all the way from Australia, mother."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Radmore?" repeated the woman dully, and Radmore had another, and a +very painful, shock.</p> + +<p>He remembered Mrs. Cobbett definitely, as a buxom, merry-looking young +woman. She now looked older than her husband, and she did not smile at +him, as the man had done, as she held out her worn, thin hand.</p> + +<p>"A deal has happened," she said slowly, "since you went away."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Radmore, "a deal has happened, Mrs. Cobbett; but Beechfield +seems unchanged, I cannot see any difference at all."</p> + +<p>"Hearts are changed," she said in a strange voice.</p> + +<p>For the first time since he had been in Beechfield, Radmore felt a tremor +of real discomfort run through him.</p> + +<p>He looked up at the mantelpiece. It was bare save for the photographs, in +cheap frames, of two stolid-looking lads, whom he vaguely remembered.</p> + +<p>"Those your boys?" he asked kindly, and then, making an effort of memory +of which he felt harmlessly proud, he said:—"Let me see, one was Peter +and the other was Paul, eh? I hope they're all right, Mrs. Cobbett?"</p> + +<p>"In a sense, sir," she said apathetically. "I do believe they are. They +was both killed within a month of one another—first Paul, then Pete, as +we called him—so Mr. Cobbett and I be very lonely now."</p> + +<p>As Radmore and Timmy walked away from the post-office, Radmore said +a trifle ruefully:—"I wish, Timmy, you had told me about those poor +people's sons. I'm afraid—I suppose—that a good many boys never came +back to Beechfield."</p> + +<p>He now felt that everything was indeed changed in the lovely, peaceful +little Surrey village.</p> + +<p>"I expect," said Timmy thoughtfully, "that the most sensible thing you +could do"—(he avoided calling Radmore by name, not knowing whether he +was expected to address him as "godfather," "Godfrey," or "Major +Radmore")—"before we see anybody else, would be to take a look at the +Shrine. You have plenty of matches with you, haven't you?"</p> + +<p>"The Shrine?" repeated Radmore hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, <i>you</i> know?"</p> + +<p>But somehow Radmore didn't know.</p> + +<p>They walked on in the now fast gathering darkness through a part of the +village where the houses were rather spread out. And suddenly, just +opposite the now closed, silent schoolhouse and its big playground, Timmy +stopped and pointed up to his right. "There's our Shrine," he exclaimed. +"If you'll give me the box of matches, I'll strike some while you look at +the names."</p> + +<p>Radmore stared up to where Timmy pointed, but, for a moment or two, he +could see nothing. Then, gradually, there emerged against the high hedge +a curious-looking wooden panel protected by a slanting, neatly thatched +eave, while below ran a little shelf on which there were three vases +filled with fresh flowers.</p> + +<p>Timmy Tosswill struck a match and held it up, far above his little head. +And Radmore saw flash out the gilded words:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">ROLL OF HONOUR, 1914-1918.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">PASS, FRIEND. ALL'S WELL.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The first name was "Thomas Ingleton," then came "Mons, 22nd August, +1914." Immediately below, bracketed together, came "Peter and Paul +Cobbett," followed, in the one case, by the date October 15, 1915, and in +the other, November 19, 1915. And then, in the wavering light, there +seemed to start out another name and date.</p> + +<p>Radmore uttered an exclamation of sharp pain, almost of anger. He did +not want the child to see his shocked, convulsed face, but he said +quickly:—"Not George? Surely, Timmy, not <i>George</i>?"</p> + +<p>Timmy answered, "Then you didn't know? Dad and Betty thought you did, but +Mum thought that perhaps you didn't."</p> + +<p>"Why wasn't I told?" asked Radmore roughly. "I should have thought, +Timmy, that you might have told me when you answered my first letter."</p> + +<p>He took the box of matches out of Timmy's hand, and himself lighting a +match, went up quite close to the list of names. Yes, it was there right +enough.</p> + +<p>"When did he, George, volunteer?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"On the seventh of August, two days after the War began," said Timmy +simply. "He was awfully afraid they wouldn't take him. There was such a +rush, you know. But they did take him, and the doctor who saw him +undressed, naked, you know, told Daddy"—the child hesitated a moment, +then repeated slowly, proudly—"that George was one of the finest +specimens of young manhood he had ever seen."</p> + +<p>"And when did he go out?"</p> + +<p>"He went out very soon; and we used to have such jolly times when he came +back, because, you know, he did come back three times altogether, and the +second time—Betty hadn't gone to France then—they all went up to London +together and had a splendid time. I didn't go; Mum didn't think it worth +the expense that I should go, though George wanted me to."</p> + +<p>Hardly conscious that he was doing so, Radmore turned round, and began +walking quietly on along the dark road, with Timmy trotting by his side. +"What I believed," he muttered, half to himself, "was that George was +safe in India, and probably not even allowed to volunteer."</p> + +<p>"George never went to India," said Timmy soberly. "Betty wasn't well, I +think, and as they were twins, he didn't like to go so far away from her. +So he got a job in London. It was quite nice, and he used to come down +once a month or so." He waited a moment, then went on. "Betty always said +he was a born soldier, and that he ought to have been a soldier from the +very beginning. As you care so much," he added a little diffidently, "I +expect Betty would show you the letters his men wrote about him. Dad has +got the letters of his Colonel and of the officers, but Betty has the +others."</p> + +<p>And then all at once Radmore felt a small skinny hand slipped into his.</p> + +<p>"I want to tell you something," muttered Timmy. "I want to tell you two +things. I want to tell you that I'm sure George is in Heaven. I don't +know if you know, but I sometimes see people who are dead. I saw Pete +Cobbett once. He was standing by the back door of the post-office, and +that old dog of theirs saw him too; it was just before we got the news +that he was killed, so I thought he was back on leave. But I've never +seen George—sometimes I've felt as if he were there, but I've never +<i>seen</i> him."</p> + +<p>For a moment Radmore wondered if he had heard the words aright. What +could the child mean? Did Timmy claim the power to see spirits?</p> + +<p>"Now I'll tell you the second thing," went on Timmy, his voice dropping +to a whisper. "The last time George was home he came into the night +nursery one night. Nanna was still busy in the kitchen, so I was by +myself. I have a room all to myself now, but I hadn't then. George came +in to say a special good-bye to me—he was going off the next morning +very early, and Betty wanted to be the only one up to see him go; I mean +really early, half past five in the morning. And then—and then—he said +to me: 'You'll look after Betty, Timmy? If anything happens to me you'll +take my place, won't you, old chap? You'll look after Betty all the days +of her life?' I promised I would, and so I will too. But I haven't told +her what George said, and you mustn't tell anybody. I've only told you +because you're my godfather."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + + +<p>Mrs. Crofton was walking restlessly about her new home—the house that +was so new to her, and yet, if local tradition could be trusted, one of +the oldest inhabited dwellings in that part of England.</p> + +<p>She had felt so sure that Godfrey Radmore would manage to get away from +Old Place, and call on her this afternoon, for Jack Tosswill had told her +that he was arriving before tea—she felt depressed and disappointed +though she had not yet given up hope.</p> + +<p>She wondered if he would come alone the first time, or if one of +the girls would accompany him. She felt just a little afraid of +Rosamund—Rosamund was so very pretty with all the added, evanescent +charm of extreme youth. She told herself that it was lucky that she, +Enid, and Godfrey Radmore were already friends, and good friends too.</p> + +<p>Twice she went up into her bedroom and gave a long, searching, anxious +look at herself in the narrow panel mirror which she had fixed on to one +of the cupboard doors. That there is no truer critic of herself, and of +her appearance, than a very pretty woman, is generally true even of the +vainest and most self-confident of her sex.</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton had put on a white serge skirt, and a white woolen jumper, +the only concession to her new widowhood being that the white jumper was +bordered in pale grey of a shade that matched her shoes and stockings. +Though her anxious surveys of herself had been reassuring, she felt +nervous, and a trifle despondent. She did not like the country—the +stillness even of village life got on her nerves. Still, Beechfield was +very different from the horribly lonely house in Essex to which she +never returned willingly in her thoughts—though sometimes certain +memories of all that had happened there would thrust themselves upon her, +refusing to be denied.</p> + +<p>Fortunately for the new occupant of The Trellis House, a certain type of +prettiness gives its lucky possessor an extraordinary sense of assurance +and tranquillity when dealing with the average man. Enid Crofton wasn't +quite sure, however, if Godfrey Radmore was an average man. He had never +made love to her in those pleasant, now far-away days in Egypt, when +every other unattached man did so. That surely proved him to be somewhat +peculiar.</p> + +<p>During the whole of her not very long life she had been petted and +spoilt, admired and sheltered, by almost everyone with whom fate had +brought her in contact.</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton's father had been a paymaster in the Royal Navy named +Joseph Catlin. After his death she and her mother had lived on in +Southsea till the girl was sixteen, when her mother had pronounced +her quite old enough to be "out." Mrs. Catlin was still too attractive +herself to feel her daughter a rival, and the two years which had +followed had been delightful years to them both. Then something which +they regarded as most romantic occurred. On the day Enid was eighteen, +and her mother thirty-seven, there had been a double wedding, Mrs. Catlin +becoming the wife of a prosperous medical man, while Enid married a young +soldier who had just come in for £4,000, which he and his girl-wife +at once proceeded to spend.</p> + +<p>To-day, in spite of herself, her mind went back insistently to her first +marriage—that marriage of which she never spoke, but of which she was +afraid she would have to tell Godfrey Radmore some day. She was shrewd +enough to know that many a man in love with a widow would be surprised +and taken aback were he suddenly told that she had been married before, +not once, but twice.</p> + +<p>Unknowingly to them both, the young, generous, devoted, lover-husband, to +whom even now she sometimes threw a retrospective, kindly thought, had +done her an irreparable injury. He had opened to her the gates of a +material paradise—the kind of paradise in which a young woman enjoys a +constant flow of ready money. Though she was quite unaware of it, it was +those fifteen weeks spent on the Riviera, for the most part at Monte +Carlo, which had gradually caused Enid to argue herself into the belief +that she was justified in doing anything—<i>anything</i> which might +contribute to the renewal of that delicious kind of existence—the only +life, from her point of view, worth living.</p> + +<p>Her first husband's death in a motor accident had left her practically +penniless, as well as frightened and bewildered, and so she had committed +the mistake of marrying, almost at once, clever, saturnine Colonel +Crofton, a man over thirty years older than herself. His mad passion had +died down like a straw-fed flame, and when there had come, like a bolt +from their already grey sky, the outbreak of War, it had been a godsend +to them both.</p> + +<p>Colonel Crofton had at once stepped into what had seemed to them both +a good income, with all sorts of delightful extras, and allowances, +attached to it. And while he was in France, at the back of the Front, +absorbed in his job, though resentful of the fact that he was not in +the trenches, Enid had shared a small flat in London with another young +and lonely wife. The two had enjoyed every moment of war-time London, +dancing, flirting, taking part, by way of doing their bit, in every +form of the lighter kind of war charities, their ideal existence only +broken by the occasional boredom of having to entertain their respective +husbands when the latter were home on leave.</p> + +<p>Then had come the short interval in Egypt during which the Croftons had +met Godfrey Radmore, and, after that for Enid, another delightful stretch +of London life.</p> + +<p>She had felt it intolerable to go back to the old, dull life, on an +income which seemed smaller than ever with rising prices, and everything +sacrificed, or so it had seemed to her, to Colonel Crofton's new, +dog-breeding hobby. She resented too, perhaps, more bitterly than she +knew herself, her husband's altered attitude to herself. From having been +passionately, foolishly in love, he had become critical, and, what to her +was especially intolerable, jealous. For a time she had kept up with some +of her war-time acquaintances, but there was a strain of curious timidity +in her nature, and she grew afraid of Colonel Crofton. Even now, when +Enid Crofton, free at last, remembered those dreary months in the shabby +little manor-house which Colonel Crofton had taken after the Armistice, +she told herself, with a quickened pulse, that flesh and blood cannot +stand more than a certain amount of dulness and discomfort. But she +seldom went back in thought to that hateful time. She had wanted to +obliterate, as far as was possible, all recollection of the place where +she had spent such unhappy months, and where had occurred the tragedy +of her husband's death. And it would have been difficult to find two +dwelling-houses more different than the lonely, austere-looking, Fildy +Fe Manor, which stood surrounded by water-clogged fields, some two +miles from an unattractive, suburban Essex town, and the delightful, +picturesque, cheerful-looking Trellis House which formed an integral part +of a prosperous-looking and picturesque Surrey village.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>At last Mrs. Crofton settled herself down into her low-ceilinged, square +little sitting-room, and, looking round at her new possessions, she told +herself that outwardly her new home was perfect.</p> + +<p>The Trellis House had been for a short time in the possession of a +clever, modern architect who had done his best to restore the building to +what it must have been before it had been transformed, early in the 19th +century, from a farm into a so-called gentleman's house. He had uncovered +the old oak beams, stripped five layers of paper off the walls of the +living rooms, and laid bare what panelling there was—in fact he had +restored the interior of the old building, while leaving the rose and +clematis covered trellis which was on the portion of the house standing +at right angles to the village street, and which gave it its name.</p> + +<p>In a sense it was too much like a stage picture to please a really fine +taste. But to Enid Crofton it formed an ideal background for her +attractive self. She had sold for very high prices the sound, solid, +fine, 18th century furniture, which her husband had inherited, and with +the proceeds she had bought the less comfortable but to the taste of the +moment, more attractive oak furnishings of The Trellis House.</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton was the kind of woman who acquires helpful admirers in every +profession. The junior partner of the big firm of house-agents who had +disposed of the lease of Fildy Fe Manor had helped her in every way +possible, though he had been rather surprised and puzzled, considering +that she knew no one there, at her determination to find a house in, or +near, the village of Beechfield.</p> + +<p>It was also an admirer, the only one who had survived from her war +sojourn in Egypt—a cheery, happy, good-looking soldier, called Tremaine, +now at home on leave from India—who had helped her in the actual task of +settling in. Not that there had been much settling in to do—for the +house had been left in perfect order by its last tenant. But Captain +Tremaine had fetched her from the hotel where she had stayed in London; +he had bought her first-class ticket (Enid always liked someone to pay +for her); they had shared a delightful picnic lunch which he provided +in the train; and then, finally, reluctantly, he had left The Trellis +House—after a rather silly, tiresome, little scene, during which he had +vowed that she should marry him, even if it came to his kidnapping her +by force!</p> + +<p>While hoping and waiting, in nervous suspense, for Godfrey Radmore, she +cast a tender thought to Bob Tremaine. Nothing, so she told herself with +a certain vehemence, would induce her to marry him, for he had only £200 +a year beside his pay, and that, even in India, she believed would mean +poverty. Also she had been told that no woman remained really pretty in +India for very long. But she was fond of Tremaine—he was "her sort," and +far, far more her ideal of what a man should be than was the rich man she +had deliberately made up her mind to marry; but bitter experience had +convinced Enid Crofton that money—plenty of money—was as necessary to +her as the air she breathed.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Suddenly there broke on her ear the peal of an old-fashioned bell, +followed by a short, sharp knock on the toy knocker of her front door. +Enid started up, her face full of eagerness and pleasure; something +seemed to tell her that it was—it must be—Radmore!</p> + +<p>While the maid was going to the door, her mind worked quickly. Surely it +was very late for a call? He must have been wishing to see her as soon as +he possibly could, or he would never have managed to get away from Old +Place, and its many tiresome inmates. There came a mischievous smile over +her face. Of one of those inmates, the rather priggish Jack Tosswill, she +had made a real conquest. Under some flimsy excuse he had come every day, +always staying for a considerable time. This very morning he had not gone +till she had told him frankly that she only had lunch enough for one!</p> + +<p>The door opened slowly, and her smile died away, giving place to a +touching, pathetic expression. And then, instead of the tall, dark +man she expected to see walk in, there advanced towards her a small, +freckled-faced, fair-haired little boy—Timmy Tosswill, the child whom +she was already beginning to regard with something akin to real distaste.</p> + +<p>But Enid Crofton was never unpleasant in manner to anybody, and she even +forced herself to smile, as she exclaimed:—"I was not expecting a +visitor so late, but I'm very pleased to see you all the same, Master +Timmy! How wonderful that you should have been able to reach my knocker. +It's placed so very high up on the door—I think I must get it altered."</p> + +<p>"I didn't knock," said Timmy shortly, "it was my godfather who knocked, +Mrs. Crofton."</p> + +<p>And when Radmore followed his godson into the room he was surprised, even +a little touched, at the warmth of Mrs. Crofton's greeting.</p> + +<p>She put out both her hands, "I <i>am</i> glad to see you"—and then she added, +characteristically, for truth was not in her, "I was afraid you wouldn't +have time to look me up for ever so long!"</p> + +<p>But though Radmore was pleased by her evident joy in seeing him, he +looked at her with a curiously critical eye. He was surprised to find her +in a white frock—inclined, even, to be just a little bit shocked.</p> + +<p>And there was something else. Enid Crofton had enjoyed the War—she had +admitted this just a little shamefacedly a week ago, when they two were +having dinner together at the Savoy Grill, where she had been easily the +prettiest woman in the room. At the time he had felt indulgently that it +was a good thing that someone should have gone through that awful time +untouched by the pains and scars of war. But now everything seemed +different, somehow. Beechfield was a place of mourning, and in a place +of mourning this smiling, beautifully dressed, almost too pretty young +creature looked out of place. Still that wasn't her fault, after all.</p> + +<p>As the three sat down, Timmy upset the narrow oak stool on which he had +placed himself with a great clatter, and Radmore suddenly realised that +he had made a mistake in bringing the boy. For the first time since his +return to England he saw something like a frown gather on Mrs. Crofton's +face. Perhaps, unlike most nice women, she didn't like children?</p> + +<p>"I'm awfully grateful to you for having told me about Beechfield," she +exclaimed. "Although I've hardly been here a week, I do feel what a +delightful place it is! Everybody is so kind and friendly. Why the very +first day I was here I was asked to supper at Old Place—and several +people have left cards on me already. What sort of a woman is Miss—" she +hesitated, "Pendarth?"</p> + +<p>Timmy and Radmore looked at one another, but neither spoke for a moment. +Then Radmore answered, rather drily:—"In my time, Miss Pendarth was the +greatest gossip and busy-body within a radius of thirty miles. She must +be an old woman now."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't think she would like you to call her that!" exclaimed Timmy, +and both his grown-up auditors laughed. But Enid Crofton felt a little +disappointed, for on Miss Pendarth's card had been written the words:—"I +look forward to making your acquaintance. I think I must have known +Colonel Crofton many years ago. There was a Cecil Crofton who was a great +friend of my brother's—they joined the Ninetieth on the same day." She +had rather hoped to find a kindly friend and ally in the still unknown +caller.</p> + +<p>And then, as if answering her secret thought, Radmore observed +carelessly:—"It's wrong to prejudice you against Miss Pendarth; I've +known her do most awfully kind things. But she had what the Scotch call +a 'scunner' against me when I was a boy. She's the sort of woman who's +a good friend and a bad enemy."</p> + +<p>"I must hope," said his hostess softly, "that she'll be a good friend to +me. At any rate, it was nice of her to come and call almost at once, +wasn't it?"</p> + +<p>"You've delightful quarters here," observed Radmore. "The Trellis House +was a very different place to this in my time; I can remember a hideous, +cold and white wallpaper in this room—it looks twice as large as it did +then."</p> + +<p>"I found the things I sold made it possible for me to buy almost +everything in The Trellis House. Tappin & Edge say that I got a great +bargain."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Radmore hesitatingly, "I expect you did."</p> + +<p>But all the same he felt that his pretty friend had made a mistake, for +he remembered some of Colonel Crofton's furniture as having been very +good. In the bedroom in which he had slept at Fildy Fe Manor there had +been a walnut-wood tallboy of the best Jacobean period. That one piece +must certainly have been worth more than all the furniture in this +particular room put together.</p> + +<p>Poor Enid Crofton! The call to which she had been looking forward so +greatly was not turning out a success. Godfrey Radmore seemed a very +different man here, in Beechfield, from what he had seemed in London. +They talked in a desultory way, with none of the pleasant, cosy, intimacy +to which she had insensibly accustomed him; and though Timmy remained +absolutely quiet and silent after that unfortunate accident with the +stool, his presence in some way affected the atmosphere.</p> + +<p>All at once Radmore asked:—"And where's Boo-boo? It's odd I never +thought of asking you in London, but somehow one expects to see a dog in +the country, even as highly civilised and smart a little dog as Boo-boo!"</p> + +<p>"I sold her," answered Mrs. Crofton, in a low, pained tone. "I got £40 +for her, and a most awfully good home. Still," she sighed, "of course I +miss my darling little Boo—" and then a sharp tremor ran through her, +for there suddenly fell on her ears the sound of a dog, howling.</p> + +<p>Now Enid Crofton did not believe that what she heard so clearly were real +howls, proceeding from a flesh-and-blood dog. She thought that her nerves +were betraying her, as they had a way of doing since her husband's death. +Often when she fell asleep, there would come to her a strange and +horrible nightmare. It was such a queer, uncanny kind of dream for a +grown-up woman to have! She used to dream that she was a rat—and that +Colonel Crofton's own terrier, a fierce brute called Dandy, was after +her.</p> + +<p>"That's Flick! Perhaps I'd better go and let him out?" Timmy jumped up +as he spoke. "I thought you didn't like dogs, Mrs. Crofton, and so I shut +Flick up in your stable-yard. I expect he's got bored, being in there +all by himself, in the dark!"</p> + +<p>The boy's words brought delicious relief, and then, all at once, she +felt unreasonably angry. How stupid of this odious little fellow to have +brought his horrid, savage dog with him—after what had happened the +other night!</p> + +<p>Timmy shot out of the room and so through the front door, and Radmore got +up too. "I'm afraid we ought to be going," he said.</p> + +<p>His white-clad hostess came up close to him:—"It's so good of you to +have come to see me so soon," she murmured. "Though I do like Beechfield, +and the people here are awfully kind, I feel very forlorn, Mr. Radmore. +Seeing you has cheered me up very much. I hope you'll come again soon."</p> + +<p>There fell on the still air the voice of Timmy talking to his dog +outside. Mrs. Crofton went quickly past Radmore into the tiny hall; she +shut the front door, which had been left ajar; and then she came back.</p> + +<p>"It's quite true that I don't like dogs!" she exclaimed. "Poor Cecil's +terriers got thoroughly on my nerves last winter. I sometimes dream of +them even now."</p> + +<p>He looked at her, surprised, and rather concerned. Poor little woman! +There were actually tears in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she went on, as if she could not help the words coming out, +"that's the real reason I sold Boo-boo. I even felt as if my poor little +Boo-boo had turned against me." There was a touch of excitement, almost +of defiance, in her low voice, and Radmore felt exceedingly taken aback +and puzzled. This was an Enid Crofton he had never met. "Come, come—you +mustn't feel like that"—he took her hand in his and held it closely.</p> + +<p>She looked up at him and her eyes filled with tears, and then, suddenly, +her heart began beating deliciously. She saw flash into his dark face a +look she had seen flash into many men's faces, but never in his, till +now—the excited, tender look that she had longed to see there. She +swayed a little towards him; dropping her hand, he put out his arms—in +another moment, what she felt sure such a man as Radmore would have +regarded as irreparable would have happened, had not the door just behind +them burst open.</p> + +<p>They fell apart quickly, and Radmore, with a sudden revulsion of +feeling—a sensation that he had been saved from doing a very foolish +thing—turned to see his godson, Timmy Tosswill.</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton looked at Timmy, too, and if evil thoughts could kill, the +child would have fallen dead. But evil thoughts do not kill, and so all +that happened was that Timmy had a sudden, instinctive feeling that he +must account for his presence.</p> + +<p>Looking up into his godfather's face, he said breathlessly:—"The front +door was shut, so I came in, through the kitchen. It's ever so late, +Godfrey—after half past seven. Dad <i>will</i> be upset if you're not back to +speak to him before dinner!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>As the two, the tall man and the short boy, walked away into the +darkness, Radmore was possessed by an extraordinary mixture of feelings. +"You've had an escape! You've got well out of what would have been not +only a dangerous but an absurd situation," so whispered a secret, inner +voice. And yet there was a side of him which felt not only balked and +disappointed, but exasperated...</p> + +<p>"Do you ever think of people's faces when they're not there?" asked Timmy +suddenly, and then, without waiting for an answer, he went on:—"When I +shut my eyes, before I go quite off to sleep, you know, I see a row of +faces. Sometimes they're people I've never seen at all; but last night I +kept seeing Mrs. Crofton's face, looking just as it looked when Flick ran +in and growled at her the other night. It was such an awful look—I don't +think I shall ever forget it."</p> + +<p>As Radmore said nothing, the little boy asked another question: "Do you +think Mrs. Crofton pretty?" This time Timmy waited for an answer.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think she's very pretty. But gentlemen don't discuss ladies and +their looks, old boy."</p> + +<p>"Don't they? How stupid of them!" said Timmy. He added a little shyly, "I +suppose a gentleman may talk of his sister?"</p> + +<p>Radmore turned hot in the darkness. Was Timmy going to say something of +Betty, and of that old, painful, now he hoped forgotten, episode? But +Timmy only observed musingly:—"You haven't seen Rosamund yet. Of course +we never say so to her, because it might make her vain, but I do think, +Godfrey, that she's very, <i>very</i> pretty."</p> + +<p>And then, rather to his companion's discomfiture, his queer little +mind swung back to the woman to whose house they had just been. "Mrs. +Crofton," he observed, with an air of finality, "may be pretty, but she's +got what I call a blotting-paper face."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + + +<p>Radmore felt secretly relieved that he and Timmy got home too late for +him to see Mr. Tosswill alone before dinner. And when at last he came +down, just a minute or two late, for he had to do things for himself to +which he had become unaccustomed—unpacking his bag, putting out his +evening clothes, placing of studs in his evening shirt, and so on—he +found what looked to him like a large party of strangers all gathered +together in the dear old drawing-room.</p> + +<p>As he walked in among them he looked first with quick interest at the +three girls. Yes, Timmy was right—Rosamund was lovely. Dolly struck him +as commonplace, though as a matter of fact she looked more attractive +than usual. Betty looked very hot—or was it that the exquisite +complexion that once had been her chief physical beauty had gone?</p> + +<p>After a moment or two Betty slipped out of the room, leaving Radmore and +Mr. Tosswill shaking hands quite cordially, if a little awkwardly.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, here I am again, turned up just like a bad penny!" And his +host answered absently:—"Yes, yes, Godfrey—very glad to see you, I'm +sure."</p> + +<p>Then, after he had shaken hands with Janet and Tom, they all stood +together on the hearthrug waiting, so Radmore supposed, for the +parlourmaid to come in and announce dinner.</p> + +<p>But instead of that happening, the door opened and Timmy appeared. "Will +you come into the dining-room? Everything's ready now."</p> + +<p>They all followed him, three of the younger ones—Tom, Dolly and +Rosamund—laughing and whispering together. Somehow Timmy never +associated himself with those of his brothers and sisters nearest to +him in age.</p> + +<p>Radmore came last of all with Janet. He felt as if he were in a strange, +unreal dream. It was all at once so like and so unlike what he had +expected to find it. All these quiet, demure-looking young strangers, +instead of the jolly, familiar children he had left nine years ago—and, +as he realised with a sharp pang—no George. He had not known till +to-night how much he had counted on seeing George, or at least on hearing +all about him. Instead, here was Jack, so very self-possessed—or was it +superior?—in his smart evening jacket. He could hardly believe that Jack +was George's brother.</p> + +<p>For a moment he forgot Betty. Then he saw her come hurrying in. Her +colour had gone down, and she looked very charming, and yet—yes, a +stranger too.</p> + +<p>The table was laid very much as it had been in the old days on a Sunday, +when they always had supper instead of dinner at Old Place. But to-day +was not Sunday—where could all the servants be?</p> + +<p>Janet, looking very nice in the bright blue gown her little son had +admired, placed the guest on her right hand. To her left, Timmy, +with snorts and wriggles, settled himself. The others all sorted +themselves out; Betty sat the nearest to the door, on the right of +her father,—lovely Rosamund on his left.</p> + +<p>Timmy stood up and mumbled out a Latin grace. How it brought back +Radmore's boyhood and early manhood days! But in those days it was Tom, +a simple cherubic-looking little boy of seven, who said grace—the usual +"For what we are going to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful!" +The stranger—how queer to think he was a stranger here, in this familiar +room—did not care for the innovation.</p> + +<p>They all sat down, and Radmore began to eat his soup, served in a covered +cup. It was very good soup, and as he was rather tired and hungry, he +enjoyed it. Then Timmy got up and removed the cup and its cover; and +suddenly the guest became aware that only four people at the table had +taken soup—himself, Mr. Tosswill, Jack, and Timmy. What an odd thing!</p> + +<p>They were all rather silent, and Radmore began to have a strange, uncanny +feeling that none of them could see him, that he was a wraith, projected +out of the past into the present. It was a novel and most disconcerting +sensation. But no one glancing at his keen face, now illumined with a +half humorous expression of interest, would have guessed the mixed and +painful feelings which possessed him.</p> + +<p>He stole a look to his left. Janet, in his eyes, was almost unchanged. Of +course she looked a thought older, a thought thicker—not so much in her +upright figure, as in her clever, irregular-featured face. In the days of +his early manhood she had never seemed to him to be very much older than +himself—but now she looked a lifetime older than he felt.</p> + +<p>Only Mr. Tosswill looked absolutely unchanged. His mild benevolent face, +his deep blue eyes, his grey hair, seemed exactly the same as when +Radmore had last sat down, in the Old Place dining-room, to a full table. +That had been in the Christmas holidays of 1910. Very well he remembered +all that had happened then, for he and Betty had just become engaged.</p> + +<p>At nineteen Betty Tosswill had belonged to the ideal type of +old-fashioned English girlhood—high-spirited, cheerful, artless yet +intelligent, with a strong sense of humour. She had worn a pink evening +frock during those long-ago Christmas holidays, and had looked, at any +rate in her young lover's eyes, beautiful.</p> + +<p>They had been ardently, passionately in love, he a masterful, exacting +lover, and though seeming older than his age, without any of the +magnanimity which even the passage of only a very few years brings to +most intelligent men. Poor little Betty of long ago—what a child she +had been at nineteen!—but a child capable of deep and varied emotions.</p> + +<p>At the time of their parting he had been absorbed in his own selfish +sensations of anger, revolt, and the sharp sense of loss, savagely glad +that she was unhappy too. But after he had gone, after he had plunged +into the new, to him exciting and curious, life of the great vessel +taking him to Australia, he had forced himself to put Betty out of his +mind, and, after a few days, he had started a violent flirtation with the +most attractive woman on board the liner. The flirtation had developed, +by the time they reached Sydney, into a serious affair, and had been the +determining cause why he had not written even to George. Godfrey Radmore +had not thought of that woman for years. But to-night her now hateful, +meretricious image rose, with horrid vividness, before him. It had been +an ugly, debasing episode, and had dragged on and on, as such episodes +have a way of doing.</p> + +<p>Wrenching his mind free of that odious memory, he looked across at Betty. +Yes, it was at once a relief and something of a disappointment to feel +her, too, transformed into a stranger. For one thing she had had, when +he had last seen her, a great deal of long fair hair. But she had cut it +off when starting her arduous war work, and the lack of it altered her +amazingly, all the more that she did not wear her short hair "bobbed," in +what had become the prevailing fashion, but brushed back from her low +forehead, and staidly held in place by a broad, black, snood-like ribbon.</p> + +<p>He looked to his right, down the old-fashioned, almost square dining +table. Jack was the least changed, after his father, of the young people +sitting at this table. Jack, nine years ago, had been a rather complacent +boy, doing very well at school, the type of boy who is as if marked out +by fate to do well in life. Yes, Jack had hardly changed at all, but +Radmore, looking at Jack, felt a sudden intolerable jealousy for +George....</p> + +<p>He came back with a start to what was going on around him, and idly he +wondered what had happened to all the servants this evening. Truth to +tell he had been just a little surprised and taken aback at not finding +his bag unpacked and his evening clothes laid out before dinner.</p> + +<p>Timmy had slipped out of his chair and brought him a plateful of roast +mutton, and now Rosamund was playing waitress, smiling at his elbow, a +lovely Hebe indeed, with dishes of potatoes and greens. He helped himself +a little awkwardly, while Timmy was taking round platefuls of meat to his +father, to Jack, and finally one to his own little self.</p> + +<p>Then Betty went out of the room, and came back with a large dish of +macaroni cheese, which she put on a side table. Jack got up and whispered +something to her rather angrily. He was evidently remonstrating with her +for not having allowed him to go and get the dish, for he motioned her +rather imperiously back to her seat by her father, while he himself, +calling to Dolly to help him, dealt out generous portions of macaroni +cheese to those who had not taken meat.</p> + +<p>All at once Timmy exclaimed in his shrill voice:—"I like macaroni +cheese. Why shouldn't I have a little to-day, too? Here, Tom, you take +my meat, and I'll have your macaroni cheese." He did not wait for Tom's +assent to this peculiar proposal, and was proceeding to effect the +exchange when Tom muttered crossly, while yet, or so Radmore fancied, +casting rather longing eyes at Timmy's plate.</p> + +<p>"You know perfectly well you've got to have meat to drive the ghosties +out of your silly head."</p> + +<p>Timmy submitted with a grunt of disappointment, and the meal proceeded. +Again Radmore felt surprised and puzzled. Was it conceivable that the +whole family—with the exception of Mr. Tosswill, Jack and Timmy, had +become so High Church that Friday was with them a meatless day?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + + +<p>After her visitors had gone, Mrs. Crofton had come back slowly, +languidly, to her easy-chair.</p> + +<p>It was too warm for a fire, yet somehow the fire comforted her, for she +felt cold as well as tired, and, yes, she could admit it to herself, +horribly disappointed. How stupid men were—even clever men!</p> + +<p>It was so stupid of Godfrey Radmore not to have come to see her, this the +first time, alone. He might have found it difficult to have come without +one of the Tosswill girls, but there was no reason and no excuse for his +being accompanied by that odious little Timmy. It was also really unkind +of the boy to have brought his horrid dog with him. Even now she seemed +to hear Flick's long-drawn-out howls—those horrible howls that at the +time she had not believed to be real. What a nervous, hysterical fool +she was becoming! How long would she go on being haunted by the now +fast-disappearing past?</p> + +<p>There came back to Enid Crofton the very last words uttered by Piper, the +clever, capable man who, after having been Colonel Crofton's batman in +the War, had become their general factotum in Essex:—"Don't you go and +be startled, ma'am, if you see the very spit of Dandy in this 'ere +village! As me and your new lad was cleaning out the stable-yard this +morning, a young gentleman came in with a dog as was 'is exact image. +After a bit o'course, I remembered as what we'd sent one of Juno's and +Dandy's pups to a place called Beechfield this time last year—'tis that +pup grown into a dog without a doubt!"</p> + +<p>It was certainly a bit of rank bad luck that there should be here, in +Beechfield, a dog which, whenever she saw it, brought the image of her +dead husband so vividly before her.</p> + +<p>She had just settled herself down, and was turning over the leaves of one +of the many picture papers which Tremaine had bought for her on their +jolly little journey on the day of her arrival at The Trellis House, when +there came a ring at the door.</p> + +<p>Who could it be coming so late—close to seven o'clock? Enid Crofton got +up, feeling vaguely disturbed.</p> + +<p>The new maid brought in a reply-paid telegram, and Mrs. Crofton tore +open the orange envelope with just a faint premonition that something +disagreeable was going to happen:—"May I come and stay with you for the +week-end? Have just arrived in England. Alice Crofton."</p> + +<p>Thank Heaven she had been wrong as to her premonition! This portended +nothing disagreeable—only something unexpected. The sender of this +telegram was the kind, opulent sister-in-law whom she always thought of +as "Miss Crofton."</p> + +<p>Going over to her toy writing-table, she quickly wrote on the reply-paid +form:—"Miss Crofton, Buck's Hotel, Dover Street. Yes, delighted. Do come +to-morrow morning. Excellent eleven o'clock train from Waterloo.—Enid."</p> + +<p>As she settled herself by the fire she told herself that a visit from +Miss Crofton might be quite a good thing—so far as Beechfield was +concerned. Her associations with her husband's sister were wholly +pleasant. For one thing, Alice Crofton was well off, and Enid +instinctively respected, and felt interested in, any possessor of money. +What a pity it was that Colonel Crofton had not had a fairy godmother! +His only sister had been left £3,000 a year by a godmother, and she lived +the agreeable life so many Englishwomen of her type and class live on the +Continent. While her real home was in Florence, she often travelled, and +during the War she had settled down in Paris, giving many hours of each +day to one of the British hospitals there.</p> + +<p>The young widow's mind flew back to her one meeting with Alice Crofton. +It was during her brief engagement to Colonel Crofton, and the latter's +sister, without being over cordial, had been quite pleasant to the +startlingly pretty little woman, who had made such a fool of her brother.</p> + +<p>But at the time of Colonel Crofton's death, his sister had been truly +kind. She had telegraphed £200 to her sister-in-law from Italy, and this +sum of ready money had been very useful during that tragic week—and even +afterwards, for the insurance people had made a certain amount of fuss +after Colonel Crofton's sad suicide, "while of unsound mind," and this +had caused a disagreeable delay.</p> + +<p>The new tenant of The Trellis House had her lonely dinner brought in to +her on a tray, and then, perhaps rather too soon—for she was not much of +a reader, and there was nothing to while away the time—she went upstairs +to her pleasant, cosy bedroom, and so to bed.</p> + +<p>But, try as she might, she found it impossible to fall asleep; for what +seemed to her hours she lay wide awake, tossing this way and that. At +last she got up, and, drawing aside the chintz curtain across one of the +windows, she looked out. The window was open, and in the eerily bright +moonlight the upper part of the hill on which Beechfield village lay +seemed spread before her. There were twinkling lights in many of the +windows—doubtless groups of happy, cheerful people behind them. She +felt horribly lonely and depressed as well as wide awake to-night.</p> + +<p>In her short, healthy life, Enid Crofton had only had one attack of +insomnia. During the ten days that had followed her husband's sudden +death—for the inquest had had to be put off for a day or two—she +had hardly slept at all, and the doctor who had been so kind a friend +during that awful time, had had to give her a strong narcotic. To his +astonishment it had had no effect. She had felt as if she were going +mad—the effect, so he had told her afterwards, of the awful shock she +had had.</p> + +<p>To-night she wondered with a kind of terror whether that terrible +sleeplessness which had ended by making her feel almost lightheaded was +coming back.</p> + +<p>She turned away from the window, and, getting into bed again, tried to +compose her limbs into absolute repose, as the doctor had advised her to +do. And then, just as she was mercifully going to sleep, there floated +in, through the open window, a variant on a doggerel song she had last +heard in Egypt:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The angels sing-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They've got the goods for me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bells of hell ring ting-a-ling-a-ling<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For you, as you shall see."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Enid Crofton sat up in bed. She felt suddenly afraid—horribly, +desperately afraid. As is often the case with those who have drifted away +from any form of religion, she was very superstitious, and terrified of +evil omens. During the War she had been fond of going first to one and +then to another of the fashionable sooth-sayers.</p> + +<p>They had all agreed as to one thing—this was that her husband would die, +and of course she had thought he would be killed at the Front. But he had +come through safe and sound, and more—more <i>hateful</i> than ever.</p> + +<p>One fortune-teller, a woman, small, faded, commonplace-looking, yet with +something sinister about her that impressed her patrons uncomfortably, +had told Enid Crofton, with a curious smile, that she would have yet +another husband, making the third. This had startled her very much, for +the woman, who did not even know her name, could only have guessed that +she had been married twice. Enid Crofton was not given to making +unnecessary confidences. With the exception of her sister-in-law, none of +the people who now knew her were aware that Colonel Crofton had been her +second husband.</p> + +<p>She lay down again, and in the now dying firelight, fixed her eyes on the +chintz square of the window curtain nearest to her. She shut her eyes, +but, as always happens, there remained a square luminous patch on their +retinas. And then, all at once, it was as if she saw, depicted on the +white, faintly illuminated space, a scene which might have figured in one +of those cinema-plays to which she and her house-mate, during those happy +days when she had lived in London, used so often to go with one or other +of their temporary admirers.</p> + +<p>On the white, luminous background two pretty little hands were moving +about, a little uncertainly, over a window-ledge on which stood a row of +medicine bottles. Then, suddenly the two pretty hands became engaged in +doing something which is done by woman's hands every day—the pouring of +a liquid from one bottle into another.</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton did not visualise the owner of the hands. She had no wish to +do so, but she did see the hands.</p> + +<p>Then there started out before her, with astonishing vividness, another +little scene—this time with a man as central figure. He was whistling; +that she knew, though she could not hear the whistling. It was owing to +that surprised, long-drawn-out whistling sound that the owner of the +pretty hands had become suddenly, affrightedly, aware that someone was +there, outside the window, staring down, and so of course seeing the task +on which the two pretty little hands were engaged.</p> + +<p>Now, the owner of that pair of now shaking little hands had felt quite +sure that no one could possibly see what they were engaged in doing—for +the window on the ledge of which the medicine bottles were standing +looked out on what was practically a blank wall. But the man whose long, +surprised whistle had so suddenly scared her, happened at that moment to +be sitting astride the top of the blank wall, engaged in the legitimate +occupation of sticking bits of broken bottles into putty. The man was +Piper, and doubtless the trifling incident had long since slipped his +mind, for that same afternoon his master, Colonel Crofton, had committed +suicide in a fit of depression owing to shell shock.</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton opened her eyes wide, and the sort of vision, or +nightmare—call it what you will—faded at once.</p> + +<p>It was a nightmare she had constantly experienced during the first few +nights which had succeeded her husband's death. But since the inquest she +had no longer been haunted by that scene—the double scene of the hands, +the pretty little hands, engaged in that simple, almost mechanical, +action of pouring the contents of one bottle into another, and the vision +of the man on the wall looking down, slantwise, through the window, and +uttering that queer, long-drawn-out whistle of utter surprise.</p> + +<p>When at last Mrs. Crofton had had to explain regretfully to clever, +capable Piper that she could no longer afford to keep him on, they had +parted the best of friends. She had made him the handsome present of +twenty-five pounds, for he had been a most excellent servant to her late +husband. And she had done more than that. She had gone to a good deal of +trouble to procure him an exceptionally good situation. Piper had just +gone there, and she hoped, rather anxiously, that he would do well in it.</p> + +<p>The man had one serious fault—now and again he would go off and have a +good "drunk." Sometimes he wouldn't do this foolish, stupid thing for +months, and then, perchance, he would do it two weeks running! Colonel +Crofton, so hard in many ways, had been indulgent to this one fault, or +vice, in an otherwise almost perfect servant. When giving Piper a very +high character Mrs. Crofton had just hinted that there had been a time +when he had taken a drop too much, but she had spoken of it as being +absolutely in the past. Being the kind of woman she was, she wouldn't +have said even that, had it not been that Piper had got disgracefully +drunk within a week of his master's death. She had been very much +frightened then, though not too frightened to stay, herself, within +hail of the man till he had come round, and to make him a cup of strong +coffee. When, at last, he was fit to do so, he had uttered broken words +of gratitude, really touched at her kindness, and frightfully ashamed of +himself.</p> + +<p>Lying there, wide awake, in the darkness and utter stillness of +Beechfield village, Enid Crofton reminded herself that she had treated +Piper very well. In memory of the master whom he had served she had also +given him, before selling off her husband's kennel, two prize-winners. +But it is sometimes a mistake to be too kind, for on receiving this last +generous gift the man had hinted that with a little capital he could set +up dog-breeding for himself! She had had to tell him, sadly but firmly, +that she could not help him to any ready money, and Piper had been what +she now vaguely described to herself as "very nice" about it, though +obviously disappointed.</p> + +<p>At the end of their little chat, however, he had said something which had +made her feel rather uncomfortable:—"I was wondering, ma'am, whether +Major Radmore might perhaps be inclined for a little speculation? I +wouldn't mind paying, say, up to ten per cent, if 'e'd oblige me with +a loan of five hundred pounds."</p> + +<p>She had been astonished at the suggestion—astonished and unpleasantly +taken aback. He had surprised her further by going on:—"I believe as +what the Major is coming 'ome soon, ma'am. Perhaps then I might venture +to ask you to say a word for me? Major Radmore was known in the regiment +as a very kind gentleman."</p> + +<p>"I'll do what I can, Piper." She had said the words with apparent +earnestness, but, deep in her heart, she had thought the request totally +unreasonable.</p> + +<p>And now it was this conversation which came back to her as she moved +restlessly about in her bed. She wondered uneasily whether she had made +a mistake. Her capital was very small, and she was now living on her +capital, but after all, perhaps it would have been wiser to have given +Piper that £500. She was quite determined not to mix up Piper with +Godfrey Radmore, but she had a queer, uncomfortable feeling that she had +not done with this man yet.</p> + +<p>At last she fell into a heavy, troubled, worried sleep—the kind of sleep +from which a woman always wakes unrefreshed.</p> + +<p>But daylight brought comfort to Enid Crofton, and after she had had her +early cup of tea and had enjoyed her nice hot bath, she felt quite cheery +again, and her strange, bad night faded into nothingness. She was young, +she was strong, above all she was enchantingly pretty! She told herself +confidently that nothing terrible, nothing <i>really</i> dreadful ever happens +to a woman who is as attractive as she knew herself to be to the sex +which still holds all the material power there is to hold in this strange +world.</p> + +<p>During the last three weeks, she had sometimes wondered uneasily whether +Godfrey Radmore realised how very pretty she was. There was something so +curiously impersonal about him—and yet last night he had very nearly +kissed her!</p> + +<p>She laughed aloud, gaily, triumphantly, as she went down to her late +breakfast.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + + +<p>At the moment that Enid Crofton was telling herself that everything was +going fairly well with her, and that nothing could alter the fact that +she was now, and likely to remain for a long time, a woman likely to +attract every man with whom she came in contact—Godfrey Radmore, +following Janet Tosswill after breakfast into the drawing-room of Old +Place, exclaimed deprecatingly:—"I feel like Rip Van Winkle!'</p> + +<p>"Do you?" She turned to him and smiled a little sadly. "It's <i>you</i> that +have changed, Godfrey. Everything here is much the same. As for me, I +never see any change from one year to another."</p> + +<p>"But they've all grown up!" he exclaimed plaintively. "You can't think +how odd it seems to find a lot of grown-up young ladies and gentlemen +instead of the jolly little kids who were in the nursery with Nanna nine +years ago. By the way, Nanna hasn't changed, and"—he hesitated, then +brought out with an effort, "Mr. Tosswill is exactly the same."</p> + +<p>She felt vexed that he hadn't included Betty. To her step-mother's fond +eyes Betty was more attractive now than in her early girlhood. "I think +the children have improved very much," she said quickly. "Jack was a +horrid little prig nine years ago!"</p> + +<p>She hadn't forgiven Radmore. And yet, in a sense, she was readjusting her +views and theories about him, for the simple reason that he, Godfrey +Radmore, had changed so utterly. From having been a hot-tempered, +untameable, high-spirited boy, he was now, or so it seemed to her, a +cool, restrained man of the world, old for his years. In fact it was he +who was now a stranger—but a stranger who had most attractive manners, +and who had somehow slipped very easily into their everyday life. Janet +liked his deferential manner to the master of the house, she enjoyed his +kindly and good-humoured, if slightly satirical dealings with Jack and +with pretty Rosamund, and she was very grateful to him for the way he +treated queer, little Timmy, her own beloved changeling child.</p> + +<p>And now something happened that touched her, and made her suddenly feel +as if she was with the old Godfrey Radmore again.</p> + +<p>"Look here," he said, in a low, hesitating voice, "I want to tell you, +Janet, that I didn't know till yesterday about George. You'll think me a +fool—but somehow I always thought of him as being safe in India." And +then with sudden passion he asked:—"How can you say that everything is +the same in Old Place with George not here? Why, to me, George was as +much part of Old Place as—as Betty is!"</p> + +<p>"We all thought you knew—at least I wasn't sure."</p> + +<p>"Thank God <i>he</i> didn't think so poorly of me as that," he muttered, and +then he looked away, his eyes smarting with unshed tears. "Nothing will +ever be the same to me again without George in the world."</p> + +<p>As she said nothing, he went on with sudden passion:—"Every other +country in Europe has changed utterly since the War, but England seemed +to me, till last night, exactly the same—only rather bigger and more +bustling than nine years ago." He drew a long breath. "Timmy and I went +into the post-office last evening, and Cobbett asked me to go in, and see +his wife. I thought I remembered her so well—and when I saw her, Janet, +I didn't know her! Then I asked after her boys—and she told me."</p> + +<p>"It's strange that a man who went through it all himself should feel like +that," she said slowly.</p> + +<p>The door opened suddenly and Rosamund's pretty head appeared: "There's a +message come through saying that your car's all right, and that it will +be along in about an hour," she exclaimed joyfully. To Rosamund, Godfrey +Radmore was in very truth a stranger, and a very attractive stranger at +that.</p> + +<p>As a rule, after breakfast, all the young people went their various ways, +but this morning they were all hanging about waiting vaguely for Godfrey +to come and do something with one or all of them. Rosamund was longing to +ask him whether he knew any of the London theatrical managers; Tom was +wondering whether Godfrey would allow him to drive his car; Dolly and +Timmy, as different in everything else as two human beings could well +be, each desired to take him into the village and show him off to their +friends. The only one of the young people who was not really interested +in Radmore was Jack Tosswill. He was engaged just now in looking +feverishly for an old gardening book which he had promised to lend Mrs. +Crofton, and he was cursing under his breath because the book had been +mislaid.</p> + +<p>As Rosamund looked in, her step-mother and Radmore both stopped speaking +abruptly, and so after a doubtful moment, she withdrew her head, and shut +the door behind her.</p> + +<p>"Tell me about George," he said, without looking at her.</p> + +<p>"I think Betty would like to tell you," she answered slowly: "Ask her +about him some time when you're alone together."</p> + +<p>"Where is she now?" he asked abruptly.</p> + +<p>"In the kitchen I think—but she won't be long."</p> + +<p>Jack, looking ruffled and uneasy, very unlike his quiet, cool self, burst +into the room. "I can't think where that old shabby green gardening book +has gone, Janet. Do you know where it is?"</p> + +<p>"You mean 'Gardening for Ladies'?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"What on earth d'you want it for?"</p> + +<p>"For Mrs. Crofton. Her garden's been awfully neglected."</p> + +<p>"I'll find it presently. I think it's in my bedroom."</p> + +<p>Again the door shut, and Janet turned to Radmore: "Your friend has made +a conquest of Jack!" She spoke with a touch of rather studied unconcern, +for she had been a little taken aback last evening when Timmy had told +her casually of his own and his godfather's call at The Trellis House.</p> + +<p>"My friend?" Radmore repeated uncertainly.</p> + +<p>"I mean Mrs. Crofton. The coming of a new person to live in Beechfield is +still quite an event, Godfrey."</p> + +<p>"I don't think she'll make much difference to Beechfield," again he spoke +with a touch of hesitation. "To tell you the truth, Janet, I rather +wonder that she decided to live in the country at all. I should have +thought that she would far prefer London, and all that London stands for. +But I'm afraid that she's got very little money, and, of course, the +country <i>is</i> cheaper than town, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose it is. But Mrs. Crofton can't be poor. I know she paid a +premium for the lease of The Trellis House."</p> + +<p>"That's odd." Radmore spoke in an off-hand manner, but Janet, watching +him, thought he felt a little awkward. He went on:—"I know that Colonel +Crofton was hard up. He told me so, quite frankly, the last time I saw +him. But of course she may have had money of her own."</p> + +<p>Janet looked at him rather hard. A disagreeable suspicion had entered her +mind. She wondered whether there was anything like an "understanding" +between the man she was talking to and the tenant of The Trellis House. +If so, she wished with all her heart that Godfrey Radmore had kept away. +Why stir up embers they had all thought were dead, if he was going to +marry this very pretty but, to her mind, second-rate little woman, as +soon as a decent time had elapsed?</p> + +<p>"What are your plans for the future?" she asked. "Are you going to settle +down, or are you going to travel a bit?" ("After all, he won't be able to +marry Mrs. Crofton for at least another six months," she said to +herself.)</p> + +<p>"Oh, I mean to settle down." His answer was quick, decisive, final.</p> + +<p>He went on: "My idea is to find a place, not too far from here, that +I can buy; and my plan is to go about and look for it now. That's why +I've hired a motor for a month. Perhaps you'd lend me Timmy, and, if it +wouldn't be improper, one of the girls, now and again? We might go round +and look about a bit."</p> + +<p>And then he walked across to where she was standing, and put his hand on +her arm, "How about you?" he asked, "why shouldn't I take you and Timmy a +little jaunt just for a week or so—that would be rather fun, eh?"</p> + +<p>She smiled and shook her head.</p> + +<p>He took a step back. "Look here, Janet—do try and forgive me—I'm a more +sensible chap than I was, honest Injun!"</p> + +<p>"I'm beginning to think you are," she cried, and then they both burst out +laughing.</p> + +<p>He lingered a moment. He was longing, longing intensely, to ask her +certain questions. He wanted to know about Betty—what sort of a life +Betty had made for herself. He still, in an odd way, felt responsible +for Betty—which was clearly absurd.</p> + +<p>And then Janet Tosswill said something that surprised him very much. "I +think you'd better go round and see some of the people in the village +to-day. I was rather sorry you went off straight to The Trellis House +last evening. You know how folks talked, even in the old days, in +Beechfield?"</p> + +<p>He looked uneasy—taken aback, and she felt, if a little ashamed, glad +that she had made that "fishing" remark.</p> + +<p>There was a pause, and then he said with a touch of formality: "Look +here, Janet? I'd like you to know that though I've become quite fond of +Mrs. Crofton, I'm only fond—nothing more, you understand? Perhaps I'll +make my meaning clearer when I tell you that I was the only man in Egypt +who knew her who wasn't in love with her."</p> + +<p>He saw her face change and, rather piqued, he asked: "Did you think I +was?"</p> + +<p>"I thought that you and she were great friends—"</p> + +<p>"Well, so we are in a way. I saw a great deal of her in London."</p> + +<p>"And you went straight off to see her the moment you arrived here."</p> + +<p>"Well, perhaps I was foolish to do that."</p> + +<p>What an odd admission to make. He certainly had changed amazingly in the +last nine years!</p> + +<p>Then it was Janet who surprised him: "Don't make any mistake," she said +quickly. "There's no reason in the world why you shouldn't marry Mrs. +Crofton—after a decent interval has elapsed. All I meant to say—and +I'd rather say it right out now—is that as most people know that her +husband hasn't been dead more than a few weeks, you ought to be rather +careful, all the more careful if—if your friendship should come to +anything, Godfrey."</p> + +<p>"But it won't!" he exclaimed, with a touch of the old heat, "indeed it +won't, Janet. To tell you the truth, I don't think I shall ever marry."</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> certainly shouldn't if I were a rich bachelor," she said laughing; +and yet somehow what he had just said hurt her.</p> + +<p>As for Radmore, he felt just a little jarred by her words. Had she quite +forgotten all that had happened in that long ago which, in a sense, +seemed to belong to another life? He hadn't, and since his arrival +yesterday certain things had come back in a rushing flood of memory.</p> + +<p>"I've something to do in the garden now." Janet was smiling—she really +did feel perhaps rather absurdly relieved. Like Timmy, she didn't care +for Mrs. Crofton, and the mere suspicion that Godfrey Radmore had come +back here to Old Place in order to carry on a love affair had disturbed +her.</p> + +<p>"By the way, how's McPherson?" he asked abruptly. "He <i>is</i> a splendid +gardener and no mistake! I've never seen a garden looking more beautiful +than yours does just now, Janet. I woke early this morning and looked +out of my window. I suppose McPherson's about—I'll go out and speak to +him."</p> + +<p>Her face shadowed. "McPherson," she said slowly, "was one of the first +men to leave Beechfield. He was perfectly fit, and he made up his mind to +go at once. You know, Godfrey—or perhaps you don't know—that the Scotch +glens emptied first of men?"</p> + +<p>"D'you mean...?"</p> + +<p>She nodded. "He was killed at the second battle of Ypres. He was sent to +the Front rather sooner than most, for he was a very intelligent man, and +really keen. I've got a boy now, a lad of seventeen—not half a bad sort, +but it does seem strange to give him every Saturday just double the money +I used to give McPherson!"</p> + +<p>She went out, through into the garden, on these last words, and again +there came over Radmore a feeling of poignant sadness. How strange that +he should have spent those weeks in London, knowing so little, nay, not +knowing at all, what the War had really meant to the home country.</p> + +<p>He opened the door into the corridor, and listened, wondering where they +had all gone. He had some business letters to write, and he told himself +that he would go and get them done in what he still thought of in his +mind as George's room. He had noticed that the big plain deal writing +table was still there.</p> + +<p>He went upstairs, and when he opened the bedroom door, he was astonished +to find Rosamund kneeling in front of George's old play-box, routing +among what looked like a lot of papers and books.</p> + +<p>"I'm hunting for a prescription for father," she said, looking up. "Timmy +thinks he put it in here one day after coming back from the chemist's at +Guildford." She looked flushed, and decidedly cross, as she went on: "No +one's taught Timmy to put things in their proper place, as we were taught +to do, when we were children!"</p> + +<p>Radmore felt amused. She certainly was very, very pretty, and did not +look much more than a child herself.</p> + +<p>"Look here," he said good-naturedly, "let me help. I don't think you're +going the right way to work." He felt just a little bit sorry for Timmy; +Rosamund was raking about as if the play-box was a bran-pie.</p> + +<p>Bending down he took up out of the box a bundle of envelopes, copybooks, +and Christmas cards. Then he sat himself down on a chair in the window, +and began going through what he held, carefully and methodically.</p> + +<p>Suddenly through the open door there came a cry of "Miss Rosamund, I want +you!"</p> + +<p>Rosamund got up reluctantly. "Nanna's a regular tyrant!"</p> + +<p>"Leave all this to me," he said. "I'll find the prescription if it's +here."</p> + +<p>She went off, and almost at once he came to a folded bit of paper. +Perhaps this was the prescription? He opened it, and this is what he +read:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>March 12, 1919. This is the happiest day of my life. One of my +godmothers has died and left me £50. I am going to buy two nanny-goats, +a boy and a girl. They will have kids, and I shall make munny. We shall +then have a propper cook, and I shall never help Betty wash up any +more. I wish my other godmother would die. She is very genrus and +kind—she would go strait to Heaven. But she is very hellfy.</p></div> + +<p>Poor little Timmy! Dear little unscrupulous child of nature! Would Timmy +wish him, Godfrey Radmore, dead, if some accident were to reveal to him +what a great difference it would make to them all? He hoped not. But he +couldn't feel sure, for, from being well-to-do the Tosswills must have +become poor, painfully and, to his mind, unnaturally poor.</p> + +<p>Further search proved the prescription was not in the play-box, and he +went downstairs. Still that same unnatural silence through the house. +Where could Timmy be? Somehow he felt that he wanted to see Timmy and +find out about the nanny-goats. He feared his godson's expectations of +wealth had not been fulfilled, but he supposed that there was a "propper +cook," probably the lack of her had been quite temporary.</p> + +<p>He wandered into the drawing-room. In the old days all five sitting-rooms +had been in use. Now four of them were closed, and the drawing-room was +everybody's meeting place. Dolly was there working a carpet-sweeper +languidly.</p> + +<p>"Where's everybody?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I think Betty and Timmy are still in the scullery. I don't know where +Rosamund is."</p> + +<p>"I suppose <i>I</i> can go into the scullery?"</p> + +<p>She looked at him dubiously. "Yes, if you'd like to—certainly. Betty +loves cooking and all that sort of thing. I hate it—so in our division +of labour, I do the other kind of housework." She looked ruffled and he +told himself, a little maliciously, that she was not unlike a lazy, +rather incompetent, housemaid. "If it's Timmy you want," she continued, +"I'll go and see if he can come."</p> + +<p>"Please don't trouble. I'll find him all right."</p> + +<p>Radmore went out into the passage. As the baize door, which shut off the +kitchen quarters, opened, he saw his godson and Rosamund before they saw +him, and he heard Rosamund say, in a cross tone: "It only means that +someone else will have to help her; I think it's very selfish of you, +Timmy."</p> + +<p>From being full of joy Timmy's face became downcast and sullen.</p> + +<p>"Hullo!" Radmore called out, "I want you to show me the garden, Timmy. +Where's Betty?"</p> + +<p>"She's in the scullery, of course. I tell you I <i>have</i> done, Rosamund. +You <i>are</i> a cruel pig—"</p> + +<p>"Come, Timmy, don't speak to your sister like that."</p> + +<p>It ended in the three of them going off—Rosamund to look for the +prescription, and the other two into the garden.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Nanna waddled into the scullery: "I'll wipe up them things, Miss +Betty," she said good-naturedly; "you go out to Mr. Godfrey and Master +Timmy—they was asking for you just now."</p> + +<p>Betty hesitated—and then suddenly she made up her mind that, yes, she +would do as Nanna suggested.</p> + +<p>In early Victorian days women of Betty Tosswill's class and kind worked +many of their most anxious thoughts and fears, hopes and fancies, into +the various forms of needlework which were then considered the only +suitable kind of occupation for a young gentlewoman; and often Betty, +when engaged on the long and arduous task of washing up for her big +family party, pondered over the problems and secret anxieties which +assailed her. Though something of a pain, it had also been to her a great +relief to realise that the living flesh and blood Godfrey Radmore of +to-day had ousted the passionately devoted, if unreasonable and violent, +lover of her early girlhood. In the old days, intermingled with her deep +love of Radmore, there had been a protective, almost maternal, feeling, +and although Radmore had been four years older than herself, she had +always felt the older of the two. But now, in spite of the responsible, +anxious work she had done in France during the War, she felt that the +rôles were reversed, and that her one-time lover had become infinitely +older than she was herself in knowledge of the world.</p> + +<p>Old Nanna hoped that Miss Betty would go upstairs and change her plain +cotton dress for something just a little prettier and that she would put +on, maybe, a hat trimmed with daisies which Nanna admired. But Betty did +nothing of the sort. She washed her hands at the sink, and then she went +out into the hall, and taking up her big plain old garden hat went +straight out into the keen autumnal air.</p> + +<p>And then, as she caught sight of the tall man and of the little boy, +she stayed her steps, overwhelmed by a flood of both sweet and bitter +memories.</p> + +<p>During the year which had followed the breaking of her engagement there +had been corners and by-ways of the big, rambling old garden filled with +poignant, almost unbearable, associations of the days when she and +Godfrey had been lovers. There had been certain nooks and hidden oases +where it had been agony to go. She had considered all kinds of things as +being possible. Perhaps her most certain conviction had been that he +would come back some day with a wife whom she, Betty, would try to teach +herself to love; but never had she visioned what had now actually +occurred, that is Radmore's quiet, commonplace falling-back into the +day-to-day life of Old Place.</p> + +<p>All at once she heard Timmy's clear treble voice:—"Hullo! There's +Betty."</p> + +<p>Radmore turned and said something Betty did not hear, and the child went +off like an arrow from the bow. Then Radmore, turning, came towards her +quickly. She had no clue to the strange look of pain and indecision on +his face, and her heart began to beat, strangely.</p> + +<p>When close to her:—"Betty," he said in a low voice, "I want to tell you +that I didn't know about George till last night. How could you think I +did?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose one does think unjust things when one's in great trouble," she +answered.</p> + +<p>He felt hurt and angry and showed it. "I should have thought you would +all have known me well enough to know that I should have written at +once—at once. Why, the whole world's altered now that I know that George +is no longer in it! Perhaps that sounds foolish and exaggerated, as I +never wrote to him. But I think <i>you'll</i> know what I mean, Betty? It was +all right, as long as I knew he was somewhere, happy."</p> + +<p>She said almost inaudibly:—"I think that he is happy somewhere. You +know—but no, you don't know—that George was a born soldier. Those +months after he joined up, and until he was killed, were, I do believe, +by far the happiest of his life. He always said they were."</p> + +<p>As he made no answer she went on:—"I'll show you some of his letters +if you like, and father will show you the letters that were sent to +us—afterwards."</p> + +<p>By now they had left the garden proper, and were walking down an avenue +which was known as the Long Walk. It was here that they two, with George +always as a welcome third, used to play "tip and run" and "hide and seek" +with the then little children.</p> + +<p>"Tell me something about the others," he said abruptly. "I'm moving in a +world unrealised."</p> + +<p>She smiled up into his face. Somehow that confession touched her, and +brought them nearer to one another.</p> + +<p>"Jack frightens me a bit, you know—he's so unlike George. And then the +girls? Is it true what Timmy says—that Rosamund wants to be an actress?"</p> + +<p>There was a slight tone of censorious surprise in his voice, and Betty +reddened.</p> + +<p>"I don't see why she shouldn't be an actress if she wants to be! Father's +making her wait till she's twenty-one."</p> + +<p>"Let me see," he said hesitatingly, "Dolly's older than Jack, isn't she?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. Dolly will only be twenty next Thursday."</p> + +<p>There came over her an overwhelming impulse to tell him something—the +sort of thing she could only have told George.</p> + +<p>"You know that pretty old church at Oakford?"</p> + +<p>He nodded.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Runsby is dead. They've got a bachelor clergyman now, and +Janet and I think that he's becoming very fond of Dolly! He's away just +now, or you would have already seen him. He's very often over here."</p> + +<p>"I should have thought—" He hesitated in his turn, but already he was +falling again into the way of saying exactly what he thought right out to +Betty—"that with you and Rosamund in the house, no one would look at +Dolly!"</p> + +<p>Betty blushed, and for a fleeting moment Godfrey saw the blushing, +dimpling Betty of long ago.</p> + +<p>"Rosamund has the utmost contempt for him. As for me, he never sees +me—I'm always in the kitchen when he comes here." She added with a touch +of the quiet humour he remembered, "I don't think Dolly's in any danger +from me!"</p> + +<p>"<i>Why</i> are you always in the kitchen, Betty?" he asked. "Is it really +necessary?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it really is necessary," she answered frankly. "Father's got much +poorer, and everything's about a hundred times as dear as it was before +the War. But you mustn't think that I mind. I like it in a way—and it +won't last for ever. Some of father's investments are beginning to +recover a little even now, and prices are coming down—"</p> + +<p>They had now come back to the garden end of the Long Walk. "I must go +now," she said. "Would you like me to send out one of the girls to +entertain you?"</p> + +<p>He shook his head. "No, I think I'll stroll about the village for a bit."</p> + +<p>They both felt as if the first milestone of their new relationship had +been set deep in the earth, and both were glad and relieved that it was +so.</p> + +<p>Radmore walked about a bit, admiring Janet's autumnal herbaceous borders, +and then he remembered a door that he had known of old which led from the +big kitchen garden into the road. If it was open he could step out +without walking across the front of the house.</p> + +<p>He turned into the walled garden, and walked quickly down a well-kept +path past the sun-dial to the door. It was open. He walked through it, +and then, with a rather guilty feeling—a feeling he did not care to +analyse—he made his way round the lower half of the village till he +reached the outside wall of The Trellis House.</p> + +<p>There he hesitated for a few moments, but even while he was hesitating he +knew that he would go in. Before he could turn the handle the door in the +garden wall was opened by Enid Crofton herself. Radmore was surprised to +see that she was dressed in a black dress, with the orthodox plain linen +collar and cuffs of widowhood. It altered her strangely.</p> + +<p>He was at once disappointed and a little relieved also, to find Jack +Tosswill in the garden with her. But soon the three went indoors, and +then, as had often been Mrs. Crofton's experience with admirers in the +past, each man tried to sit the other out.</p> + +<p>At last the hostess had to say playfully:—"I'm afraid I must turn you +out now, for I'm expecting my sister-in-law, Miss Crofton."</p> + +<p>And then they both, together, took their departure; Radmore feeling that +he had wasted an hour which might have been so very much more profitably +spent in going to see some of his old friends among the cottagers. As to +Jack Tosswill, he felt perplexed, and yes, considerably put out and +annoyed. He had been a good deal taken aback to see how close was the +acquaintance between Mrs. Crofton and Godfrey Radmore.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + + +<p>There is nothing like a meal, especially a good meal, for inducing +between two people an agreeable sense of intimacy. When Enid Crofton and +her elderly sister-in-law passed from the dining-room of The Trellis +House into the gay-looking little sitting-room, with its old-fashioned, +brightly coloured chintz furnishings, and quaint reproductions of +eighteenth-century prints, the two ladies were far more at ease the one +with the other than before luncheon.</p> + +<p>Enid, in the plain black woollen gown, with its white linen collar and +cuffs, which she had discarded almost at once after her husband's +funeral, felt that she was producing a pleasant impression. As they sat +down, one on each side of the cheerful little wood fire, and began +sipping the excellent coffee which the mistress of the house had already +taught her very plain cook to make as it should be made, she suddenly +exclaimed:—</p> + +<p>"I do want to thank you again for the money you sent me when poor Cecil +died! It was most awfully good of you, and very useful, too, for the +insurance people did not pay me for nearly a month."</p> + +<p>These words gave her visitor an opening for which she had waited during +the last hour: "I'm glad my present was so opportune," said Miss Crofton +in her precise, old-fashioned way. "As we have mentioned money, I should +like to know, my dear, how you are situated? I was afraid from something +Cecil told me last time he and I met that you would be very poorly left."</p> + +<p>She stopped speaking, and there followed a long pause. Enid Crofton was +instinctively glad that she was seated with her back to the window. She +was afraid lest her face should betray her surprise and discomfiture at +the question. And yet, what more natural than that her well-to-do, +kind-hearted sister-in-law should wish to know how she, Enid, was now +situated?</p> + +<p>Cecil Crofton's widow was not what ordinary people would have called a +clever woman, but during the whole of her short life she had studied how +to please, cajole, and yes—deceive, the men and women about her. +Unfortunately for her, Alice Crofton was a type of woman with whom she +had never before been brought in contact; and something deep within her +told her that she had better stick as close to the truth as was +reasonably possible with this shrewd spinster who was, in some ways, so +disconcertingly like what Enid Crofton's late husband had been, in the +days when he had been a forlorn girl-widow's protecting friend and ardent +admirer.</p> + +<p>Yet, even so, she began with a lie: "When my mother died last year she +left me a little money. I thought it wise to spend it in getting this +house, and in settling down here." She said the words in a very low +voice, and as Miss Crofton said nothing for a moment, she added +timidly:—"I do hope that you think I did right? I know people think +it wrong to use capital, but the War has changed everything, including +money, and one simply can't get along at all without paying out sums +which before the War would have seemed dreadful."</p> + +<p>"That's very true," said Miss Crofton finally.</p> + +<p>Enid, feeling on sure ground now, went on: "Why, I had to pay a premium +of £200 for the lease of this little house. But I'm told I could get that +again—even after living for a year or two in it."</p> + +<p>Miss Crofton began looking about her with a doubtful air: "I suppose you +mean to spend the winter here," she said musingly, "and then let the +house each summer?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Enid, "that is my idea."</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, she had never thought of doing such a thing, though +she saw the point of it, now that it was put by her sister-in-law. She +hoped, however, that long before next summer her future would be settled +on most agreeable lines.</p> + +<p>"Then I suppose the balance of what your mother left you forms a little +addition to your pension, and to what poor Cecil was able to leave you?"</p> + +<p>As the other hesitated, Miss Crofton went on, in a very friendly +tone:—"I hope you won't think it interfering that I should speak as I am +doing? I expected to find you much less comfortably circumstanced, and I +was going to propose that I should increase what I had feared would be a +very small income, by two hundred a year."</p> + +<p>Enid was as much touched by this unexpected generosity as it was in +her to be, and it was with an accent of real sincerity that she +exclaimed:—"Oh, Alice, you <i>are</i> kind! Of course two hundred a year +would be a <i>great</i> help. Nothing remains of what my mother left me. But +you must not think that I'm extravagant. I sold a lot of things, and that +made it possible for me to take over The Trellis House exactly as you see +it. But even during the very few days I have been here I have begun to +find how expensive life can be, even in a village like this."</p> + +<p>"All right," said Miss Crofton. She got up from her easy chair with a +quick movement, for she was still a vigorous woman. "Then that's settled! +I'll give you a cheque for £100 to-day—and one every six months as +long that is, as you're a widow." Then she smiled a little satirically, +for Enid had made a quick movement of recoil which Alice Crofton thought +rather absurd.</p> + +<p>"It's early to think of such a thing, no doubt," she said coolly. "But +still, I shall be very much surprised, Enid, if you do not re-make your +life. I myself have a dear young friend, very little older than you are, +who has been married three times. The War has altered the views and +prejudices even of old-fashioned people."</p> + +<p>"I want to ask you something," said Enid, "d'you think I ought to tell +people that I have already been married twice?"</p> + +<p>Miss Crofton told herself quickly that such questions are always put with +a definite reason, and that she probably would not be called upon to pay +her sister-in-law's allowance for very long.</p> + +<p>"I don't think you are in the least bound to tell anyone such a fact +about yourself, unless"—she hesitated,—"you were seriously thinking of +marrying again. In such a case as that I think you would be well advised, +Enid, to tell the man in question the fact before you become obliged to +reveal it to him."</p> + +<p>There was a pause, and then Miss Crofton abruptly changed the subject by +saying something which considerably disturbed her young sister-in-law.</p> + +<p>"I should be much obliged, my dear, if you would tell me a few details as +to my poor brother's death. Your letter contained no particulars at all," +and as the other made no immediate answer, Miss Crofton went on:—"I know +there was an inquest, for one of my friends in Florence saw a report of +it in an English paper. Perhaps you would kindly let me see any newspaper +account or cuttings you may have preserved?"</p> + +<p>"I have kept <i>nothing</i>, Alice!" Enid Crofton uttered the words with a +touch of almost angry excitement. Then, perhaps seeing that the other was +very much surprised, she said more quietly:—"The inquest was a purely +formal affair—the Coroner himself told me that there must always be an +inquest when a person died suddenly."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but surely the question was raised, and that very seriously, as +to whether Cecil took what he did take on purpose, or by accident? I +understood from my friend that the account of the inquest she saw in some +popular Sunday paper was headed 'An Essex Mystery.'"</p> + +<p>Enid felt as if all the blood in her body was flowing towards her face. +She congratulated herself that she was sitting with her back to the +light. These remarks, these questions made her feel sick and faint. Yet +she answered, composedly:—"Both the Coroner and the jury felt <i>sure</i> he +had taken it on purpose. Poor Cecil had never been like himself since the +unlucky day, for us, that the War ended!" And then to Miss Crofton's +surprise and discomfiture Enid burst into tears.</p> + +<p>The older lady got up and put her hand very kindly on the younger one's +shoulder:—"I'm sorry I said anything, my dear," she exclaimed; "I'm +afraid you went through a much worse time than you let me know."</p> + +<p>"I did! I did!" sobbed Enid. "I cannot tell you how terrible it was, +Alice."</p> + +<p>Then she made a determined effort over herself, ashamed of her own +emotion. Still neither hostess nor guest was sorry when there came a +knock at the door, followed a moment later by the entry into the room of +a stranger who was announced by the maid as "Miss Pendarth."</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton got up, and as she shook hands with the newcomer she +tried to remember what it was that Godfrey Radmore had said of her +old-fashioned looking visitor. That she was a good friend but a bad +enemy? Yes, that had been it. Then she remembered something else—the +few kind words scribbled on a visiting card which had been left at The +Trellis House a day or two ago.</p> + +<p>She turned to her sister-in-law:—"I think Miss Pendarth knew poor Cecil +years and years ago," she said softly.</p> + +<p>"Are you—you must be Olivia Pendarth?" There was a touch of emotion in +Alice Crofton's level voice.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am Olivia Pendarth."</p> + +<p>Enid was surprised—not over pleased by the revelation that these two +knew one another.</p> + +<p>"I suppose it's a long time since you met?" she said pleasantly.</p> + +<p>"Miss Crofton and I have never met before," said Miss Pendarth quietly. +"But I knew your husband very well in India, when he and I were both +young. My brother was in his regiment."</p> + +<p>"The dear old regiment!" exclaimed Miss Crofton.</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton smiled a little to herself. It amused her to see that these +two old things—for so she described them to herself—had so quickly +become friends. "The Regiment!" How sick she had got of those two words +during her second married life! She was sorry that Alice, whom she liked, +should be so queerly like Cecil. Even their voices were alike, and she +had uttered the two words with that peculiar intonation her husband +always used when speaking of any of his old comrades-in-arms.</p> + +<p>All the same Miss Pendarth's sudden appearance had been a godsend. Enid +hated going back to the dreadful time of her husband's death.</p> + +<p>And then, when everything seemed going so pleasantly, and when Enid +Crofton was still feeling a glow of joy at the thought of the cheque for +£100, one of those things happened which seem sometimes to occur in life +as if to remind us poor mortals that Fate is ever crouching round the +corner, ready to spring. The door opened, and the buxom little maid +brought in two letters on the salver she had just been taught to use.</p> + +<p>One of the envelopes was addressed in a clear, ordinary lady's hand; the +other, cheap and poor in quality, was in a firm, and yet unformed, +handwriting.</p> + +<p>Enid glanced at the two elder ladies; they were talking together eagerly. +She walked over to the bow-shaped window, and opened the commoner +envelope:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Madam,</p> + +<p>I hope you will excuse me writing to tell you that my husband has had +to leave Mr. Winter's situation. Piper considers he has been treated +shameful, and that if he chose he could get the law on Mr. Winter. I am +writing to you unknown to Piper. If you could see me I think I could +explain exactly what it is I want Piper to get. There do seem a +difficulty now in getting jobs of Piper's sort, but from what he has +told me there were one or two other jobs you heard of that might have +suited him.</p> + +<p> +Yours respectfully,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Amelia Piper</span>. +</p></div> + +<p>Enid Crofton stared down at the signature with a sensation of puzzled +dismay. <i>Piper married?</i> This was indeed a complication, and a +complication which in her most anxious communings she had never thought +of. The man had always behaved like a bachelor—for instance he had +always made love to the maids. There also came back to her the memory of +something her husband had once said, with one of his grimly humorous +looks:—"Piper's a regular dog! If he'd been born in a different class +of life he'd have been a real Don Juan." She now asked herself very +anxiously how far a married Don Juan of any class confides in his wife? +Does he tell her his real secrets, or does he keep them to himself? +Judging by her own experience the average man who loves a woman is only +too apt to tell her not only his own, but other people's secrets.</p> + +<p>Slowly she put the letter back in its envelope. She had gone to a great +deal of trouble, and even to some little expense, over procuring Piper a +really good situation. She had seen not only his new employer, but also +what she liked doing far less, his new employer's wife; and she had got +him extraordinarily good wages, even for these days. It was too bad +that he should worry her, after all she had done for him. As for his +wife—nothing would induce her to see Mrs. Piper. Neither did she wish +Piper to come down to Beechfield. She was particularly anxious that the +man should not learn of Godfrey Radmore's return to England. +Unfortunately Radmore was on the lookout for a good manservant.</p> + +<p>She took up the other letter. It was a nice, prosperous-looking, well +addressed envelope, very different from the other. Perhaps this second +letter would contain something that would cheer her up. But alas! when +she opened it, she found it was from Mrs. Winter, Piper's late employer's +wife.</p> + +<p>Poor Enid Crofton! As she stood there reading it, she turned a little +sick. Piper had got drunk the very first day he had been in his new +situation. While drunk he had tried to kiss a virtuous young housemaid. +There had been a regular scene, which had ended in the lady of the house +being sent for. There and then Piper had been turned out neck and crop.</p> + +<p>It was not only a justifiably angry letter, it was a very disagreeable +letter, the writer saying plainly that Mrs. Crofton had been very much to +blame for recommending such a man....</p> + +<p>Feeling very much disturbed she turned and came back towards her two +visitors. They were now deep in talk, having evidently found a host of +common associations: "I find I ought to answer one of my letters at +once," she said. "Will you forgive me for a few moments?"</p> + +<p>They both looked up, and smiled at her. She looked so pretty, so fragile, +so young, in her widow's mourning.</p> + +<p>She went through into the dining-room. There was a writing-table in the +window, and there she sat down and put her head in her hands; she felt +unutterably forlorn, frightened too—she hardly knew of what. It had +given her such a horrible shock to learn that Piper was married....</p> + +<p>Taking up a pen, she held it for a while poised in the air, staring out +of the window at the attractive though rather neglected old garden, in +which only this morning she had spent more than an hour with Jack +Tosswill.</p> + +<p>Then, at last, she dipped her pen in the ink, and after making two rough +drafts, she decided on the following form of answer to Mrs. Piper, +telling herself that it might be read as addressed to either husband or +wife:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Mrs. Crofton is very sorry to hear that Piper has lost his good +situation. She will try and hear of something that will suit him. Mrs. +Crofton cannot see Mrs. Piper for the present, as she is leaving home +to start on a round of visits, but she will keep in touch with Mr. and +Mrs. Piper and hopes to hear of something that may suit Piper very +soon.</p></div> + +<p>She began by writing "Mr. Piper," on one of her pretty black-edged mauve +envelopes; then she altered the "Mr." to "Mrs." After all it was Piper's +wife who had written to her, and she suddenly remembered with a slight +feeling of apprehension, that Mrs. Piper, for some reason best known to +herself, had not told Piper that she was writing. On the other hand it +was quite possible that the husband and wife had concocted the letter +between them.</p> + +<p>Having addressed the envelope, she suddenly got up and ran up to her +bedroom. There she opened her dressing-table drawer. Quite at the back +lay an envelope containing four £5 notes. She took one of the notes, +and running down again, slipped it in the envelope and added a postscript +to her letter:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Mrs. Crofton sends £5, which she hopes will be of use while Piper is +out of a situation.</p></div> + +<p>She went downstairs, giving her letter, on her way back to the +drawing-room, to the cook to take out to the post-box.</p> + +<p>As she opened the drawing room door, something which struck her as a +little odd happened. Her two visitors, the murmur of whose voices she had +heard in deep, eager converse while she was stepping across her hall, +abruptly stopped talking, and she wondered uneasily what they could have +been saying that neither wished her to hear.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact that sudden silence was owing to a kindly, +old-fashioned, wholly "ladylike" instinct, on the part of the two older +women. Miss Crofton had been talking of her brother's death, confiding +to Miss Pendarth her desire to learn something more as to how it had +actually come about. With what was for her really eager sympathy, Miss +Pendarth had offered to write to a friend in Essex, in order to discover +the name of the local paper where, without doubt, a full account of the +inquest on Colonel Crofton must have been published.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + + +<p>Saturday, Sunday, Monday, slipped away, and on Tuesday there seemed no +reason why Godfrey Radmore should leave Old Place. And so he stayed on, +nominally from day to day, settling down, as none of them would have +thought possible that anyone now a stranger could settle down, to the +daily round and common task of the life led by the Tosswill family. After +two or three days he even began to take command of the younger ones, and +Janet was secretly amused to see how he shamed both Rosamund and Dolly +into doing something like their full share of the housework.</p> + +<p>In relation to the two younger girls, his attitude was far more that +of a good-natured, rather cynical, elder brother than was his attitude +to Betty. Into her special department, the kitchen, he seldom intruded, +though when he did so it was to real purpose. Thus, Dolly's twentieth +birthday was made by him the excuse for ordering from a famous London +caterer a hamper containing enough cold and half-cooked food to keep them +junketing for two or three days. Janet was rather puzzled to note that +Betty, alone of them all, seemed to look askance at the way Radmore spent +his substance in showering fairy-godfather-like gifts on the inmates of +Old Place.</p> + +<p>The happiest of them all was Timmy. Most men would have been bored by +having so much of a child's company, but Radmore was touched and +flattered by the boy's devotion, and that though there was a side of his +godson which puzzled and disturbed him. Now and again Timmy would say +something which made Radmore wonder for a moment if he had heard the +words aright, but he followed the example silently set him by all the +others of taking no notice of Timmy's claim both to see and foresee more +than is vouchsafed to the ordinary mortal.</p> + +<p>Miss Crofton had also stayed on in Beechfield, but only a day longer than +she had intended to do—that is, till the Tuesday. She and Miss Pendarth +had met more than once, striking up something like a real friendship. But +this, instead of modifying, had intensified Miss Pendarth's growing +prejudice against the new tenant of The Trellis House. She felt convinced +that the pretty young widow had made her kind sister-in-law believe that +she was far poorer, and more to be pitied, than she really was.</p> + +<p>Life in an English village is in some ways like a quiet pool—and, just +as the throwing of a pebble into such a pool causes what appears to +create an extraordinary amount of commotion on the surface of the water, +so the advent of any human being who happens to be a little out of the +common produces an amount of discussion, public and private, which might +well seem to those outside the circle of gossip, extravagant, as well as +unnecessary.</p> + +<p>The general verdict on Mrs. Crofton had begun by being favourable. Both +with gentle and simple her appealing beauty told in her favour, and very +soon the village people smiled, and looked knowingly at one another, as +they noted the perpetual coming and going of Jack Tosswill to The Trellis +House. No day went by without the young man making some more or less +plausible excuse to call there once, twice, and sometimes thrice.</p> + +<p>It was noticed, too, by those interested in such matters—and in +Beechfield they were in the majority—that Mr. Godfrey Radmore, whose +return to Old Place had naturally caused a good deal of talk and +speculation—was also a frequent visitor at The Trellis House. Now and +again he would call there in his car, and take Mrs. Crofton for a long +drive; but they never went out alone—either Dolly or Rosamund, and +invariably Timmy, would be of the party.</p> + +<p>As the days went on, each member of the Tosswill family began to have a +definite and, so to speak, crystallised view of Enid Crofton. Rosamund +had become her champion, thus earning for the first time in her life the +warm approval of her brother Jack; but Dolly and Tom grew rather jealous +of their sister's absorption in the stranger. Rosamund was so very often +at The Trellis House. In fact, when Jack was not to be found there, +Rosamund generally was. But she had soon discovered that her new friend +preferred to see her visitors singly. Betty kept her thoughts as to Mrs. +Crofton to herself—for one thing the two very seldom met. But Janet +Tosswill was more frank. With her, tepid liking had turned into dislike, +and when she alluded to the pretty widow, which was not often, she would +tersely describe her as "second-rate."</p> + +<p>Now there is no word in the English language more deadly in its vague +import than that apparently harmless adjective. As applied to a human +being, it generally conveys every kind of odious significance, and +curiously enough it is seldom applied without good reason.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Crofton had gentle, pretty manners, but her manner lacked sincerity. +She was not content to leave her real beauty of colouring and feature to +take care of itself; her eye-brows were "touched up," and when she +fancied herself to be "off colour" she would put on a suspicion of rouge. +But what perhaps unduly irritated the mistress of Old Place were Mrs. +Crofton's clothes! To such shrewd, feminine eyes as were Janet +Tosswill's, it was plain that the new tenant of The Trellis House had +taken as much pains over her widow's mourning as a coquettish bride takes +over her trousseau.</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill was far too busy a woman to indulge in the village game +of constant informal calls on her neighbours. She left all that sort of +thing to her younger step-daughters; and as Mrs. Crofton never came to +Old Place—making her nervous fear of the dogs the excuse—Janet only saw +the new tenant of The Trellis House when she happened to be walking about +the village or at church.</p> + +<p>But for a while, at any rate, an untoward event drove the thoughts +of most of the inmates of Old Place far from Mrs. Crofton and her +peculiarities, attractive or other.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>One day, when Radmore had already been at Beechfield for close on a +fortnight, Timmy drew him aside, and said mysteriously: "Godfrey, I want +to tell you something."</p> + +<p>Radmore looked down and said pleasantly, though with a queer inward +foreboding in his mind: "Go ahead, boy—I'm listening."</p> + +<p>"Something's going to happen to someone here. I saw Dr. O'Farrell last +night, I mean in a dream. You were driving him in your car through our +gate. Last time I dreamt about him Dolly had measles; she was awfully +ill; she nearly died."</p> + +<p>As he spoke, Timmy kept looking round, as if afraid of being overheard. +"I don't mean to tell anyone else," he added confidentially. "You see it +upsets Mum, and makes the others cross, if I say things like that. But +still, I just thought I'd tell <i>you</i>."</p> + +<p>Radmore was impressed, disagreeably so, in spite of himself; but: "Look +here, Timmy," he said chaffingly. "The Greeks have a proverb about the +bearer of ill-tidings; don't let yourself ever become that, old man! +Have you ever heard, by the by, about 'the long arm of coincidence'?"</p> + +<p>Timmy nodded.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think it possible that your having dreamt about Dr. O'Farrell +just before Dolly was taken ill may have been that long arm of +coincidence—and nothing more? I can't help thinking that probably your +mother said something about sending for Dr. O'Farrell—for people don't +get measles in a minute, you know; they are seedy for some days +beforehand—and that made you dream of him. Eh?"</p> + +<p>But Timmy answered obliquely, as was rather his way when brought to book +by some older person than himself. "I think this time it's going to be an +accident," he said thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>And an accident it was! Old Nanna, who, in spite of her age, had become +the corner-stone of the household as regarded its material well-being, +slipped on the back staircase, and sprained her leg, and of course it was +Radmore who went off in his car to fetch and bring back Dr. O'Farrell.</p> + +<p>A slight alleviation to their troubles was brought about by Miss +Pendarth, who was going off on a visit the very day the accident +happened, and who practically compelled Janet to accept the temporary +service of her own excellent servant. It was her readiness to give that +sort of quick, kindly, decisive help which made so many of those who had +the privilege of her acquaintance regard Miss Pendarth with the solid +liking which is founded on gratitude.</p> + +<p>But the help, offered and accepted in the same spirit, could not go on +for long, for Miss Pendarth came home after a four days' absence; and, +for the first time in many months, Janet Tosswill made time to pay a +formal call at Rose Cottage in order that she might thank her old friend. +She intended to stay only the time that strict civility enjoined, and she +would have been surprised indeed had she been able to foresee what a +pregnant and, to her, personally, painful train of events were to follow +as a result of the quarter of an hour she spent in Miss Pendarth's +old-fashioned upstairs sitting-room where only privileged visitors were +ever made welcome.</p> + +<p>"Will you come upstairs to-day, Janet? I have something about which I +want to consult you."</p> + +<p>And then, when they had sat down, Miss Pendarth said abruptly: "While I +was in Essex I came across some people who had been acquainted with Mrs. +Crofton and her husband."</p> + +<p>Janet looked across at the speaker with some surprise. "What an odd +thing!" she exclaimed, and she did think it rather odd.</p> + +<p>But Olivia Pendarth was a very honest woman—too honest, some people +might have said. "It was not exactly odd," she said quickly, "for, to +tell you the truth, I made it my business while there to make certain +enquiries about the Croftons. In fact, I partly went to Essex for that +purpose, though I did not tell my friends so."</p> + +<p>The visitor felt rather shocked, as well as surprised. Surely Olivia +Pendarth's interest in her neighbours' concerns was, to say the least +of it, excessive. But the other's next words modified her censorious +thoughts.</p> + +<p>"Colonel Crofton and one of my brothers were in the same regiment +together. I knew him quite well when he and I were both young, and when +Miss Crofton came to see her sister-in-law a fortnight ago, I offered to +make certain enquiries for her."</p> + +<p>There was a touch of mystery, of hesitation in the older lady's voice, +and Janet Tosswill "rose" as she was perhaps meant to do. "What sort of +enquiries?" she asked. "I thought Miss Crofton was on the best of terms +with her sister-in-law."</p> + +<p>"So she is; but she wanted to know more than Mrs. Crofton was inclined to +tell her about the circumstances—the really extraordinary circumstances, +Janet—concerning Colonel Crofton's death. And now I'm rather in a +quandary as to whether I ought to tell her what I heard, and indeed as to +whether I ought even to send her the report of the inquest which appeared +in a local paper, and which I at last managed to secure."</p> + +<p>"Of course I know that Colonel Crofton committed suicide." Janet Tosswill +lowered her voice instinctively. "That poor, second-rate little woman +seems to have told Rosamund as much, and Godfrey Radmore confirmed it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I suppose one ought to say that there is no real doubt that he +committed suicide." Yet Miss Pendarth's voice seemed to imply that there +was some doubt.</p> + +<p>She went on: "It was suggested at the inquest that the chemist who made +up a certain heart tonic Colonel Crofton had been in the habit of taking +for some time, had put in a far larger dose of strychnine than was +right."</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill repeated in a startled tone: "Strychnine! You don't mean +to say the poor man committed suicide with that horrible poison?"</p> + +<p>Miss Pendarth looked up, and Janet was struck by her pallor and look of +pain. "Yes, Janet; he died of a big dose of strychnine, and the medical +evidence given at the inquest makes most painful reading."</p> + +<p>"It <i>must</i> have been a mistake on the part of the chemist. No sane man +would take strychnine in order to commit suicide. Besides, how could he +have got it?"</p> + +<p>"There was strychnine in the house," said Miss Pendarth slowly. "When +Mrs. Crofton was in Egypt it was prescribed for her. You know how people +take it by the drop? A chemist out there seems to have given her a much +greater quantity than was needed, and in an ordinary, unlabelled medicine +bottle, too." The speaker waited a moment, then went on: "Though she +brought it back to England with her, she seems to have quite forgotten +that she had it. But <i>he</i> must have known it was there, for after his +death the bottle was found in his dressing room."</p> + +<p>"What a dreadful thing! And how painful it must have been for her!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think she did go through a very dreadful time. But, Janet, what +impressed me most painfully, and what I am sure would much distress Miss +Crofton were I to tell her even only a part of what I heard, was the fact +that the husband and wife were on very bad terms. This was testified to, +and very strongly, by the only woman servant they had at the time of his +death."</p> + +<p>"I never believe servants' evidence," observed Janet Tosswill drily.</p> + +<p>"The Coroner, who I suppose naturally wished to spare Mrs. Crofton's +feelings, told the jury that it was plain that Colonel Crofton was a very +bad-tempered man. But the people with whom I was staying, and who drove +me over to look at the God-forsaken old house where the Croftons lived, +said that local feeling was very much against her. It was thought that +she really caused him to take his life by her neglect and unkindness."</p> + +<p>"What a terrible idea!"</p> + +<p>"I fear it's true. And now comes the question—ought I to tell his sister +this? Some of the gossip I heard was very unpleasant."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that there was another man?"</p> + +<p>"Other men—rather than another man. She was always going up to London to +enjoy herself with the various men friends she had made during the War, +and the only guests they ever entertained were young men who were more or +less in love with her."</p> + +<p>Janet smiled a little wryly. "There's safety in numbers, and after all +she's extraordinarily attractive to men."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Miss Pendarth, "there <i>is</i> safety in numbers, and it's said +that Colonel Crofton was almost insanely jealous. They seem to have led a +miserable existence, constantly quarrelling about money, too, and often +changing their servants. On at least one occasion Mrs. Crofton went away, +leaving him quite alone, with only their odd man to look after him, for +something like a fortnight. Colonel Crofton's only interest in life was +the terriers which he apparently bred with a view to increasing his +income."</p> + +<p>"They can't have been so very poor," said Janet abruptly. "Look at the +way she's living now."</p> + +<p>"I feel sure she's living on capital," said Miss Pendarth slowly, "and I +think—forgive me for saying so—that she hopes to marry Godfrey Radmore. +I'm sure that's why she came to Beechfield."</p> + +<p>"You're wrong there! She settled to come here before Godfrey came home."</p> + +<p>"I'm convinced that she knew he was coming home soon."</p> + +<p>Janet got up. "I must be going now," she exclaimed. "There's a great deal +to do, and only Betty and I to do it."</p> + +<p>"I suppose Godfrey Radmore will be leaving now?"</p> + +<p>"I hope not, for he's a help rather than a hindrance. He takes Timmy off +our hands—"</p> + +<p>"—And he's so much at The Trellis House. I hear he dined there last +night."</p> + +<p>"Yes, with Rosamund," answered Janet shortly.</p> + +<p>Miss Pendarth accompanied her visitor down and out to the wrought-iron +gate. There the two lingered for a moment, and than Janet Tosswill +received one of the real surprises of her life.</p> + +<p>"Colonel Crofton and I were once engaged. I went out to India to stay +with my brother, and it happened there. <i>Now</i> we should have married. But +things were very different <i>then</i>. When my father found Captain Crofton +was not in a position to make what was then regarded as a proper +settlement, he declared the engagement at an end."</p> + +<p>Janet felt touched. There was such a depth of restrained feeling in her +old friend's voice. Somehow it had never occurred to her that Olivia +Pendarth could ever have been in love!</p> + +<p>"It must be very painful for you to have her here," she said +involuntarily.</p> + +<p>"In a way, yes. But I suspected she was his widow from the first."</p> + +<p>"I think that, if I were you, I would say nothing to his sister," +observed Janet.</p> + +<p>"Very well. I will take your advice."</p> + +<p>She changed the subject abruptly. "Let me know if Kate can be of any more +use. She's quite anxious to go on helping you all. She's got so fond of +Betty: she says she'd do anything for her."</p> + +<p>"We're managing all right now, and Godfrey really is a help, instead of a +hindrance. He actually suggested that he should do the washing-up this +morning!"</p> + +<p>"That's the best thing I've ever heard of Godfrey Radmore," exclaimed +Miss Pendarth. "I sincerely hope—forgive me for saying so, Janet—that +there's really nothing between him and Enid Crofton. I should be sorry +for my worst enemy to marry that woman, if the things I was told about +her were true."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe that he is thinking of her, consciously—" Janet +Tosswill spoke slowly, choosing her words.</p> + +<p>"Of course she's making a dead set at him. But there's safety in numbers, +even here," observed the other, grimly. "I hear that your Jack simply +lives at The Trellis House. The whole village is talking about it."</p> + +<p>Jack? Janet Tosswill felt vexed by what she considered a bit of stupid, +vulgar, village gossip. "Jack's the most level-headed young man about +women I've ever known," she said, trying to speak pleasantly. "If anyone +has fallen in love with Mrs. Crofton, it's our silly little Rosamund!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + + +<p>The morning after Janet Tosswill's call at Rose Cottage, Rosamund +followed her step-mother into the drawing-room immediately after +breakfast, and observed plaintively that it did seem strange that "Enid" +was never asked to Old Place. "We take anything from her, and never give +anything back," she said.</p> + +<p>Janet, who had a certain tenderness for the pretty black sheep of the +family, checked the sharp retort which trembled on her lips. Still, it +was quite true that Rosamund had more than once been kept to lunch at The +Trellis House, and that on the day of Nanna's accident Mrs. Crofton had +issued a sort of general invitation to supper to the young people of Old +Place—an invitation finally accepted, at Betty's suggestion, by Godfrey +Radmore and Rosamund.</p> + +<p>Janet admitted to herself that they did owe Mrs. Crofton some civility. +If the thing had to be done, it might as well be done at once, and so, +when Rosamund had reluctantly gone upstairs to do her share of the +household work, his mother beckoned Timmy into the drawing-room, and told +him that she would have a note ready for him to take to The Trellis House +in a few minutes.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mum, do let Jack take it!" the boy exclaimed. "I can't go to The +Trellis House with Flick, and it's such a bore to shut him up."</p> + +<p>"Why can't Flick go with you?"</p> + +<p>"Mum! Don't you remember? Mrs. Crofton is <i>terrified</i> of dogs. Do let +Jack take it!"</p> + +<p>"But are you sure Jack is going there this morning?" she asked, and then +she remembered Miss Pendarth's ill-natured remark.</p> + +<p>"He goes there every morning," said Timmy positively, "and this morning +he's going there extra early, as he's lending Mrs. Crofton our best +preserving pan. She wants to make some blackberry jam."</p> + +<p>And then there occurred one of those odd incidents which were always +happening in connection with Timmy and with which his mother never knew +quite how to deal. He screwed up his queer little face for a moment, +shaded his eyes with his hand, and said quietly: "I think Jack is just +starting down the drive now. You'll catch him if you'll open the window +and shout to him, Mum—it's no good my going after him—he wouldn't come +back for <i>me</i>."</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill got up from her writing-table. She opened the nearest +window and, stepping out, looked to her right. Yes, there was Jack's +neat, compact figure sprinting down the long, straight avenue towards the +gate. He was holding a queer-looking, badly done up parcel in his hands.</p> + +<p>"Jack! Jack! Come here for a minute—I want you," she called out in her +clear, rather high-pitched voice.</p> + +<p>He slackened, and it was as if she could see him hesitating, wondering +whether he dare pretend he had not heard her. Then he turned and ran back +down the drive and across the wide lawn to the window.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he asked breathlessly. "I'm late as it is! I'm taking one +of our preserving pans to The Trellis House. The fruit was all picked +yesterday."</p> + +<p>"I won't be a moment. I want you to take a letter for me to Mrs. Crofton. +I'm asking her to come in to dinner to-night."</p> + +<p>She turned back into the room and, sitting down, took up her pen: "Timmy? +Go into the scullery, and help Betty for a bit."</p> + +<p>After her little son had left the room, she called out to Jack, "Do come +inside; it fidgets me to feel that you're standing out there."</p> + +<p>After what seemed to Jack Tosswill a long time, though it was only three +minutes, his step-mother turned, and held out her note: "She needn't +write—a verbal answer will do. If she can't come we shall have done the +civil thing."</p> + +<p>And then, thinking aloud, she went on: "Somehow I don't expect her to +stay long in Beechfield. She's too much of a London bird."</p> + +<p>"I don't suppose she would have come at all if she had known what a +beastly, inhospitable place Beechfield is," said Jack sharply. Though he +was in such a hurry to be off, he waited in order to add: "She's been +here nearly a month, and you've never called on her yet—it's too bad!"</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill flushed deeply. Jack had not spoken to her in such a tone +since he was fifteen.</p> + +<p>"What nonsense! She must be indeed silly and affected," she exclaimed, +"if she expected me to pay her a formal call, especially as we had her in +to supper the very first day she was here! I might retort by saying that +she might have sent or called to know how poor old Nanna was! Everyone in +the village has done so—but then your friend, Jack, is not what my +father used to call '18 carat'!"</p> + +<p>"I think it's we who are not '18 carat,'" he answered furiously. "We have +shown Mrs. Crofton the grossest discourtesy, and I happen to know that +she feels it very much."</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill looked at her elder stepson with a feeling of blank +amazement. It had often astonished her to notice how completely Jack had +his emotions and temper under control. Yet here he was, his face aglow +with anger, his voice trembling with rage.</p> + +<p>Poor Janet! She had had long days of fatigue and worry since the old +nurse's accident, and suddenly she completely lost her temper. "I don't +want to say anything unkind about the little woman, but I do think her +both silly and second-rate. I took a dislike to her when she behaved in +such a ridiculous manner over Flick."</p> + +<p>"You were almost as frightened as she was," said Jack roughly.</p> + +<p>"It's quite true that I was frightened for a moment, but only because +I was afraid for Timmy."</p> + +<p>"I can tell you one thing—she won't come here again to supper unless +I can give her my word that all our dogs are really shut up. And I fear +I must ask you to undertake to see that Timmy does not let Flick out +after I <i>have</i> shut him up."</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill held out her hand. "I think you'd better give me that note +back," she said curtly. "We certainly don't want anyone here of the kind +you have just described. From something Godfrey said to me it's clear +that Mrs. Crofton's horror of dogs is just a pose she thinks makes her +interesting. Why, her husband bred terriers; Flick actually came from +there! And Godfrey says that she herself had a little dog called by the +absurd name of 'Boo-boo' to which she was devoted."</p> + +<p>"'Boo-boo' was the exception that proves the rule," answered Jack hotly. +"As for Colonel Crofton, it was beastly of him to breed terriers, knowing +how his wife felt about dogs! She told me herself she would never have +married him if she had known there was any likelihood of that coming to +pass. She feels about dogs as some people feel about cats."</p> + +<p>"I never heard such nonsense!"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense?" he repeated in an enraged tone. "It isn't nonsense! The best +proof that that horror of dogs is instinctive with her is the effect that +she herself has on every dog she comes across. That was shown the evening +she was here."</p> + +<p>"Really, Jack, that's utterly absurd! Flick was not thinking of her at +all. Something in the garden had frightened him. Your father feels sure +that it was a snake which he himself killed the next morning." And then, +for she was most painfully disturbed by this scene between herself and +Jack, she said quietly: "I'm sorry that Mrs. Crofton ever came to +Beechfield. I didn't think there was anyone in the world who would make +you speak to me as you have spoken to me now."</p> + +<p>"I hate injustice!" he exclaimed, a little shamefacedly. "I can't think +why you've turned against her, Janet. It's so mean as well as so unkind! +She has hardly any friends in the world, and she thought by the account +Godfrey gave of us that <i>we</i> should become her friends."</p> + +<p>"It's always a woman's own fault if she has no friends, especially when +she's such an attractive woman as Mrs. Crofton," said Janet shortly. She +hesitated, and then added something for which she was sorry immediately +afterwards: "I happen to know rather more about Mrs. Crofton than most of +the people in Beechfield do."</p> + +<p>She spoke with that touch of mysterious finality which is always so +irritating to a listener who is in indifferent sympathy with a speaker.</p> + +<p>"What d'you mean?" cried Jack fiercely. "I insist on your telling me what +you mean!"</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill told herself with Scotch directness that she had been a +fool. But if Jack was—she hardly knew how to put it to herself—so—so +bewitched by Mrs. Crofton as he seemed to be, then perhaps, as they had +got to this point, he had better hear the truth:</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Crofton made herself very much talked about in the neighbourhood of +the place where she and her husband settled after the War. She was so +actively unkind, and made him so wretched, that at last he committed +suicide. At least that is what is believed by everyone who knew them in +Essex."</p> + +<p>"I suppose a woman told you all this?" he said in a dangerously calm +voice.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it was a woman, Jack."</p> + +<p>"Of course it was! Every woman, young or old, is jealous of her because +she's so pretty and—so—so feminine, and because she has nothing about +her of the clever, hard woman who is the fashion nowadays! The only +person who does her justice in this place is Rosamund."</p> + +<p>"I disapprove very much of Rosamund's silly, school-girlish, adoration of +her," said Janet sharply.</p> + +<p>She was just going to add something more when she saw Timmy slipping +quietly back into the room. And all at once she felt sorry—deeply +sorry—that this rather absurd scene had taken place between herself and +Jack. She blamed herself for having let it come to this pass.</p> + +<p>"I daresay I'm prejudiced," she exclaimed. "Take this note, Jack, and +tell Mrs. Crofton that Flick shall be securely shut up."</p> + +<p>"All right." Jack shrugged his shoulders rather ostentatiously, and +disappeared through the window, while Janet, with a half-humorous sigh, +told herself that perhaps he was justified in condemning in his own mind, +as he was certainly doing now, the extraordinary vagaries of womankind. +She turned back to her writing-table again. However disturbed and worried +she might feel, there were the weekly books to be gone through, and this +time without Nanna's shrewd, kindly help.</p> + +<p>Suddenly she started, for Timmy's claw-like little hand was on her arm: +"Mum," he said earnestly, "do tell me what Colonel Crofton was really +like? Did that lady—you know, I mean the person Jack thinks is jealous +of Mrs. Crofton—tell you what he was like?"</p> + +<p>"No—yes—oh, Timmy! I'm afraid you must have been listening at the door +just now?"</p> + +<p>"I didn't like to come in," he said, wriggling uneasily. "I've never +heard Jack speak in such an angry way before. He was in a wax, wasn't he? +But, Mum, do tell me what Colonel Crofton looked like—I do <i>so</i> want to +know."</p> + +<p>She put down her pen, and turning, gazed down into the child's eager, +inquisitive little face.</p> + +<p>"Why should you wish to know, Timmy?" She spoke rather coldly and +sternly.</p> + +<p>She was sorry indeed now that she had been tempted to repeat what was +perhaps after all only the outcome of Miss Pendarth's unconscious +jealousy of the woman who had made a fool of the man she had loved as a +girl. It was unfortunately true that Olivia Pendarth had an unconscious +prejudice against all young and pretty women.</p> + +<p>"I want to know," mumbled Timmy, "because I think I do know what he was +like."</p> + +<p>"If you know what he was like, then there is nothing more to say."</p> + +<p>"I want to be sure," he repeated obstinately.</p> + +<p>"But how absurd, Timmy! Why should you want to know about a poor old +gentleman who is dead, and of whom you are not likely ever to hear +anything? I have often told you how horrid it is to be inquisitive."</p> + +<p>Timmy paused over that remark. "I want to know," he said in a low +mumbling voice, "because I think I have seen him." He did not look up at +his mother as he spoke. With the forefinger of his right hand he began +tracing an imaginary pattern on the blue serge skirt which covered her +knee.</p> + +<p>She looked around apprehensively. Yes, the door was shut. She remembered +that Dr. O'Farrell had told her never to encourage the child's +confidences, but, on the other hand, never to check them.</p> + +<p>"I first saw him the evening she came to supper," Timmy mumbled. "They +were walking together down the avenue. I thought he was a real old +gentleman. There was a dog with him, a terrier exactly like Flick, only a +little bigger. Of course I thought it was a real dog too. But now I know +that it wasn't. I know now that it was a ghost-dog. It is <i>that</i> dog, +Mum, that frightens the other dogs who meet them—not herself, as she's +come to think."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Timmy,"—Janet felt acutely uncomfortable—"you know I cannot bear +to think that such things really happen to you. If you really think them +I'd rather know, but I'd so much rather, dear boy, that you didn't think +them."</p> + +<p>But Timmy was absorbed in what he was saying. "I know now that it was +Colonel Crofton," he went on, "because I've seen an old photograph of +him, Mum. Mrs. Crofton brought a tin box full of papers with her, and +there were some old photographs in it. There was one of an officer in +uniform, and it had written across it, 'Yours sincerely, Cecil Crofton.' +She tore it up the day after she came here, and threw it in the +waste-paper basket, but her cook took it out of the dustbin, and +that's how I saw it."</p> + +<p>"How disgusting!" exclaimed his mother, feeling herself now on firm +ground. "How often have I had to tell you, Timmy, not to go into other +people's kitchens and sculleries? No nice boy, no little gentleman, would +do such a thing. Of course it was seeing that photograph made you believe +you saw Colonel Crofton's—"</p> + +<p>She stopped abruptly, for she never, if she could help it, used the word +"ghost," or "spirit," to the child.</p> + +<p>"Up to now I've always supposed that animals had no souls, Mum, but now I +know they have. I know another thing, too," but there was a doubtful note +in his voice. "I suppose that ghost-dog hates Mrs. Crofton because she +was so unkind to his master. That's why he makes the other dogs fly at +her, I expect—or d'you think it's just because they're frightened that +they do it?"</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill was an unconventional woman, also she was on terms of very +close kinship with her strange little son. Still, she reddened as she +drew him closer to her and said: "Look here, Timmy, I want to tell you +something. I'm sorry now I said what I did say to Jack about Mrs. +Crofton. I ought not to have said it—I'm ashamed of having said it! It +was told me by someone who is rather fond of repeating disagreeable, +sometimes even untrue, things."</p> + +<p>Timmy had also grown very red while his mother was making her little +confession. He took up her hand and squeezed it impulsively, as an older +person might have done.</p> + +<p>"I think I know who you mean," he said. "You mean Miss Pendarth?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said his mother steadily, "I do mean Miss Pendarth. I think it +quite possible that poor little Mrs. Crofton was never really unkind to +Colonel Crofton at all."</p> + +<p>"But you wouldn't like Jack to marry her, Mum, would you?"</p> + +<p>Janet felt a shock of dismay go through her. There flashed into her mind +that sometimes most disturbing text—"Out of the mouths of babes and +sucklings...."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't like it at all," she exclaimed, "and I think you're old +enough to understand that such a thing would be impossible. Jack won't +make enough money to keep a wife for years and years." She hesitated, and +then added, speaking to herself rather than to Timmy, "Still, I hope with +all my heart that he won't get foolish about her."</p> + +<p>"He <i>is</i> foolish about her," said Timmy positively. "Even Nanna +thinks"—he waited a moment, then said carefully—"that he is past +praying for. She said yesterday to Betty that there were some things +prayers didn't help in at all, and that love was one of them. She says +that Jack's heart has gone out of his own keeping. Isn't that a funny +idea, Mum?"</p> + +<p>"It is a terrible idea," and, a little to her own surprise, tears rose to +Janet Tosswill's eyes. Timmy, looking up into her face, felt his heart +swell with anger against the person who was causing his mother to look as +she was looking now.</p> + +<p>He moved away a little bit, as if aware that what he was going to say +would not meet with her approval, and then he said in a peculiar voice, +a defiant, obstinate voice which she knew well: "I do wish that Mrs. +Crofton would die—I do hate her so!"</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill looked straight into her little son's face. She felt that +she had perhaps made a mistake in treating Timmy as if he were grown up. +"My dear," she said very gravely, "remember the Bible says—'Thou shalt +not kill.'"</p> + +<p>"Of course I know <i>that</i>,"—he spoke with a good deal of scorn. "Of +course I want her to die a <i>natural</i> death."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + + +<p>"No, you mustn't come in; I'm tired. Besides, I've got someone coming to +tea."</p> + +<p>The ready lie slipped easily off Enid Crofton's tongue, as Jack Tosswill +looked down into her face with a strained, pleading look. They were +standing in the deserted road close to the outside door set in the +lichen-covered wall of The Trellis House. It was already getting dusk, +for they had been for a long walk.</p> + +<p>"I shall never, never forget to-day!" He gripped her hand hard as he +spoke, and she looked up and down the empty road a little apprehensively. +But no one was coming or going, and the group of little old cottages +opposite The Trellis House held as yet no twinkling lights.</p> + +<p>"I shall never forget it, either," she said softly. "But I really <i>must</i> +go in now—you know we are meeting this evening?"</p> + +<p>"May I come and fetch you?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"No, I'd rather you didn't do that—if you don't mind," and then, seeing +his look of deep disappointment, she added, "Perhaps you will walk back +with me after dinner?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I will, but I'm afraid Radmore or one of the girls will want +to come too."</p> + +<p>As he gazed down into her face there was a look of infinite longing in +his eyes, and even she felt a certain touch of genuine emotion sweep over +her. It is so very, very delicious to be loved.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, darling," he whispered huskily; and, before she had time to +stop him, he had taken her in his arms and kissed her, passionately, +lingeringly. Then, with no other word, he released her and went off +quickly down the road.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>After Enid Crofton had shut the heavy door in the wall behind her, she +did not go straight along the path which led to her front door. Instead, +she turned in the gathering darkness to the left, and started walking +round the garden which in daylight looked so different, now that Jack +Tosswill had put in so many hard mornings' work at it.</p> + +<p>She felt more surprised and moved by what had happened this afternoon +than she would have thought possible. Poor Jack! Poor, foolish, adoring, +priggish boy!</p> + +<p>When he had come in this morning, bringing the note of invitation from +his step-mother, he had seemed excited and ill at ease. She had felt +vexed at his coming so early, as she was anxious to superintend the +jam-making herself. Enid Crofton had a very practical side to her +character, and she was the last person to risk the wasting of good sugar +and good fruit through the stupidity of an inexperienced cook.</p> + +<p>While Jack was still there one of her new acquaintances had come in for a +moment, for she had already made herself well liked in the neighbourhood, +and after the visitor had gone, Jack, exclaiming angrily that they were +never left in peace together, had begged her to go for a walk with him +that afternoon. This she had consented to do, after discovering that +Godfrey Radmore had gone up to London for the day.</p> + +<p>And then, during their walk, Jack had suddenly made her a pompous offer +of marriage!</p> + +<p>No wonder she smiled mischievously to herself, when pacing slowly up and +down the path between a row of espaliered apple trees.</p> + +<p>She told herself that in a sense it had been her fault. They were sitting +on a fallen tree trunk, in a lonely little wood, Jack, as he seldom was, +tongue-tied and dull. Piqued, she had twitted him on his silence. And +then, all at once, he had turned and, seizing her roughly, had kissed her +with the pent-up passion of a man in love who till now has never kissed a +woman.</p> + +<p>Pacing slowly in her dark garden, Enid Crofton's pulse quickened at +the recollection of those maladroit, hungry kisses. Something—a mere +glancing streak of the great shaft of ecstasy which enveloped Jack +Tosswill's whole being had touched her senses into what had seemed to +him marvellous response.</p> + +<p>When at last he had released her, and in words of at once triumphant and +humble adoration, had made her an offer of marriage, she had felt it an +absurd anti-climax to a very delicious and, even in her well-stored +memory, a unique experience.</p> + +<p>And now she remembered the last time a man had kissed her. It was quite +a little while ago, on the day she had taken possession of The Trellis +House. Of course Captain Tremaine had tipped the guard so that they +should have a carriage to themselves. But she had been uncomfortably +aware that he was half-ashamed of himself—that he remembered, all the +time, that she was a newly-made widow.</p> + +<p>Somehow Jack Tosswill hadn't remembered that. Jack hadn't thought of it. +But oh! how absurd he had been when his first rapture was over. Without +even waiting for an answer to his proposal, he had coolly suggested they +should wait till he had made a start at the Bar! At last she had managed +to make him listen to her plea that, till a year had elapsed, she could +not think of re-marriage. And he had believed her!</p> + +<p>All at once she told herself, a little ruefully, that she had perhaps +been foolish; that this affair, slight and altogether unimportant as it +was, might become a tiresome complication. Of course she could keep him +in order, but she was well aware that when a man had kissed her once, he +generally wanted to kiss her again, and very soon.</p> + +<p>In principle, she had no objection to Jack Tosswill's kisses. There was +something fresh, alluring, wholly delightful, even to so hardened a flirt +as was Enid Crofton, in being the object of a youth's first love. But she +told herself, almost fiercely, that she must make him understand very, +very clearly that, though they might sometimes kiss, they must never be +caught. Fortunately Jack was curiously cautious for so young a man. That +had been one of the reasons why she had been tempted to—well—to make +him lose his head.</p> + +<p>And then another figure, one of far greater importance and moment to +herself than poor Jack Tosswill, came and challenged Enid Crofton to +anxious attention. How did she stand with regard to Godfrey Radmore?</p> + +<p>She stopped in her pacing, and stared straight before her. For the first +time in her life she was quite at a loss as to what a man, of whom she +was seeing a great deal, really felt about her.</p> + +<p>Rosamund Tosswill was very young, and Enid secretly thought her very +stupid, but there could be no doubt as to her essential truthfulness. +Now, a day or two ago, Rosamund had said: "Isn't it funny of Godfrey? He +told Janet when he first came here that he had made up his mind to remain +a bachelor!"</p> + +<p>And yet they two, she, Enid, and Godfrey, had had something tantamount to +an emotional little scene the first time he had come to see her at The +Trellis House. True, it had only lasted two or three seconds, but while +it lasted it had been intense. Had Timmy Tosswill not burst into the room +in that stupid, inopportune way, Radmore would have certainly taken her +in his arms. Though Radmore was no innocent, high-principled boy, even +one kiss between them would have altered their whole attitude, the one to +the other. She would have seen to that. In her heart she had cursed Timmy +for his idiotic intrusion, and now she cursed him again.</p> + +<p>Lately she had thought Radmore was becoming aware of Jack Tosswill's +growing absorption in her, and she had suspected, as well as hoped, that +he was a trifle jealous. Now jealousy, as Enid knew well, is a potent +quickener of feeling between a man and a woman. It was unfortunate that +Radmore seemed to regard Jack Tosswill as a mere boy—a rather tiresome, +priggish boy. Still, that had its good side. Jack was only a very slight +complication after all!</p> + +<p>Again she cast a fleeting thought to Tremaine. In a sense he was her real +mate, her real soul, and, yes, body mate. If only he wasn't so poor! She +felt for a moment tempted to throw up everything—to do what he had so +urged her to do, what he was always writing and begging her to do. That +was to marry him quickly just before the end of his leave, and go out to +India with him. He wrote to her every day, and his last letter was in the +little silk bag now hanging on her arm.</p> + +<p>It was the kind of love-letter that Enid understood, and enjoyed +receiving: full of ardent, if rather commonplace, expressions, and of +comparisons, very pleasant to her vanity, between her pretty self and the +stupid, ugly women he said he was now meeting. He had been with his +people in Cornwall—but for that he would of course have come down to see +how she was getting on. In this particular letter he announced that he +was going to be in London very soon, and might he run down for a day? He +had added a question, chaffingly worded, and yet, as she well knew, +seriously intended. Did she think it would be improper for him to come +and spend two or three days with her? And now she told herself, very +decidedly, that of course she couldn't have him here—in stupid, +old-fashioned Beechfield. It would be a tiresome, useless complication. +But why shouldn't she go up to London for three or four days and have a +good time with him there?</p> + +<p>Enid was well aware that absence frequently makes the heart grow fonder, +and that distance does lend enchantment to the view. But she would not +have put it in those exact words.</p> + +<p>At last she began walking towards the house, telling herself that she +felt oddly tired, and that it would be very pleasant, for once, to have a +solitary cup of tea. Her house-parlourmaid was shaping very nicely. Thus +the girl had evidently brought the lamps into the sitting-room, though +she had forgotten to draw the curtains.</p> + +<p>Enid knocked and rang. She had a theory that the possession of a latchkey +by their mistress makes servants slow to answer the door.</p> + +<p>"There's a person waiting for you in the drawing-room, ma'am. She says +she's come down on purpose from London to see you. She came just after +you went out first."</p> + +<p>There swept over Enid Crofton a strong, sudden premonition of evil. She +realised that for the last ten days she had been secretly dreading that +this would happen to her. She blamed herself sharply, now that it was too +late, for having done nothing further to help the Pipers; but she had +hoped the five pounds would have kept them quiet.</p> + +<p>"I'll go upstairs and take off my things," she said wearily. "Bring me a +cup of tea in my bedroom—I don't want anything to eat—and then I'll +come down and see this person." She forced herself to add, "I suppose +it's a Mrs. Piper?"</p> + +<p>The girl answered at once, "She didn't give her name, ma'am. She just +said that she wanted to see you, and that it was urgent. She's not got +very long; she wants to catch the six o'clock train from Telford. She +wouldn't believe at first that you wasn't in."</p> + +<p>Enid found some comfort in those words, and she made up her mind that she +would linger upstairs as long as she possibly could, so as to cut short +her coming interview with the tiresome young woman. After all there was +very little to say. She had behaved in a kind and generous manner to her +late husband's servant, and she had already said she would do her best to +help him again.</p> + +<p>When she got upstairs she lit the two high brass candlesticks on the +dressing-table, and then, after she had taken off her hat and long black +woollen coat, she sat down in her easy-chair by the wood fire. Soon there +came a familiar rap and a welcome cup of tea.</p> + +<p>She was sipping it, luxuriously, when there suddenly came a very +different kind of rap on the door. It was a sharp, insistent knock, +and before she could call out "Come in," the door opened, and a +singular-looking figure advanced into the luxurious-looking, +low-ceilinged bedroom.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me coming up like this, Modam. But I'm afraid of losing my +train."</p> + +<p>The speaker was small and stout, with a sallow face which might once have +held a certain gipsy-like charm, for, in the candlelight, the luminous +dark eyes were by far its most arresting feature. She wore a small, +old-fashioned-looking, red velvet bonnet perched on her elaborately +dressed hair.</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton looked at her odd-looking visitor with astonishment. Who on +earth could this be? Certainly not Piper's wife. A feeling of intense +relief came over her when the strange-looking woman came towards her +with a soft, gliding step, and handed her a card on which was written:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Madame Flora</p> + +<p>Ladies' wardrobes, gold teeth, and old jewellery purchased +at the highest prices known in the trade</p></div> + +<p>"I do 'ope you will excuse me coming up like this," she said again, and +her queer Cockney voice sounded quite pleasantly in Enid Crofton's ears. +"I've not got very long, and I've been 'ere since four o'clock."</p> + +<p>As she spoke she did not look at the pretty young lady sitting by the +fire. Her dark eyes were glancing furtively round the attractively +furnished bedroom, as if appraising everything that was there, from the +uncommon-looking high brass candlesticks on the dressing-table to the +pink silk covered eiderdown and drawn linen coverlid on the bed.</p> + +<p>Perhaps because she was so extraordinarily relieved, Enid Crofton spoke +to this somewhat impudent old-clothes woman very graciously.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry," she began, "but I've nothing in the least suitable for you, +Madame Flora. It's a pity you wasted your time waiting for me. There are +several other people in Beechfield with whom I expect you might have done +business." She smiled as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"I wish I'd thought of that, Modam." The woman spoke with a touch of +regret. "But your maids expected you might be back any minute, and I did +want to meet you, for Piper's that down on 'is luck, I sometimes don't +know what to do with 'im! Instead of wanting to employ ex-soldiers, as in +course they ought ter, people seem just to avoid them—"</p> + +<p>"Piper?" repeated Enid Crofton in a low, hesitating voice. "Then are you +Mrs. Piper?"</p> + +<p>Was it conceivable that this strange-looking old thing was Piper's wife?</p> + +<p>"I've been Mrs. Piper eighteen years," replied Madame Flora composedly, +"but I've always kep' on my business, Modam. It's not much of a business +now, worse luck! Ladies won't part with their clothes, not when they're +dropping off them. In old days, if Piper was down, I was up, so we was +all right. But we've both struck a streak of bad luck."</p> + +<p>For a few moments neither of them spoke. Mrs. Crofton was staring, +astonished, at her visitor, and through her shallow mind there ran the +new thought of how very, very little any of us know of other people's +lives. After her first shock of dismayed surprise to find that Piper was +married at all, she had imagined Piper's wife as something young and, of +course, in a way, attractive and easily managed.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever come down to my house in Essex?" she asked, still trying to +speak pleasantly.</p> + +<p>"No, Modam, I never was there. Piper and I 'as always kep' clear of each +other's jobs, and I wouldn't be interfering <i>now</i>, but that the matter's +becoming serious. Piper's worse than no good when 'e's idle." She +hesitated, then went on, "If 'e's to keep off 'is failing, 'e must be +working."</p> + +<p>There was a pause, and then Enid Crofton spoke, in a low, uncertain tone. +"Believe me, Mrs. Piper, when I say that I really will do all I can for +him. But it's not easy now to hear of good jobs, and Piper doesn't seem +easy to suit."</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't care to take my 'usband on again yourself, Modam?"</p> + +<p>Again there followed that curious pause which somehow filled Enid with a +vague fear.</p> + +<p>"I wish I could," she said at last, "but I can't afford it, Mrs. Piper. +As a matter of fact, I've done a foolish thing in coming here, to +Beechfield, at all. Only the other day one of my husband's relations +advised me to let the house."</p> + +<p>"Piper thinks, Modam, as how you might 'elp 'im to a job with Major +Radmore." The name tripped quickly off the speaker's tongue, as if she +was quite used to the sound.</p> + +<p>Enid felt a throb of dismay. Did the Pipers know Godfrey Radmore was +back?</p> + +<p>"We was wondering," said the woman, "if you would give us the major's +address?"</p> + +<p>Then they didn't know he was back—or did they?</p> + +<p>"I don't know it."</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton was one of those women—there are more than a truthful world +suspects—who actually find it easier to lie than to tell the truth. But +she saw the look of incredulity which flashed over the sallow face of her +unwelcome visitor.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Radmore," she went on hastily, "is taking a motor tour. But he'll be +back in London soon, and I'll let you know the moment I know he's settled +down."</p> + +<p>"I should 'ave thought," said the woman, "that the Major would 'ave 'ad a +club where Piper could 'ave written."</p> + +<p>"If he has, I don't know it."</p> + +<p>And then, all at once, Enid Crofton pulled herself together. After all +the interview was going quite smoothly. Nothing—well, disagreeable—had +been said.</p> + +<p>She got up from her chair. "I hope you'll forgive me, Mrs. Piper, for +saying that Piper will never keep any job if he behaves as he did with +these last people—I had a very disagreeable letter from the lady."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Piper, alias Madame Flora, grew darkly red.</p> + +<p>"Piper 'ad a shock this last July," she said, moving a little farther +into the room, and so nearer to Enid Crofton. "The thing's been +a-weighing on 'is mind for a long time. It's something 'e won't exactly +explain. But it's on 'is conscience. Only yesterday 'e says to me, 'e +says, 'If I'm drinking, my dear, it's to drown care; I ought to have +spoken up very differently to what I done at the poor Colonel's inquest."</p> + +<p>The terrible little woman again took a step or two forward, and then she +waited, as if she expected the lady to say something. But Enid, though +she opened her lips, found that she could not speak. Hardly knowing what +she was doing, she sat down again. And, after what seemed to the owner of +the attractive, candle-lit room an awful silence, Mrs. Piper went on, +speaking now in quite a different tone—easy, confidential, and with a +touch of wheedling good nature in it.</p> + +<p>"Thanks to your late gentleman, Piper knows all about dogs, and all +'e requires, Modam, to set 'im up as a dogfancier, so to speak, is a +moderate bit o' money. As 'e says 'imself, five hundred pound would do it +easy. If I may make so bold, that's what reely brought me 'ere, Mrs. +Crofton. It do seem to us both, that, under the circumstances, you might +feel disposed to find the money?"</p> + +<p>Enid looked down as she answered, falteringly: "I told Piper some time +ago that it was quite impossible for me to do anything of the kind."</p> + +<p>In her fear and distress she uttered the words more loudly than she was +aware, and the woman looked round at the closed door with an apprehensive +look: "Don't speak so loud. We don't want to tell everyone our business," +she said sharply.</p> + +<p>Now she came quite close up to her victim, for by now Enid Crofton knew +that she was in very truth this woman's victim.</p> + +<p>"You think it over," whispered Madame Flora. "We're not in a 'urry to a +day or two. And look here, Modam, I'll be open with you! If you'll do +that for Piper, it'll be in full discharge of anything you owe 'im—d'you +take my meaning?"</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton got up slowly from her chair almost as an automaton might +have done. She wanted to say that she did not in the least know what Mrs. +Piper <i>did</i> mean. But somehow her lips refused to form the words. She was +afraid even to shake her head.</p> + +<p>"I told you a fib just now"—Mrs. Piper's voice again dropped to a +whisper. "Piper's made a clean breast o' the matter to me, and I do think +as what it's common justice to admit that my 'usband's evidence at that +inquest was worth more than twenty-five pound to you. It wasn't what +Piper said; <i>it was what 'e didn't say that mattered</i>, Mrs. Crofton. It's +been on 'is mind awful—I'll take my Bible oath on that. But 'live and +let live,' that's my motter. We don't want to do anything unkind, but +we're in a fix ourselves—"</p> + +<p>"I haven't got five hundred pounds," said Enid Crofton desperately; +"that's God's truth, Mrs. Piper."</p> + +<p>To that assertion Madame Flora made no direct answer; she only observed, +in a quiet conversational tone, and speaking no longer in a whisper. "The +insurance gent told Piper as what 'e was not entirely satisfied, and 'e +said as 'e'd be pleased to see Piper any time if anything 'appened as +could throw further light on the Colonel's death. 'An extraordinary +occurrence'—that's what the insurance people's gentleman called it, Mrs. +Crofton—'an extraordinary occurrence.'"</p> + +<p>And then Enid was stung into saying a very unwise thing. "The Coroner did +not think it an extraordinary occurrence," she said quietly.</p> + +<p>"'E says sometimes as what 'e ought to give 'imself up and say what 'e +saw," went on Mrs. Piper with seeming irrelevance.</p> + +<p>There was another brief pause: "If you 'aven't got five hundred pounds, +Modam, I take it the insurance money has not yet been paid, for it was a +matter of two thousand pounds—or so Piper understood from that party +what came down to make enquiries."</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton looked at her torturer dumbly. She did not know what to +say—what to admit, and what to deny.</p> + +<p>"Think it over," said the terrible little woman. "We're not in a 'urry to +a day or two. We'll give you a fortnight to find the money."</p> + +<p>She put her hand, fat, yet claw-like, on Mrs. Crofton's shoulder. +"There's nothing to look so frightened about," she said a little gruffly. +"Piper and me aren't blackmailers. But we've got to look out for +ourselves, same as everybody else does. It's Piper's idea—that five +hundred pounds is. 'E says 'twould ease 'is conscience to carry on the +pore old Colonel's dog-breeding. As for me, I'd just as lief 'ave 'im in +a good job—what gentlefolk call 'a cushy job'—with a gentleman like +this Major Radmore seems to be. But there! Piper's just set on them nasty +dogs, and 'e's planned it all out."</p> + +<p>"Five hundred pounds is a great deal of money." Enid Crofton spoke in a +dull, preoccupied tone.</p> + +<p>"Not so much as it used to be, not by any manner of means," said +Mrs. Piper shrewdly. "Think it over, Mrs. Crofton—and let us know +what you <i>can</i> do. Perhaps it needn't be paid all in one; but best to +write to Piper next time. 'E says 'e'd like to feel you and 'im were +partners-like. I'll tell 'im I arranged for you to 'ave ten days to a +fortnight to think it over."</p> + +<p>"Thinking won't make money," said Enid in a low voice.</p> + +<p>"Such a beautiful young lady as yourself, Modam, can't find it difficult +to put 'er 'and on five hundred pounds," murmured Mrs. Piper, and as she +said the words there came a leering smile over her small, pursed-up +mouth.</p> + +<p>And then, turning, she glided across the candle-lit room, and noiselessly +opening the door, she slid through it.</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton sank farther back into her chintz-covered easy-chair. She +was trembling all over, and her hands were shaking. She had not felt so +frightened as she felt now, even during the terrible moments which had +preceded her being put in the witness-box at the inquest held on her +husband's body; and with a feeling of acute, unreasoning terror, she +asked herself how she could cope with this new, dreadful situation.</p> + +<p>What, for instance, did that allusion to the insurance company mean? She +had had the two thousand pounds, and she had spent about a quarter of it +paying bills of which her husband had known nothing. Then the settling +in at The Trellis House had cost a great deal more than she had expected. +Of course she had some left, but five hundred pounds would make a hideous +hole in her little store.</p> + +<p>What could the Pipers do to her? Could they do anything? The sinister +woman's repetition of Piper's curious remark, "'E says sometimes as what +'e ought to give 'imself up, and say what 'e saw," came back to her with +sickening vividness.</p> + +<p>She looked round her, timorously. The candles on her dressing-table gave +such a poor light. How stupid of a village like Beechfield not to have +electric light! She stood up and rang for a hot-water bottle. At any rate +she might as well try to get a little beauty sleep before dressing to go +to the Tosswills.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + + +<p>Although no definite suggestion or order had been issued by Janet +Tosswill, it was understood by everyone in Old Place that special honour +was to be paid to Mrs. Crofton this evening.</p> + +<p>Janet, when giving Betty a slight but vigorous sketch of the scene which +had taken place between herself and Jack, observed, "If she's <i>that</i> sort +of woman I think we ought to give her a proper dinner, don't you?" And +Betty heartily agreed.</p> + +<p>This was the reason why Betty herself, Tom, who acted as butler, and +Timmy, who was supposed to help generally both in the kitchen and in the +dining-room, did not sit down to table with the others.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Tosswill's sarcastic observation was so far justified in that Enid +Crofton did feel vaguely gratified to find herself treated to-night far +more as a guest of honour than she had been on the first occasion when +she had come to the house. The guest herself had done honour to the feast +by putting on the most becoming of her diaphanous black evening dresses, +and, as she sat to the right of her host, each of her three feminine +critics admitted to their secret selves that she was that rather rare +thing, a genuinely pretty woman. Features, colouring, hair, were all as +near perfection as they well could be, while her slight, rounded figure +was singularly graceful.</p> + +<p>How fortunate it is that we poor mortals cannot see into each other's +hearts and minds! Who, looking at Jack Tosswill's composed, secretive, +self-satisfied face, could have divined, even obscurely, his state of +mingled pride, ecstasy, and humble astonishment at his own good fortune? +To him the lovely young woman sitting next his father was as much his own +as though they had already been through the marriage ceremony, and he +felt awed and uplifted as well as triumphantly glad.</p> + +<p>As for Godfrey Radmore, he also was affected rather more than he would +have cared to admit even to himself by the presence of Enid Crofton this +evening.</p> + +<p>She had become to him something of a mystery, and there is always +something alluring in a mystery, especially if the mystery be young, and +endowed with that touch of pathos which makes feminine beauty always a +touch more attractive to the masculine heart. He was aware that she +preferred to see him alone, and this flattered him. While he was able +to assure himself confidently that he was in no sense in love with her, +his heart certainly beat a little quicker on the comparatively few +occasions when he went over into her garden, or, better still, into her +little sitting-room, and found her by herself. He also thought it very +good-natured, if a little tiresome, of her, to put up with so much of +the company of a prig like Jack, and of a selfish girl like Rosamund.</p> + +<p>To-night Radmore wondered, not for the first time, why Janet Tosswill did +not like Enid Crofton, for he felt, somehow, that there was no love lost +between them. He told himself that he must ask Betty to try to become +friends with her. Instinctively he relied on Betty's judgment, and that +though he saw very little of her, considering what very old friends he +and she were. And then, when he was thinking these secret, idle thoughts, +he became suddenly conscious that Betty was not among those sitting at +the full dining-table.</p> + +<p>When Tom came in, bearing a huge soup tureen, and looking, it must be +confessed, very red and embarrassed, Janet observed composedly that the +person on whom they had relied to help them to-night had failed them at +the last moment, and they had decided that it would be simpler for them +to wait on themselves.</p> + +<p>Radmore muttered to his neighbour, Rosamund, "Where's Betty?"</p> + +<p>"In the kitchen. She's the only one of us who knows how to cook. She +<i>loves</i> cooking. She'll come into the drawing-room later if she's not too +tired."</p> + +<p>Radmore felt indignant. It was too bad that Betty, whom he vividly +remembered as the petted darling of the house, should now have become—to +put it in a poetical way—the family Cinderella! But as the dinner went +on, and as the soup was succeeded by some excellent fish, as well as by +roast chicken, a particularly delicious blackberry fool, and a subtly +composed savoury, he began to wonder whether some good professional cook +had not been got in after all. He could hardly believe that Betty had +cooked and dished up this really excellent dinner.</p> + +<p>All through the meal Timmy flitted in and out, bringing round and +removing the plates, but it was Tom who did most of the waiting.</p> + +<p>At last Janet, catching Enid Crofton's eye, got up and delivered +as parting injunction, "Please don't stay too long behind us, +gentlemen—we're going to have coffee in the drawing-room."</p> + +<p>Jack Tosswill sprang to the door, and tried to catch Mrs. Crofton's eye +as she passed out first, but of course he failed, and as he came back to +the table, he observed: "I do hope Betty won't be too tired to come into +the drawing-room. Mrs. Crofton was saying the other day that she wished +she knew her better." He was in a softened mood, the kind of mood which +makes a man not only say, but think, pleasant things.</p> + +<p>And then Mr. Tosswill made one of his rare practical remarks. "I have +always thought that every woman ought to be taught cooking," he said +musingly. "We have certainly just had a very good dinner; I must remember +to tell Betty how much I enjoyed that savoury."</p> + +<p>"Did Betty cook it all?" asked Radmore.</p> + +<p>It was Jack who answered, "Yes, of course she did. Early in the War there +was a great shortage of cooks in some of the country hospitals, and so +Betty asked a friend of ours to allow her to spend a few weeks in her +kitchen. So now we have the benefit of all she learnt there."</p> + +<p>Five minutes later the three men stood at the open door of the +drawing-room, and at once Radmore saw that Betty was not there. That was +really too bad! What selfish girls her sisters were!</p> + +<p>Acting on an impulse he could not have analysed, he stepped back into the +corridor and walked quickly towards the green baize door which led to the +kitchen quarters. Just as he reached it, the door burst open, and Tom, +rushing through, almost knocked him over.</p> + +<p>"Hullo! Steady there! Where are you going?"</p> + +<p>"I'm so sorry, Godfrey, but I'm in the devil of a hurry, for I've got to +clear the dining-room. Once that's done, my work's over, and I can go +into the drawing-room." Tom was grinning good-humouredly. "I say, Mrs. +Crofton does look a peach to-night, doesn't she?"</p> + +<p>Even as he spoke, he was hooking the door back. Then he hurried into the +dining-room without waiting for an answer.</p> + +<p>Godfrey went on with rather hesitating steps down the broad, +stone-flagged passage. According to tradition, this part of Old Place was +mediæval, and it was certainly quite different from the rest of the +house. He felt a little awkward for he knew he had no business there, +and when he got to the big, vaulted kitchen, he stopped and looked round +him dubiously. The fire in the old-fashioned, wasteful range had been +allowed to die down, and on the round wooden table in the middle of the +room were heaped up the dinner plates and dishes.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he noticed that the door which led into the scullery was ajar, +and he heard Betty's clear, even voice saying: "When you've tidied +yourself up a bit, run down and let me see how you look. I'm afraid +they're not likely to play any games this evening. It's a real, proper +dinner-party, you know, Timmy."</p> + +<p>Then he heard his godson's eager voice. "Oh, Betty, do come too! Mrs. +Jones can do the washing-up to-morrow morning. If you want to dress I'll +hook you up."</p> + +<p>"I'm too tired to go up and dress," and Betty's voice did sound very +weary. There was a despondent note in it, too, which surprised the man +standing in the kitchen. Excepting during the few moments, to him +intensely moving and solemn moments, when they had spoken of George +within a day or two of his return to Beechfield, he had always seen Betty +extraordinarily cheerful.</p> + +<p>"You can go just as you are," he heard Timmy say eagerly. "You could +pretend you'd just been to a fancy ball as a cook!" He added, +patronizingly, "If you put on a clean apron, you'll look quite nice."</p> + +<p>Radmore did not catch the answer, but he gathered that it was again in +the negative, and a moment later Timmy's little feet scampered up the +uncarpeted flight of stairs which led into the upper part of the house.</p> + +<p>Walking forward, he quietly pushed open the scullery door, and for some +seconds he stood unseen, taking in the far from unattractive scene before +him.</p> + +<p>The scullery of Old Place was a glorified kind of scullery, for, just +before the War, Janet had spent a little of her own money on "doing it +up." Since then she had often congratulated herself on the fact that in +the days when the process was comparatively cheap, she had had the +scullery walls lined five feet up with black and white tiles matching the +linoleum which covered the stone floor.</p> + +<p>Against this background Betty Tosswill was now standing, a trim, neat +figure, in her pink cotton gown and big white apron. She was engaged in +washing, drying, and polishing the fine old table glass which had been +used that evening.</p> + +<p>It was such a relief to her to be alone at last! For one thing, though +Timmy and Tom both loved her dearly, their love never suggested to them +that it must be disagreeable to her to hear them constantly bickering +the one with the other, and they would have been surprised indeed had +they known how their teasing squabbles had added to the strain and +fatigue of serving the elaborate dinner she had just cooked.</p> + +<p>She felt spent, in body and in mind, and in the mood when a woman craves, +above all things, for solitude.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Betty, can't I do anything to help?"</p> + +<p>She started violently, and gave a little cry, while the stem of the +wine-glass she held in her hand snapped in two. But Radmore, to her +relief, did not notice the little accident.</p> + +<p>"There isn't anything to do, thank you." She tried to speak composedly +and pleasantly. "I'm going to leave most of the washing-up to the woman +who comes in every morning to help us."</p> + +<p>"Then why don't you come into the drawing-room now? I heard what Timmy +said—and it's quite true!"</p> + +<p>"What Timmy said just now?" She turned and looked at him, puzzled.</p> + +<p>Godfrey Radmore, in his well-cut dress clothes and the small, but +perfect, pearl studs in the shirt of which she had heard Jack openly envy +the make and cut, seemed an incongruous figure in the Old Place scullery.</p> + +<p>He blundered on. "Timmy said that you look as if you had been at a fancy +dress ball as a cook. He ought to have said 'cordon bleu,' for I've never +eaten a better dinner!"</p> + +<p>And then to his aghast surprise, Betty sat down on one of the wooden +chairs near the table where she had been standing and burst into tears. +"I don't want to be a 'cordon bleu,'" she sobbed. "I <i>hate</i> cooking—and +everything connected with cooking." Then, feeling ashamed of herself, she +pulled a clean handkerchief out of her apron pocket, and dabbed her eyes. +"I'm just tired out, that's what it is!" she exclaimed, trying to smile. +"We had a worrying half-hour, thinking the fish was not going to arrive. +You see, Janet dislikes poor Mrs. Crofton so much that she suddenly made +up her mind that it was her duty to kill the fatted calf, and in such a +case I have to do the killing!"</p> + +<p>"It's such a waste for you to be doing the things you are doing now." He +spoke with a touch of anger in his voice. "Why, you and I hardly ever see +one another! After all, even if you've forgotten the old times, <i>I</i> often +remember them—I mean the times when you and I and George were so much +together and such good pals. I love every brick of Old Place because of +those days." He was speaking with deep feeling now. "Sometimes I feel as +if I should like to run away—it's all so different here from what it +used to be."</p> + +<p>He saw a kind, moved, understanding look come over her eyes, and firm, +generous mouth, and quickly, man-like, he pressed his advantage.</p> + +<p>"Look here," he said coaxingly, "don't you think we might hit on some +kind of compromise? Won't you allow me just to get some sort of temporary +housekeeper who can look after things while poor Nanna is laid up?"</p> + +<p>She shook her head. "I don't think any of us would like that," she said. +"But I daresay I have become too much of a Martha."</p> + +<p>She got up, feeling painfully afraid that she was going to cry again. +"I don't see why I shouldn't do as Timmy said—change my apron, I mean, +and go into the drawing-room. For one thing, I should like to see Mrs. +Crofton's dress. Tom says she looks a regular peach! That's his highest +form of praise, you know."</p> + +<p>Radmore suddenly resolved to say something which had been on his mind of +late. "Don't you think that Jack's making rather a fool of himself over +that pretty little lady?"</p> + +<p>Betty looked across at him with the frank, direct gaze that he remembered +so well. "I'm afraid he is," she answered. "He and Janet had quite a row +about her this morning. He seemed to think we had been rude to her; he +was most awfully huffy about it. But I suppose saying anything only makes +things worse in such a case, doesn't it?"</p> + +<p>"I don't see why I shouldn't speak to <i>her</i>. She and I know each other +pretty well. She was a desperate little flirt when I first knew her in +Egypt." And then, as he saw a look cross her face to which he had no +clue, he added hastily:—"She's quite all right, Betty. She's quite a +straight little woman."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure she is," said Betty cordially.</p> + +<p>She was wondering, wondering, wondering what Godfrey really thought of +Enid Crofton? Whether or no there had been a touch of jealousy in what he +had said about Jack just now? He had said the words about Jack's making a +fool of himself very lightly. Still there had been a peculiar expression +on his face.</p> + +<p>During the last fortnight, while doing the hundred and one things which +fell to her share, Betty had given the subject of Enid Crofton and +Godfrey Radmore a good deal of thought, while telling herself all the +time that, after all, it was none of her business—now.</p> + +<p>All at once she became aware that Radmore was looking hard at her. "Look +here," he exclaimed, coming up close to where she was again engaged in +drying and polishing the heavy old crystal goblets. "I want to ask you +a favour, Betty. It's absurd that I should be here, with far more money +than I know what to do with, while the only people in the world I care +for, are all worried, anxious, and overworking themselves. Janet says +it's impossible to get a cook. What I want to do if you'll let me—" he +looked at her pleadingly, and Betty's heart began to beat: thus was he +wont to look at her in the old days, when he wanted to wheedle something +out of her.</p> + +<p>"What I want to do," he went on eagerly, "is to go up to London to-morrow +morning and bring back a cook in triumph! Life has taught me <i>one</i> +thing,—that is that money can procure anything." As she remained silent, +he added in a tone of relief, "There, that's settled! You go up to bed +now. I'll be off early in the morning, and we'll have a cook back by +lunch-time."</p> + +<p>"Indeed you won't!" She faced him squarely. "I know you mean very kindly, +Godfrey—I know exactly how you feel. I've often felt like that myself; +you feel that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Sympathy without relief<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is like mustard without beef.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"That's the organ-grinder's motto, and a very good motto, too. But we're +the exception which proves the rule. We're grateful for your sympathy, +but we don't want your relief."</p> + +<p>As he gazed at her, both dismayed and very exasperated, she went on, +speaking a little wildly:—"Mustard's a very good thing. I think I needed +a little mustard just now to binge me up!"</p> + +<p>"But that's perfectly absurd!" he exclaimed. "Why not have the beef as +well as the mustard? And look here. I don't think it's fair to me." He +stood, looking straight at her, his face aglow with feeling. And again +it was as if the old Godfrey of long ago, the Godfrey that had been +impetuous, hot-tempered, unreasonable, and yet so infinitely dear to her, +who stood there, so near to her that had she moved, he must have touched +her. She sat down, and unseen by him, she put her two hands on the edge +of the well-scrubbed table, and pressed her fingers down tightly. Then +she smiled up at him, and shook her head.</p> + +<p>"You're treating me like a stranger," he protested doggedly; "however +badly I've behaved, I've not deserved that."</p> + +<p>He was looking down at her hair, the lovely fair hair which had always +been her greatest beauty—the one beauty she now shared with Rosamund. He +wondered if it would ever grow long again. And yet now he told himself +that he did not want to see her different from what she had become.</p> + +<p>"Treating you like a stranger? You're the first visitor we've had to stay +at Old Place since the Armistice."</p> + +<p>As he said nothing, she went on, a little breathlessly, "D'you remember +what a lot of people used to come and go in the old days? That was one of +the nice things about Janet. She loved to entertain our friends, even +our acquaintances. But now we never have anybody. It shows how we feel +about you that we are having you here, like this. But we can only do it +if you'll take us as we are."</p> + +<p>"Of course I take you as you are," he said aggrieved, "but I don't see +why I shouldn't do my little bit, when it's so easy for me to do it. +People talk such rot about money! They'll take anything in the world but +money from those who—" he hesitated, and then boldly brought out the +word—"love them."</p> + +<p>"And yet," said Betty quietly, "you yourself contemptuously rejected the +money that father wanted to give you when he could well afford it—the +day you left Beechfield nine years ago."</p> + +<p>He hesitated, unutterably astonished, and yes, very much moved, too, at +this, her first reference to their joint past.</p> + +<p>"I know I did," he said at last, "and I was a fool to do it. That cheque +of Mr. Tosswill's would have made all the difference to me during certain +awful weeks in Australia when I didn't know where to turn for a shilling. +I've been right up against it—the reality of things, I mean—and I know +both how much and how little money counts in life. It counts a lot, +Betty."</p> + +<p>"I've been up against the reality of things, too," said Betty slowly, +"and I've learnt how very little money counts. You'd have known that, if +you'd been with the French Army. That was the difference between the +French and the English. The French <i>poilu</i> had no money at all, and the +English Tommy had plenty. But it made no difference in the big things."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + + +<p>Meanwhile Timmy, upstairs, had performed what was for him quite an +elaborate toilet. He possessed a new Eton suit of which he was secretly +proud, for in this as in so many things unlike most little boys, he took +great care of his clothes, and had an almost finicking dislike to what +was rough or untidy. His two younger sisters' untidiness was a perpetual +annoyance to him, and he still felt sore and angry at the way Rosamund +had upset his toy-box when looking for that old prescription.</p> + +<p>To-night he felt queerly excited and above himself. After-dinner coffee +had been made in a way Betty had learnt in France, and she had foolishly +allowed him to drink a cup of the strong, potent, delicious fluid. This +had had a curious effect on him, intensifying his already acute +perceptions, and making him feel both brave and bold as well as +wary—wary Timmy Tosswill always was.</p> + +<p>And now he was eagerly debating within himself whether he could carry +out an experiment he had an eager wish to try. It had filled his mind, +subconsciously, ever since he had slipped quickly in front of his brother +Jack to open the front door to Mrs. Crofton, a couple of hours ago.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Crofton was very much of a town lady, and she had actually been +accompanied, during her short progress through the dark village, by her +parlourmaid. When Timmy opened the front door, she had been engaged in +giving the girl a few last directions as to how a lighted candle was to +be left out for her in her hall, for she had brought her latchkey with +her. After ringing the bell, the lady and her maid had moved away from +the door a little way, and Timmy, staring out at the two figures, who +stood illumined by the hall light out on the gravel carriage drive, had +seen Something Else.</p> + +<p>He did not invariably see Mrs. Crofton accompanied or companioned by that +of which he had spoken to his mother. Sometimes days would go by and he +would see nothing, though he was a constant, if never a welcome, visitor +at The Trellis House.</p> + +<p>Then all at once, sometimes when she was in the garden, at other times +in the charming little parlour, Timmy would see the wraith of Colonel +Crofton, and the wraith of Colonel Crofton's terrier, Dandy, looking as +real as the flesh-and-blood woman beside whom they seemed to stand. +Sometimes they appeared, as it were, intermittently, but now and again +they would stay quite a long time.</p> + +<p>As long as he could remember, Timmy had been aware of what Nanna +expressed by the phrase "things that were not there," and he was so +accustomed to the phenomena that it did not impress his own mind as +anything very much out of the way, or strange.</p> + +<p>Dr. O'Farrell had always shown a keen interest in Timmy's alleged visions +and presentiments. Like so many country doctors of the old school, he +was a man not only of great natural shrewdness, but of considerable +intellectual curiosity, and, from his point of view, by far the most +inexplicable of the little boy's assertions had concerned a long vanished +building which had stood, for something like three centuries, close to +the parish church, right on the main street of the village.</p> + +<p>One Easter Sunday, Timmy, coming out of church, had excitedly exclaimed +that he saw to his right a house where no house had been up to yesterday. +His sisters had laughed at him and his mother had snubbed him. But when +Janet had told Dr. O'Farrell of her little boy's latest and most peculiar +claim to having seen something which was not there, the doctor had gone +home and looked up an old county history, to find that up to Waterloo +year there had still been standing in the pretty little hamlet of +Beechfield, a small Elizabethan manor-house which had figured in the +Titus Oates conspiracy.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>But to return to the evening of Mrs. Crofton's second visit to Old Place.</p> + +<p>Timmy had given his mother his word of honour that Flick should not be +released from the stable till their visitor had left. But no casuist +ever realised more clearly than did Timothy Tosswill, the delicate +distinctions which spread, web-like, between the spirit, and the letter, +of a law. And while he moved nimbly about his bedroom, the plan, or +rather the plot he had formed, took formal shape.</p> + +<p>Josephine, Timmy's white Angora cat, was now established in a comfortable +basket in a corner of the scullery. There she lay, looking like a ball of +ermine, with her two ten-days old kittens snuggling up close to her. +Josephine was a nervous, fussy mother, but she was devoted to her master, +and he could do with her anything he liked.</p> + +<p>Very softly he crept past Nanna's door, and as he started walking down +the back staircase, he heard voices.</p> + +<p>Then Betty and Godfrey were still in the scullery? That was certainly a +bit of bad luck, for though he thought he could manage his godfather, he +knew he couldn't deceive Betty. Betty somehow seemed to know by instinct +when he, Timmy, was bent on some pleasant little bit of mischief.</p> + +<p>He need not have been afraid, for as he slowly opened the door at the +bottom of the stairs, Betty exclaimed, "I'm going into the drawing-room +after all! But first I must run upstairs and make myself tidy. You two go +on, and I'll follow as soon as I can."</p> + +<p>She ran past Timmy, and at once the boy said firmly to Radmore, "I'm +going to take my cat, Josephine, into the drawing-room. Ladies who hate +dogs nearly always like cats."</p> + +<p>"I don't think Mrs. Crofton cares for cats," answered Radmore carelessly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, she does—and the other day she said The Trellis House was +overrun with mice. Betty thinks it would be a very good home for one of +Josephine's new kittens."</p> + +<p>Even while he was speaking, the big white cat had left her basket and was +walking round her master, purring. He stooped down and lifted her up.</p> + +<p>"If Mrs. Crofton sees Josephine, she will simply long to have one of her +kittens! Will you bring along the white one, Godfrey—the one we call +Puff? We do so want to find him a good home."</p> + +<p>Radmore walked across to where the big basket stood on the floor, and +peered into it dubiously: "Why, Timmy, they're tiny! Poor little +wretches! I wouldn't dream of bringing one of them along—it would be +sheer cruelty. Of course you can bring the cat if you feel like it, but +I shouldn't if I were you."</p> + +<p>"I'll only take her in for a minute."</p> + +<p>Timmy felt just a little sorry Radmore had refused to bring Puff along, +for he was well aware that a cat is never so fierce as when she imagines +she is defending her young.</p> + +<p>They went off together, Radmore in front, Timmy, hugging Josephine, +behind. Just outside the drawing-room door the boy stopped for a moment, +and shifted the cat's weight from one arm to the other. There had come +over him a rather uncomfortable premonition of evil, but he now felt +strung up to go through with his experiment.</p> + +<p>From within the drawing-room there came the sound of laughter and +talking. It was evident that the party was going well, and that everyone +in there was merry and at their ease.</p> + +<p>"Would you mind opening the door, Godfrey?" There was a slight quiver of +apprehension in Timmy's voice.</p> + +<p>Radmore opened the door, and for a fleeting moment he saw an attractive, +placid scene spread out before him.</p> + +<p>The two girls, in their pretty light dresses, were standing by the wood +fire. On the sofa, to their left, with the light from one of the lamps +focussed full on her, sat Mrs. Crofton, her bare left arm hanging over +the side of the low couch. Jack, perched on the arm of a big chair, was +looking at her, all his soul in his eyes. Mr. Tosswill sat some way off +under a shaded reading lamp; his wife, knitting, not far from him. Tom +was surreptitiously reading a book in a corner behind the sofa.</p> + +<p>And then, all at once, Radmore found himself whirled into an unutterable +scene of confusion and terror.</p> + +<p>As Timmy walked through the open door Josephine had leapt out of his arms +on to the floor. For a flashing second the cat stood on the carpet, her +white fur all abristle, her back arched, and her tail lashing furiously +in the air. Then, uttering a hoarse cry of rage and fear, she sprang +towards Mrs. Crofton, and dug first her claws, and then her teeth, into +the white arm that hung over the side of the couch.... Josephine's +terrified victim gave a fearful cry, everyone in the room got up and +rushed forward, and at that exact instant Betty came into the +drawing-room. Sweeping a piece of embroidery off the piano, she threw it +over the cat's head, took up the now struggling, helpless bundle, and +rushed out of the room with it.</p> + +<p>Then followed a scene of appalling confusion. Enid, completely losing +control of herself, screamed and screamed and screamed.</p> + +<p>Few people, fortunately for themselves, have ever heard a woman scream, +and some of those present felt they would never forget the sound. In +the minds of most of the grown-up people there was the same unspoken +question—had the cat suddenly gone mad? Had she got hydrophobia?</p> + +<p>They all crowded round their unfortunate guest—all but Timmy, who stood +aside with a look in which remorse, fear, and triumph struggled for +mastery on his queer little face.</p> + +<p>And then at last, when Mrs. Crofton lay back, moaning, on the sofa, +surrounded by her distracted and horrified hosts, somebody suggested that +Dr. O'Farrell should be sent for, and Jack rushed into the hall to find +Betty already at the telephone.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Janet Tosswill was doing her best to persuade the victim of +Josephine's savage aggression to come upstairs and await the doctor +there; but, shudderingly, Enid Crofton refused to stir.</p> + +<p>A slight diversion was created when Betty came in with a basin of warm +water, soap, and a sponge. Again everyone crowded round the sofa, and +Jack and Radmore both felt alarm, as well as horror, when they saw the +wounds made by the cat's claws and the cat's teeth.</p> + +<p>While her arm was being bathed, Mrs. Crofton grew so pale that Janet +feared she was going to faint, and Rosamund was sent flying up to the +medicine cupboard to get some brandy.</p> + +<p>Dr. O'Farrell was at home when telephoned for, but the quarter of an hour +which elapsed before he reached Old Place seemed very long to some of the +people waiting there. The doctor came in smiling, but his face altered +and grew very grave when he saw Mrs. Crofton's arm, and heard the +confused, excited account of what had happened.</p> + +<p>To the patient he made light of the whole matter, but while someone was +putting on Mrs. Crofton's overshoes and while her evening cloak was being +brought in he moved a little aside with Jack, Mr. Tosswill, and Radmore. +None of them noticed that Timmy was hovering on the outskirts of the +group.</p> + +<p>"I want to say," he began in a low voice, "that of course that cat will +have to be kept under observation, or else she'll have to be destroyed +and her body sent up to town to make sure of—you know what! Meanwhile, +no one must go near her. Where is she now?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Tosswill looked vaguely round. "I think Betty took her into the +kitchen," he said slowly, and then he called out, "Betty?"</p> + +<p>The girl came up. "Yes, father?"</p> + +<p>"What did you do with Timmy's cat?"</p> + +<p>"I put her back in the scullery, with her kittens. They only opened their +eyes yesterday. Of course Timmy ought never to have brought her into the +drawing-room."</p> + +<p>Dr. O'Farrell looked much relieved. He turned round: "Oh, she's just had +kittens, has she? That probably accounts for the whole thing."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Crofton roused herself. "I do hope that horrible cat will be killed +at once," she cried hysterically. "I can't stay in Beechfield if she's +left alive."</p> + +<p>Dr. O'Farrell answered soothingly, "Don't you fret, Mrs. Crofton. She's a +vicious brute, and shot she shall be."</p> + +<p>No one noticed that Timmy had heard every word of this conversation; no +one noticed the expression on his face.</p> + +<p>It had been arranged that the doctor should take Mrs. Crofton home in his +car, and that only when she was comfortably in bed should those ugly +little wounds be properly dressed.</p> + +<p>As the doctor was hurrying down the passage into the hall, he was +surprised to see Timmy at his elbow and to hear the boy's voice pipe up: +"If my cat's not mad, she won't have to be killed, doctor, will she?" He +asked the question in a quiet, matter-of-fact tone.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my little friend, mad or not mad, she's deserved death—and no one +must go near her till the fell deed is done!" And then, as he suddenly +caught sight of Timmy's strained, agonised face, he added kindly: "She'll +be in the cats' heaven before she knows she's touched. I'll come down in +the morning and I'll shoot her through the window myself—I'm a dead +shot, Timmy, my boy."</p> + +<p>As Janet came along, Timmy burst out crying, and his mother, distracted, +turned to Radmore. "Oh, Godfrey, do get him away upstairs! He's tired +out, that's what it is. Unfortunately the cat belongs to him, and he's +very fond of her—he's almost as fond of Josephine as he is of Flick."</p> + +<p>Radmore put his hand on his godson's shoulder. "Come, Timmy, don't cry. +It's unmanly."</p> + +<p>But Timmy, instead of making an effort to control himself, wrenched +himself away and ran down the long corridor towards the kitchen. Even as +a tiny child he had hated to be caught crying.</p> + +<p>There followed an absurd scene at the front door, Jack and Rosamund +almost quarrelling as to which of them should accompany Mrs. Crofton +home. In the end they had both gone, and Janet, ordering everyone else +to bed, sat up, wearily awaiting their return, for neither of them had +thought of taking a latchkey.</p> + +<p>Poor Janet! Her thoughts were sad and worried thoughts, as she waited, +trying to read, in the drawing-room. At the very last, Betty had lingered +for a moment after the others, and she had noticed that the girl's eyes +were full of tears.</p> + +<p>"Why, Betty, what's the matter? I don't think we need really worry over +Mrs. Crofton."</p> + +<p>"I'm not thinking of Mrs. Crofton. I can't bear the thought of poor +Josephine being shot to-morrow morning."</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear, don't <i>you</i> turn sentimental! I never did like that poor +cat; to me there's always been something queer and uncanny about her."</p> + +<p>"You've never liked cats," Betty answered, rather aggressively. "Timmy +and I are devoted to Josephine—so is Nanna."</p> + +<p>Janet had checked the contemptuous words trembling on her lips. Abruptly +she had changed the subject: "I want to tell you, Betty, how splendidly +the dinner went off to-night. Your cooking was first chop!"</p> + +<p>Betty at once softened. But all she said was: "I would give anything for +Mrs. Crofton to leave Beechfield, Janet. Did you see Jack's face?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I do feel worried about it. Yet one can't do anything."</p> + +<p>"I suppose one can't. But it's too bad of her. I think her a horrid +woman. Jack is just a scalp to her. I don't mind her flirtation with +Godfrey—that's much more reasonable!"</p> + +<p>Then she had hurried off upstairs without waiting for an answer, and her +step-mother, looking back, rather wondered that Betty had said that.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + + +<p>Two hours later Janet Tosswill, after having tried in vain to read +herself to sleep, got out of bed and put on her dressing gown. Somehow +she felt anxious about Timmy. She had gone to his room on her way up +to bed; but, hearing no sound, she had crept away, hoping that he had +already cried himself to sleep.</p> + +<p>All sorts of curious theories and suspicions drifted through her mind as +she lay, tossing this way and that, trying to fall asleep. She wondered +uneasily why Timmy had brought Josephine at all into the drawing-room. +Of course there had been nothing exactly wrong in his doing so, though, +as Betty had justly remarked, it was a stupid thing to do so soon after +the birth of the cat's kittens. And Timmy was not stupid.</p> + +<p>Janet told herself crossly that it was almost as if Mrs. Crofton had the +evil eye, as far as animals were concerned! There had come back to her +the unpleasant scene which had occurred on the first evening their late +guest had come to Old Place, when Flick, most cheerful and happy-minded +of terriers, had behaved in such an extraordinary fashion. But +disagreeable as that affair had been, it was nothing to what had happened +to-night.</p> + +<p>She felt she would never forget the scene which had followed on the white +cat's attack on Mrs. Crofton. And yet, while concerned and sorry, she had +been shocked at the poor young woman's utter lack of self-control.</p> + +<p>It was quite true, as Betty had somewhat bitterly remarked, that she, +Janet Tosswill, did not care for cats. Unfortunately there was a certain +sentimental interest attached to Josephine, for she had been brought from +France as a kitten, a present from Betty to Timmy, by an officer who had +been George's closest pal. She was also ruefully aware that old Nanna +would very much resent the disappearance of "French pussy," as she had +always called Josephine. As for Timmy, Janet had never seen her boy look +as he had looked to-night since the dreadful day that they had received +the War Office telegram about George.</p> + +<p>Leaving her room, she walked along the corridor till she came to Timmy's +door. She tried the handle, and, finding with relief that the door was +unlocked, walked in. At once there came a voice across the room, "Is that +you, Mum?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Timmy, it's Mum."</p> + +<p>Shutting the door, she felt her way across the room and came and sat down +on Timmy's bed. He was sitting up, wide awake.</p> + +<p>She put her arms round him. "I'm so sorry," she said feelingly; "so +sorry, Timmy, about your poor cat! But you know, my dear, that if—if she +were left alive, we could never feel comfortable for a single moment. You +see, when an animal has done that sort of thing once, it may do it +again."</p> + +<p>"Josephine would never do it again," said Timmy obstinately, and he +caught his breath with a sob.</p> + +<p>"You can't possibly know that, my dear. She would of course have other +kittens, and then some day, when some perfectly harmless person happened +to come anywhere near her, she would fly at him or her, just as she did +at Mrs. Crofton."</p> + +<p>"No, she wouldn't—she didn't do anything like that when she had her last +kittens."</p> + +<p>"I know that, Timmy. But you heard what Dr. O'Farrell said."</p> + +<p>"Dr. O'Farrell isn't God," said Timmy scornfully.</p> + +<p>"No, my dear, Dr. O'Farrell is certainly not God; but he is a very +sensible, humane human being—and the last man to condemn even an animal +to death, without good reason."</p> + +<p>There was a rather painful pause. Janet Tosswill felt as if the child +were withdrawing himself from her, both in a physical and in a mental +sense.</p> + +<p>"Mum?" he said in a low, heart-broken voice.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear?"</p> + +<p>"I want to tell you something."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Timmy?"</p> + +<p>"It's I who ought to be shot, not Josephine. It was all my fault. It had +nothing to do with her."</p> + +<p>"I don't know what you mean, Timmy. You mustn't talk in that exaggerated +way. Of course it was foolish of you to bring the cat into the +drawing-room, but still, you couldn't possibly have known that she would +fly at Mrs. Crofton, or you wouldn't have done it."</p> + +<p>"I <i>did</i> think she'd fly at Mrs. Crofton," he whispered.</p> + +<p>Janet felt disagreeably startled. "What d'you mean, Timmy? D'you mean +that you saw the cat fly at her before it happened?"</p> + +<p>She had known the boy to have such strange, vivid premonitions of events +which had come to pass.</p> + +<p>But Timmy answered slowly: "No, I don't mean that. I mean, Mum, that I +wanted to try an experiment. I wanted to see if Josephine would see what +Flick saw—I mean if she'd see the ghost of Colonel Crofton's dog. She +did, for the dog was close to Mrs. Crofton's arm—the arm hanging over +the side of the sofa, you know."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Timmy! How very, very wrong of you to do such a thing!"</p> + +<p>"I know it was wrong." Timmy twisted himself about. "But it's no good you +saying that to me now—it only makes me more miserable."</p> + +<p>"But I <i>have</i> to say so, my boy." Janet was not a Scotch mother for +nothing. "I have to say so, Timmy, and I shall not be sorry this +happened, if it makes you behave in a different way—as I hope it +will—the whole of your life long."</p> + +<p>"It won't—I won't let it—if anything is done to Josephine!"</p> + +<p>But she went on, a little desperately, yet speaking in a quiet, collected +way: "I believe the things you say, Timmy. I believe you do see things +which other people are not allowed to see. But that ought to make you +far, far more careful—not less careful. Try to be an instrument for +good, not for evil, my dear, dear child."</p> + +<p>Timmy did not answer at once, but at last he said in a queer, muffled +voice: "If I were to tell Dr. O'Farrell what I did, do you think it would +make any difference? Do you think that he'd let Josephine go on being +alive?"</p> + +<p>"No," his mother answered, sadly, "I don't think it would make any +difference."</p> + +<p>"I thought by what the doctor said at first that they were going to take +Josephine somewhere to see if she was really mad," said Timmy in a +choking voice, "just as they did to Captain Berner's dog last year."</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill got up from her little boy's bed. She lit a candle. Poor +Timmy! She had never seen the boy looking as he was looking now; he +seemed utterly spent with misery.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what I'll do, my dear. I'll speak to Dr. O'Farrell myself +in the morning, and I'll ask him whether something can't be done in the +way of a reprieve. I'll tell him we don't mind paying for Josephine to be +sent away for a bit to a vet."</p> + +<p>Hope, ecstatic hope, flashed into Timmy's tear-stained face. "You mean to +a man like Trotman?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's what I do mean. But I mustn't raise false hopes. I fear Dr. +O'Farrell has made up his mind; he promised Mrs. Crofton the cat should +be shot. Still, I'll do my <i>very</i> best."</p> + +<p>Timmy put his skinny arms round his mother's neck.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad you're my mother, Mum," he muttered, "and not my step-mother."</p> + +<p>She smiled for the first time. "That's rather a double-edged compliment, +if I may say so! But I suppose it's true that I would do a good deal more +for you than I would for any of the others."</p> + +<p>"I didn't mean <i>that</i>," exclaimed Timmy, shocked. "I only meant that I +wouldn't love you as well. I don't mean ever to be a step-father—I shall +start a lot of boys and girls of my own."</p> + +<p>"All right," she said soothingly, "I'm sure you will. Lie down now, and +try to go to sleep." She hoped with all her heart that the boy would +sleep late the next morning, as he very often did when tired out, and +that the execution, if execution there must be, would be over by the time +he woke.</p> + +<p>She bent down, tucked him up, kissed him, blew out the candle, and then +went quickly out of the room.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>As soon as his mother had shut the door, Timmy sat up in bed, and then +he gave a smothered cry. It was as if he had seen flash out into the +darkness his beloved cat's wistful face, her beautiful, big, china-blue +eyes, gazing confidently at him, as if to say, "You'll save me, Master, +won't you?"</p> + +<p>He listened intently for a few minutes, then he slipped down and felt his +way to the door. He opened it; but there came no sound from the sleeping +house. Closing the door very, very softly, he lit his candle and rapidly +dressed himself in his day clothes, finally putting on a thick pair of +walking shoes, and over them goloshes. Timmy hated goloshes, and never +wore them if he could help it, but he had read in some detective story +that they deadened sound.</p> + +<p>Then he blew his candle out, and again he went across to the door and +listened. Opening it at last, he slithered along the familiar corridor +till he reached the three shallow steps which led up to the comparatively +new part of Old Place. There he felt his way with his fingers along the +wall to the room which had always been called, as long as he could +remember, "George's room." Turning the handle of the door slowly, he saw, +to his great surprise and gladness, that his godfather was not asleep.</p> + +<p>Radmore was sitting up in bed, reading luxuriously by the light of four +candles which he had placed on a table by his bedside.</p> + +<p>"Hello!" he exclaimed, as his godson's odd-looking little figure shuffled +across the room. "Why, what's the matter?" He spoke very kindly, for +Timmy's face was scared, his eyes red-rimmed with crying.</p> + +<p>"Come to have a chat, old boy? Why, Timmy—" as he suddenly realised the +boy was fully dressed, "whatever have you been doing? I thought you'd +gone to bed ever so long ago!"</p> + +<p>"I've been in bed a long time," answered Timmy, sidling up close to his +bed, "but I've just had a talk with Mum. I've come to ask you, Godfrey, +if you'll help me with something very important." He added: "Even if +you won't help me, I trust you to keep my secret."</p> + +<p>"Of course I'll keep your secret, old son."</p> + +<p>"I'm going to take Josephine and her kittens to Trotman," Timmy announced +solemnly. "I've been wondering, coming along the passage, if you would +take us there in your motor. But if you don't feel you want to do that, +I'm going to walk. It's not very far, only seven miles if one goes by +footpaths, and I could get a lift back."</p> + +<p>"Trotman?" repeated Radmore. "Who's Trotman?"</p> + +<p>It was Timmy's turn to be surprised. "I thought everyone—I mean every +man—in the world, knew about Trotman! Why, there was an account of him +once in the <i>London Magazine</i>. He's the famous vet—he lives at Epsom."</p> + +<p>Radmore lay back, and whistled thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>Timmy went on eagerly. "Last year there was a man near here who thought +he had a mad dog—and he took <i>him</i> to Trotman. Trotman kept him for ever +so long, and it turned out that the dog was not mad at all. I <i>know</i> that +Josephine isn't mad."</p> + +<p>"I don't think she's mad," said Radmore frankly, "but she's a pretty +vicious brute, Timmy. Is this the first time she's ever flown at anyone?" +He looked searchingly at his godson.</p> + +<p>"The very first time of all," answered the boy passionately. "I know why +Josephine flew at Mrs. Crofton—at least she didn't fly at her—at Mrs. +Crofton. She flew at the dog Mrs. Crofton always has with her."</p> + +<p>Radmore gave the child a long, steady look.</p> + +<p>"Come, Timmy, you know as well as I do that Mrs. Crofton had no dog with +her."</p> + +<p>"She had a dog with her," repeated Timmy obstinately. "It's not a dog +<i>you</i> can see, but I see him and Flick sees him. I wanted to see if +Josephine would see him too. That's why I took her in there. So if she's +shot it will be all my fault." His voice broke, and, covering his face +with his hands, he turned his back on the bed and its occupant.</p> + +<p>Radmore stared at the small heaving back. There could be no doubt that +Timmy was speaking the truth <i>now</i>. "All right," he said quickly. "I'll +do what you want, Timmy. So cheer up! I suppose you've got a big basket +in which you can put your cat and her kittens? While I put on some +clothes, you can go and get her ready. But I advise you for your own sake +to be quiet. Our game will be all up, if your mother wakes. I simply +shouldn't dare to disobey <i>her</i>, you know." He smiled quizzically at the +child, and, as he mentioned Janet, he lowered his voice instinctively.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + + +<p>However long Radmore lives, he will never forget that strange drive +through the autumn night. Fortunately, from the two conspirators' point +of view, there were only old-fashioned stables at Old Place, and +Radmore's car was kept in the village in a barn which had been cleverly +transformed by the blacksmith into a rough garage.</p> + +<p>While he dressed, and, indeed, after he joined the boy downstairs, he had +puzzled over Timmy—over the mixture of cruelty and kindness the child +had shown that evening. He could not but recall, with a feeling of +discomfort, the simple, innocent way in which the boy had explained why +he wanted to take his cat, Josephine, into the drawing-room—really +to do a kindness to the mistress of The Trellis House! It was somewhat +disagreeable to reflect how he, Radmore, who rather prided himself on +his knowledge of human nature, had been taken in.</p> + +<p>Off the two started at last, creeping out of one of the back doors. But +in his agitation over the business of getting the cat and her kittens +safely out of Old Place, Timmy had forgotten to put on a coat. They +were halfway down the avenue before Radmore noticed that the boy was +shivering, and then, mindful of Janet, he ordered him to go back and get +the warmest coat he could.</p> + +<p>And then, while he waited impatiently in the avenue, Radmore visualised +the extraordinary scene which had taken place in the drawing-room last +evening. Had the cat really seen anything of a supernatural nature? Or +was it only that she had been frightened by being suddenly brought into +a room full of people? If so, it was perhaps natural that she had blindly +flown at the one stranger there.</p> + +<p>At last Timmy returned, and they started off, neither speaking a word +until they were clear of the village. Radmore thought he knew every inch +of the way, for he and Betty had once cycled together all over the +countryside. He checked a sigh as he thought of those days—how happy he +had been, with that simple, unquestioning happiness which belongs only to +extreme youth. He wondered if Betty ever remembered those far-off days. +They had come very near, the one to the other, last evening, and yet, +from his point of view, theirs was an unsatisfactory kind of friendship. +It was as if she was always holding something back from him. And then, +while he was thinking of Betty, the little boy sitting by his side +suddenly observed:</p> + +<p>"Perhaps we might tell Betty—I mean when we get back again—where +Josephine and her kittens are? She was awfully upset last night; almost +as upset as I was. You see, Josephine's a French cat. She was brought +home—I mean to England, you know—by the officer who now wants to marry +Betty." Timmy uttered these words in a very matter-of-fact voice. Then, +for a moment, he forgot Betty, for the car swerved suddenly.</p> + +<p>"The officer who wants to marry Betty?" repeated Radmore. "I didn't know +there was an officer who wanted to marry Betty."</p> + +<p>"Nobody's supposed to know," said Timmy composedly. "But Mum and I, as +well as father, know. Only a very vulgar sort of girl lets anyone know +when someone wants to marry her. Mr. Barton is so ridiculous about Dolly, +following her about and always looking at her, that we all know it, +though Mum wonders sometimes if he knows it himself. But neither Dolly +nor Rosamund knows about Betty's man. Luckily, they were away when he +last came here and saw father. The first time Betty meant him to send +the kitten in a basket from London. She even gave him the money for +Josephine's fare, but he <i>would</i> give it back to father. He brought her +himself because he wanted to see father, and talk to him about Betty and +George."</p> + +<p>"Then he knew George, too?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's how he got to know Betty, when she was in France, you know, +and why she gave him the kitten to bring home on leave. He knew all about +<i>us</i>, and when father called me into the study to take Josephine, he +said: 'Is this Timmy?' And then after that he just went straight on about +Betty, as if I wasn't there. He said that if he got through, he meant to +wait—he didn't mind how long, if only Betty would say 'Yes' in the end."</p> + +<p>"Has he been here since Betty came home?" asked Radmore abruptly.</p> + +<p>Somehow this revelation astonished and discomfited him very much. It had +never occurred to him that Betty might marry.</p> + +<p>"No," said Timmy. "He has never come again, for he's in Mesopotamia; but +he writes to Betty, and then she writes back to him. You see he was a +friend of George's—that makes her like him, I suppose."</p> + +<p>They drove on for a while in silence, and then Timmy enquired, rather +anxiously: "You won't tell Betty I've told you, will you, Godfrey? I +don't think she wants anyone to know. He sent me a lovely picture +postcard once—it was to Timmy Tosswill, Esq.—and then I asked Betty +whether she meant to marry him, as he was such a nice sort of man. She +was awfully angry with me for knowing about it, and she began to cry. So +you won't say anything to her, will you?"</p> + +<p>"No, of course I won't," said Radmore hastily.</p> + +<p>They were now emerging on the wide sweep of down commanding the little +old country town which stands to the whole world as the racing capital of +England. To their left, huge and gaunt against the night sky, rose the +Grand Stand.</p> + +<p>"Where does Trotman hang out?" asked Radmore. "Shan't we have a devil of +a difficulty in knocking him up?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think we shall," said his small companion, confidently. "You see +there must always be some sick animal for someone to sit up with. I'd +rather be nurse to a dog than to a woman, wouldn't you?"</p> + +<p>They turned into the steep road leading into the town, flashing past +shuttered villas set in gardens, till they reached a labyrinth of quaint, +narrow, walled thoroughfares dating from the 18th century.</p> + +<p>"We're very near now," said Timmy. "Isn't it funny, Godfrey, to feel that +everybody's asleep but us?" They had come to a corner where high walls +enclosed what might once have been the kitchen garden of a Georgian +manor-house.</p> + +<p>"Here it is!" cried the boy.</p> + +<p>Radmore stopped the car and then he jumped out and struck a match. Over +a door, set in the wall, stood out in clear lettering the words, "John +Trotman, Veterinary Surgeon." Feeling a little doubtful of what their +reception would be like, he pulled the bell. There was a pause, a long +pause, and then they heard the sound of light, quick footsteps, and the +door was unlocked.</p> + +<p>"Who's there? What is it?" came in a woman's voice, and a quaint figure, +dressed in a short, dark dressing-gown, and looking not unlike Noah's +wife, appeared holding a lantern in her hand. She had a kindly, shrewd +face, and when Radmore said apologetically, "I'm sorry to disturb you, +but the matter is really urgent, and we've brought a sick animal many +miles in order that it may benefit by Mr. Trotman's skill," her face +cleared, and she said cordially: "All right, sir, come right in."</p> + +<p>As they walked along through a curious kind of trellised tunnel, Timmy +carrying Josephine and her kittens, there arose an extraordinary chorus +of sounds in which furious barking predominated.</p> + +<p>"You have a regular menagerie here," said Radmore, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, sir," she answered simply, "but they'll all quiet down after a +bit. They're startled like, hearing strange footsteps."</p> + +<p>She led them into the house, and so through into a pleasant little +parlour, full of the good 18th Century furniture which may still be found +in the older houses of an English country town. Sporting prints—some of +considerable value—hung on the walls. There was still a little fire +alight in the deep grate, throwing out a warmth that was comforting to +both the man and the boy.</p> + +<p>"If you'll wait here, I'll get my husband."</p> + +<p>While Mrs. Trotman had left the room, Radmore remarked: "I've made up my +mind what to say to Trotman, so please don't interrupt."</p> + +<p>And Timmy listened silently to the explanation his godfather gave of +Josephine's strange behaviour of the night before. It was an explanation +that squared with the facts—at any rate, according to the speaker's +point of view—for Radmore told the famous vet that the cat, upset by the +sight of a strange dog, had flown at a lady and bitten her. He added +frankly that the doctor had suggested that the animal should be kept +under observation, and then he managed to convey that money was no +object, as the cat was a cherished pet sent from France during the War.</p> + +<p>Everything was soon arranged, for Mr. Trotman was a man of few words. +Radmore gave his own name and the address of Old Place, and then, just +before leaving the house, he put down a £5 note on the table.</p> + +<p>The sturdy, grizzled old man took up the note and held it out to his new +client. "I'd rather not take this, sir, if you don't mind," he said a +little gruffly. "We'll send you in a proper bill in due course. You +needn't be afraid. The cat shall have every care, and of course, if +things should go wrong—you know what I mean—I'll at once give you a +telephone call. But, as far as I can tell, you're right, and it was just +fear for her young made her behave so." He turned to his wife. "Now then, +mother, you just get back to bed! I'll see to these gentlemen, and to +poor pussy."</p> + +<p>They shook hands with Mrs. Trotman, and then the famous vet took them +down the trellised path and stood in the doorway till they got into the +car.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad to have met you, Mr. Trotman," Radmore called out heartily. +"I'd like to come over here one day, and go over your place."</p> + +<p>As they raced up towards the Downs, Radmore suddenly turned to Timmy: +"The more time goes on, the more it's borne in on me that there's nothing +like the old people of the old country." And as the boy, surprised, said +nothing for once, he went on, "I hope that the stock won't ever give +out."</p> + +<p>"How d'you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Well, take those two people, that man and woman. We get them out of +their warm, comfortable bed in the middle of the night, they knowing +nothing about us, except that we bring a cat which may be mad; and yet +they take it all in the day's work; they're civil, kindly, obliging—and +the man won't take money he hasn't earned! I call that splendid, Timmy. +You might almost go the world over before you'd find a couple like +that—anywhere but in England."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>They drove on and on, and then all at once, Radmore, glancing down to his +left, saw that Timmy had fallen asleep. Now Timmy, asleep, looked like an +angelic cherub, and so very different from his usual alert, inquisitive, +little awake self. And there welled up in Radmore's heart the strangest +feeling of tenderness—not only for Timmy but for the whole of the +Tosswill family—not only for the Tosswill family, but for the whole of +this sturdy, quiet, apparently unemotional world of England to which he +had come back.</p> + +<p>The human mind and brain work in mysterious ways. Radmore will never +know, to the day of his death, the effect that this curious night drive +had on the whole of his future life. He was not a man to quote poetry, +even to himself, but to-night there came into his mind some words he had +heard muttered by a corporal in Gallipoli:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"What do they know of England<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who only England know?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>When he had left his homeland, now nearly ten years ago, he had been in a +bitter mood. It had seemed to him that his own country was rejecting him +with scorn. But now his heart swelled proudly at the thought of the old +country—of all that she had endured since then. He had thought England +altered and very much for the worse, when he was in London on his two +brief "leaves" during the War, but now he knew how unchanged his country +was—in the things that really matter....</p> + +<p>When he had come back for good, this summer, he had looked forward to an +easy, selfish life—the sort of life certain men whom he had envied as a +boy used to lead before the war.</p> + +<p>Radmore knew, as every man who has lived to the age of thirty-two must +know, that marriage brings with it certain cares, responsibilities, and +troubles, and so he had deliberately made up his mind to avoid marriage, +though he had been conscious the while that if he fell violently in love, +then, perhaps, half knowing all the time that he was a fool, he might +find himself pushed into marriage with some foolish girl, or what was +perchance more likely, with a pretty widow.</p> + +<p>To-night he realised with a sort of shame that there were moments—he +was glad that they were only moments—when he felt uneasily yet strongly +attracted to Enid Crofton, and that though he knew how selfish, how +self-absorbed and, yes, how cruel she could be. For well he knew she had +been cruel to her elderly husband. He was sorry now that she had come to +Beechfield. She had become an irritating, disturbing element in his life.</p> + +<p>Radmore had looked at every eligible property within a radius of twenty +miles of Old Place, but though some of them did not fall far short of the +ideal he had in his mind, he hadn't felt as if he wanted any of them. +They were too trim, too new—in a word, too suburban. Even the very old +houses had been transformed by their owners much as The Trellis House had +been transformed, into something to suit modern taste. He told himself +that he must begin looking again—looking in real dead earnest, going +farther afield.</p> + +<p>Absorbed in his thoughts, he had driven on and on, almost mechanically, +till suddenly they came to four cross-roads. He drew up under a +sign-post, jumped out and struck a match, and as he read the painted +words he realised, with vexation, that he had gone a good bit out of his +way. There was nothing for it now but to go on till they struck the +Portsmouth Road. It was the quietest hour of the twenty-four, and it was +very unlikely they would meet with anyone who could put them right.</p> + +<p>And then, while going up a lane, which he knew to be at any rate in the +right direction, he came to a park gate. Just within was a lodge, and in +one of the windows of the lodge there shone a light. Again Radmore +stopped the car and jumped out, Timmy still heavily asleep.</p> + +<p>He went up to the door of the lodge and rapped with his knuckles. It +opened and revealed a young woman, fully dressed. "What do you want?" she +exclaimed, in a frightened voice.</p> + +<p>"I've lost my way," he said, "and seeing a light in your window, I +ventured to knock. I've no idea where I am—I want to get to Beechfield."</p> + +<p>"Beechfield? Why, you're nigh forty miles from there," she said, +surprised.</p> + +<p>"Can you tell me how I can get on to the Portsmouth Road?"</p> + +<p>"Aye, I think I could do that; but stop your engine, please—I've a +little girl in here as is very ill."</p> + +<p>He ran out and did what she asked. Then he came back, and as she took him +into her tiny living-room, he saw that there were tears rolling down her +tired face.</p> + +<p>"Is your child very ill?" he asked.</p> + +<p>She nodded. "Doctor says if she can get through the next two days she may +be all right."</p> + +<p>"Is your husband with you?"</p> + +<p>She shook her head. "I'm a widow, sir; my husband was killed in the War. +I'm only caretaking here. When the house up there is sold, they'll turn +me out."</p> + +<p>"I'm looking for a country house. Perhaps I'll come over and see it one +day. Is it an old house?"</p> + +<p>"Well," she said vaguely, "it isn't a new house, sir. It's a mighty fine +place, and they do say it's going dirt cheap." And then she added slowly, +"There's a map hanging in the kitchen. It was hanging up yonder in the +servants' hall but I brought it down here, as so many people asks the +way."</p> + +<p>It was an old-fashioned country road map, and Radmore, bending down, saw +in a moment where he was, and the best way home; and then feeling in a +queer kind of mood, a mood in which a man may do a strange and unexpected +thing, he took out of his pocket the £5 he had offered to Mr. Trotman.</p> + +<p>"Look here," he said, "I'd like you just to take this and get your little +girl whatever you think necessary when she's on the mend. She'll want a +lot of care, eh?"</p> + +<p>Twice the woman opened her mouth, and found she couldn't speak.</p> + +<p>He held out his hand, and she squeezed it with her thin, work-worn +fingers. "I do hope God will bless you, sir!" she said. And he went back +to the car, feeling oddly cheered.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was past five when Radmore and Timmy crept like burglars through one +of the back doors of Old Place. He sent the boy straight up to bed, but +he himself felt hopelessly wide awake, so he went out of doors again, +into Janet's delightful scented garden, and tramped up and down a bit to +get warm. Suddenly he knew that he was hungry. Why shouldn't he go into +the scullery and brew himself a cup of tea?</p> + +<p>As he went into the kitchen, he saw on the table a kettle, a spirit +stove, a cup and saucer, tea caddy and teapot, even a thermos full of hot +water—everything ready to make an early cup of tea. He left the thermos +alone, and filled up the kettle at the scullery sink.</p> + +<p>Radmore was still very much of an old campaigner. Still it was a long +time since he had made himself a cup of tea, and he became a little +impatient for the cold water took a long time to boil.</p> + +<p>The kettle was just beginning to sing, when the door which led to the +flight of stairs connecting the scullery with the upper floors of the +house opened quietly, and Betty appeared—Betty, in a becoming blue +dressing-gown, which intensified the peachy clearness of her skin, +and the glint of pale gold in the shadowed fairness of her hair. Morning +was Betty's hour. As the day wore on, she was apt to become fagged and +worried, especially since Nanna's accident.</p> + +<p>Just for a moment she looked very much taken aback, then she smiled, +"I've come down to make a cup of tea for Nanna."</p> + +<p>"So I suppose, but <i>you</i> must have a cup first. See, I'm making some for +you."</p> + +<p>"Are you?" She tried not to show the surprise she felt.</p> + +<p>"While you're having it, we'll make Nanna a cup of tea with the water in +the thermos there. But where's the milk?"</p> + +<p>He saw her face from merry become sad. "I always save some milk for +Josephine," she said. "I'll go and get it now. But we mustn't use it all; +I must save some for that poor cat."</p> + +<p>"You'll have to go a long way to give milk to Josephine," he observed.</p> + +<p>She looked at him, startled, and going to the scullery door, glanced +quickly at the corner where stood the now empty basket.</p> + +<p>"Where is she?" she exclaimed—and her whole face lightened. "Oh, +Godfrey, have you managed to hide her away?"</p> + +<p>He nodded. "Yes, ever so many miles away, where no one will find her."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" She could not conceal her astonishment—her +astonishment and her intense relief.</p> + +<p>"Timmy and I spirited her away," he went on, "to a cat's paradise where +she's going to be kept under observation."</p> + +<p>"Won't Dr. O'Farrell be very angry?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think he'll mind as much as he'll pretend to. The moment he was +told about her kittens he knew that the cat wasn't mad at all."</p> + +<p>"The person who will be angry," exclaimed Betty, "is Mrs. Crofton! I +thought it horribly cruel of her to say what she did last night."</p> + +<p>"It was rather vindictive," he said reflectively. "On the other hand, you +must remember that she'd had an awful shock. I don't wonder she felt +angry with Josephine, eh?" He looked a little quizzically, a little +deprecatingly, over at Betty.</p> + +<p>"Still it seemed so—so unnecessary that she should <i>ask</i> for the cat to +be killed." Betty was now bustling about the kitchen with a heightened +colour.</p> + +<p>Radmore poured out a cup of tea. "Now then," he said, "do come and sit +down quietly, and take your tea, Betty." Rather to his surprise, she +meekly obeyed.</p> + +<p>Presently she asked him, "But why have you got up so early?"</p> + +<p>And then he told her the story of his and Timmy's night expedition, +ending up with: "I intend going round to Dr. O'Farrell's house about +eight o'clock. It wouldn't be fair to let the old fellow come down here +to indulge his sporting instincts, eh?"</p> + +<p>To that Betty made no answer, and as the water was now boiling she went +across to the dresser and brought a clean cup and saucer. "Now then, +Godfrey, this cup is for you. Nanna can wait a little longer for hers."</p> + +<p>He sat down opposite to her, and into both their minds there came the +thought that if they had married and gone out to Australia they would +have often sat thus together in the early morning.</p> + +<p>And then, when Nanna's cup of tea was at last ready, together with some +nice thin bread and butter cut, he asked, "Can't I carry the tray up for +you?"</p> + +<p>She shook her head, smiling.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you'll be down again soon? Isn't there anything else I can +help you with?"</p> + +<p>But this time Betty shook her head even more decidedly than before.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" she exclaimed. "I've got to make Nanna comfortable for the day, +and it's a long business, for she's dreadfully particular. As a matter of +fact, Rosamund and Dolly will be down before I am. They'll start +everything going for breakfast. They've been very good lately, you know! +Perhaps you'd like to give <i>them</i> a hand?"</p> + +<p>He looked at her hard. There was just the flicker of a mischievous smile +on her face.</p> + +<p>"I suppose I ought to help them," he said without enthusiasm. "But I'll +go and have a bath now. You'll let me be your scullion when you're +getting lunch ready, eh, Betty?" He added hastily, "I think Timmy ought +to stay in bed all day to-day. You <i>will</i> let me take the place of Timmy, +won't you, Betty?"</p> + +<p>"That will be very kind of you," she replied demurely. And then, before +she could say a word of protest, he had taken the heavy tray out of her +hands. "You'll find me much more useful than Timmy," he said, with a +touch of his old masterfulness. "Now you lead the way up, and I'll hand +you over the tray at Nanna's door."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + + +<p>Some three or four hours later, Miss Pendarth, attired in a queer kind +of brown smock which fell in long folds about her tall, still elegant +figure, and with a gardening basket slung over her arm, stood by the +glass door giving into her garden, when suddenly she heard a loud double +knock on her stout, early Victorian knocker.</p> + +<p>She turned quickly into her morning room. Who could it be? She knew the +knock and ring of each of her neighbours, and this was none of them.</p> + +<p>Her maid hurried out of the kitchen, and a moment later she heard a man's +voice exclaim: "Will you kindly give this note to Miss Pendarth? I will +return for the answer in about an hour."</p> + +<p>Miss Pendarth knew the voice, and, stepping out of her morning room, she +called out: "Come in just for a few minutes, Mr. Radmore."</p> + +<p>In the old days she had always called him "Godfrey," but when Timmy had +brought him to call within a day or two of his return to Beechfield, she +had used the formal mode of address.</p> + +<p>Radmore had to obey her, willy-nilly, and as he came down the hall +towards her, she was struck by the keenness and intelligence of his +dark face. She told herself grudgingly that he had certainly improved +amazingly, at any rate in outward appearance, during the last ten years.</p> + +<p>"Do let us go into your garden," he said courteously. "I hear that you +are still Mrs. Tosswill's only rival!"</p> + +<p>She softened, in spite of herself. The Godfrey Radmore of ten years ago +would not have thought of saying such a civil, pleasant thing.</p> + +<p>They walked through the glass door, and proceeded in silence down the +path. The herbaceous borders were in fuller beauty than anything the Old +Place garden could now show, but Radmore paid no further compliment, and +it was she who broke the silence.</p> + +<p>"You must see amazing changes at Old Place," she said musingly. "The rest +of Beechfield has altered comparatively little, but Old Place is very +different, with George gone, and all those young people who were children +when you went away, grown up. As for Timmy, he was little more than a +baby ten years ago."</p> + +<p>"Timmy is my godson," said Radmore quickly. Her allusion to George had +cut him.</p> + +<p>Miss Pendarth turned on him rather sharply. "Of course I know that! I +remember his christening as if it was yesterday. It must be twelve or +thirteen years ago. I can see you and Betty standing by the font—" and +then she stopped abruptly, while Radmore blushed hotly under his tan.</p> + +<p>He said hastily: "Timmy's a dear little chap, but I confess I can't make +him out sometimes."</p> + +<p>Miss Pendarth turned and looked at him. She knew everything there was to +know about Timmy Tosswill. His mother had early confided in her, and she +never spoke of the child to other people. Like so many gossips, when +really trusted with a secret, Miss Pendarth could keep a confidence—none +better.</p> + +<p>But she felt that Godfrey Radmore was entitled to know the little she +could tell him, so "Timmy is a very queer child," she said slowly, "but +I can't help thinking, Mr. Radmore—"</p> + +<p>"Do call me Godfrey," he exclaimed, and at once she went on:</p> + +<p>"Well, Godfrey, I think a certain amount of his oddity is owing to the +fact that he's never been to school or mixed with other boys. I'm told +he's a good scholar, but he's a shocking speller! Where's the good of +knowing Latin and Greek if you can't spell such a simple word as +chocolate—he spells it 'chockolit.' Still, I'm bound to admit the child +sees and foresees more than most human beings are allowed to see and +foresee."</p> + +<p>And then, as Radmore remained silent, she went on: "Do you yourself +believe in all that sort of thing, Godfrey—I mean second sight, and so +on?"</p> + +<p>Radmore answered frankly: "Yes, I think I do. I didn't before the War—I +never gave any thought to any of these subjects. But during the War +things happened to me and to some of my chums which made me believe, +in a way I never had believed till then, in the reality of another state +of being—I mean a world quite near to this world, one full of spirits, +good and evil, who exercise a certain influence on the living."</p> + +<p>They had come to a circular stone seat which was much older even than +this old garden, and Miss Pendarth motioned her visitor to sit down.</p> + +<p>"It isn't a new thing with Timmy," she said. "As a matter of fact, even +before you left Beechfield, Dr. O'Farrell regarded the child as being in +some way abnormal."</p> + +<p>"D'you mean while he was still a baby?" asked Radmore.</p> + +<p>"Well, when he had just emerged from babyhood. But I doubt if anyone knew +it but Timmy's parents, the doctor, myself, and yes, I mustn't forget +Nanna. He was a very extraordinary little child. He spoke so very early, +you know."</p> + +<p>"I do remember that."</p> + +<p>"Unfortunately," went on Miss Pendarth, "it's difficult to know when +Timmy is telling the truth, or what he believes to be the truth, about +his gift. I think that often—and I know that Betty agrees with me—the +boy invents all kinds of fantastic tales in order to impress the people +about him."</p> + +<p>"As far as I can make out," said Radmore slowly, "he's always told <i>me</i> +the truth."</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you something curious that happened—let me see, about seven +years ago. You remember an old man we used to call Gaffer John? He had +Wood Cottage, and lived in a very comfortable sort of way."</p> + +<p>"Of course I remember Gaffer John! He was well over ninety when I left +Beechfield, and he had been valet years ago to one of Queen Victoria's +cousins."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's the man I mean. At last he was found dead in his chair. He +had what was by way of being rather a grand funeral. Timmy, for some +reason or other (I think he had a cold), wasn't allowed to attend the +funeral, and as he was set on seeing it, Janet said that he might come +and see it from one of my windows. Well, after the funeral was over, he +stayed on with me for a few minutes, and suddenly he exclaimed: 'Gaffer +John isn't dead at all, Miss Pendarth.' I naturally answered, 'Of course +he is, Timmy. Why, we've just seen him buried.' And then he said: 'Don't +you see him walking out there, along the road, quite plainly? He's behind +an old gentleman dressed up for a fancy ball.' Then, Godfrey, the child +went on to describe the kind of uniform which would have been worn +seventy years ago by a staff officer. I couldn't help being impressed, in +spite of myself, for I'd never given Timmy the slightest encouragement to +talk in that sort of way, and it's the only time he's ever done it, with +me."</p> + +<p>"What does his mother really think of this queer power of his?" asked +Radmore. "I've never liked to talk to her about it."</p> + +<p>"It's difficult to say. In some ways Janet Tosswill's a very reserved +woman. But I'll tell you another curious thing about the child." +Instinctively she lowered her voice.</p> + +<p>"The day before poor George was killed, Timmy cried and cried and cried. +It was impossible to comfort him—and he wouldn't give any reason for his +grief. Both Janet and Betty were dreadfully upset. They thought he had +some pain that he wouldn't tell them of, and they would have sent for Dr. +O'Farrell, but they knew he was away, some miles off, at a very difficult +case. Betty actually came in and asked if <i>I</i> would try to make him say +what was the matter! But of course I could do nothing with him. I think +you know that he was passionately fond of George."</p> + +<p>"What does Dr. O'Farrell think of it all?"</p> + +<p>"He's convinced that Timmy has got a kind of peculiar, rare, +thought-reading gift. He won't hear of its being in any sense +supernatural. I haven't spoken to him about it lately, but the last time +he mentioned the child, he told me he was sure that what he called the +boy's 'subconscious self' would in time sink into its proper place."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if it will?" exclaimed Radmore. "I don't see why it should."</p> + +<p>"No, nor do I, excepting that, as time goes on, Timmy has become much +more like a normal boy than he used to be. I'm convinced that very often +he pretends to see things that he doesn't see. He loves frightening the +village people, for instance, and some of them are really afraid of him. +They think he can heal certain simple ailments, and they're absolutely +certain that he can what they call 'blight' them!"</p> + +<p>"What a very convenient gift," observed Radmore drily. "I've known a good +many people in my time I should have liked to 'blight'!"</p> + +<p>Even as he spoke, an unpleasant question was obtruding itself. Was it +possible that Timmy had a "scunner" against poor little Enid Crofton?</p> + +<p>"D'you think the child has a jealous disposition?" he asked abruptly.</p> + +<p>Miss Pendarth looked round at him, rather surprised by the question. +"He's never any occasion to be jealous," she said shortly. "Betty and +Janet both worship him, and so does his old nurse. I don't think he cares +for anyone else in the world excepting these three. Perhaps I ought to +make an exception in <i>your</i> favour—from what I'm told he cherishes a +romantic affection for <i>you</i>."</p> + +<p>Miss Pendarth went on: "Mind you—I think there's often a touch of malice +about the boy! Timmy wouldn't be at all averse to doing mischief to +anyone he didn't like, or whom he thought ill of."</p> + +<p>"There are a good many grown-up people of whom one can say that," +observed Radmore.</p> + +<p>And then, almost as if the other had seen into his mind, Miss Pendarth, +with a touch of significance in her voice, observed musingly: "I fancy +Timmy doesn't much like the pretty young widow who has taken The Trellis +House. The first evening Mrs. Crofton came to see the Tosswills, she got +an awful fright. Timmy's dog, Flick, rushed into the room and began +snarling and growling at her. There was a most disagreeable scene, and +from what one of the girls said the other day, it seems to have +prejudiced the boy against her."</p> + +<p>Radmore looked straight into Miss Pendarth's face. Then she hadn't yet +heard about last night?</p> + +<p>There was a slight pause.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Radmore at last. "I'm afraid that Timmy does dislike Mrs. +Crofton."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," said Miss Pendarth slowly, "the boy has more reason to dislike +her than we know." As Radmore said nothing, she went on: "Mrs. Crofton is +behaving in a very wrong, as well as in a very unladylike, way with Jack +Tosswill."</p> + +<p>Radmore moved uneasily in his seat. It was time for him to escape. This +was the Miss Pendarth of long ago—noted for the spiteful, dangerous +things she sometimes said.</p> + +<p>He got up. "Jack certainly goes to see her very often," he said, "but I +don't think that's her fault. Forgive me for saying so, Miss Pendarth, +but you know what village gossip is?"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid that she's giving Jack a great deal of deliberate +encouragement. Even her servants believe that he regards himself as +engaged to her."</p> + +<p>"What absolute nonsense!" exclaimed Radmore vigorously. "Why, if it comes +to that, Rosamund's quite as much at The Trellis House as Jack is, and +even <i>I</i> go there very often!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know you do; at one time you were first favourite," said Miss +Pendarth coolly.</p> + +<p>She had never been lacking in courage.</p> + +<p>"And yet I can assure you," he exclaimed in a challenging tone, "that I, +at any rate, am not at all in love with Mrs. Crofton."</p> + +<p>"Sit down, Godfrey. There's something I want to ask you."</p> + +<p>Unwillingly he obeyed.</p> + +<p>"I think you knew Colonel Crofton?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I liked him very much."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid from what I've heard that she wasn't a particularly good wife +to him." Radmore was surprised at the feeling in her voice, but he asked +himself irritably how the devil had Miss Pendarth heard anything of the +Croftons and their private affairs?</p> + +<p>He got up again, feeling vexed with himself for having come in to Rose +Cottage.</p> + +<p>She also rose from the stone seat.</p> + +<p>"Stop just one moment, Godfrey. I didn't realize that you knew Mrs. +Crofton as well as you seem to do. I do beg of you to convey to her that +she ought to be more prudent. I'm quite serious as to the talk about Jack +Tosswill. They seem to have gone on a walk together yesterday afternoon, +and the girl at the post-office, who is often sent long distances with +telegrams and messages, saw them in the North Wood kissing one another."</p> + +<p>Godfrey uttered an exclamation of surprise and disgust.</p> + +<p>How extraordinary that a woman of Miss Pendarth's birth and breeding +should listen to, and believe, low village gossip!</p> + +<p>"Really," he said at last, "that's too bad! I can't understand, Miss +Pendarth, how you can believe such a story—" He nearly added, "or allow +it to be told you!"</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't believe everybody," she said in a low voice, "but I do +believe Jane Nichol. She's a sensible, quiet, reserved girl. She seems to +have passed quite close to them, but they were so absorbed in themselves +that they didn't see her. She told no one but her aunt, and her aunt told +me. I'm sorry to say I do believe the story, and I think you will agree +that what may be sport to your pretty friend might mean lifelong +bitterness to such a boy as Jack Tosswill." She added earnestly, "Can't +you say just a word to her?"</p> + +<p>"Well, no, I don't see how I can! Still I promise you to try to do it if +I get the chance."</p> + +<p>He felt sharply disturbed and annoyed, and yet he didn't believe a word +of that vulgar story! Of course it was foolish of Enid Crofton to go for +a long walk alone with Jack Tosswill. That sort of thing was bound to +make talk. What would the village people think if they knew how often he, +Radmore, and Mrs. Crofton had dined and lunched together during the three +weeks that he had been there? Thank Heaven, they didn't know, and never +would.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever read the report of the inquest on Colonel Crofton?" asked +Miss Pendarth meaningly.</p> + +<p>"I hadn't the chance. I was still in Australia," he said shortly.</p> + +<p>"If you'll wait a moment I'll bring it to you," was the, to him, +astonishing reply.</p> + +<p>Miss Pendarth walked off with her quick, light footsteps towards the +house, and Radmore, gazing after her, told himself that she was indeed +a strange woman. In some ways he had liked her far better to-day than he +had ever liked her before, but the low, silly bit of gossip she had just +told him filled him with disgust.</p> + +<p>Very soon she was back, holding in her hand a newspaper.</p> + +<p>An inquest of the kind that was held on Colonel Crofton is a godsend to +any local sheet, and Radmore saw at a glance that this county paper had +made the most of it.</p> + +<p>"Will you read it here, if you're not in a hurry? I don't want it taken +away; so while you're reading it, I'll go and do some potting over +there."</p> + +<p>She disappeared into a glass-house built across a corner of her garden, +and he settled down to read the long newspaper columns.</p> + +<p>Soon his feeling quickened into intense interest. The local Essex +reporter had a turn for descriptive writing, and, as he read, Godfrey +Radmore saw the scene described rise vividly before him. He seemed to +visualise the intensely crowded little court-house, the kindly coroner, +the twelve good men and true, and the motley gathering of small town and +country folk drawn together in the hope of hearing something startling.</p> + +<p>Yet the facts were simple enough. Colonel Crofton had died from either an +accidental, or a deliberate, over-dose of strychnine. And his death had +been a terrible one.</p> + +<p>The outstanding points of interrogation were: Had he consciously added +to a tonic which he was taking an ounce or more of the deadly drug? Or, +as some people were inclined to believe, had the local chemist by some +mistake or gross piece of carelessness, put a murderous amount of +strychnine into a mixture which had been prescribed for his customer +about a fortnight before?</p> + +<p>But for the fact that a bottle of nux vomica had been actually found on +the ledge of the dead man's dressing-room window, it would have gone hard +with the chemist. But there the bottle had been found, and in her +evidence, evidently given very clearly and simply, Mrs. Crofton had +explained that, during the war, while in Egypt, she had palpitations of +the heart, and so many drops of diluted strychnine had been ordered her.</p> + +<p>When asked why there was so large a bottle full of the deadly stuff, she +had answered that it had come from the Army Stores, where they always did +things in a big and generous way. At that there had been laughter in +Court.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Crofton had further explained that, as a matter of fact, she had +brought the bottle back to England without really knowing that she had +done so; and that she had never given it a thought till it had been +found, as described, after her husband's death, by the doctor who had +been called in to attend Colonel Crofton in his agonizing seizure.</p> + +<p>One thing stated by Mrs. Crofton much surprised Radmore. She had +asserted, quite definitely, that her husband had suffered from +shell-shock. That Radmore believed to be quite untrue.</p> + +<p>With quickened, painful interest he read her account of how odd and how +cranky Colonel Crofton had become when wholly absorbed in his hobby of +breeding wire-haired terriers. How, when one of his dogs had failed to +win a prize, he would go about muttering to himself, and visiting his +annoyance and disappointment on those about him.</p> + +<p>She had drawn a sad picture of the last long months of their joint life +together and Radmore began to feel very, very sorry for her.... What an +awful ordeal the poor little woman had gone through!</p> + +<p>The doctor's evidence made painful reading, but what had really clinched +the matter was the evidence of one Piper, the Croftons' general odd man +and trusted servant. He had been Colonel Crofton's batman during part of +the war, and was evidently much attached to him. When Piper repeated the +words in which his master had once or twice threatened to take his own +life, his evidence had obviously made a strong impression on both coroner +and jury.</p> + +<p>Radmore remembered Piper with a faint feeling of dislike. It was Piper +who had prepared the puppy, Flick, for the cross-country journey to +Beechfield, and Radmore had given the man a handsome tip for all the +trouble he had taken.</p> + +<p>Yes, he had not liked Piper; so much he remembered. He had thought the +man self-assertive, over self-confident, while disagreeably cringing in +manner.</p> + +<p>He read through the coroner's charge, which was given fully, very +attentively. It was quite clear that the coroner was strongly biased, +if one could put it that way, in Mrs. Crofton's favour. He had spoken +touchingly of the difficult time the poor young lady had had with her +husband. Then he had recalled that the Colonel's own favourite terrier, +Dandy, on which he had built great hopes, had only been commended, +instead of winning, as he had hoped, the first prize at an important +show, and that had thoroughly upset him. Indeed, according to Piper's +evidence, he had used the exaggerated phrase, "My life is no longer worth +living." Finally the coroner had touched lightly, but severely, on +evidence tendered by a spiteful ex-woman-servant of the Croftons who had +drawn a very unpleasant picture of the relations existing between the +husband and wife.</p> + +<p>Yet when the verdict of <i>felo de se</i> had been returned, there had been +murmurs in Court, at once sharply checked by the coroner.</p> + +<p>Radmore felt surprised. Surely everyone present should have rejoiced from +every point of view. Had a different verdict been returned, it would have +put the unfortunate chemist in a very difficult position, and might +easily have ruined his business.</p> + +<p>Though Radmore was grateful to Miss Pendarth for allowing him to read the +report, it had an effect very different from that she had intended, for +it made him pity Mrs. Crofton intensely. Somehow he had never realised +what a terrible ordeal the poor little woman had been through.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + + +<p>A week later Enid Crofton lay in her drawing-room on the one couch which +The Trellis House contained. She looked very charming in her new guise +of invalid.</p> + +<p>Several people had already called to know how she was, including Jack +Tosswill and his father, but no visitor had yet been admitted. Now it was +past four, and she was expecting the doctor—also, she hoped, in due +course, Godfrey Radmore. That was why she had come downstairs, after +having had an early cup of tea in her bedroom, and lain herself on the +sofa.</p> + +<p>The door opened, and as his burly form came through the door, Dr. +O'Farrell told himself that he had seldom if ever attended such an +attractive looking patient! She was still very pale, for the shock had +been great; but to-day, for the first time since her widowhood, she had +put on a pink silk jacket, and it supplied the touch of colour which was +needed by her white cheeks. She had made up her mind that even a little +rouge would be injudicious, but she had just used her lip-stick. It was +pleasant to know that she had every right to be an interesting invalid +with all an interesting invalid's privileges.</p> + +<p>And yet, well acquainted as she was with the turns and twists of +masculine human nature, Mrs. Crofton would have been surprised to +know how suddenly repelled was the genial Irishman when she exclaimed +eagerly:—"I do hope that horrible cat has been killed! Didn't I hear +you say that you meant to shoot her yourself?"</p> + +<p>It was not without a touch of sly satisfaction that Dr. O'Farrell +answered:—"That was my intention certainly, Mrs. Crofton. But I was +frustrated. The cat and her kittens vanished—just entirely away!"</p> + +<p>"Vanished?" she exclaimed. "Then perhaps someone else has killed her?"</p> + +<p>"Bless you, no. I'm afraid that the brute has still got her nine lives +before her! She was spirited away by that broth of a boy. Timmy +Tosswill's a good hater and a good lover, and that's the truth of it! I +wasn't a bit surprised when I got the news that my services wouldn't be +wanted—that the cat wasn't any longer at Old Place."</p> + +<p>"D'you mean you don't know what's happened to the horrible creature?" she +exclaimed vexedly.</p> + +<p>"That's just what I do mean, Mrs. Crofton. That smart little fellow just +spirited the creature away."</p> + +<p>As he spoke, sitting with his back to the window, he was observing his +pretty patient very closely. She had reddened angrily and was biting her +lips. What a little vixen <i>she</i> was, to be sure! And suddenly she saw +what he was thinking.</p> + +<p>"I'd like to put a question to you, Mrs. Crofton."</p> + +<p>"Do!" she insisted, but his question, when it came, displeased her.</p> + +<p>"Is it true that that wasn't the first time you'd had an unpleasant +experience with an animal at Old Place?"</p> + +<p>Dr. O'Farrell had not meant to ask his patient this question to-day, but +he really felt curious to know the truth concerning something Godfrey +Radmore had told him that morning.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she answered, slowly, "the first time I was in Old Place, Timmy +Tosswill's dog frightened me out of my wits."</p> + +<p>"That's very strange," said the doctor, "Flick's such a mild-mannered +dog."</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton lifted herself up from her reclining position. "Dr. +O'Farrell! I wouldn't say so to anyone but you, but don't you think +there's something uncanny about Timmy Tosswill? My little maid told me +last night that the village people think he's a kind of—well, I don't +know what to call it!—a kind of boy-witch. She says they're awfully +afraid of him, that they think he can do a mischief to people he doesn't +like." As he said nothing for a moment, she added rather defiantly:—"I +daresay you think it is absurd that I should listen to village gossip, +but the truth is, I've a kind of horror of the child. He terrifies me!"</p> + +<p>Dr. O'Farrell looked round the room as if he feared eavesdroppers. He +even got up and went to see if the door was really shut. "That's very +curious," he said thoughtfully. "Very curious indeed. But no, I'm not +thinking you absurd, Mrs. Crofton. The child's a very peculiar child. +Have you ever heard of thought transference?"</p> + +<p>She looked at him, astonished. "No," she answered, rather bewildered, "I +haven't an idea what you mean by that."</p> + +<p>"Well, you've heard of hypnotism?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, but I've never believed in it!"</p> + +<p>To that remark he made no answer, and he went on, more as if speaking +to himself than to her:—"We needn't consider what the village people +say. Timmy just tries to frighten them—like all boys he's fond of his +practical joke, and of course it's a temptation to him to work on their +fears. But the little lad certainly presents a curious natural +phenomenon, if I may so express myself."</p> + +<p>She looked at him puzzled. She had no idea what he meant.</p> + +<p>"If that child wasn't the child of sensible people, he'd have become +famous—he'd be what silly people call a medium."</p> + +<p>"Would he?" she said. "Do you mean that he can turn tables and do that +sort of thing?"</p> + +<p>The doctor shook his head. "What I mean is that in some way as yet +unexplained by science, he can create simulacra of what people are +thinking about, or of what may simply be hidden far away in the recesses +of their memory. In a sort of way Timmy Tosswill can make things seem to +appear which, as a matter of fact, are not there. But how he does it? +Well, I can't tell you <i>that</i>."</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton stared at Dr. O'Farrell. It was as if he were speaking to +her in a foreign language, and yet his words made her feel vaguely +apprehensive. Surely Timmy could not divine the hidden thoughts of the +people about him? She grew hot with dismay at the idea.</p> + +<p>The doctor bent forward, and looked at her keenly: "I should like to ask +you another question, Mrs. Crofton. Have you in your past life ever had +some very painful association with a dog—I mean any very peculiar +experience with a terrier?"</p> + +<p>The colour receded from her face. She was so surprised that she hardly +knew what to answer.</p> + +<p>"I don't think so. My first experience of a really disagreeable kind was +when that boy's terrier flew at me. It's true that I've always had a +peculiar dislike to dogs—at least for a long time," she corrected +herself hastily. She added after a moment's pause, "I expect you know +that Colonel Crofton bred dogs?"</p> + +<p>"Aye, and that very dog, Flick, was bred by your husband—isn't that so?"</p> + +<p>"I believe he was."</p> + +<p>She was wondering anxiously why he asked her this question, and her mind +all at once flew off to Piper and Mrs. Piper, and she felt sick with +fear.</p> + +<p>"I ask you these questions," said the doctor very deliberately, "because, +according to Mrs. Tosswill, Timmy thinks, or says he thinks, that you are +always accompanied by—well, how can I put it?—by a phantom dog."</p> + +<p>"A phantom dog?"</p> + +<p>She stared at him with her large dark eyes, and then, all at once, she +remembered Dandy, her husband's terrier, who, after his master's tragic +death, had refused all food, and had howled so long and so dismally that, +in a fit of temper, she had herself ordered him to be destroyed.</p> + +<p>She lay back on her pretty, frilled pillow, and covered her face with the +hand belonging to the arm that was uninjured.</p> + +<p>"Oh," she gasped out, "I see now. What a horrible idea!"</p> + +<p>"Then you have no painful associations with any one particular terrier +apart from Flick?" persisted Dr. O'Farrell.</p> + +<p>He really wanted to know. According to his theory, Timmy's subconscious +self could in some utterly inexplicable way build up an image of what was +in the minds of those about him.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I have," she confessed in a very low voice. "My husband had a +favourite terrier called Dandy, Flick's father in fact. The poor brute +got into such a state after his master's death that he had to be sent to +one of those lethal chambers in London. The whole thing was a great +trouble, and a great pain to me."</p> + +<p>Dr. O'Farrell felt a thrill of exultation run through him. To find his +theory thus miraculously confirmed was very gratifying.</p> + +<p>"That's most interesting!" he exclaimed, "for Timmy, even the very first +time he saw you walking down the avenue towards the front door of Old +Place, thought you were followed by a dog uncommonly like his terrier, +Flick. His theory seemed to be that both Flick and the cat did not fly at +<i>you</i>, but at your invisible companion."</p> + +<p>"My invisible companion?"</p> + +<p>He saw the colour again receding from her face. "Don't for a moment +believe <i>I</i> think there is any phantom dog there," he said soothingly. +"All I believe—and what you have told me confirmed my theory—is that +Timmy Tosswill can not only see what's in your subconscious mind, but +that he can build up a kind of image of it and produce what is called, I +believe, in the East, collective hypnotism. I should never be surprised, +for instance, if someone else thought they saw you with a dog—that is +as long as that boy was present. It's a most interesting and curious +case."</p> + +<p>"It's a very horrible case," said Enid faintly.</p> + +<p>She felt as if she were moving in a terrible nightmare world, +unsuspected, unrealised by her till then.</p> + +<p>"All abnormality is unpleasant," said the doctor cheerfully, "I always +thought the boy would grow out of it, and, to a certain extent, he <i>has</i> +grown out of it. You'll hardly believe me, Mrs. Crofton, when I tell +you that, as a little child, Timmy actually declared he could see +fairies and gnomes, 'the little people' as we call them in my country! +I think that's what first started this queer reputation of his among +the village folk. I tell you he's anything but a welcome guest in the +cottages—people with evil consciences, you know!" The doctor laughed. +"They're afraid of Master Timmy, that's what the bad folks in Beechfield +are—they think he can 'blight' them, bring ill-luck on them. Well, well, +I mustn't stop, gossiping here with you, though it's very pleasant. By +the way, I'll ask you to keep all I've said to you to yourself—not +but what the boy's parents know quite well what I think about him!"</p> + +<p>Then followed a few professional questions and answers, and then the +doctor went off, well satisfied with his visit.</p> + +<p>After Dr. O'Farrell had gone, Enid Crofton lay back and shut her eyes. +Her nerves had by no means recovered from the horrible experience, +and she felt a sort of utter distaste to Beechfield and to everybody +there—with the one exception of Godfrey Radmore. She promised herself +fiercely that if Radmore did what she was always telling herself secretly +he would surely end by doing, then she would make it her business to see +that they never, either of them, came back to this horrible place any +more.</p> + +<p>Apart from anything else, Jack Tosswill was already beginning to be more +of a complication than was pleasant to one in her weak, excited state. +He had left a letter when he called that morning—an eager, ardent +love-letter, entirely assuming that they were engaged to be married.</p> + +<p>She took it out of the pretty fancy bag, which lay on her pale blue silk +eiderdown, and read it through again with a mixture of amusement and +irritation. It was a long letter, written on the cheap, grey Old Place +notepaper, very unlike another love-letter she had had to-day, written +on nice, thick, highly-glazed letter-paper which had a small coronet +embossed above the address. In that letter Captain Tremaine urgently +asked to be allowed to come down for the next week-end. He pointed out +that his leave was drawing to a close, and that they had a lot of things +to discuss. He, too, considered himself engaged to her, but somehow she +didn't mind that. She told herself pettishly that Providence has a way of +managing things very badly. If only Tremaine had Radmore's money, even +only a portion of his money, how gladly she would leave England behind +her, and start a new, free, delightful life in India! Tremaine knew the +kind of grand, smart people she longed to know. He was staying with some +of them now.</p> + +<p>Just as this thought was drifting through her mind, the door opened +and she hurriedly stuffed Jack's letter beneath her silk quilt. +Radmore walked in, and his face softened as he looked down on the pale, +fragile-looking girl—for she did look very much like a girl—lying on +the sofa.</p> + +<p>"I've brought you a lot of messages from Old Place," he began. "They +really are most awfully miserable about you!"</p> + +<p>"I'm glad the cat hasn't been killed after all," she said weakly.</p> + +<p>She had at last seen the look of recoil on Dr. O'Farrell's face, and she +was now trimming her sails accordingly.</p> + +<p>"That's very magnanimous of you." Radmore smiled. He was surprised, and a +little touched, too. "May I sit down?"</p> + +<p>He drew up a chair, and then he touched the hand belonging to the +bandaged arm. "I do hope you are fairly free from pain?" he said +solicitously.</p> + +<p>"It does hurt a good deal."</p> + +<p>There was a pause; his hand was still lying protectingly over her hand.</p> + +<p>She lay quite still—a vision of lovely Paris frocks, a Rolls-Royce +running smoothly by a deep blue sea, a long rope of pearls, flashed +before her inner consciousness. Then she was awakened from this dream of +bliss by Radmore's next words:—"My godson's going to write you a letter +of apology," he said.</p> + +<p>And then, to her chagrin, he took his hand away; it was as though Timmy's +malign influence had fallen between them. His very tone changed; it was +no longer tender, solicitous—only kindly.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Radmore, I want to tell you something. I'm horribly afraid of +Timmy!"</p> + +<p>There was an accent of absolute sincerity in her low voice. She went +on:—"Dr. O'Farrell has been talking to me about him. He seems a most +strange, unnatural child. The village people believe that he has +supernatural powers. Do you believe that?"</p> + +<p>"I don't quite know what I think about Timmy," he answered hesitatingly. +He felt acutely uncomfortable, also rather shocked that Dr. O'Farrell had +said anything about a child who might, after all, be regarded as his +patient. But Enid Crofton was looking at him very intently, and so he +went on:—</p> + +<p>"I've never spoken to any of them about it, but, yes, if you ask me for +my honest opinion, I do think the child has very peculiar powers."</p> + +<p>And then, all at once, Enid Crofton burst into tears. "Timmy terrifies +me," she sobbed. "I wish he never came near me! He hates me—I feel it +all the time. I'm sure he made that cat fly at me!"</p> + +<p>Radmore remained silent—he didn't know what to say, what to admit. He +wondered uncomfortably how she had come so near the truth.</p> + +<p>"Come, come," he said, bending forward, "you mustn't feel like that. I +don't think the child hates you, but I do think that he loves trying +experiments with that queer power of his. I'm afraid he wanted to see +whether the cat would behave as the dog had done."</p> + +<p>"That's what I mean," she exclaimed, dabbing her eyes, "that's exactly +what I mean! I don't want to hurt his feelings, or to make a fuss, but I +should be so grateful if you could manage to prevent his coming here. I +don't want to make you vain," she smiled, very winningly, "but sometimes +I do feel that 'two's company.' Since I've been here I've hardly ever +seen you alone. I used to enjoy our talks in London! I feel, I know that +you're the only friend I've got in Beechfield."</p> + +<p>"That's rather hard on Jack Tosswill," and though he smiled, he looked at +her significantly.</p> + +<p>Enid was so surprised that for a moment her composure gave way, and the +colour rushed into her pale face. Then she pulled herself together. "It +really hasn't been my fault," she said plaintively.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure it hasn't. But in a village one has to be careful. Would +it surprise you to hear that as I came along this morning, one of +the inhabitants of Beechfield spoke to me of you and Jack, and +suggested—forgive me for saying so—not only that the boy was very much +in love with you but that you—well—encouraged him!"</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton sat up. "I've always heard that villages were far more +wicked places than towns, and now I know it's true!"</p> + +<p>"Steady on," he said smiling, "forgive me for having repeated a silly bit +of gossip. But, after all, what you said just now is quite true—I am +your oldest friend by a long way, and so I feel I ought to give you a +word of warning. I do think the poor boy <i>is</i> very fond of you, eh?"</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton put out her hand and took his in hers. She squeezed it +convulsively. "I feel so miserable," she sobbed, "so miserable and +lonely!"</p> + +<p>"Do you, dear—" And then they both started violently, and Radmore moved +his chair away with a quick movement, for the door behind them had swung +open, and Jack Tosswill, quite unaware of the other man's presence, came +through it, and at once began speaking eagerly, excitedly, in a voice so +unlike his usual "home" voice that Radmore hardly recognised it:—</p> + +<p>"I'm so glad you're downstairs. I came this morning I hope you got +my—" and then he saw the other man, and checked himself abruptly.</p> + +<p>He had given the beloved woman he regarded as his future wife, his most +solemn word of honour that no one should suspect that they were more than +mere acquaintances. So, after a perceptible pause, he concluded, lamely, +"my step-mother's message."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did; thank you very much."</p> + +<p>He saw that she had been crying, and his heart welled up with tenderness, +and with angry, impatient annoyance against Radmore's presence.</p> + +<p>Why didn't the stupid fellow go? Surely he must realise, surely there +must be something in the atmosphere, which must tell even the blindest of +onlookers, how things were between him, Jack Tosswill, and the invalid?</p> + +<p>But Radmore was quite impervious to the atmosphere of emotion and +strain—or so it seemed. On and on he sat, Enid Crofton languidly making +conversation with them both in turn, until at last Rosamund came in, and +both men rose to leave together.</p> + +<p>And then something curious happened. Radmore, even while conscious that +he was a fool, felt a violent desire to see Enid Crofton again and very +soon, alone. He was trying to make up a form of words to convey this to +her before the other two, when good fortune seemed to favour him, for +brother and sister began—as they were wont to do—wrangling together.</p> + +<p>Seeing his opportunity he bent down a little over Mrs. Crofton's couch in +order to suggest to her that he should come again to-morrow. And then, in +a flash, the whole expression of his face altered and stiffened. Half +under the lace coverlet over the eiderdown a letter written on familiar +looking pale grey notepaper was sticking out, and he couldn't help +seeing the words:—"My own darling angel."</p> + +<p>Straightening himself quickly and hardly knowing what he was saying, he +exclaimed, "I do hope you'll soon feel all right again."</p> + +<p>And then he saw that she was aware of what had happened for she became +even whiter than she had been before. Every bit of colour fled from her +face—except for the unnaturally pink lips.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + + +<p>As he walked away from The Trellis House Radmore felt terribly disturbed, +and maddened with himself for feeling so disturbed.</p> + +<p>After all, Enid Crofton meant very little to him! He even told himself +that he had never really liked, still less respected, her and yet there +had been something that drove him on, that allured him, that made him +feel as he had felt to-night. But for the accident of his having seen +that letter from poor foolish Jack Tosswill he might, by this time +to-morrow, have been in the position of Enid Crofton's future husband! +The knowledge turned him sick.</p> + +<p>Just now he felt that he never wished to see her again.</p> + +<p>As he walked on, leaving the village behind him, and emerging on the +great common which stretched between Beechfield and the nearest railway +station—he asked himself whether or no it was possible that she had +genuinely fallen in love with Jack Tosswill?</p> + +<p>And then he stayed his steps suddenly. He had remembered the look of +terror, the look of being "found out," which had crossed her face, when +she had realised that he had seen that fatally revealing corner of her +love-letter.</p> + +<p>Why had she looked like that? And then, all at once, he knew. It was for +him that Enid Crofton had come to Beechfield, for him, or rather for his +money. He felt hideously disturbed as certain tiny past happenings +crowded on his memory. He felt he would give half his possessions were it +possible thereby to transplant The Trellis House hundreds of miles from +Beechfield.</p> + +<p>He threw a rueful thought to Jack Tosswill. Miss Pendarth had been right, +after all. That sort of experience might well embitter the whole of the +early life of such a priggish, self-centred youth; and while he was +chewing the cud of these painful, troubling thoughts there came a woman's +voice out of the darkness.</p> + +<p>"Does this lead on into Beechfield, sir? I want to find The Trellis +House. I've been there once before, but it was broad daylight then."</p> + +<p>Radmore peered at the speaker: a thin, medium-sized woman she seemed to +be; obviously not one of the country folk—by her accent a Londoner.</p> + +<p>"Go straight on, and in about a quarter of an hour, you'll find The +Trellis House on your right. But you'd better enquire as soon as you get +into the village itself. Is it Mrs. Crofton's house that you want to +find?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's the place I'm bound for," said the woman.</p> + +<p>"Look here," said Radmore good-naturedly. "I was only going for a walk. +I'll take you along to The Trellis House. You might easily miss it."</p> + +<p>He turned, and they began walking along the road side by side.</p> + +<p>"I suppose Mrs. Crofton 'asn't gone away yet, I'm sure to find 'er there, +sir?" There was a doubting, almost a resentful, tone in the mincing +voice.</p> + +<p>"I think she's at home. Isn't she expecting you?" Radmore had taken the +woman for a superior servant.</p> + +<p>"She's not expecting me exactly, but me and my 'usband have been 'oping +for a letter from Mrs. Crofton. As nothing's come, I thought I'd just +come down and see 'er. My 'usband asked 'er to get the address of a +gentleman who 'e thinks might 'elp 'im—Major Radmore. I don't suppose +as what you've ever 'eard of 'im, sir?"</p> + +<p>Radmore said quietly, "I know Major Radmore rather well. May I ask your +name?"</p> + +<p>She hesitated, then answered:—"Mrs. Piper, sir. My 'usband was Colonel +Crofton's dog-breeding assistant, and 'e's about to start for 'imself in +the same line, if 'e can get the money that's been promised 'im. If 'e +can't get that money—well, 'e'll have to go into service again, and 'e +thought that Major Radmore, who's a kind, generous gentleman, might 'elp +'im to a job."</p> + +<p>Radmore felt amused, interested, and, yes, a little touched. Evidently +his distaste for Piper had not been reciprocal.</p> + +<p>"I suppose to start dog-breeding requires a good bit of money," he said.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, it's this way. Fancy dogs fetch a good bit more money than +they did. Such a lot o' breeding stopped during the War. But what with +one thing and another, and prices 'aving gone up so, Piper says 'twould +be no good going in for such a thing under a matter of £500. But we've +got good hopes of getting the money," said the woman composedly.</p> + +<p>"Have you indeed?"</p> + +<p>Then he felt rather ashamed of the little game he was playing with this +no doubt excellent woman.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Mrs. Piper," he exclaimed, "perhaps I ought to tell you +frankly that <i>my</i> name is Radmore. I no longer call myself 'Major +Radmore.' My address for the present is Old Place, Beechfield. But +Beechfield alone would find me, and I hope your husband will let me +know if I can do anything for him."</p> + +<p>"There now! Could one ever hope for such a thing coming to pass as my +meeting you, sir, accidental like?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Piper was genuinely moved and excited. She felt that Providence, in +whom she only believed when she was in trouble, had done her a good turn. +For a moment or two she remained silent, thinking intently, wondering +whether she dared take advantage of this extraordinary chance—a chance +that might never occur again.</p> + +<p>"I take it, sir," she said at last, "that you are a friend of Mrs. +Crofton's?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I am well acquainted with the lady you name." There came a +tone of reserve, instantly detected by the woman's quick ear and quicker +mind, into the speaker's voice. "And I had a great regard for your +husband's late employer, Colonel Crofton," he added.</p> + +<p>"Aye, 'e was a good gentleman and no mistake," said Mrs. Piper feelingly.</p> + +<p>She was wondering how far she dare go. She knew the man walking by her +side was very rich; Piper had called him a millionaire.</p> + +<p>"I 'ope you won't think me troublesome, sir, if I tells you 'ow matters +are between Mrs. Crofton and my 'usband?"</p> + +<p>There came no immediate answer to her question. Still she decided to go +on.</p> + +<p>"Piper was with the Colonel a long time, sir. And after the poor +gentleman's death Mrs. Crofton promised Piper that she'd oblige 'im in +the matter of financing 'is new business."</p> + +<p>Radmore was very much surprised. He felt certain that Enid Crofton had +no money to spare, then he told himself that women are sometimes very +foolish, especially if any matter of sentiment is in question. But +somehow he would not have thought that particular woman would ever be +tempted to show herself impulsively generous.</p> + +<p>"You spoke just now, Mrs. Piper, as if there was some doubt about the +money?"</p> + +<p>"Did I, sir? Well, one can never tell in this world. But I think Mrs. +Crofton <i>will</i> find the money." She added, almost in a whisper, "It's to +'er interest to do so, sir."</p> + +<p>"To her interest?" repeated Radmore. "What exactly do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"I don't quite understand it myself, sir." Mrs. Piper spoke with a touch +of light indifference in her voice, "Piper don't tell me very much. I was +in Islington, conducting a little business I've got, when Colonel Crofton +came by 'is sad death. Mrs. Crofton spoke to Piper most feelingly, sir, +about the service 'e'd done her by what 'e said at the inquest. I've +always 'ad my belief, sir, that Piper might 'ave said something more and +different that would have been, maybe, awkward for Mrs. Crofton." She +waited a moment, realising that she had burnt her boats. "Do you take my +meaning, sir?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Radmore sternly, "I don't take your meaning at all, Mrs. +Piper. I don't in the least understand what you meant to imply just now."</p> + +<p>A most disturbing suspicion had begun to assail him. Was this woman, with +her low, mincing voice, and carefully chosen words, something of a +blackmailer?</p> + +<p>They walked on in silence for a few minutes, and on her side, Mrs. Piper +began to doubt very much whether she had acted for the best in being so +honest—"honest" was the word she used to herself. But she told herself +that now she had started, perhaps she had better go straight on with it.</p> + +<p>"It's my belief that Piper did ask Mrs. Crofton to speak to you, sir, +about the matter, and I thought, maybe, that she 'ad done so. 'Ave I your +permission to say, sir, that I met you in the road, and that the subject +cropped up as it were?"</p> + +<p>"You can say anything you like," said Radmore coldly.</p> + +<p>He could not ask this strange, sinister woman to remain silent, yet the +thought that Enid Crofton was about to be told that he and this Mrs. +Piper had discussed her affairs was very disagreeable to him.</p> + +<p>Radmore was tempted for a moment to do a quixotic act, to say to the +woman, "I will find this money for your husband; don't trouble Mrs. +Crofton," and but for what had happened not an hour ago he would almost +certainly have done so. But now he felt as if he never wanted to hear +Enid Crofton's name mentioned again, and he would have given a good deal +to obliterate her and her concerns entirely from his memory.</p> + +<p>They were now, much to his relief, close to The Trellis House: "I will +ring the bell for you," he said courteously, and then, without waiting +for her thanks, he hurried off towards Old Place.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The next evening Jack Tosswill drew Radmore aside. "Look here," he said +awkwardly, "I wonder if you'd kindly wait a bit after the others have +gone to bed? I want to ask you something, Godfrey."</p> + +<p>"Of course I will, old chap." Radmore looked hard into the young man's +moody, troubled face, and came to a certain conclusion. Doubtless Enid +Crofton had given Jack his dismissal, and the foolish fellow was going to +pour it all out. He felt he was in for a disagreeable, not to say +painful, half hour. Few people of a kindly disposition even reach the age +Radmore had reached without having had more than one such talk with a +young man crossed in love.</p> + +<p>As soon as they settled themselves down, each with his pipe, in front +of the drawing-room fire, Jack began, speaking obviously with a great +effort, and yet with a directness and honesty which the older man +admired:—</p> + +<p>"Look here, Godfrey? It's no use beating about the bush. I want to know +if you can lend me £500, and I want to say at once that I don't know when +I shall be able to pay you back. Still, I shall be able to pay you +interest. I suppose one pays the bank rate? I don't know anything about +those things. Of course, you may ask why don't I go to my father, but—"</p> + +<p>Radmore stopped him. "It's all right, old chap. I'll give you a cheque +this evening before we go to bed."</p> + +<p>"I say—" Jack turned round. "You're a good fellow, Radmore; I wouldn't +do it, only—only—"</p> + +<p>"I know," said Radmore coolly. "I quite realise it isn't for yourself. I +suppose it's to oblige a pal. You needn't tell me anything more about it. +As a matter of fact I meant to ask you whether you'd take a present from +me of just that sum. I don't suppose you know how I feel about you all. +George and I were just like brothers. He'd have given me anything."</p> + +<p>"No, no! I want this to be a business transaction, Godfrey." He said the +words just a little fiercely.</p> + +<p>"So it shall be—if you want it that way. I'll go and get my cheque book +now."</p> + +<p>When he came back, the cheque made out in his hand, he said thoughtfully, +"I hope your friend hasn't got into the sort of scrape which means that +one has to pay money of a—well, of a blackmailing sort? There's no end +to <i>that</i>, you know."</p> + +<p>Jack Tosswill looked surprised. "Good Heavens, no! He's only being rushed +over a bill—legal proceedings threatened—you know the sort of thing?"</p> + +<p>"I've made out the cheque to self and endorsed it," observed Radmore.</p> + +<p>"Thanks awfully. You <i>are</i> a good sort. I am far more grateful than I can +say, far more than—than—if it was only for myself—"</p> + +<p>He stopped abruptly, and there was an awkward pause. Then Jack, speaking +rather breathlessly, asked an odd question:—</p> + +<p>"You knew Crofton very well, didn't you, Godfrey? What kind of a chap was +he?"</p> + +<p>He brought out the question with an effort. But he did so want to know! +For the first time in his self-confident, comfortable, young life Jack +Tosswill was in love and full of painful, poignant, retrospective +jealousy.</p> + +<p>Radmore looked away, instinctively. "I liked Colonel Crofton, I always +got on with him—but he was not popular. He was not at all happy when I +knew him, and unhappy people are rarely popular."</p> + +<p>He was wondering whether he had better say anything to Jack—whether the +favour he had just done him gave him the right to speak.</p> + +<p>"I suppose he was at least thirty years older than Mrs. Crofton?"</p> + +<p>Radmore nodded, and then they neither spoke for a few moments. Each was +waiting for the other to say something, and at last Jack asked another +question.</p> + +<p>"They didn't get on very well together, did they?"</p> + +<p>"When I first knew them they seemed to be all right. But he was very +jealous of her, and he had cause to be, for most of the fellows out there +were in love with her, and well, not to put too fine a point on it, she +liked it!" He hesitated. "She was rather too fond of telling people that +her husband wasn't quite kind to her."</p> + +<p>"I think that was very natural of her!" exclaimed Jack, and Radmore felt +a surge of pity for the young fellow. Still he forced himself to go on: +"It's no use pretending. She was—and still is—a tremendous flirt."</p> + +<p>Jack made a restless movement.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid you think me rather a cad for saying that, and I wouldn't say +it to anyone but you. She was bred in a bad school—brought up, so I +understood from a man who had known her as a girl, in Southsea, by a +widowed mother as pretty as herself. Her first husband—"</p> + +<p>"But—but surely Colonel Crofton was her first husband?"</p> + +<p>"No," again Radmore avoided looking at his companion, "she's been married +twice. Her first husband, a good-looking young chap in the 11th Hussars, +died quite soon after the marriage, the two of them having 'blued' all +they had between them. I suppose she foolishly thought there was nothing +left for it but for her to marry Colonel Crofton. And the real trouble +was that Colonel Crofton was poor. I fancy they'd have got on perfectly +well if he had had pots of money."</p> + +<p>"I—I don't agree to that," Jack said hotly.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid it's true. But we really oughtn't to discuss a woman, even as +we are doing now. The only excuse is that we're both so fond of her," +said Radmore lightly.</p> + +<p>But even as he spoke he felt heavy-hearted. Jack Tosswill had got it very +badly, far worse than he had suspected, and somehow he didn't believe +that the medicine he had just administered had done the young man any +good.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + + +<p>Two days went by, and now Saturday had come round again.</p> + +<p>In a sense nothing had happened during those two days, and to some of the +inmates of Old Place the week had seemed extremely long and dull.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Crofton had suddenly gone up to town for two nights, and both Jack +and Rosamund, in their very different ways, felt depressed and lonely in +consequence. But she was coming back to-day, and Rosamund was going to +meet her at the station with the Old Place pony cart.</p> + +<p>At breakfast Rosamund suggested that perhaps Godfrey might like to motor +her there instead, but to her vexation he didn't "rise" at all. He simply +observed, rather shortly, that he was going on a rather long business +expedition: and Rosamund retorted, pertly, "Business on a Saturday? How +strange!" to receive the dry reply: "Yes, it does seem strange, doesn't +it?"</p> + +<p>Half an hour later Betty and Timmy were busily engaged in washing up the +breakfast things when Godfrey Radmore strolled into the scullery.</p> + +<p>"I thought that I was always to be in on this act?" he exclaimed. And it +was true that he had fallen into the way of helping to wash up, turning +what had always been a very boresome task into what Timmy to himself +called "great fun" for while Radmore washed and dried the plates and +dishes, he told them funny things about some of his early experiences in +Australia.</p> + +<p>"We've done quite well without you. We're nearly through," said Betty +merrily. Somehow she felt extraordinarily light-hearted to-day.</p> + +<p>Her visitor—for very well she knew he was her visitor rather than +Timmy's—came a little nearer, and shut the scullery door behind him.</p> + +<p>"Look here," he said mysteriously, "I want just us three to take a secret +expedition to-day. I think I've found my house of dreams! If you'll then +both run upstairs and put on your things, we could go there and be back +in quite good time for tea."</p> + +<p>"For tea?" repeated Betty, startled. "But who would look after lunch?"</p> + +<p>"There's plenty of delicious cold mutton in the house," said Radmore +decidedly. He added with a certain touch of cunning: "I did ask your +mother, Timmy, if she'd come too, but she can't leave the house this +morning: she's expecting a very important telephone message—something +to do with the garden. She'll see about lunch, for she's particularly +anxious,"—he turned to Betty,—"that <i>you</i> should have a good blow this +time. We shall get a little lunch while we are out, and be home by four."</p> + +<p>"Let's take lunch with us," broke in Timmy eagerly. "We can eat it +anywhere." He had always had a passion for picnics.</p> + +<p>Betty was the last human being to make any unnecessary fuss. Also, +somehow, she felt as if to-day was not quite like other days. She could +not have told why. "All right. I'll cut some sandwiches, and then I'll go +and get ready," she said.</p> + +<p>Janet was in the hall when Betty came down.</p> + +<p>"That's right," she said heartily, "I'm glad you're going to have a real +outing at last!"</p> + +<p>She took the girl in her arms and kissed her, and Betty felt touched. Her +step-mother was not given to affectionate demonstration. And then, all at +once, Janet looked round and said in a low voice: "Betty, I'm dreadfully +worried about Jack. D'you think it's conceivably possible that there's +anything <i>serious</i> between him and Mrs. Crofton?"</p> + +<p>Betty hardly knew what to answer. For some days past she had felt quite +sure that there was something between those two. Jack had been so odd, so +unlike himself, and once he had said to her, "Betty, I do wish you'd make +friends with Mrs. Crofton. After all you're my sister ..." and then they +had been, perhaps fortunately, interrupted. But if there was anything +between Jack and the fascinating widow, Rosamund, who was so devoted to +Enid Crofton, knew nothing of it.</p> + +<p>"I really can't say," she answered at last, "I've hardly ever felt so +doubtful about anything in my life! Sometimes I think there is, and +sometimes I think there isn't."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid there's no doubt as to what <i>he</i> feels. I happen to know +she's just had a very good offer for The Trellis House—seven guineas a +week for six months. But she seems to have settled in here for good and +all, doesn't she?"</p> + +<p>"I wonder if she really has," said Betty. And then she grew a little +pink.</p> + +<p>Deep in her heart she had felt quite convinced that Mrs. Crofton had come +to Beechfield for Godfrey Radmore, and for no other reason. Now she +wondered if she had been unjust.</p> + +<p>"How I wish she'd stay away <i>now</i>, even for a few days longer!" exclaimed +Janet.</p> + +<p>At that moment Timmy rushed into the hall, Radmore drove up in his motor, +and in a couple of minutes the three were off—Janet looking after them, +a touch of wistful longing and anxiety in her kind heart.</p> + +<p>She had hoped somehow, that Godfrey would persuade Betty to go alone with +him to-day, and she was wondering now whether she could have said a word +to Timmy. Her child was so unlike other little boys. If selfish, he was +very understanding where the few people he cared for were concerned, and +his mother had never known him to give her away.</p> + +<p>But the harm, if harm there was, was done now, and for some things she +was not sorry to get rid of Timmy for some hours. There had arisen +between the boy and his eldest half-brother a disagreeable state of +tension. Timmy seemed to take pleasure in teasing Jack, and Jack was +not in the humour to bear even the smallest practical joke just now.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>On and on sped the party in the motor, Timmy sitting by his godfather in +front, Betty, in lonely state, behind.</p> + +<p>They hadn't gone very far before the countryside began to have all the +charm of strangeness to Betty Tosswill, and she found herself enjoying +the change of scene as only a person who has been cooped up in one +familiar place for a considerable time can enjoy it.</p> + +<p>"Why, we must be on the borders of Sussex!" she called out, at a point +where Radmore, slowing down, was consulting a sign-post. He turned round +and nodded.</p> + +<p>They started again. And then something rather absurd happened. Betty's +hat blew off! It was an ordinary, rather floppy hat, and she had tied it +on, as she thought, securely with a veil under her chin.</p> + +<p>Both Timmy and Radmore jumped out to pick the hat up, and as they came +back towards the car, Timmy exclaimed: "It's a shame that Betty hasn't +got a proper motor bonnet! Rosamund's got a lovely one."</p> + +<p>"Why hasn't Betty got one?"</p> + +<p>"Because they're so expensive," said Timmy simply. He went on, "When I've +got lots of money, I shall give Betty heaps of beautiful clothes; but +only one very plain dress apiece to Rosamund and Dolly."</p> + +<p>"Betty! You ought to have a motor bonnet," called out Radmore as he came +up to the car.</p> + +<p>Her fair hair, blowing in the wind, formed an aureole round her face. She +looked very, very different to the staid Betty of Old Place.</p> + +<p>She answered merrily: "So I will when my ship comes home! I had one +before the War, and I stupidly gave it away."</p> + +<p>"Surely we might get one somewhere to-day," suggested Radmore.</p> + +<p>"Get one to-day—what an extraordinary idea? Motor bonnets don't grow on +hedges—"</p> + +<p>But when they were going through—was it Horsham?—Radmore, alone of the +three, espied a funny little shop. It was called "The Bandbox": its +woodwork was painted bright green, and in the window were three hats.</p> + +<p>"Now then," he exclaimed, slowing down, "this, I take it, is where motor +bonnets grow. At any rate we'll get down and see."</p> + +<p>"What a lark!" cried Timmy delightedly. "Please, <i>please</i> Betty, don't +make yourself disagreeable—don't be a 'govvey'!"</p> + +<p>And Betty, not wishing to be a "govvey," got out of the car.</p> + +<p>"But I've no money with me," she began.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't let you pay for what's going to be a present," said Radmore +shortly. "You're the only inhabitant of Old Place to whom I haven't given +a present since I've been home."</p> + +<p>Home? It gave Betty such pleasure to hear him call it that.</p> + +<p>They all three marched into the tiny shop where the owner of "The +Bandbox," described by Timmy to his mother, later, as a "rather +spidery-looking, real lady," sat sewing.</p> + +<p>She received them with a mixture of condescension and pleasure at the +thought of a new customer, which diverted Radmore, who was new to the +phenomenon of the lady shopkeeper. But when it came to business, she +took a very great deal of trouble, bringing out what seemed, at the time, +the whole of her considerable stock, for "The Bandbox" was cleverly lined +with deep, dust-proof cupboards.</p> + +<p>At last she produced a quaint-looking little blue and purple bonnet, with +an exquisitely soft long motor veil of grey chiffon.</p> + +<p>"My sister is at Monte Carlo," she observed, "and when she was passing +through Paris she got me a dozen early autumn models. I have already +copied this model in other colours, but this is the original motor +bonnet. May I advise that you try it on?"</p> + +<p>It was in its way a delightful bit of colour, and Betty hardly knew +herself when she looked in the glass and saw what a very pretty +reflection was presented there. She was startled—but oh, how pleasantly +startled—to see how young she still could look.</p> + +<p>"Of course you must have that one," said Radmore, in a matter of fact +tone, "and leave the horrid thing you wore coming here behind you." Then +he turned to Timmy:—"Now then, don't you think <i>you</i> could choose +something for your mother?"</p> + +<p>The lady of the shop turned patronisingly towards the little boy. She +went across to a corner cupboard and opened what appeared to be a rather +secret receptacle. Though she had not been in business long, she already +realised what an advantage it is to deal, as regards feminine fripperies, +with a man-customer. Also, Radmore, almost in spite of himself, looked +opulent.</p> + +<p>"I think I have the very thing!" she explained. "It's a little on the +fantastic side, and so only suits a certain type of face."</p> + +<p>As she spoke she brought out a miniature brown poke bonnet which was +wreathed with one uncurled ostrich feather of a peculiar powder blue +tint. She put it deftly on Betty's head, then stepped back and gazed +delightedly into the smiling face and dancing eyes of her new client.</p> + +<p>"I have kept this back," she began, "hoping I should come across a +bride-elect whom it might really suit, for it would make a perfect +'going-away' hat! But it is so extraordinarily becoming to <i>this</i> lady, +that I feel I ought to let <i>her</i> have it!"</p> + +<p>She turned appealingly to Radmore, but Timmy intervened:—"That's not my +mother!" he cried, going off into fits of laughter. "We want a hat for my +<i>mother</i>. That's only my sister!"</p> + +<p>The shop-lady looked vexed, and Radmore felt awkward. He realised that he +and Betty had been taken for husband and wife, Timmy for their spoilt +little boy.</p> + +<p>"I'm quite sure I could find something that would suit Janet," exclaimed +Betty, hastily taking off the delightful bit of headgear.</p> + +<p>She put on the motor bonnet again, and then she went over to where a +black garden hat, with just one rose on the brim, and with long blue +velvet strings, was lying on a table.</p> + +<p>"I think Timmy's mother would look very nice in this," she said smiling.</p> + +<p>The black hat was slipped into a big paper-bag, and handed to Timmy. Then +Radmore exclaimed: "Now then, we've no time to lose! Help your sister +into the car, Timmy, while I stop behind and pay the bill."</p> + +<p>The bill did not take a minute to make out, and Radmore was rather +surprised to find that the three hats—for he bought three—cost him not +far short of fifteen pounds between them, though the lady observed +pleasantly, "Of course I can afford to sell my hats at a <i>much</i> less +price than London people charge."</p> + +<p>To Betty's eyes, Godfrey looked rather funny when he came out of the gay +little painted door with a flower-covered bandbox slung over his right +arm.</p> + +<p>She had thought it just a little mean that the shop-woman should give +Timmy Janet's hat in a paper-bag. Though Betty would have been horrified +indeed at the prices paid by Radmore, she yet suspected that "The +Bandbox" lady asked quite enough for her pretty wares to be able to throw +in a cardboard box, so "Is that for Janet's hat?" she called out.</p> + +<p>"This," he said, looking up at her, "is that queer-looking brown thing +with the blue feather that suited you so well. Of course I meant you to +have it too."</p> + +<p>Betty felt at once disturbed, and yet, absurdly pleased. "I'm afraid it +was very expensive," she began. And then suddenly Radmore told himself +that after all the poke bonnet had been cheap indeed if the thought of it +could bring such a sparkle into Betty's eyes, and such a vivid while +delicate colour to her cheeks.</p> + +<p>There came a day, as a matter of fact the day when Betty wore that +quaint-looking bonnet for the first time, when she did venture to ask +Godfrey what it had cost. He refused to tell her, simply saying that +whatever he had paid he had had the best of the bargain as it had been +worth its weight in gold. Even so it is very unlikely that she will ever +know what that queer little bonnet, which she intends to keep as long as +she lives, really meant to Godfrey Radmore—how it had suddenly made him +feel that here was the young Betty of nine years ago come back, never to +disappear into the mists of time again.</p> + +<p>Something else happened in the High Street of that little Sussex town. +Radmore decided that it was Timmy's turn to sit behind, and the boy gave +in with a fairly good grace; though after they had left the houses behind +them and were again moving swiftly between brown hedges, he called out +patronisingly:—"The back of your head looks very nice now, Betty—quite +different to what it looked in that horrid old hat you left in the shop."</p> + +<p>At last the car slowed down in front of a gate, on one side of which was +a big board. On this board was painted a statement to the effect that the +historic estate of Doryford House was to be let or sold, furnished or +unfurnished, "Apply to the principal London agents."</p> + +<p>The finding of the place had not been quite easy, and Radmore drew a +breath of relief as he helped Betty down.</p> + +<p>"When Timmy and I were last here," he said hurriedly, "there was a child +very ill at the lodge. So I think I'd better go and just find how things +are."</p> + +<p>He was hoping with all his heart that the news he would see on the +mother's face would be good news. Somehow he felt that it would be of +happy augury for himself.</p> + +<p>As he rang the bell his heart was beating—a feeling of acute suspense +had suddenly come over him, of which he was secretly ashamed, for it was +almost entirely a selfish distress. And then, when the door opened, he +saw that all was well, for the young woman's worn face was radiant.</p> + +<p>"Is that you, sir? Oh, I did hope that you would come again!" she +exclaimed, "The doctor says that my little girl's certain to get well. I +was terrible anxious the day before yesterday, but now though she's weak +and wan, you'd hardly know she'd been bad, sir."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if you could give me the keys of Doryford House?" began +Radmore. "I want to go over it, and we need not trouble you to come with +us."</p> + +<p>"I'm supposed always to go up with visitors," she said hesitatingly, +"even if I leaves them there," but she looked troubled at the thought of +leaving her child. Then, all at once, Radmore had a happy inspiration.</p> + +<p>"Would you feel easier if we left the little boy we've brought with us in +charge? He's very intelligent. He might sit in your kitchen."</p> + +<p>She looked across to where Betty Tosswill and Timmy were standing. "Why, +yes!" she exclaimed, relieved. "If the young gentleman don't mind, +perhaps he would sit with Rosie. 'Tain't nothing infectious, you know, +sir, and it would please her like to have a visitor. She's got a book in +which there's a picture of a little sick girl and someone coming to see +her. She said to me yesterday, 'No one comes to see me, mother, 'cepting +doctor.'"</p> + +<p>Radmore went off to the other two.</p> + +<p>"The woman evidently feels that she ought to come up herself to the +house. But she's nervous about leaving her little girl. I was wondering +whether Timmy would mind staying and amusing the child? We might have +our picnic in the house itself, if it's in any way possible."</p> + +<p>"What sort of a little girl is she?" began Timmy, but his godfather cut +him short.</p> + +<p>"Never mind what sort of a little girl she is—she's longing for a +visitor, and you will be the first one to see her since she's been ill."</p> + +<p>He turned to Betty. "Perhaps you'd like to go in and see what sort of a +place it is? Meanwhile I'll open the gate and get the car through."</p> + +<p>Betty and Timmy followed the woman through the kitchen of the lodge to a +bedroom, where lay a pale-faced little girl of six. On the patchwork +counterpane were a pair of scissors and a big sheet of paper. It was +evident that the child had been trying to amuse herself by cutting out +patterns. As the visitors came in, she sat up, and her little face +flushed with joy. Here was her dream come true! Here were some +visitors—a beautiful lady in a peculiarly lovely blue bonnet, and a +pleasant-looking young gentleman too!</p> + +<p>Timmy, who was quite unshy, went up to her bedside. "Good-morning," he +said in a polite, old-fashioned way. "I'm sorry you're ill, and I hope +you'll soon be quite well. I've come to look after you while your mother +goes up to the house with my godfather and my sister. If you like, I'll +cut you some beautiful fairy figures out of that paper, and then we can +pretend they're dancing."</p> + +<p>He looked round and espied a chair, which he brought up close to the bed.</p> + +<p>Rosie was far too excited and shy to speak.</p> + +<p>"What's your name?" he began. "Mine is Timothy Godfrey Radmore Tosswill."</p> + +<p>The little girl whispered "Rosamund."</p> + +<p>"I've got a sister called Rosamund; now, isn't that curious?" cried +Timmy.</p> + +<p>He had already seized the scissors, and was engaged in cutting out some +quaint, fantastic looking little figures.</p> + +<p>After the others had left the room, Rosamund's mother turned to Betty. "I +never saw such a nice, kind, young gentleman!" she exclaimed. "He fair +took my breath away—a regular little doctor he'd make."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Houses are like people—they have their day, their hour, even, one feels +inclined to add, their moods of sadness and of joy, of brightness and of +dulness.</p> + +<p>To-day the white Corinthian-looking building called Doryford House was at +its best, in the soft lambent light of an autumn day. For a moment, when +the long, pillared building first came into view, Radmore had felt a +thrill of unreasonable disappointment. He had hoped, somehow, for a +red-brick manor-house—a kind of glorified Old Place. But a few minutes +later, when the mahogany front doors had been unlocked, and they passed +into a light, circular hall and so into a delightful-looking sunny +drawing-room filled with enchanting examples of 18th century furniture, +he began to think that this was, after all, a very attractive house.</p> + +<p>"In what wonderful order everything seems to be!" he exclaimed. "Have the +people to whom the place belongs only just left it?"</p> + +<p>"It's this way, sir. The gentleman to whom it belongs has several other +homes—he don't care for this place at all. But it's all kep' up +proper—one of the gardeners sees to the furnace—and about all this here +furniture, anybody who takes the house unfurnished, or buys the place, +will be able to keep what they likes at a valuation. Perhaps you and your +lady would like to go over the house by yourselves? People often do, I +notice. If you'll excuse me, I'll just nip away. I wants to go to the +village for a few minutes—that is if your little boy will be so kind as +to stay with my Rosie till I'm back."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure he will," said Radmore heartily. He told himself that it was +very natural that everyone should think that he and Betty were married.</p> + +<p>The front door shut behind the caretaker, and the two left behind began +going through the ground floor of the great empty house. Their progress +gave Betty an eerie feeling. She felt as if she was in a kind of dream; +the more so that this was quite unlike any country house into which she +had ever been.</p> + +<p>They finally came to the last living-room of all, and both exclaimed +together: "This is the room I like best of all!"</p> + +<p>It was an octagon library, lined with mahogany bookcases filled with +bound books which looked as though they hadn't been disturbed for fifty +years. The wide, fan-shaped window looked out on a formal rose garden.</p> + +<p>And then, all at once, Radmore's quick eye detected a concealed door in +the wall, on which there were encrusted the sham book titles often to be +found on the doors of an old country home library. Quickly he went across +and, opening it, found it gave straight on to a corkscrew staircase.</p> + +<p>Filled with a queer sense of adventure, he motioned Betty to go up first, +in front of him.</p> + +<p>The staircase led up to a tiny lobby, into which opened a most beautiful +bedchamber, a replica as to shape and size of the library beneath.</p> + +<p>The furniture there interested Betty, for she had never seen anything +like it, except once in a château near Arras. It was First Empire, and on +the pin-cushion, lying on the ornate dressing-table, someone had written +in a fine Italian hand on an envelope, the words: "This room was +furnished from Paris in 1810. The bed is a replica of a bed made for the +Empress Josephine."</p> + +<p>They went on through many of the rooms on the upper floor, full to-day of +still, sunny late autumn charm.</p> + +<p>Radmore scarcely spoke at all during their curious progress through the +empty house, and Betty still felt as if in a dream. She had asked herself +again and again if he could really be thinking of buying this stately +mansion.</p> + +<p>The mere possibility of such a thing meant that he must be thinking of +marrying Mrs. Crofton, and also that he must be much richer than any of +them knew.</p> + +<p>At last they came down a wide staircase which terminated in a corridor +leading into the circular hall, and then it was Betty who broke what was +becoming an oppressive silence:</p> + +<p>"Shall we go on and see the kitchen and the servants' quarters, Godfrey?"</p> + +<p>"No; they're sure to be all right."</p> + +<p>Again came what seemed to Betty a long, unnatural silence.</p> + +<p>"Do you really like the house?" he asked at last.</p> + +<p>"I like it very much," she said frankly. "But wouldn't it cost a +tremendous lot of money, Godfrey? It would be a pity not to buy it +exactly as it stands. It all seems so—so—"</p> + +<p>"I know! As if the furniture had grown there," he broke in.</p> + +<p>"So beautiful and so—so unusual," Betty went on diffidently.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I'm a commonplace person, Betty. I like a room to be +beautiful, but I like comfort, and I think this is a very comfortable +house. I feel, somehow, as if happy, good people had lived here. I like +that, too."</p> + +<p>He was standing by one of the round pillars which carried out the type of +architecture which had been the fashion at the time Doryford was built; +and he was gazing at her with what seemed to her a rather odd expression +on his dark face. Was he going to tell her of his hopes or intention with +regard to Mrs. Crofton?</p> + +<p>Betty felt, for the first time that day, intensely shy. She walked away, +towards the big half-moon window opposite the front door. A wide grass +gallop, bordered with splendid old trees, stretched out as if +illimitable, and she began gazing down it with unseeing eyes.</p> + +<p>He came quickly across the hall, and stood by her. Then he said slowly, +"I'm wondering, wondering, wondering if I shall ever be in this house +again!"</p> + +<p>"You must think it well over," she began.</p> + +<p>But he cut her short. "It depends on <i>you</i> whether Doryford becomes my +home or not."</p> + +<p>"On me?" she repeated, troubled. "Don't trust to my taste as much as +that, Godfrey."</p> + +<p>"But you do like it?" he asked insistently.</p> + +<p>"Of course I like it. If it comes to that, I don't know that I've ever +been in so beautiful and perfect a house. And then, well perhaps because +we've everything so shabby at Old Place, I do like to see everything in +such apple-pie order!"</p> + +<p>A little disappointed, he went on, "I fear it isn't your ideal house, +Betty? Not your house of dreams?"</p> + +<p>And then, all at once, she knew that she couldn't answer him, for tears +had welled up in her eyes, and choked her speech.</p> + +<p>Her house of dreams? Betty Tosswill's house of dreams had vanished, she +thought, for ever, so very long ago. Betty's house of dreams had been +quite a small house—but such a cosy, happy place, full of the Godfrey +of long ago, and of good, delicious dream children....</p> + +<p>She turned her head away.</p> + +<p>"Well," he exclaimed, "that's that! We won't think about this house +again. We'll go and look at another place to-morrow."</p> + +<p>His matter-of-fact, rather cross, tone made her pull herself together. +What a baby he was after all!</p> + +<p>"Don't be absurd, Godfrey. I don't believe if we were to look England +through, that I should see a house I thought more delightful than this +house. I'm a little overawed by it, that's all! You see I've never dwelt +in marble halls—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, one gets used to that!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I expect one does."</p> + +<p>"Whether I buy this place depends on you," he said obstinately.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, if I'm to decide, I say buy it!" She turned and smiled at +him a little tremulously, keeping her head well down—her face shadowed +by the deep brim of her motor-bonnet.</p> + +<p>More and more was this like a scene out of a dream to Betty Tosswill. In +a way, it was, of course, natural that she and Godfrey should be alone, +and that he should turn to her as his closest friend. And yet it seemed +strange and unnatural, too. But Betty had a very generous nature—and to +this man, who was looking at her with such an eager, searching look, she +felt in a peculiar relation. So she repeated, with greater ease and +lightness, "Let's settle, here and now, that this is to be the future +residence of Godfrey Radmore, Esquire! Timmy's a little bit like a cat, +you know. He'll simply adore this house. He'll love all the pretty things +in it. Perhaps you'd run him up in the motor presently, while I stay with +the little girl and that nice woman?"</p> + +<p>And then all at once he took a step forward and roughly took her two +hands in his: "Betty," he said, "don't you understand? I shall never +enter this house again unless you're willing to come and share it with +me. No place would be home to me without you in it. Why, Old Place is +only home now because you're there."</p> + +<p>She looked at him with a long, searching, measuring look; a look that +was, unconsciously, full of questioning; but her hands remained in his +strong grasp.</p> + +<p>"Don't you know that I've always been yours?" he asked—"that I shall +always be yours even if you won't have me—even if I end by marrying +another woman, as I daresay I shall do if you won't have me, for I'm a +lonely chap—" And then something in her face made him add: "Try to love +me again, Betty. I want you to say to yourself—'a poor thing but mine +own.' Do, my dear."</p> + +<p>And then Betty burst out crying, and found herself clasped in his arms, +strained to his heart, while his lips sought and found her soft, +tremulous mouth.</p> + +<p>He was gentle with her, gentle and strangely restrained. And yet as the +happy moments went by in that silent, sunny house, something deep in her +still troubled heart told her that Radmore really loved her—loved her as +perhaps he had not loved her ten years ago, in his hot, selfish, +impulsive youth.</p> + +<p>"We needn't tell anyone for a little while, need we?" she whispered at +last.</p> + +<p>She had shared her life, given her services to so many during the last +nine years, and she longed to keep this strange new joy a secret for a +while.</p> + +<p>"If you like, we need never tell them at all," he answered. "We can just +go out, find a church, and be married!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; that wouldn't be fair to Janet." And yet the notion of doing +this fascinated her.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + + +<p>And meanwhile what had been going on at Old Place? Outwardly very little, +yet one long-expected, though when it happened, surprising, thing had +occurred. Also Janet, as the day went on, felt more and more worried +about Jack.</p> + +<p>He wandered in and out of the house like an unhappy, unquiet spirit, for +the sudden departure of Enid Crofton for London two days before had taken +him utterly by surprise, the more so that she had left no address, and +he was suspicious of—he knew not what! It was reasonable to suppose she +had gone to pay the debt for which he had provided the money; but then +why keep her address in town secret from him?</p> + +<p>At last, this morning, there had come a postcard to Rosamund, asking to +be met at the station, alone, with the Old Place pony-cart. It was a +reasonable request, for the funny little vehicle only held two people and +a minute quantity of luggage. Still Jack had felt annoyed she had not +asked him to meet her. She seemed to him absurdly over-cautious.</p> + +<p>About ten minutes before the motoring party's return, Rosamund hurried in +with a casual message that Enid was very tired, and so had gone straight +to bed; that she hoped some of them would come in and see her on the +morrow, Sunday. In any case they would all meet at church.</p> + +<p>Jack was puzzled, hurt, and bitterly disappointed, and at once he went +off to write a note which should be, while wildly loving, yet clear in +its expressions of surprise that she had not sent him some sort of +message appointing a time for their next meeting. He found the letter +unexpectedly difficult to write, and he had already torn up two +beginnings, when the door behind him burst open, and, turning round +irritably, he saw Timmy rush across to a window and shout exultantly, +"Mum? We're back! And we've brought Josephine and her kittens. Mr. +Trotman said she'd be all right now."</p> + +<p>Jack Tosswill jumped up from his chair. It was as if his pent-up feelings +of anger had found a vent at last: "You have, have you?" he cried in an +enraged voice. "Then I'll see to the shooting of the brute this very +minute!"</p> + +<p>Quick as thought, Timmy rushed back to the door and turned the key in the +lock. Then he bounded again to the open window. "Mum!" he screamed at the +top of his voice. "Come here—I'm frightened!"</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill, walking quickly across the lawn, was horrified at the +look of angry despair on the child's face.</p> + +<p>"What's happened?" she asked, and then, suddenly, she saw Jack's blazing +eyes.</p> + +<p>"J-Janet," he began, stuttering in his rage, "either that cat is shot +to-day, or I leave this house for ever."</p> + +<p>Even in the midst of poor Janet's agitation, she could not help smiling +at the melodramatic tone in which the usually self-contained Jack uttered +his threat. Still—</p> + +<p>"It was very, very wrong of you, Timmy, to bring back your cat to-day," +she said sternly. "Had I known there was any idea of such a thing I +should have absolutely forbidden it. Josephine is not fit to come back +here yet; you know what Dr. O'Farrell said."</p> + +<p>The colour was coming back into Timmy's face. He had a touching belief in +his mother's power of saving him from the consequences of his own naughty +actions.</p> + +<p>"I'm very sorry," he began whimperingly. "It was not my fault, Mum. Even +Mr. Trotman said there was nothing the matter with her."</p> + +<p>And now Jack was beginning to repent of his hasty, cruel words. He was as +angry as ever with Timmy, but he was ashamed of having spoken as he had +done to Janet—the woman who, as he knew deep in his heart, was not only +the best of step-mothers, but the best of friends, to his sisters and +himself.</p> + +<p>"Of course I don't mind her being at Trotman's, but I do very much object +to her being here," he said ungraciously.</p> + +<p>"I'll see about her being sent back to Epsom to-day," said Janet quietly. +She turned to her son: "Now then, Timmy, I'm afraid we shall have to ask +poor Godfrey to start back at once after tea."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say," called out Jack awkwardly. "I don't want the cat to go as +soon as that, Janet. To-morrow will do all right. All I ask is that the +brute shall be taken away before it has a chance of seeing Mrs. Crofton +again."</p> + +<p>"Very well; the cat shall go to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Drawing her little boy quickly after her, Janet left the drawing-room, +crossed the corridor, walked into the empty schoolroom, and then, to +Timmy's unutterable surprise, burst into bitter tears.</p> + +<p>Now Timmy had never seen his mother cry—and she herself was very much +taken aback. She would have given a great deal to have been left alone +just then to have her cry out, but Timmy's scared little face touched +her.</p> + +<p>"I can't think why you did it," she sobbed. "I always thought you were +such an intelligent boy. Oh, Timmy, surely you understood how angry it +would make Jack and Rosamund if you brought Josephine back now, to-day?"</p> + +<p>"I never thought of them," he said woefully. "We were so happy, +Mum—Godfrey, Betty and I. Oh, why are people so horrid?"</p> + +<p>"Why are people so selfish?" she asked sadly. "I'm surprised at Betty; I +should have thought that she, at least, would have understood that the +cat must stay away a little longer."</p> + +<p>"It wasn't Betty's fault," said Timmy hastily. He waited a moment, then +added cunningly, "It was really Mr. Trotman's fault; he said Josephine +ought to come home."</p> + +<p>But his mother went on a little wildly: "It isn't an easy job, taking +over another woman's children—and doing the very best you can for them! +To-day, Timmy, you've made me feel as if I was sorry that I ever did it."</p> + +<p>"Sorry that you married Daddy?" asked Timmy in an awe-struck voice.</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill nodded.</p> + +<p>"Sorry that I was ever born?" cried Timmy. He flung his skinny arms round +her bent neck.</p> + +<p>She looked up and smiled wanly. "No, Timmy, I shall never be able to say +that, however naughty you may be."</p> + +<p>But Timmy was not to be let off yet.</p> + +<p>"What happened to-day has hurt me very, very much," she went on. "It will +be a long time before I shall feel on the old, happy terms with Jack +again. Without knowing it, Timmy, you've pierced your mother's heart."</p> + +<p>But even as she uttered these, to Timmy, dreadful words, Janet Tosswill +got up, and dried her eyes. "Now then, we must go and see about Josephine +being shut up in some place of safety, where she and her kittens will not +offend the eyes of Jack and Rosamund. How about the old stable?"</p> + +<p>She was her own calm, satirical, determined self again. But Timmy felt, +perhaps for the first time in his life, deeply conscious of sin. His +mother's phrase made him feel very uneasy. Had he really pierced her +heart—could a mother's heart be permanently injured by a wicked child?</p> + +<p>It was a very mournful, dejected, anxious boy who walked into the kitchen +behind Janet Tosswill.</p> + +<p>Timmy had a very vivid imagination, and during the drive back he had +amused himself by visualising the scene when he would place Josephine and +her kittens in their own delightful, roomy basket in the scullery. It +would be such fun, too, introducing Flick to the two kittens! At Betty's +suggestion, Flick had been shut out from the scullery after Josephine's +kittens were born, and that though the dog and the cat got on extremely +well together. In fact, Flick was the only creature in the world with +whom Josephine, since she had reached an approximately mature age, ever +condescended to play.</p> + +<p>And now poor Josephine and her kittens were to be banished to the old +stable, and to-morrow driven back ignominiously to Epsom, all because of +that tiresome, hateful Mrs. Crofton!</p> + +<p>There was no one in the kitchen, and it did not look as tidy as it +generally looked; though the luncheon things had been washed up, they had +not been put away.</p> + +<p>Mother and son walked on into the scullery to find Betty there, boiling +some water over a spirit lamp. "Betty? How very delightful you look!" her +step-mother exclaimed. "Just like an old picture, child! Wherever did you +get that charming motor-bonnet?"</p> + +<p>And then Timmy chipped in: "<i>I</i> thought of it," he said triumphantly; "it +was <i>my</i> idea, Mum, but Godfrey paid for it. He said he hadn't given +Betty a proper present yet, so he <i>had</i> to pay for it, and, and—"</p> + +<p>Janet was just a little surprised. She was very old-fashioned in some +ways, and she had brought up her step-daughters to be, as regarded money +matters at any rate, as old-fashioned as herself. It seemed to her very +strange that Betty had allowed Godfrey Radmore to give her such a present +as a hat! Yet another thing puzzled her. She had understood that the +three of them were going off some way into Sussex to look at a house, but +they had evidently been up to London. Motor bonnets don't grow on country +hedges.</p> + +<p>"Where's the cat?" she asked, looking round.</p> + +<p>"Godfrey has taken her up to the nursery," said Betty, "partly to show +her to Nanna, and partly because we thought it would be better for her to +be quiet up there than down here."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mum—do say that she can stay up there," cried Timmy pleadingly. "I +hate the thought of her being in that dark old stable!"</p> + +<p>"Very well; put her in the night nursery."</p> + +<p>Even as she spoke, Janet was still gazing at her eldest step-daughter. +Betty certainly looked extraordinarily charming this afternoon. It showed +that the child required more change than she had had for many a long day. +They had got too much, all of them, into thinking of her as a stand-by. +After all she was only eight and twenty! Janet, with a sigh, looked back +to the days when she had been eight and twenty, a very happy, independent +young lady indeed, not long before she had met and married her quiet, +wool-gathering John, so losing her independence for ever.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you haven't heard the great news," she exclaimed, forgetting +that Timmy was there.</p> + +<p>"What news?" asked Betty.</p> + +<p>She glanced at her step-mother. Surely Janet hadn't been crying? Janet +never cried. She had not cried since that terrible day when the news had +come of George's death.</p> + +<p>"What news?" she asked again.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Barton—I really can't call him Lionel yet—came over this afternoon +and—and—"</p> + +<p>Timmy rushed forward in front of his mother, his little face all aglow: +"Oh, Mum! You don't mean to say that he's popped?" he cried.</p> + +<p>"Timmy, don't be vulgar!" exclaimed Janet severely.</p> + +<p>Betty began to laugh a little wildly. "How very, very strange that it +should have happened to-day—"</p> + +<p>"I don't think it's strange at all," said Janet quietly. "The strange +thing is that it hasn't happened before! But there it is—they're engaged +now. He seems to have told her that he thought it wrong to make his offer +until he had saved £100. She has gone over to Oakford, and they are busy +making an inventory of the things they will have to buy."</p> + +<p>"Has he actually saved £100?" asked Betty.</p> + +<p>"No, he never could have done that. He's had a legacy left him, and he +seems to think that £100 will start them most splendidly and comfortably +on their married life. He <i>is</i> a fool!"</p> + +<p>The door which gave on to the stairs which led from the scullery to the +upper floor opened, and Godfrey Radmore stepped down. "Am I the fool?" he +asked pleasantly.</p> + +<p>Janet answered, smiling: "No, no; you're anything but that. I was only +telling Betty that Dolly and Mr. Barton are engaged at last." She turned +to Betty. "Of course, he's coming to supper to-night. I've been wondering +what we can do in the way of something extra to celebrate the occasion. +We <i>were</i> going to have cold mutton."</p> + +<p>"At any rate I'll go and see what the village pub. can produce in the way +of champagne," exclaimed Godfrey. He turned to his godson. "Timmy? Run up +and look at Josephine and her kittens. I've put them in the old night +nursery for a bit."</p> + +<p>And then, when the boy had gone, he went up to Janet and, to her +surprise, put his arm through hers: "I'm glad about Dolly," he said +heartily.</p> + +<p>"It proves how very little one really knows of human nature." She sighed, +but it was a happy sigh. "I was beginning to believe that he would never +what Timmy calls 'pop,' and yet the poor fellow was only waiting to be a +little forward in the world. Someone's left him £100, so he felt he could +embark on the great adventure. Your father and I have already talked it +over a little"—she turned to Betty—"and we think we could squeeze out +£100 a year somehow."</p> + +<p>"I think we could," said Betty, hesitatingly. "After all, £1 is now only +what 8/- was before the War."</p> + +<p>"But not to us," cried Janet; "not to us!"</p> + +<p>And then, to the utter discomfiture of both her companions, she began to +laugh and cry together.</p> + +<p>Godfrey rushed over to the sink. He took up a cup, filled it with water, +rushed back to where Janet was standing, shaking, trembling all over, +making heroic efforts to suppress her mingled tears and laughter, and +dashed the water into her face.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," she gasped; "thank you, Godfrey! I'm all right now. I may as +well tell you both the truth. There's been a row—an awful row—between +Jack and Timmy, and it thoroughly upset me. It was only over the +cat—over Josephine—but of course it proved that what Betty and I were +talking about this morning is true. Jack's madly in love with Mrs. +Crofton—and—and—it's all so pitiful and absurd—"</p> + +<p>"I doubt if you're quite fair to Mrs. Crofton, Janet," said Godfrey, in a +singular tone. "I fancy she really does care for Jack. Of course it seems +odd to all of us, but still, after all, odder things have been known! If +you ask me whether they will marry in the end—that's quite another +matter. If you ask me whether they're engaged, well, yes, I'm inclined to +think they are!"</p> + +<p>Even Betty felt violently disturbed and astonished.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Godfrey!" she exclaimed. "D'you really think that?"</p> + +<p>"I can't tell you what makes me think so, or rather I'd rather not tell +you. But I don't think you need worry, if you'll only take a long view. +They can't marry yet, and long before they could marry, she'll have got +tired of him, and fond of someone else."</p> + +<p>Betty gave him a quick look. Was he really unconscious of the reason why +Mrs. Crofton had come to Beechfield?</p> + +<p>Through her mind in a flash there crowded the many small, almost +imperceptible, impressions made on her mind by the new tenant of The +Trellis House. Enid Crofton in love with Jack? Betty shook her head. The +idea was absurd. And yet Godfrey had spoken very decidedly just now. But +men, even very shrewd, intelligent men, are at a hopeless disadvantage +when dealing with the type of woman to which Enid Crofton belonged.</p> + +<p>As for Janet she exclaimed, with sudden passion, "I would give anything +in this world to see Mrs. Crofton leave Beechfield for ever—" She +stopped abruptly, for at that moment the staircase door to her right +burst open, and Timmy stepped down into the scullery.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> + + +<p>Since she had had the horrid accident which had laid her up, Timmy had +not gone to see his old Nanna nearly as often as he ought to have done. +Nanna herself, however, with the natural cunning of those who love, had +made certain rules which ensured her a regular, daily glimpse of the +strange little being she had had under her charge, as she would have +expressed it, "from the month." Nanna did not desire his attendance +before breakfast for she would not have considered herself fit to be +seen by him till she herself was neat and tidy. Like all the women of +her class and generation, the Tosswills' old family nurse was full of +self-respect, and also imbued with a stern sense of duty. Timmy stood +far more in awe of her than he did of his mother.</p> + +<p>One of the stated times for Timmy's visits to the old night nursery +was just before he had to start for church each Sunday, and on this +particular Sunday, the day after that on which had occurred Dolly's +engagement, and Mrs. Crofton's return from London, he came in a few +moments before he was expected, and began wandering about the room, doing +nothing in particular. At once Nanna divined that he had something on his +mind about which he was longing, yet half afraid, to speak to her. She +said nothing, however, and at last it came out.</p> + +<p>"I want you to lend me your Bible," he said, wriggling himself about. "I +want to take it to church with me."</p> + +<p>This was the last thing Nanna had expected the boy to ask, for, of +course, Timmy had a Bible of his own, a beautiful thin-paper Bible, which +she herself had given him on his seventh birthday, having first asked his +mother's leave if she might do so. The Bible was in perfect condition. It +stood on a little mat on his chest of drawers, and not long before her +accident Nanna had gone into his bedroom, opened the sacred Book, and +gazed with pleasure on the inscription, written in her own large, +unformed handwriting, on the first page:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Timothy Godfrey Radmore Tosswill on his seventh +birthday from his loving nurse,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Emily Pew.</span></p></div> + +<p>All this being so, his mother, or even his sister, Betty, would at once +have enquired, "Why don't you take your own Bible to church?" But somehow +Nanna thought it best not to put this question, for a lie, shocking on +any day, is more shocking than usual, or so she thought, if uttered on a +Sunday. So, after a moment's hesitation, she replied: "Certainly, Master +Timmy, if such is your wish. But I trust you will be very careful with +it, my dear."</p> + +<p>"I will be very, very careful!" he exclaimed. "And I will bring it +straight back to you up here after church."</p> + +<p>He threw her a grateful look. He did more, and Nanna felt amply rewarded +as he climbed up on her bed and, putting his arms round her neck, kissed +her on each cheek.</p> + +<p>"I hope," she said impressively, "that you are going to be a good boy in +church—a boy that Nurse can be proud of."</p> + +<p>Nanna never called herself "Nanna" to the children.</p> + +<p>"I am always very good in church," cried Timmy, offended. "I don't +see why you should go and spoil everything by saying that!" With +these cryptic words he slid off the bed, taking with him the large +old-fashioned Bible which always lay by Nanna's bedside.</p> + +<p>Dolly, and Rosamund, who was Dolly's stable-companion, were attending the +service held by Dolly's fiancé, Lionel Barton, in the next parish. As for +Betty, her heart was very full, and as she did her morning's work and +while she dressed herself for church, she still felt as if she was living +through a wonderful dream.</p> + +<p>Jack, who did not always go to church, had elected to go to-day; so had +Tom and Godfrey; and thus, in spite of the absence of the two younger +girls, quite a considerable party filed into the Tosswill pew.</p> + +<p>All the people belonging to Old Place were far too much absorbed in their +own thoughts on this rather strange Sunday morning to give any thought to +Timmy. So it was that he managed, after a moment's thought, to place +himself between his father and his godfather. He judged, rightly, that +neither of them would be likely to pay much attention to him or to his +doings.</p> + +<p>When the rather nervous young rector had got well away with his sermon, +and had begun to attract the serious attention of Mr. Tosswill and of +Godfrey Radmore, Timmy very quietly drew out of his little, worn tweed +coat a long sharp pin. Wedging the Bible, as he hoped reverently, but +undoubtedly very securely between his knees, he thrust the pin firmly in +the middle of the faded, gilt-edged leaves of Nanna's Bible, where there +were already many curious little brown dots caused by similar punctures, +the work of Nanna herself.</p> + +<p>Having done this, Timmy carefully lifted the Bible from between his knees +and let it fall open at the page the pin had found. The text where the +point rested ran as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the +power of the dog.</p></div> + +<p>His father's eyes flickered for a moment and fixed themselves on Timmy +with a worried, disturbed expression. As a child he himself would have +been sternly reproved for reading, even the Bible, during a sermon, but +he supposed that Janet knew better than his own mother had done. Timmy +certainly loved Janet far, far more than he, John Tosswill, had loved his +own good mother. So he averted his eyes from his little son, and tried to +forget all about him.</p> + +<p>But John Tosswill did not know his Janet. Though three off from +Timmy, she had become aware that her son was bending over a very big, +shabby-looking book, instead of sitting upright, listening sedately. She +gave him one glance, and Timmy, with a rather confused and guilty look, +hurriedly shut Nanna's Bible, and turned his mind to the sermon. He had +seen what he wanted to see; and further, he had made a mental note of the +page and place.</p> + +<p>At last the service was over, and the congregation streamed out of +church. Timmy hung back a little, behind his mother. He did not wish +her to see that he had Nanna's Bible instead of his own, but she was +far too full of her own exciting and anxious thoughts to give any +attention to her little boy. Rather to her surprise, she found her mind +dwelling persistently on Enid Crofton. It was at once a relief and a +disappointment not to see the young widow's graceful figure, and her +heart ached when she saw the cloud come down over Jack's face.</p> + +<p>All at once she felt a detaining gesture on her arm, and turning, she +found Miss Pendarth at her elbow. They generally had a little talk after +church, for it was often the only time in the week when these two, both +in their several ways busy women, felt that they had a few minutes to +spare for gossip.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if you could come in to Rose Cottage for a minute? I want to +show you something which I think will interest you as much as it has me."</p> + +<p>Neither of them noticed that Timmy had crept up quite close and was +listening eagerly. In a village community the gossip holds a place apart, +and Olivia Pendarth, though by no means popular with the young people of +Old Place, nevertheless had her value as the source of many thrilling +tales.</p> + +<p>Janet Tosswill hesitated. "I wish I could come back with you," she said +at last, regretfully. "But I promised to go straight home this morning."</p> + +<p>She debated within herself whether she should say anything here and now +about Dolly's engagement; then she made up her mind not to do so yet.</p> + +<p>Miss Pendarth, slightly lowering her voice, went on: "Perhaps I might +come in this afternoon, and bring what I want to show you with me? It's a +full report of the inquest held on Colonel Crofton."</p> + +<p>Janet looked up quickly. "I confess I should very much like to read +that," she exclaimed, and then she added, "but I shan't be in this +afternoon. I've promised to go over to Oakford."</p> + +<p>That much information she would vouchsafe her old friend.</p> + +<p>A slightly satirical look came over Miss Pendarth's face. She told +herself how foolish it was of Janet to suppose for a single moment that +that good-looking young clergyman was ever likely to make an offer to +tiresome, stupid, untidy Dolly Tosswill!</p> + +<p>"I wonder if you would lend me the paper?" Janet suggested hesitatingly. +"Timmy could go for it now, and I would send it you back the moment I had +read it."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said the other, not very graciously. "I suppose Timmy can be +trusted to be careful of it? I went to great trouble to get a copy, and I +don't think I should be able to get another." She added slowly: "I got it +at the request of Colonel Crofton's sister, but I have not yet sent it to +her because I thought it would distress her too much."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A few minutes later Timmy was gazing round the hall of Rose Cottage with +eager, inquisitive eyes. Miss Pendarth did not care for children, and +though Timmy frequently came to her door with a note, he was very seldom +invited inside the house.</p> + +<p>Even now his hostess said rather sharply: "Run out into the garden, +Timmy, while I go upstairs and find an envelope big enough in which to +put the paper for your mother. I daresay I shall be away five minutes, +for I want you to take her a note with it."</p> + +<p>The boy went through the glass door into the garden. He walked briskly up +the path, kicking a pebble as he went, and then he sat down on the bench +where, not so very long ago, Olivia Pendarth and Godfrey Radmore had sat +discussing the curious and tragic occurrence which still filled Miss +Pendarth's mind.</p> + +<p>Timmy asked himself what exactly was the meaning of the word inquest? Why +had a paper printed what Miss Pendarth called a full account of the +inquest on Colonel Crofton's death? Was it "inquest" or "henquest"? +His agile mind swung back to the mysterious words he had heard Mrs. +Crofton's ex-man-servant utter in the stable-yard of The Trellis House.</p> + +<p>At last Miss Pendarth opened the door giving into the garden, and Timmy, +jumping up, hurried down the path toward the house. He then saw that she +held a neat-looking brown paper roll in her hand, and over the roll was +slipped an india-rubber band.</p> + +<p>"I thought it a pity to waste a big envelope," she observed, "so I have +done up the newspaper and my note to your mother into a roll. Will you +please ask your mother to put it back exactly as it is now—with the +india-rubber band round it? These bands have become so very expensive. +She need not send it back. I will call for it to-morrow morning about +twelve. Mind you give it to her at once, Timmy. I don't want to have a +thing like that left lying about."</p> + +<p>Timmy slipped into Old Place by a back way often used by the young +people, for it was opposite a garden door set in the high brick wall +which gave on to one of the by-ways of the village.</p> + +<p>But instead of seeking out his mother, as he ought at once to have done, +he went upstairs and so into what had been the day nursery. There he +locked the door, and having first put Nanna's Bible on the big, round +table, at which as a baby boy he had always sat in his high chair, he +went over to the corner where Josephine was peacefully reposing with her +kittens, and sat down on the floor by the cat's basket.</p> + +<p>Very carefully he then slipped the india-rubber band off the roll of +brown paper which had been confided to him by Miss Pendarth. He spread +out the sheet of newspaper, putting aside the brown paper in which it had +been rolled, as also Miss Pendarth's open letter to his mother. And then, +with one hand resting on his cat's soft, furry neck, he read through the +long account of the inquest held on Colonel Crofton's death. As he worked +laboriously down the long columns, Timmy's freckled forehead became +wrinkled, for, try as he might, he could not make out what it was all +about. The only part he thoroughly understood was the description of +Colonel Crofton's last hours; the agony the dying man had endured, the +efforts made by the doctor, not only to save his life, but to force him +to say how the virulent poison had got into his system—all became +vividly present to the boy.</p> + +<p>Timmy felt vexed when he realised, as he could not help doing, that Mrs. +Crofton had looked very pretty when she was giving evidence at the +inquest; in fact, the descriptive reporter had called her "the dead man's +beautiful young widow."</p> + +<p>And then, all at once, he bethought himself of Miss Pendarth's letter to +his mother.</p> + +<p>Now Timmy was well aware that it is not an honourable thing to read +other people's letters; on the other hand, his mother always left Miss +Pendarth's notes lying about on her writing table, and more than once she +had exclaimed: "Betty? Do read that note, and tell me what's in it!"</p> + +<p>And so, after a short conflict between principle and curiosity, in which +curiosity won, he began to read the letter. As he did so, he realised +that it formed a key to the newspaper report he had just read, for Miss +Pendarth's letter ran:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>My dear Janet,</p> + +<p>I am longing to talk over the enclosed with you. I was lately in Essex, +and when we meet I will tell you all that was said and suspected there +at the time of Colonel Crofton's death.</p> + +<p><i>Someone we wot of got off very lightly.</i> You will realise from even +this rather confused report that <i>someone</i> must have put the bottle of +strychnine into the unhappy man's bedroom—also that he absolutely +denied having touched it. No one connected with the household, save of +course Mrs. Crofton, had ever seen the bottle until after his death.</p> + +<p>It is a strange and sinister story, but I remember my father used to +say that Dr. Pomfrett (who for fifty years was the great medical man of +<i>our</i> part of the world) had told him that not one murder in ten +committed by people of the educated class was ever discovered.</p> + +<p>I think you know that Mrs. C. has had a very handsome offer for The +Trellis House from that foolish Mrs. Wallis, but I believe that up to +yesterday she had not vouchsafed any answer.</p> + +<p>Your affectionate,<br /> + +<span class="smcap">Olivia Pendarth.</span></p> + +<p>P.S.—Please burn this note as soon as read. I don't want to be had up +for libel.</p></div> + +<p>Timmy read the letter twice through. Then he very carefully folded up the +newspaper in its original creases, put Miss Pendarth's letter inside, and +made as tidy a roll as he could with the help of the brown paper. Finally +he slipped on the india-rubber band, and scrambling up from the floor, +unlocked the door. Taking Nanna's Bible off the round table, he went into +his own bedroom and there laboriously copied out, with the help of a very +blunt pencil, the text where the pin had rested in church. Then he took +the Bible into Nanna's room.</p> + +<p>"What's that you're holding?" she asked suspiciously.</p> + +<p>"It's something I have to give to Mum."</p> + +<p>Somehow the sight of Nanna, sitting up there in her big armchair, made +him feel extremely guilty, and he was relieved when she said mildly: "You +run along and give it to her, then."</p> + +<p>He found his mother in his father's study, and they both stopped abruptly +when he came in. Timmy supposed, rightly, that they had been speaking of +Dolly and her engagement.</p> + +<p>Janet took the roll of paper from her boy and slipped off the band +absently: "What's this?" she exclaimed. And then, "How stupid of me! I +remember now." She turned to her husband. "It's an account of the inquest +held on Colonel Crofton. What a tremendous long thing! I shall have to +put it aside till after lunch."</p> + +<p>She did, however, read through Miss Pendarth's letter.</p> + +<p>"Oh! John," she said, smiling, "this letter is <i>too</i> funny! Olivia +Pendarth may be a good friend, but she's certainly a good hater. She +simply loathes Mrs. Crofton." Then, deliberately, she went over to the +fireplace and, lighting a match, set fire to the letter.</p> + +<p>Timmy watched the big sheet of paper curling up in the flame. He was glad +indeed that he had read the letter before it was burnt, but he made up +his mind that when he was a grown-up man, he also would burn any letter +that he thought the writer would prefer destroyed. In a way Janet was her +son's great exemplar, but he was apt to postpone following the example he +admired.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> + + +<p>It was after seven, on the evening of that same Sunday, that Enid +Crofton, after having spent the whole day in her bedroom, came down to +her pretty, cheerful, little sitting-room.</p> + +<p>She had returned from London in an anxious, nervous, strung-up frame of +mind. For the first time in her life she did not know what it was she +really wanted, or rather she was uncertain as to what it would be best +for her to do.</p> + +<p>The thought of seeing Jack Tosswill, of having to fence and flirt with +him in her present disturbed state of mind, had been intolerable. That +was the real reason why she had stayed upstairs all to-day. He had called +three times, and the third time he had brought with him a letter even +more passionately loving, while also even more angry and hurt in tone, +than the one which she had received from him the day before.</p> + +<p>As she read this second epistle she had told herself, with something like +rage, that it was not her fault that what she had intended should be a +harmless flirtation had caused such havoc. Still, deep in her heart she +was well aware that but for the havoc she had caused, she could never +have confided to him her urgent need of the five hundred pounds which he +had procured with such surprising ease.</p> + +<p>Jack had been quite honest with the woman he loved. He had told her of +his talk with Radmore, of Radmore's immediate, generous response, and the +cheque he had given which he, Jack, handed to her as a free gift.</p> + +<p>She had gone up to London fully intending to see the Pipers after she had +cashed the cheque. But when it came to the point she had shirked the +second half of her programme, telling herself, with perhaps a certain +amount of truth, that by waiting till the last day of grace allowed her +by that terrible old-clothes woman she would get better terms. Perhaps +then they would be satisfied with three hundred pounds, or even less, +and acting on that hope, she had expended a portion of the money in +purchasing a few of the pretty dress etceteras which are so costly +nowadays.</p> + +<p>Apart from the time occupied by those pleasant purchases, she had spent +every waking minute of the day with Harold Tremaine, lunching and dining +at the big smart restaurants which both her soul and her body loved, +going to the play, and listening in between to the most delightful +love-making....</p> + +<p>Small wonder that during that long, dull Sunday, spent perforce in her +bedroom, Enid Crofton's mind often took refuge in the thought of the only +man now in her life with whom all her memories and all her relations had +been, and were, absolutely satisfactory. Captain Tremaine was a simple, +happy, cheerful soul. Though he was always what he called "dashed short," +when with a woman he flung about his money right royally. Also he was an +expert, not a teasing, lover. He knew, so Enid reminded herself +gratefully, when to stop, as well as when to begin, making love. How +unlike inexpert, tiresome Jack Tosswill! And yet he also was in dead +earnest. He knew exactly what he wanted, and more than once, in a +chaffing, yet serious, fashion, he had assured her that she had best +submit at once, as he always "got there in the end." What he wanted was +that they should be married, by special license, within a week from +now, so that they might go back to India, a happy, honeymooning couple, +in a fortnight! And while he was with her, describing in eloquent, eager +language what their life would be like and what a delightful, jolly time +they would have, Enid had been sorely, sorely tempted to say "yes."</p> + +<p>And yet? Though Tremaine was Enid Crofton's ideal of what a lover, even a +husband, should be, and she had never liked any man as well, she knew +with a painful, practical knowledge the meaning of the words "genteel +poverty." Tremaine's regiment would not remain for ever in India, and +then would begin the enforced economies, the weary struggle with an +inadequate income she had known with Colonel Crofton. No, no—it wasn't +good enough!—or at any rate not good enough as long as there was a hope +of anything better. Even so, it was comfortable to know that Harold +Tremaine would still be there, a second string to her bow, in six months' +or a year's time.</p> + +<p>It was of all this that she thought, a little despondently, as she +settled herself down in the easy chair close to the little wood fire. +In a few moments her supper would be brought in by her pleasant-faced, +rosy-cheeked parlourmaid. Enid Crofton was dainty and particular as to +her food. The bad cooking she had had to endure during those miserable +months she had spent in Essex, after her husband had been demobilised, +had proved a very real addition to her other troubles.</p> + +<p>She had brought a nice sweetbread with her from London yesterday, and she +was now looking forward to having it for her supper.</p> + +<p>All at once there came a ring at the front door, and a feeling of keen, +angry annoyance shot through her. Of course it was Jack—Jack again! He +would ask tiresome, inconvenient questions about the mythical woman +friend, the almost sister, for whom she had required the money, and she +would have to make up tiresome, inconvenient lies. Also he would want to +kiss her, and she did so want her dinner!</p> + +<p>She stood up—and then the door opened and, instead of Jack, Timmy +Tosswill came through it. For the first time in their acquaintance she +was glad to see the boy, though she told herself that of course he had +brought her a letter—another of those odious, reproachful letters from +Jack.</p> + +<p>"Good evening, Timmy," she spoke, as she always did speak, pleasantly. +"Have you brought me a message from Rosamund? I hope she hasn't thrown me +over? I'm expecting her to lunch to-morrow, you know."</p> + +<p>"I didn't know," he said gravely, "and I've not brought a message from +anyone, Mrs. Crofton. My coming is a secret."</p> + +<p>"A secret?" Again she spoke easily, jokingly; but there came over her a +strange, involuntary feeling of repulsion for the odd-looking child.</p> + +<p>He came up close to her, and, putting his hands behind his back, began to +stare fixedly beyond her, at the empty space between her chair and the +white wall.</p> + +<p>There crept over Enid Crofton a sensation of acute discomfort. She +stepped back, and sat down in her low, easy-chair. What was Timmy looking +at with that curious, fixed stare?</p> + +<p>It was in vain that she reminded herself that no sensible person now +believes in ghosts, and that she had but to press the bell on the other +side of the fireplace to ensure the attendance of her cheerful servant. +These comforting reflections availed her nothing, and a wave of fear +advanced and threatened to engulf her.</p> + +<p>After what seemed to her an interminable pause, but which was really less +than a minute, Timmy's eyes met hers, and he said abruptly, "Is it true +that someone has asked you to go to India? Rosamund says it is."</p> + +<p>She gave a little gasp of relief. On her way home from the station in the +Old Place pony-cart, she had told her companion that while in London she +had met a man who had fallen in love with her in Egypt, during the War. +Further, that this handsome, brilliant, rich young soldier had urged her +to marry him and go off to India with him at once. She was surprised as +well as dismayed by this quick betrayal of her confidence. What a goose +Rosamund was!</p> + +<p>"Yes, Timmy," she bent forward and smiled a little, "it is quite true +that I have been asked to go to India, but that doesn't mean that I'm +going."</p> + +<p>"I would, if I were you," said the child gravely.</p> + +<p>"Would you?" Again she smiled. "But I've only just come to Beechfield. +I hope you're not in a hurry to get rid of me?"</p> + +<p>"No," he said, "I'm not in a hurry, exactly. It's you who ought to be in +a hurry, Mrs. Crofton." He waited a moment and then added: "India is a +very nice place."</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed. Full of tigers and leopards!" she said playfully.</p> + +<p>"I should go as soon as you can if I were you."</p> + +<p>She looked at him distrustfully. What exactly did he mean?</p> + +<p><i>"Someone we wot of got off very lightly at the inquest."</i></p> + +<p>His voice sank almost to a whisper, but Enid Crofton felt as if the +terrible sentence was being shouted for all the world to hear.</p> + +<p>Timmy's eyes were now fixed on the gay-looking blue rug spread out before +the fender to his right. He was remembering something he had done of +which he was ashamed.</p> + +<p>Then he lifted his head and began again staring at the space between Mrs. +Crofton's chair and the wall.</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton opened her mouth and then she shut it again. What did the +boy know? What had he seen? What had he been told? She remembered that +Mr. Tosswill was a magistrate. Had the Pipers been down to see him?</p> + +<p>"There were some people," went on the boy, and again he spoke in that +queer, muffled whisper, almost as if the words were being dragged out of +him against his will, "who thought"—he stopped—"who thought," he +repeated, "that Colonel Crofton did not take that poison knowingly."</p> + +<p>She told herself desperately that she must say something—something +ordinary, something of no account, before a power outside herself forced +her to utter words which would lead to horror incalculable.</p> + +<p>Speaking in such a loud discordant voice that Timmy quickly moved back a +step or two, she exclaimed: "I was not going to tell anybody yet—but as +you seem so anxious to know my plans, I will tell you a secret, Timmy. +I <i>am</i> going to India after all! A splendid strong man, an officer and a +gentleman who would have won the V.C. ten times over in any other war, +and who would <i>kill</i> anyone who ever said a word against me, has asked me +to be his wife, and to go out to India very, very soon."</p> + +<p>"And have you said you will?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Of course I have."</p> + +<p>"And will you be married soon?" went on her inquisitor.</p> + +<p>"Yes, very soon," she cried hysterically. "As soon as possible!"</p> + +<p>"Then you will have to leave Beechfield."</p> + +<p>She told herself with a kind of passionate rage that the child had no +right to ask her such a silly, obvious question, and yet she answered at +once: "Of course I shall leave Beechfield."</p> + +<p>"And you will never come back?"</p> + +<p>"I shall never, <i>never</i> come back." And then she added, almost as if in +spite of herself, and with a kind of strange, bitter truthfulness very +foreign to her: "I don't like Beechfield—I don't agree that it's a +pretty place—I think it's a hideous little village."</p> + +<p>There was a pause. She was seeking for a phrase in which to say +"Good-bye," not so much to Timmy as to all the others.</p> + +<p>"Will you go away to-morrow?" he asked, this time boldly. And she +answered, "Yes, to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I'd better not tell any of them at Old Place?" It was as if he +was speaking to himself.</p> + +<p>She clutched at the words.</p> + +<p>"I would far rather you did not tell them—I will write to them from +London. Can I trust you not to tell them, Timmy?"</p> + +<p>He looked at her oddly. "Jack and Rosamund will be sorry," he said +slowly. And then he jerked his head—his usual way of signifying +"Good-bye" when he did not care to shake hands.</p> + +<p>Turning round he walked out of the room, and she heard the front door +bang after him, as also, after a moment or two, the outside door set in +the garden wall.</p> + +<p>Enid Crofton got up. Though she was shaking—shaking all over—she walked +swiftly across her little hall into the dining-room. There she sat down +at the writing-table, and took up the telephone receiver. "9846 Regent."</p> + +<p>It was the number of Harold Tremaine's club. She thought he would almost +certainly be there just now.</p> + +<p>She then hung up the receiver again, and, going to the door which +led into the kitchen, she opened it: "Don't bring in my supper yet. +I'll ring, when I'm ready for it." She then went back to the little +writing-table and waited impatiently.</p> + +<p>At last the bell rang.</p> + +<p>"I want to speak to Captain Tremaine. Is he in the Club? Can you find +him?"</p> + +<p>She felt an intense thrill of almost superstitious relief when the answer +came: "Yes, ma'am. He's in the Club. I'll go and fetch him."</p> + +<p>She remembered with relief that Tremaine had told her that no one could +overhear, at any rate at his end, what was being said or answered through +the telephone—but she also remembered that it was not the same here, in +The Trellis House.</p> + +<p>Judging others by herself, as most of us do in this strange world, she +felt sure that her two young servants were listening behind the door. +Still, in a sense there was nothing Enid Crofton liked better than +pitting her wits against other wits. So when she heard the question, +"Who is it?" she simply answered, "Darling! Can't you guess?"</p> + +<p>In answer to his rapturous assent, she said quietly, "I've made up my +mind to do what you wish."</p> + +<p>And then she drank in with intense delight the flood of eager, exultant +words, uttered with such a rush of joy, and in so triumphant a tone, that +for a moment she thought that they must be heard, if not here, then +there, if not there, then here. But, after all, what did it matter? She +would have left this hateful place for ever to-morrow!</p> + +<p>And then came a rather difficult moment. She did not wish to tell her +servants to-night that she was leaving The Trellis House to-morrow, and +yet somehow she must convey that fact to Tremaine.</p> + +<p>As if he could see into her mind, there came the eager question, "Can you +come up to-morrow, darling? The sooner, the better, you know—"</p> + +<p>She answered, "I will if you like—at the usual time."</p> + +<p>He said eagerly, "You mean that train arriving at 12.30—the one I met +you by the other day?"</p> + +<p>And again she said, "Yes."</p> + +<p>He asked a little anxiously, "How about money, my precious pet? Are you +all right about money?"</p> + +<p>For once her hard, selfish heart was touched and she answered truly: "You +need not bother about that."</p> + +<p>And then there came a whispered, "Call me darling again, darling."</p> + +<p>And she just breathed the word "Darling" into the receiver, making a +vague resolution as she did so that she would be, as far as would be +possible to her, a good wife to this simple-hearted, big baby of a man +who loved her so dearly.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> + + +<p>Timmy went straight home. He entered the house by one of the back ways +and crept upstairs. Late that afternoon he had gratified Nanna by sharing +her high tea, and so he was not expected in the dining-room.</p> + +<p>He felt intensely excited—what perhaps an older person would have called +uplifted. He wandered about the corridors of the roomy old house, his +hands clasped behind his back, thinking over and exulting in his great +achievement. He felt just a little bit uneasy as to the contents of the +letter Mrs. Crofton had said she would write explaining her departure. As +to certain things, Timmy Tosswill was still very much of a child. He +wondered why their enemy, for so he regarded her, should think it +necessary to write to anyone, except perhaps to Rosamund, who, after all, +had been her "pal." He was disagreeably aware that his mother would not +have approved of the method he had used to carry out what he knew to be +her ardent wish, and he wondered uncomfortably if Mrs. Crofton would +"give him away."</p> + +<p>At last he opened the door of what was now his godfather's bedroom, and +walked across to the wide-open window. All at once there came over him a +feeling of wondering joy. He seemed to see, as in a glass darkly, three +figures pacing slowly along the path which bounded the wide lawn below. +They were Godfrey Radmore, Betty, and with them another whom he knew was +his dear brother, George. George, whom Timmy had never seen since the +day, which to the child now seemed so very long ago, when, rather to his +surprise, his eldest brother had lifted him up in his arms to kiss him +before going out to France at the end of his last leave. And as he gazed +down, tears began to run down his queer little face.</p> + +<p>At last he turned away from the window, and as he went towards the door +he saw the outline of a paper pad on the writing table which in old days +George and Godfrey had shared between them.</p> + +<p>Blinking away his tears, he took up the pad, and carried it down the +lighted passage to his own room. There he sat down, and with a pencil +stump extracted from his waistcoat pocket, he wrote:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Mum,</p> + +<p>This is from Timmy. I hope you don't still feel the pierce.</p> + +<p>Your affectionate son,<br /> + +<span class="smcap">Timothy Godfrey Radmore Tosswill.</span></p></div> + +<p>He put the bit of paper into a grubby envelope in which he had for some +time kept some used French stamps; then, licking down the flap, he left +his room and went into his mother's, where he propped up the envelope on +the fat pin-cushion lying on her dressing-table, remembering the while +that so had been propped an anonymous letter written many years before +by a vengeful nursery maid, who had been dismissed at Nanna's wish.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Monday morning opened badly for more than one inmate of Old Place. Dolly +and her lover had discovered with extreme surprise that one hundred +pounds would only achieve about a fifth of that which they considered +must be done before his vicarage would be fit for even the most +reasonable of brides. With Dolly this had produced an extremely +disagreeable fit of bad temper—of temper indeed so bad that it had been +noticed by Godfrey Radmore, who had followed Janet into the drawing-room +after breakfast to ask what was the matter.</p> + +<p>Jack Tosswill had gone off as early as he felt he decently could go, to +The Trellis House, only to find its mistress gone—and gone, which +naturally much increased his disappointment and anger, only ten minutes +before his arrival! He had interviewed both servants, they only too +willing, for his infatuation was by now known to the whole village. But +what they had to say gave him no comfort—indeed, it was almost exactly +what the house-parlourmaid had said last week, when Enid had gone off to +town, leaving no address behind her. This time, however, she had said she +would telephone from town.</p> + +<p>As he was turning away, feeling sick at heart, the cook suddenly +vouchsafed the information that her mistress had left a letter for Mrs. +Tosswill, and that The Trellis House odd man, on his way back from the +station, where he had gone with Mrs. Crofton, for she had taken two +large trunks this time, would deliver it at Old Place.</p> + +<p>But when he reached home the letter had not yet been delivered, and Jack, +half consciously desiring to visit his misery on someone else, hunted up +Timmy in order to demand why Josephine and her kittens had not been sent +back to Epsom ere now. There had followed a lively scrap, leaving them +both in a bad mood; but at last it was arranged that Godfrey, Betty and +Timmy should motor to Epsom with the cat and her kittens after luncheon.</p> + +<p>The morning wore itself slowly away. Only two of the younger people were +entirely happy—Betty, doing her usual work, and Godfrey Radmore. Even he +was more restless than usual, and kept wandering in and out of the +kitchen in a way which Rosamund, who was helping Betty, thought very +tiresome. As for Timmy, his mother could not make him out. He seemed +uncomfortable, and, to her practised eye, appeared to have something on +his conscience.</p> + +<p>Three times in one hour Jack came into the drawing-room and asked his +step-mother whether she had not yet had a letter from The Trellis House. +Now Jack Tosswill had always been reserved, absurdly sensitive to any +kind of ridicule. Yet now he scarcely made an effort to conceal his +unease and suspense. Indeed, the third time he had actually exclaimed, +"Janet! Are you concealing anything from me?" And she had answered, +honestly surprised, "I don't know what you mean, Jack. I've had no +communication from Mrs. Crofton of any kind. Are you sure she wrote +me a letter?" And he had answered in a wretched tone: "Quite sure."</p> + +<p>And then, about five minutes before luncheon, and luncheon had to be a +very punctual meal at Old Place, for it was the one thing about which its +master was particular, Timmy came in with a letter in his hand, and +sidling up to his mother, observed with rather elaborate unconcern: "A +letter for you, Mum."</p> + +<p>She looked at him quite straight. "Has this letter only just been left, +my dear?"</p> + +<p>He answered rather hurriedly: "It came a little while ago, but I put it +in my pocket and forgot it."</p> + +<p>Janet broke the seal, for the letter was sealed, and then she called out +to her son, who was making for the door: "Don't go away, Timmy. Betty +will ring the lunch bell in a moment."</p> + +<p>Unwillingly he turned round and stood watching her while she read the +four pages of closely written handwriting. But, rather to his relief, +she made no remark, and the bell rang just as she put the letter back in +its envelope. Then she slipped it in her pocket, for Janet Tosswill was +one of the very few women in England who still had a pocket in her dress.</p> + +<p>Giving him what he felt to be a condemnatory look, but in that he was +wrong, for she was too surprised, relieved, and, yes, disturbed, to +think of him at all, she motioned the boy to go before her into the +dining-room.</p> + +<p>As the Sunday joint was always served cold on Monday, they were all +there, even Betty, but owing, as at any rate most of them believed, to +the unfortunate discovery made by Dolly that the pre-war pound was now +only worth about seven and six, it was rather a mournful meal.</p> + +<p>At last Rosamund went out to get the coffee, and then Janet addressed +her son: "Timmy," she observed, "I have something I wish to say to the +others, so will you please go and have your orange with Nanna?"</p> + +<p>Timmy obeyed his mother without a word, and then, after the coffee had +come in and been poured out, Janet said slowly:</p> + +<p>"I've had a letter from Mrs. Crofton, and as she asks me to tell you all +what is in it, I think it will be simpler if I read it out now."</p> + +<p>She waited a moment, gathering up her courage, wondering the while +whether she was doing the best thing by Jack. On the whole she thought +<i>yes</i>. There are blows which are far better borne among one's fellows +than in solitude.</p> + +<p>She wished to make her reading as colourless as possible, but she could +not keep a certain touch of sarcasm out of her voice as she read aloud +the first two sentences:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Dearest Mrs. Tosswill,</p> + +<p>"You have always been so kind to me that I feel I must write and tell +you why I am leaving the dear Trellis House and delightful Beechfield."</p></div> + +<p>She looked up, but no one spoke; Jack was staring straight before him, +and she went on:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"To my <i>utter</i> surprise a very old friend of my late husband's and mine +has asked me to be his wife. He is going back to India in a fortnight, +and so, much as I shrink from the thought of all the bustle and hurry +it will involve, I feel that as it must be now or never, it must be +<i>now</i>, and the fact that I have a good offer for The Trellis House +seemed to me a kind of sign-post.</p> + +<p>"Though perhaps I ought not to say so, he is a splendid soldier and did +extremely well in the war. He won a bar to his M.C., which my husband +once told me would have won him a V.C. in any other war.</p> + +<p>"He is anxious that I should not come down to Beechfield again. The +time is so short, and there is so much to be done, that I fear I shall +not see any of you before I leave for India. I would have liked +Rosamund to come to my wedding, but we shall be married very quietly, +and the day and hour will probably be fixed at the last minute.</p> + +<p>"I am purposely not telling you where I am staying as I do not want to +give you the bother of answering this rather unconventional letter. As +for presents I have always hated them.</p> + +<p>"All the business about The Trellis House is being done by a kind +solicitor I know, who arranged about the lease for me.</p> + +<p>"Might I ask you to remember me very kindly to everybody, and to give +my special love to Rosamund and to sweet Miss Betty? I wish I had known +her better.</p> + +<p>"Again thanking you for your kindness, and assuring you I shall always +look back to the happy days I spent at Beechfield,</p> + +<p> +"Believe me to remain,<br /> + Yours very sincerely,<br /> + <span class="smcap">Enid Crofton</span>."<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>There was a long pause. Jack was now crumbling up his bread and then +smoothing out the crumbs with a kind of mechanical, steam-roller movement +of his right-hand forefinger.</p> + +<p>Rosamund was the first to speak. "Why, she hasn't even told us his name!" +she exclaimed. "How very funny of her!"</p> + +<p>And then Godfrey Radmore spoke, just a thought more sharply than usual: +"I'm not at all surprised at that. She wants to start quite clear again."</p> + +<p>Betty said quietly: "That's natural enough, isn't it?" But her heart was +full of aching sympathy for her brother. She felt, rather than saw, his +rigid, mask-like face.</p> + +<p>They all got up, and slowly began to disperse. After all, there was only +one among them to whom this news was of any real moment.</p> + +<p>Janet, feeling curiously tired, went into the drawing-room. The moment +she had finished Enid Crofton's letter she had begun to torment herself +as to whether she had done right or wrong after all?</p> + +<p>To her relief Godfrey Radmore came into the drawing-room. "I want to put +those two unfortunate people out of their misery, Janet. Shall I tell +Dolly, or will you tell her, that I want to give her a thousand pounds as +a wedding present?"</p> + +<p>Janet had very strong ideas of what was right and wrong, or perhaps it +would be better to say of what was meet and proper.</p> + +<p>"I don't think they could take a present of that sort from you," she said +very decidedly. "These are hard times, Godfrey, even for rich people. But +you always talk as if you were made of money!"</p> + +<p>"Do I?"</p> + +<p>He looked taken aback, and even hurt.</p> + +<p>"No, no," she said, "I don't mean that, but I'm upset to-day. What with +one thing and another, I hardly know what I'm saying." She caught herself +up. "I'll tell you what I think would be reasonable. As you are so kind, +give Dolly a hundred pounds. It will make a real difference."</p> + +<p>"No," he said, "it's going to be a thousand."</p> + +<p>"I'm quite sure that John would not allow Dolly to accept it."</p> + +<p>Radmore knew that when Janet invoked John, it meant that she had made up +her mind as to what must be.</p> + +<p>He went to the door, opened it, and called out in what seemed to Janet a +very imperious tone: "Betty?" And yet no glimmer of the truth came into +Janet's mind.</p> + +<p>"It's no good sending for Betty," she said sharply. "There are things +that can be done, and things that can't be done."</p> + +<p>As she uttered that very obvious remark, Betty appeared.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said a little breathlessly. "Yes, Godfrey, what is it? We have +just started washing up—"</p> + +<p>He took her hand and led her in front of Janet. "We have got to tell her +<i>now</i>," he said. "We must do it for Dolly's sake; I never saw anyone +looking so woe-begone as she has looked all the morning."</p> + +<p>And then, at last, Janet began to understand.</p> + +<p>"I don't think Mr. Tosswill will be able to object to Dolly's <i>brother</i> +giving her a thousand pounds," he said, and then, very much to Janet's +surprise, he suddenly threw his arms round her, and gave her a great hug.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<div class="center"> +<table style="border: solid 1px" cellpadding="20px"><tr><td> +<span class="center">By MRS. BELLOC LOWNDES</span><br /> +<br /> +WHAT TIMMY DID<br /> +FROM OUT THE VASTY DEEP<br /> +THE LONELY HOUSE<br /> +GOOD OLD ANNA<br /> +LOVE AND HATRED<br /> +LILLA: A PART OF HER LIFE<br /> +THE RED CROSS BARGE +</td></tr></table> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT TIMMY DID***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 17381-h.txt or 17381-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/3/8/17381">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/3/8/17381</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: What Timmy Did + + +Author: Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes + + + +Release Date: December 23, 2005 [eBook #17381] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT TIMMY DID*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/ + + + +WHAT TIMMY DID + +by + +MRS. BELLOC LOWNDES + +Author of "From Out the Vasty Deep," "The Lonely House," "Love and +Hatred," "Good Old Anna," "The Chink in the Armour," Etc. + + + + + + + +Copyright, 1922, +By George H. Doran Company + + + + +WHAT TIMMY DID + + + +"Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling from the power of the +dog."--_Psalms_ xxii, 20. + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +The telephone bell rang sharply in the sunlit and charming, if shabby, +hall of Old Place. + +To John Tosswill there was always something incongruous, and recurringly +strange, in this queer link between a little country parish mentioned in +Domesday Book and the big bustling modern world. + +The bell tinkled on and on insistently, perhaps because it was now no +one's special duty to attend to it. But at last the mistress of the house +came running from the garden and, stripping off her gardening gloves, +took up the receiver. + +Janet Tosswill was John Tosswill's second wife, and, though over forty, +a still young and alert looking woman, more Irish than Scotch in +appearance, with her dark hair and blue eyes. But she came of good +Highland stock and was proud of it. + +"London wants you," came the tired, cross voice she knew all too well. + +"I think there must be some mistake. This is Old Place, Beechfield, +Surrey. I don't think anyone can be ringing us from London." + +She waited a moment impatiently. Of course it was a mistake! Not a soul +in London knew their telephone number. It had never been put on their +notepaper. Still, she went on listening with the receiver held to her +ear, and growing more and more annoyed at the futile interruption and +waste of time. + +She was just going to hang up the receiver when all at once the +expression of her face altered. From being good-humoured, if slightly +impatient, it became watchful, and her eyes narrowed as was their way +when Janet Tosswill was "upset" about anything. She had suddenly heard, +with startling clearness, the words:--"Is that Old Place, Beechfield? If +so, Mr. Godfrey Radmore would like to speak to Mrs. Tosswill." + +She was so surprised, so taken aback that for a moment she said nothing. +At last she answered very quietly:--"Tell Mr. Radmore that Mrs. Tosswill +is here waiting on the 'phone." + +There was another longish pause, and then, before anything else happened, +Janet Tosswill experienced an odd sensation; it was as if she felt the +masterful, to her not over-attractive, presence of Godfrey Radmore +approaching the other end of the line. A moment later, she knew he was +there, within earshot, but silent. + +"Is that you, Godfrey? We thought you were in Australia. Have you been +home long?" + +The answer came at once, in the deep, resonant, once familiar voice--the +voice no one had heard in Old Place for nine years--nine years with the +war having happened in between. + +"Indeed no, Janet! I've only been back a very short time." (She noticed +he did not say how long.) "And I want to know when I may come down and +see you all? I hope you and Mr. Tosswill will believe me when I say it +wasn't my fault that I didn't come to Beechfield last year. I hadn't a +spare moment!" + +The tone of the unseen speaker had become awkward, apologetic, and the +listener bit her lips--she did not believe in his explanation as to why +he had behaved with such a lack of gratitude and good feeling last +autumn. + +"We shall be very glad to see you at any time, of course. When can we +expect you?" + +But the welcoming words were uttered very coldly. + +"It's Tuesday to-day; I was thinking of motoring down on Friday or +Saturday. I've got a lot of business to do before then. Will that be +all right?" + +"Of course it will. Come Friday." + +She was thawing a little, and perhaps he felt this, for there came an +eager, yearning note into the full, deep voice which sounded so oddly +near, and which, for the moment, obliterated the long years since she had +heard it last. + +"How's my godson? Flick still in the land of the living, eh?" + +"Thank heaven, yes! That dog's the one thing in the world Timmy cares +for, I sometimes think." + +He felt that she was smiling now. + +She heard the question:--"Another three minutes, sir?" and the hasty +answer:--"Yes, another three minutes," and then, "Still there, Janet?" + +"Of course I am. We'll expect you on Friday, Godfrey, by tea-time, and +I hope you'll stay as long as you can. You won't mind having your old +room?" + +"Rather not!" and then in a hesitating, shamefaced voice:--"I needn't +tell _you_ that to me Old Place _is_ home." + +It was in a very kindly voice that she answered: "I'm glad you still feel +like that, Godfrey." + +"Of course I do, and of course I am ashamed of not having written more +often. I often think of you all--especially of dear old George--" There +came a pause, then the words:--"I want to ask you a question, Janet." + +Janet Tosswill felt quite sure she knew what that question would be. +Before linking up with them all again Godfrey wanted to know certain +facts about George. While waiting for him to speak she had time to tell +herself that this would prove that her husband and Betty, the eldest of +her three step-daughters, had been wrong in thinking that Godfrey Radmore +knew that George, Betty's twin, had been killed in the autumn of 1916. At +that time all correspondence between Radmore and Old Place had ceased for +a long time. When it had begun again in 1917, in the form of a chaffing +letter and a cheque for five pounds to the writer's godson, Betty had +suggested that nothing should be said of George's death in Timmy's +answer. Of course Betty's wish had been respected, the more so that Janet +herself felt sure that Godfrey did not know. Why, he and George--dear, +sunny-natured George--had been like fond brothers in the long ago, before +Godfrey's unfortunate love-affair with Betty. + +And so it was that when she heard his next words they took her entirely +by surprise, for it was such an unimportant, as well as unexpected, +question that the unseen speaker asked. + +"Has Mrs. Crofton settled down at The Trellis House yet?" + +"She's arriving to-day, I believe. When she first thought of coming here +she wrote John such a nice letter, saying she was a friend of yours, and +that you had told her about Beechfield. Luckily, The Trellis House was to +let, so John wrote and told her about it." + +Then, at last, came a more intimate question. The man's voice at the +other end of the telephone became diffident--hesitating:--"Are you all +right? Everything as usual?" + +She answered, drily. "Everything's quite as usual, thank you. Beechfield +never changes. Since you were last here there have only been two new +cottages built." She paused perceptibly, and then went on:--"I think that +Timmy told you that Betty was with the Scottish Women's Hospital during +the war? She's got one of the best French decorations." + +Should she say anything about George? Before she could make up her mind +she heard the words--"You can't go on any longer now. Time's up." And +Radmore called out hastily:--"Till Friday then--so long!" + +Janet Tosswill hung up the receiver; but she did not move away from the +telephone at once. She stood there, wondering painfully whether she had +better go along and tell Betty _now_, or whether it would be better to +wait till, say, lunch, when all the young people would be gathered +together? After all Betty had been nineteen when her engagement to +Godfrey Radmore had been broken off, and so very much had happened since +then. + +And then, in a sense, her mind was made up for her by the fact that a +shadow fell across the floor of the hall, and looking up, she saw her old +friend and confidant, Dr. O'Farrell, blocking up the doorway with his big +burly body. + +"D'you remember Godfrey Radmore?" she asked as their hands met. + +"Come now, you're joking surely. Remember Radmore? I've good cause to; I +don't know whether I ever told you--" there came a slight, very slight +note of embarrassment into his hearty Irish voice--"that I wrote to the +good fellow just after the Armistice, about our Pat. That the boy's doing +as well out in Brisbane as he is, is largely owing to Radmore's good +offices." + +Mrs. Tosswill was surprised, and not quite pleased. She wondered why Dr. +O'Farrell had not told her at the time that he was writing to Godfrey. +She still subconsciously felt that Godfrey Radmore belonged to Old Place +and to no one else in Beechfield. + +"I didn't know about Pat," she said slowly. "But you'll be able to thank +him in person now, for he's coming on Friday to stay with us." + +"Is he now?" The shrewd Irishman looked sharply into her troubled face. +"Well, well, you'll have to let bygones be bygones--eh, Mrs. Toss? I take +it he's a great man now." + +"I don't think money makes for greatness," she said. + +"Don't you?" he queried drily. "I do! Come admit, woman, that you're +sorry _now_ you didn't let Betty take the risk?" + +"I'm not at all sorry--" she cried. "It was all his fault. He was such +a strange, rough, violent young fellow!" + +The words trembled on the old doctor's lips--"Perhaps it will all come +right now!" But he checked himself, for in his heart of hearts he did +not in the least believe that it would all come right. He knew well +enough that Godfrey Radmore, after that dramatic exit to Australia, had +cut himself clean off from all his friends. He was coming back now as +that wonderful thing to most people--a millionaire. Was it likely, so +the worldly-wise old doctor asked himself, that a man whose whole +circumstances had so changed, ever gave a thought to that old boyish love +affair with Betty Tosswill?--violent, piteous and painful as the affair +had been. But had Betty forgotten? About that the doctor had his doubts, +but he kept them strictly to himself. + +He changed the subject abruptly. "It isn't scarlet fever at the +Mortons--only a bit of a red rash. I thought you'd like to know. + +"It's good of you to have come and told me," she exclaimed. "I confess +I did feel anxious, for Timmy was there the whole of the day before +yesterday." + +"Ah! and how's me little friend?" + +Janet Tosswill looked around--but no, there was no one in the corridor of +which the door, giving into the hall, was wide open. + +"He's gone to do an errand for me in the village." + +"The boy is much more normal, eh?" He looked at her questioningly. + +"He still says that he sees things," she admitted reluctantly, "though +he's rather given' up confiding in me. He tells old Nanna extraordinary +tales, but then, as you know, Timmy was always given to romancing, and of +course Nanna believes every word he says and in a way encourages him." + +The doctor looked at Timmy's mother with a twinkle in his eye. "Nanna +isn't the only one," he observed. "I was told in the village just now +that Master Timmy had scared away the milk from Tencher's cow." + +A look of annoyance came over Mrs. Tosswill's face. "I shall have to +speak to Timmy," she exclaimed. "He's much too given to threatening the +village people with ill fortune if they have done anything he thinks +wrong or unkind. The child was awfully upset the other day because he +discovered that the Tenchers had drowned a half-grown kitten." + +"He's a queer little chap," observed the old doctor, "a broth of a boy, +if ye'll allow me to say so--I'd be proud of Timmy if I were his mother, +Mrs. Toss!" + +"Perhaps I _am_ proud of him," she said smiling, "but still I always tell +John he's a changeling child--so absurdly unlike all the others." + +"Ah, but that's where _you_ come in, me good friend. 'Twas a witch you +must have had among ye're ancestresses in the long ago." + +He gripped her hand, and went out to his two-seater, his mind still full +of his friend's strange little son. + +Then all at once--he could not have told you why--Dr. O'Farrell's mind +switched off to something very different, and he went back into the hall +again. + +"A word more with ye, Mrs. Tosswill. What sort of a lady has taken The +Trellis House, eh? We don't even know her name." + +"She's a Mrs. Crofton--oddly enough, a friend or acquaintance of Godfrey +Radmore. He seems to have first met her during the war, when he was +quartered in Egypt. She wrote to John and asked if there was a house to +let in Beechfield, quoting Godfrey as having told her it was a delightful +village." + +"And how old may she be?" + +"Her husband was a Colonel Crofton, so I suppose she's middle-aged. She's +only been a widow three months--if as long." + +Janet Tosswill waited till Dr. O'Farrell was well away, and then she +began walking down the broad corridor which divided Old Place. It was +such a delightful, dignified, spacious house, and very dear to them all, +yet Janet was always debating within herself whether they ought to go on +living in it, now that they had become so poor. + +When she came to the last door on the left, close to the baize door +Which shut off the commons from the living rooms, she waited a moment. +Then, turning the handle, she walked into what was still called the +schoolroom, though Timmy never did his lessons there. + +Betty Tosswill, the eldest of John Tosswill's three daughters, was +sitting at a big mid-Victorian writing-table, examining the house-books. +She had just discovered two "mistakes" in the milkman's account, and she +felt perhaps unreasonably sorry and annoyed. Betty had a generous, +unsuspicious outlook on human nature, and a meeting with petty dishonesty +was always a surprise. She looked up with a very friendly, welcoming +smile as her step-mother came into the room. They were very good friends, +these two, and they had a curiously close bond in Timmy, the only child +of the one and the half-brother of the other. Betty was now twenty-eight +and there were only two persons in the world whom she had loved in her +life as well as she now loved her little brother. + +As her step-mother came close up to her--"Janet? What's the matter?" +she exclaimed, and as the other made no answer, a look of fear came +over the girl's face. She got up from her chair. "Don't look like that, +Janet,--you're frightening me!" + +The older woman tried to smile. "To tell the truth, Betty, I've had +rather a shock. You heard the telephone bell ring?" + +"You mean some minutes ago?" + +"Yes." + +"Who was it?" + +"Godfrey Radmore, speaking from London." + +"Is that all? I was afraid that something had happened to Timmy!" But, +even so, the colour flamed up into Betty Tosswill's face. + +Her step-mother looked away out of the window as she went on:--"It was +stupid of me to have been so surprised, but somehow I thought he was +still in Australia." + +"He was in England last year." Betty, not really knowing what she was +doing, bent over the peccant milkman's book. + +"He's coming down here on Friday. I think he realises that I haven't +forgiven him for not coming to see us last year. Still we must let +bygones be bygones." + +Then she wondered with a sharp touch of self-reproach what had made her +say such a stupid thing--a thing which might have, and indeed had, two +such different meanings? What she had _meant_ had been that she must +forget the hurt surprise she and her husband had felt that Godfrey +Radmore, on two separate occasions, had deliberately avoided coming down +from London to what had been, after all, so long his home; in fact, as he +himself had said just now, the only home he had ever known. + +But what was this Betty was saying?--her face rather drawn and white, all +the bright colour drifted out of it--"Of course we must, Janet! Besides +Godfrey was not to blame--not at the last." + +Janet knew what Betty meant. That at the end it was she who had failed +him. But when their engagement had been broken off, Godfrey had been +worse than penniless--in debt, and entirely through his own fault. He +had gambled away what little money he had, and it had ended in his going +off to Australia--alone. + +Then an astounding thing had happened. Godfrey had had a fortune left him +by an eccentric old man in whose employment he had been as secretary for +a while. His luck still holding, he had gone through most of the war, +including Gallipoli, with only one wound, which had left no ill effects. +A man so fortunate ought not to have neglected his old friends. + +Janet Tosswill, the step-mother completely merging into the friend, came +forward, and put her arms round the girl's shoulders. "Look here, Betty. +Wouldn't you rather go away? I don't suppose he'll stay longer than +Monday or Tuesday--" + +"I shouldn't think of going away! I expect he's forgotten all about that +old affair. It's a long time ago, Janet--nine years. We were both so +young, that I've forgotten too--in a sense." And then, as she saw that +the other was far more moved than she herself was outwardly, she +repeated: "It really has faded away, almost out of sight. Think of +all that has happened since then!" + +The other muttered, "Yes, that's true," and Betty went on, a little +breathlessly, "I'll tell you who'll be pleased--that's Timmy. He's got a +regular hero-worship of Godfrey." She was smiling now. "I hope he asked +after his godson?" + +"Indeed he did. After Flick too! By the way he wanted to know if Mrs. +Crofton was settled down in The Trellis House. I wonder if she's an +Australian?" + +"I don't think so," said Betty. "I think he met them in Egypt during the +war. He mentioned them in one of his letters to Timmy, and then, when he +was in England last year, he must have stayed with them, for that's where +Flick came from. Colonel Crofton bred terriers. I remember reading Timmy +a long letter signed 'Cecil Crofton' telling him all about how to manage +Flick, and he mentioned Godfrey." + +"I don't remember that--I must have been away." + +They were both glad to have glided on to a safe, indifferent subject. + +"I'll go back to my carnations now, but first I'd better tell your father +the news." + +"You--you--needn't remind father of anything that happened years ago, +Janet--need you?" + +Janet Tosswill shook her head, and yet when she had shut the door behind +her in her husband's study, almost the first words she uttered, after +having told him of Godfrey Radmore's coming visit, were:--"I shall never, +never forgive him for the way he treated Betty. I hate the thought of +having to be nice to him--I wish Timmy wasn't his godson!" + +She spoke the words breathlessly, defiantly, standing before her old +John's untidy writing table. + +As she spoke, he rather nervously turned some papers over under his +hand:--"I don't know that he behaved as badly as you think, my dear. +Neither of them had any money, and at that time he had no prospects." + +"He'd thrown away his prospects! Then I can't forgive him for his +behaviour last year--never coming down to see us, I mean. It was so--so +ungrateful! Handsome presents don't make up for that sort of thing. I +used to long to send the things back." + +"I don't think you're fair," began Mr. Tosswill deprecatingly. "He did +write me a very nice letter, Janet, explaining that it was impossible for +him to come." + +"Well, I suppose we must make the best of it--particularly as he says +that he's come back to England for good." + +She went out of the room, and so into the garden--back to the border she +had left unwillingly but at which she now glanced down with a sensation +of disgust. She felt thoroughly ruffled and upset--a very unusual +condition for her to be in, for Janet Tosswill was an equable and +happy-natured woman, for all her affectionate and sensitive heart. + +She told herself that it was true the whole world had altered in the last +nine years--everything had altered except Beechfield. The little Surrey +village seemed to her mind exactly the same as it was when she had come +there, as a bride, fourteen years ago, except that almost everybody in +it, from being comfortably off, had become uncomfortably poor. Then all +at once, she smiled. The garden of Old Place was very different from the +garden she had found when she first came there. It had been a melancholy, +neglected, singularly ugly garden--the kind of garden which only costly +bedding-out had made tolerable in some prosperous early Victorian day. +Now it was noted for its charm and beauty even among the many beautiful +gardens of the neighbourhood, and during the War she had made quite a lot +of money selling flowers and fruit for the local Red Cross. Now she was +trying to coax her husband to take one of the glebe fields on a long +lease in order to start a hamper trade in fruit, vegetables and flowers. +Dolly, the one of her three step-daughters whom she liked least, was fond +of gardening, in a dull plodding way, and might be trained to such work. + +But try though she did to forget Godfrey Radmore, her mind swung +ceaselessly back to the man with whom she had just had that curious talk +on the telephone. She was sorry--not glad as a more worldly woman would +have been--that Godfrey Radmore was coming back into their life. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +While Janet Tosswill was thinking so intently of Godfrey Radmore, he +himself was standing at the window of a big bedroom in one of those +musty, expensive, old-fashioned hotels, which, perhaps because they are +within a stone's throw of Piccadilly, still have faithful patrons all the +year round, and are full to bursting during the London Season. As to +Radmore, he had chosen it because it was the place where the grandfather +who had brought him up always stayed when he, Godfrey, was a little boy. + +Tall, well-built after the loose-limbed English fashion, and with a dark, +intelligent, rather grim cast of face, Radmore looked older than his age, +which was thirty-two. Yet, for all that, there was an air of power and of +reserved strength about him that set him apart from his fellows, and a +casual observer would have believed him cold, and perhaps a thought +calculating, in nature. + +Yet, standing there, looking out on that quiet, narrow street, he was +seething with varying emotions in which he was, in a sense, luxuriating, +though whether he would have admitted any living being to a share in them +was another matter. + +Home! Home at last for good!--after what had been, with two short breaks, +a nine years' absence from England, and from all that England stands for +to such a man. + +He had left his country in 1910, an angry, embittered lad of +twenty-three, believing that he would never come back or, at any rate, +not till he was an old man having "made good." + +But everything--everything had fallen out absolutely differently from +what he had expected it to do. The influence of Mars, so fatal to +millions of his fellow beings, had brought him marvellous, unmerited good +fortune. He had rushed home the moment War was declared, and after +putting in some time in a training which he hated to remember, he had at +last obtained a commission. Within a fortnight of having reached his +Mecca--the Front, he was back in England in the--to him--amazing guise of +wounded hero. But he had sent for none of his old friends for he was +still ashamed. After the Armistice he had rushed through England on his +way to Australia, putting in a few days with a Colonel and Mrs. Crofton, +with whom he had been thrown in Egypt. More to do his host a kindness +than for any other reason, Radmore had sent his godson, Timothy Tosswill, +a pedigree puppy, from the queer little Essex manor-house where the +Croftons were then making a rather futile attempt to increase their +slender means by breeding terriers. + +The days had slipped by there very pleasantly, for Radmore liked his +taciturn host, and Mrs. Crofton was very pretty--an agreeable playfellow +for a rich and lonely man. So it was that when it came to the point he +had not cared to look up any of the people associated with his early +youth. + +But now he was going to see them--almost had he forced himself upon them. +And the thought of going home to Old Place shook and stirred him to the +heart. + +To-day he felt quite queerly at a loose end. This perhaps, partly because +the lately widowed Mrs. Crofton, with whom he had spent a good deal of +his time since his arrival in London three weeks ago, had left town. She +had not gone far, only to the Surrey village where he himself was going +on Friday. + +When pretty Mrs. Crofton had told Radmore that she had taken a house at +Beechfield, he had been very much surprised and taken aback. It had +seemed to him an amazing coincidence that the one place in the wide world +which to him was home should have been chosen by her. But at once she had +reminded him, in her pretty little positive way, that it was he himself +who, soon after they had become first acquainted in Egypt, had drawn such +an attractive picture of the Surrey village. That, in fact, was why, in +July--it was now late September--when she, Enid Crofton, had had to think +of making a new home, Beechfield had seemed to her the ideal place. If +only she could hear of a house to let there! And by rare good chance +there had been such a house--The Trellis House! A friend had lent her +a motor, and she had gone down to look at it one August afternoon, and +there and then had decided to take it. It was so exactly what she +wanted--a delightful, old, cottagy place, yet with all modern +conveniences, lacking, alas! only electric light. + +All this had happened, so she had explained, after her last letter to +him, for she and Radmore had kept up a desultory correspondence. + +And now, with Janet Tosswill's voice still sounding in his ears, Godfrey +Radmore was not altogether sorry to feel a touch of loneliness, for at +times his good fortune frightened him. + +Not only had he escaped through the awful ordeal of war with only one bad +wound, while many of his friends and comrades--the best and bravest, the +most happily young, had fallen round him--but he had come back to find +himself transformed from a penniless adventurer into a very rich man. An +old Brisbane millionaire, into whose office he had drifted in the January +of 1914, and with whom he had, after a fashion, made friends, had re-made +his will in the memorable autumn of that year, and had left Radmore half +his vast fortune. Doubtless many such wills were made under the stress of +war emotion, but--and it was here that Radmore's strange luck had come +in--the maker of this particular will had died within a month of making +it. And, as so often happens to a man who had begun by losing what little +he had owing to folly and extravagance, Godfrey Radmore, though +exceptionally generous and kindly, now lived well within his means, and +had, if anything, increased his already big share of this world's goods. + +Now that he was home for good, he intended to buy a nice old-fashioned +house with a little shooting, and perchance a little fishing. The place, +though not at Land's End, must yet not be so near London that a fellow +would be tempted to be always going to town. It seemed to him amazing +that he now had it within his power to achieve what had always been his +ideal. But when he had acquired exactly the kind of place he wanted to +find, what those whom he had set seeking for him had assured him with +such flattering and eager earnestness he would very soon discover--what +then? Did he mean to live there alone? He thought yes, for he did not now +feel drawn to marriage. + +As a boy--it now seemed aeons of years ago--it had been far otherwise. But +Betty Tosswill had been very young, only nineteen, and when he had fallen +on evil days she had thrown him over in obedience to her father's +strongly expressed wish. He had suffered what at the time seemed a +frightful agony, and he had left England full of revolt and bitterness. + +But to-day, when the knowledge that he was so soon going to Beechfield +brought with it a great surge of remembrance, he could not honestly tell +himself that he was sorry. Had he gone out to Australia burdened with a +girl-wife, the difficult struggle would have been well-nigh intolerable, +and it was a million to one chance that he would ever have met the man to +whom he owed his present good fortune. What he now longed to do was to +enjoy himself in a simple, straightforward way. Love, with its tremors, +uncertainties, its blisses and torments, was not for him, and in so far +as he might want a pleasant touch of half sentimental, half sexless +comradeship, there was his agreeable friendship with Mrs. Crofton. + +Enid Crofton? The thought of how well he had come to know her in the +last three weeks surprised him. When he had first met her in Egypt she +had been the young, very pretty wife of Colonel Crofton, an elderly +"dug-out," odd and saturnine, whose manner to his wife was not always +over-kindly. No one out there had been much surprised when she had +decided to brave the submarine peril and return to England. + +Radmore had not been the only man who had felt sorry for her, and who had +made friends with her. But unlike the other men, who were all more or +less in love with her, he had liked Colonel Crofton. During his visit to +Fildy Fe Manor, the liking had hardened into serious regard. He had been +surprised, rather distressed, to find how much less well-off they had +appeared here, at home, than when the Colonel had been on so-called +active service. It had also become plain to him--though he was not a man +to look out for such things--that the husband and wife were now on very +indifferent terms, the one with the other, and, on the whole, he blamed +the wife--and then, just before he had started for home again, had come +the surprising news of Colonel Crofton's death! + +In her letter to one who was, after all, only an acquaintance, the +young widow had gone into no details. But, just by chance, Radmore had +seen a paragraph in a week-old London paper containing an account of the +inquest. Colonel Crofton had committed suicide, a result, it was stated, +of depression owing to shell-shock. "Shell-shock" gave Radmore pause. He +felt quite sure that Colonel Crofton had never--to use a now familiar +paraphrase--heard a shot fired in anger. The fact that his war service +had been far from the Front had always been a subject of bitter complaint +on the old soldier's part. + +Radmore had written a sympathetic note to Mrs. Crofton, telling her the +date of his return, and now--almost without his knowing how and why--they +had become intimate, meeting almost daily, lunching or dining together +incessantly, Radmore naturally gratified at the admiration his lovely +companion--she had grown even prettier since he had last seen +her--obviously excited. + +And yet, though he had become such "pals" with her, and though he missed +her society at his now lonely meals to an almost ridiculous extent, +Radmore would have been much taken aback had an angel from heaven told +him that the real reason he had sought to get in touch with Old Place was +because Enid Crofton had already settled down at Beechfield. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +After Timmy Tosswill had been to the village shop and done his mother's +errand, he wandered on, his dog, Flick, at his heels, debating within +himself what he should do next. + +Like most children who lead an abnormal, because a lonely, childhood, he +was in some ways very mature, in other ways still very babyish. He was at +once secretive and--whenever anything touched his heart--emotionally +expansive. To the indifferent observer Timmy appeared to be an +exceptionally intelligent, naughty, rather spoilt little boy, too apt +to take every advantage of a certain physical delicacy. This was also +the view taken of him by his half-brothers, and by two out of his three +step-sisters. But the three who really loved him, his mother, his nurse, +and his eldest half-sister, Betty, were convinced that the child was +either possessed of a curious, uncanny gift of--was it second sight?--as +his old nurse entirely and his mother half, believed, or, as Dr. +O'Farrell asserted, some abnormal development of his subconscious self. +All three were ruefully aware that Timmy was often--well, his mother +called it "sly," his sister called it "fanciful," his nurse by the good +old nursery term, "deceitful." + +It was this unlovable attribute of his which made it so difficult to know +whether Timmy believed in the positive assertions occasionally made by +him concerning his intimate acquaintance with the world of the unseen. +That he could sometimes visualise what was coming to pass, especially +if it was of an unpleasant, disturbing nature, was, so his mother +considered, an undeniable fact. But sometimes the gift lay in abeyance +for weeks, even for months. That had been the case, as Mrs. Tosswill had +told Dr. O'Farrell, for a long time now--to be precise, since March, +when, to the dismay of those about him he had predicted an accident in +the hunting field which actually took place. + +Timmy walked on up the steep bit of road which led to the upper part +of the beautiful old village which was, like many an English village, +shaped somewhat like a horseshoe--and then suddenly he stopped and gazed +intently into a walled stable-yard of which the big gates were wide open. + +Beechfield was Timmy Tosswill's world in little. He was passionately +interested in all that concerned its inhabitants, and was a familiar and +constant, though not always a welcome visitor to every cottage. Most of +the older village men and women had a certain grudging affection for the +odd little boy. They were all well aware of, and believed in, the gift +which made him, as the nurse had once explained to a crony of hers, "see +things which are not there," though not one of them would have cared to +mention it to him. + +Timmy had a special reason for wishing to know what was going on in this +stable-yard, so, after a moment's thought, he walked deliberately through +the gates as if he had some business there, and then he saw that two men, +one of whom was a stranger to him, were tidying up the place in a very +leisurely, thoroughgoing manner. + +The back door of The Trellis House, as the quaint-looking, long, low +building to the right was incongruously named, opened into the +stable-yard and by the door was a bench. Timmy walked boldly across the +yard and established himself on the bench and his dog, Flick, jumped up +and sat sedately by him. The little boy then took a small black book out +of his pocket. The book was called "The Crofton Boys" and Timmy had +chosen it because the name of the new tenant of The Trellis House was +Mrs. Crofton, a friend, as he was aware, of his godfather, Godfrey +Radmore. He wondered if she had any boys. + +The two men, busy with big new brooms, came up close to where Timmy was +sitting. When the child, obviously "one of the gentry," had walked into +the stable-yard, they had abruptly stopped talking; but now, seeing that +he was reading intently, and apparently quite uninterested in what they +were doing, they again began speaking to one another, or rather one of +them, a hard-bitten, shrewd-looking man, much the older of the two, began +talking in what was, though Timmy was not aware of it, a Cockney dialect. + +"You won't find 'er a bad 'un to work for, m'lad. I speak of folks as I +find them. I'm not one to take any notice of queer tales!" + +"Queer tales. What be the queer tales, Mister Piper?" + +Timmy knew this last speaker. He was the baker's rather sharp younger +son, and Mrs. Crofton had just engaged him as handy man. + +The older man lowered his voice a little, but Timmy, who, while his eyes +seemed glued to the pages of the book he held open, was yet listening +with all his ears, heard what followed quite clearly. + +"It ain't for me to spread ill tales after what I've told you, eh? But +the Colonel's death was a reg'lar tragedy, 'twas, and some there were who +said that 'is widder wasn't exactly sorry. 'E were a melancholy cove for +any young woman to 'ave to live with. But there, as my old mother used to +say, 'any old barn-door can keep out the draught!'" + +The younger man looked up:--"What sort o' tragedy?" he asked. + +"The Colonel pizened 'isself, and the question was--did 'e do it o' +purpose? Some said yes, and some said no. I was in it by a manner of +speaking." + +"You was in it?" + +The boy left off working, and gazed at the other eagerly:--"D'you mean +you saw him do it?" + +"I was the first to see 'im in his agony--I calls that being in it. And +I was called upon to give evidence at the inquest held on the corpse." + +The man looked round him furtively as he spoke. The little boy sitting by +the back door of the house caused him no concern, but he did not want +what he said to be overheard by the two new maid-servants who had arrived +at The Trellis House that morning. + +"There's always a lot of talk when folks die sudden," he went on, in a +sententious tone. "It was as plain as the nose on your face that the +Colonel, poor chap, 'ad 'ad what they called shell-shock. I'd heard 'im +a-talking aloud to 'isself many a time. 'E was a-weary of life 'e was. So +'tis plain 'e just thought 'e'd put an end to it, like many a better man +afore 'im." + +And then the youth said something that rather surprised himself, but his +mind had been working while the other had been talking. + +"Did anyone say different?" was his question and the other answered in +a curious tone: "Now you're askin'! Yes, there was some folk as did say +different. They argued that the Colonel never took the pizen knowingly. +'E was very keen over terriers--we bred 'em. The best of 'em, a grand +sire, was the very spit of that little dawg sitting up on that there +bench. Colonel bred 'em for profit, not pleasure. Mrs. Crofton, she +'ated 'em, and she lost no time either in getting rid of 'em after +'e was gone. They got on 'er nerves, same as 'e'd done. She give the +best--prize-winner 'e was--to the Crowner as tried the corpse. 'E'd known +'em both--was a bit sweet on 'er 'isself." + +The youth laughed discordantly. "Ho! Ho! She's that sort, is she?" + +But the other spoke up at once with a touch of sharpness in his voice. + +"She's a good sort to them as be'aves themselves, my lad. She give me a +good present. Got me a good, new soft place, too, that's where I'm going +to-morrer. I'm 'ere to oblige 'er, that's what I am--just to put you, +young man, in the way of things. Look sharp, please 'er, mind your +manners, and you may end better off than you know!" + +The lad looked at the speaker with a gleam of rather hungry curiosity in +his lack-lustre eyes. + +"Mark my words! Your missus won't be a widder long. Ever 'eard of a Major +Radmore?" + +The speaker did not notice that the little boy sitting on the bench +stiffened unconsciously. + +"Major Radmore?" repeated the listener. "Folk in Beechfield did know a +chap called Radmore. Lives in Australia, he does. He sent home some money +for a village club 'e did, but nothing 'as been done about it yet. Some +do say old Tosswill's sticking to the cash--a gent as what they calls +trustee of it all. But then who'd trust anyone with a load o' money? The +chap I'm thinking of used to live at Tosswill's a matter of ten years +ago." + +"Then 'tis the same one!" exclaimed the other eagerly, "and, if so, +you'll not lack good things. Likely as not the Major's your future +master. 'E's got plenty, and a generous soul too. Gave me a present last +year when he was a stopping at Fildy Fe Manor. The Major, 'e bought one +of our dawgs, and I sent it off for 'im to Old Place, Beechfield, damn +me if I don't remember it now--name of Tosswill too." He stopped short, +and then, as if he had thought better of what he was going to say, he +observed musingly: "Some says Jack Piper's a blabber--but they don't know +me! But one thing I'll tell you. The're two after the Missus, for all the +Colonel's 'ardly cold, so to speak, but I put my money on the dark one." + +He had hardly uttered these cryptic words when a pretty young woman +opened the door which gave on to the stable-yard from the house: +"Dinner-time!" she called out merrily. + +Both men dropped the brooms they were holding, and going towards the door +disappeared. + +As they did so, Timmy heard the words:--"_She's_ a peach--thinks herself +one too--oh! the merry widder!" + +The little boy waited a moment. He took a long look round the sunny, and +now unnaturally tidy, stable-yard. Then he got up, shut his book, and put +it sedately into his pocket. Flick seemed unwilling to move, so Timmy +turned and called sharply:--"Flick! come along at once!" + +The dog jumped down and ran up to his master. Timmy walked across the +big, flat, white stones, kicking a pebble as he went. At last, when he +got close to the open gate, he hop-scotched, propelling the pebble far +into the road. + +He was extremely disturbed and surprised. He went over and over +again what he had heard the two men say. The absurd suspicion of his +father filled him with angry hurt disgust. Why only yesterday the plan +of the village clubhouse had come from the architect! And then that +extraordinary disconcerting hint about his godfather? Godfrey Radmore +belonged in Timmy's imagination, first to himself, secondly to his +parents, and then, in a much less close way, to the rest of the Tosswill +family. A sensation of strong-dislike to the still unknown new tenant of +The Trellis House welled up in his secretive little heart, and instead of +going on round the village, he turned back and made his way straight +home. + +As he walked along the short avenue which led to the front door of Old +Place he saw his mother kneeling on her gardening mat. He stepped up on +to the grass hoping to elude her sharp eyes and ears, but she had already +seen him. + +"Hullo, Timmy!" she called out cheerfully. "What have you been doing with +yourself all this time?" + +"I've been sitting reading in the stable-yard of The Trellis House." + +"That seems rather a funny thing to do, when you might have been here +helping your Mummy," but she said the words very kindly. Then suddenly +the mention of The Trellis House reminded her of Godfrey Radmore. "I've +got a great piece of news!" she exclaimed. "Guess who's coming here to +spend the week-end with us, Timmy?" + +He looked at her gravely and said:--"I think I know, Mum." + +She felt taken aback, as she so often was with her strange little son. + +"I don't think you do," she cried briskly. + +"I think it's"--he hesitated a moment--"Major Radmore, my godfather." + +She was very, very surprised. Then her quick Scotch mind fastened on the +one unfamiliar word. "Why _Major_ Radmore?" she asked. + +Timmy looked a little confused. "I--I don't know," he muttered +unwillingly. "I thought he was a soldier, Mum." + +"Of course he _was_ a soldier. But he isn't a soldier now." + +"Isn't it tea-time?" asked Timmy suddenly. + +"Yes, I suppose it is." + +As they walked towards the house together Janet was telling herself +uneasily that unless Timmy had met Dr. O'Farrell, it was impossible for +him to have learnt through any ordinary human agency that Godfrey Radmore +was coming to Beechfield. Though a devoted, she was not a blind mother, +and she was disagreeably aware that her little son never "gave himself +away." She did not wish to start him on a long romancing explanation +which would embody--if one were to put it in bald English--a lie. So she +said nothing. + +They were close to the door of the house when he again took her aback by +suddenly saying:--"I don't think Mrs. Crofton can be a very nice sort of +lady, Mum." + +(Then he had seen Mrs. Crofton, and _she_ had told him.) + +"Why not, Timmy?" + +"I have a sort of feeling that she's horrid." + +"Nonsense! If only for your godfather's sake, we must all try and like +her. Besides, my boy, she's in great trouble. Her husband only died two +or three months ago." + +"Some people aren't sorry when their husbands die," remarked Timmy. + +She pretended not to hear. But as they walked through into the hall +she heard him say as if to himself: "Some people are glad. Mrs. George +Pott"--the woman who kept the local beer-shop--"danced when _her_ husband +died." + +"I wish, Timmy," said his mother sharply, "that you would not listen to, +or repeat low village gossip." + +"Not even if it's true, Mum?" + +"No, not even if it's true." + +When Janet had first come to Old Place as a bride, eager to shoulder what +some of her friends had told her would be an almost intolerable burden, +her husband's six children had been a sad, subdued, nursery-brought-up +group, infinitely pathetic to her warm Scotch heart. At once she had +instituted, rather to the indignation of the old nurse who was yet to +become in due time her devoted henchwoman, a daily dining-room tea, and +the custom still persisted. + +And now, to Timmy's surprise, his mother opened the drawing-room door +instead of going on to the dining-room. "Tell Betty," she said abruptly, +"to pour out tea. I'll come on presently." + +She shut the door, and going over to the roomy old sofa, sat down, and +leaning back, closed her eyes. It was a very unusual thing for her to +do, but she felt tired, and painfully excited at the thought of Godfrey +Radmore's coming visit. And as she lay there, there rose up before her, +wearily and despondently, the changes which nine years had brought to Old +Place. + +Janet Tosswill, like all intelligent step-mothers, sometimes speculated +as to what her predecessor had really been like. Her husband's elder +children were so amazingly unlike one another, as well as utterly unlike +her own son Timmy. + +Betty, the eldest of her step-children, was her favourite, and she had +also been deeply attached to Betty's twin-brother, George. The two had +been alike in many ways, though Betty was very feminine and George +essentially masculine, and each of them had possessed those special +human attributes which only War seems to bring to full fruition. + +George had been out in France seven months when he had been killed at +Beaumont Hamel, and he had already won a bar to his Military Cross by an +action which in any other campaign would have given him the Victoria +Cross. As for Betty, she had shown herself extraordinarily brave, cool, +and resourceful when after doing some heavy home war work, she had gone +out with one of the units of the Scottish Women's Hospital. + +But Janet Tosswill admired and loved the girl more than ever since +Betty had come back, from what had perforce been a full and exciting +life, to take up the dull, everyday routine existence at Old Place where, +what with a bad investment, high prices, and the sudden leap in the +income-tax, from living pleasantly at ease they had become most +unpleasantly poor. + +Jack, who came next to Betty, though a long way after, and who had just +missed being in the war, was a very different type of young Englishman +from what George had been. He was clever, self-assertive, and already +known as a brilliant debater and as a sound speaker at the Oxford Union. +There need be no trouble as to Jack Tosswill's future--he was going to +the Bar, and there was little doubt that he would succeed there. One of +his idiosyncrasies was his almost contemptuous indifference to women. He +was fond of his sisters in a patronising way, but the average pleasant +girl, of whom the neighbourhood of Beechfield had more than its full +share, left him quite cold. + +The next in age--Dolly--was the most commonplace member of the family. +Her character seemed to be set on absolutely conventional lines, and the +whole family, with the exception of her father, who did not concern +himself with such mundane things, secretly hoped that she would marry a +young parson who had lately "made friends with her." As is often the case +with that type of young woman, Dolly was feckless about money, and would +always have appeared badly and unsuitably dressed but for the efforts of +her elder sister and step-mother. + +Rosamund, the youngest and by far the prettiest of the three sisters, was +something of a problem. Though two years younger than Dolly, she had +already had three or four love affairs, and when only sixteen, had been +the heroine of a painful scrape--the sort of scrape which the people +closely concerned try determinedly to forget, but which everyone about +them remembers to his or her dying day. + +The hero of that sorry escapade had been a man of forty, separated from +his wife. On the principle that "truth will out even in an affidavit," +poor Rosamund's little world was well aware that the girl, or rather the +child, had been simply vain and imprudent. But still, she had disappeared +for two terrible long days and nights, and even now, when anything +recalled the episode to her step-mother or to Betty, they would shudder +with an awful inward tremor, recollecting what they had both gone +through. That she had come back as silly and innocent a girl as she had +left, and feeling as much shame as she was capable of feeling, had been +owing to the tardily awakened sense of prudence and honour in the man to +whom she had run away in a fit of temper after a violent quarrel with--of +all people in the world--her brother Jack. + +Rosamund now ardently desired to become an actress, and after much secret +discussion with his wife, her father had at last told her that if she +were of the same opinion when she reached the age of twenty-one he would +put no obstacle in her way. + +As to Tom, the youngest of Janet Tosswill's step-children, he was "quite +all right." Though only fifteen months younger than Rosamund, whereas she +was as much of a woman as she ever would be, he was still a cheery, +commonplace schoolboy. He had been such a baby when Janet had married +that sometimes she almost felt as if he were her own child and that +though Tom's relation to her own son was peculiar. Theoretically the +two boys ought to have been pals, or at any rate good friends. But in +practice they were like oil and water--and found it impossible to mix. +When Tom was at home, as now, on his holidays, he spent most of his time +with a schoolfellow of his own age who lived about two miles from +Beechfield. In some ways Timmy was older now than Tom would ever be. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Timmy went on into the dining-room to find his brothers and sisters all +gathered there excepting Dolly. But as he sat down, and as Betty began to +pour out tea, Dolly came in from the garden with the words:--"Guess who +I've met and had a talk with?" + +She looked round her eagerly, but no one ventured an opinion. There were +so many, many people whom Dolly might have met and had a talk with, for +she was the most gregarious member of the Tosswill family. + +At last Timmy spoke up:--"I expect you've seen Mrs. Crofton," he +observed, his mouth already full of bread and butter. + +Dolly was taken aback. "How did you know?" she cried. "But it's quite +true--I _have_ seen Mrs. Crofton!" + +"What is she like?" asked Jack indifferently. + +"How old is she?" This from Betty, who somehow always seemed to ask the +essential question. + +"D'you think she'll prove a 'stayer'?" questioned Tom. + +He had hoped that someone with a family of boys and girls would have come +to The Trellis House. It was a beautiful little building--the oldest +dwelling-house in the village, in spite of its early Victorian name. But +no one ever stayed there very long. Some of the older village folk said +it was haunted. + +"Did you speak to her, or did she speak to you?" asked Rosamund. + +And then again Timmy intervened. + +"I know more about her than any one of you do. But I don't mean to tell +you what I know," he announced. + +No one took any notice of him. By common consent efforts were always made +in the family circle to keep Timmy down--but such efforts were rarely +successful. + +"Well, tell us what's she like?" exclaimed Rosamund. "I did so hope we +should escape another widow." + +She had hoped for a nice, well-to-do couple, with at least one grown-up +son preferably connected, in some way, with the stage. + +Dolly Tosswill, still standing, looked down at her audience. + +"She's quite unlike what I thought she would be," she began. "For one +thing, she's quite young, and she's awfully pretty and unusual-looking. +You'd notice her anywhere." + +"Did you meet her in the post-office?" asked Betty. + +"No, at church. She only arrived this morning, and she said she felt so +lonely and miserable that when she heard the bell ring she thought she'd +go along and see what our church was like." + +"Oh, then she's 'pi'?" in a tone of disgust from Rosamund. + +"I'd noticed her in church, though she was sitting rather back, close to +the door," went on Dolly, "and I'd wondered who she was, as she looked so +very unlike any of the Beechfield people." + +"How do you mean--unlike?" asked Tom. + +"I can't explain exactly. I thought she was a summer visitor. And then +something so funny happened--" + +Dolly was sitting down now, and Betty handed her a cup of tea, grieving +the while to see how untidy she looked with her hat tilted back at an +unbecoming angle. + +"What happened?" + +"Well, as we came out of the church together, all at once that old, +half-blind, post-office dog made straight for her! He gave a most awful +howl, and she was so frightened that she ran back into the church again. +But of course I didn't know she was Mrs. Crofton _then_. I got the dog +into the post-office garden and then I went back into the church to tell +her the coast was clear. But she waited a bit, for she was awfully afraid +that he might get out again." + +"What a goose she must be"--this from Jack. + +"She asked if she were likely to meet any other dog in the road; so I +asked her where she lived, and then she told me she was Mrs. Crofton, and +that she had only arrived this morning. I offered to walk home with her, +and then we had quite a talk. She has the same kind of feeling about dogs +that some people have about cats." + +"That's rather queer!" said Tom suddenly, "for her husband bred +wire-haired terriers. Colonel Crofton sold Flick to Godfrey Radmore last +year--don't you remember?" + +He appealed to Betty, who always remembered everything. + +"Yes," she said quietly, "I was just thinking of that. Colonel Crofton +wrote Timmy such a nice letter telling him how to manage Flick. It does +seem strange that she should have that feeling about dogs." + +Again Timmy's shrill voice rose in challenge. "I should hate _my_ wife +not to like dogs," he cried pugnaciously. + +"It'll take you all your time to make her like _you_, old man," observed +Tom. + +"I've asked her in to supper to-night," went on Dolly, in her slow, +deliberate way, "so we shall have to have Flick locked up." + +"Whatever made you ask her to supper, Doll?" asked Jack sharply. + +Jack Tosswill had a hard, rather limited nature, but he was very fond +of his home, and unlike most young men, he had a curious dislike to the +presence of strangers there. This was unfortunate, for his step-mother was +very hospitable, and even now, though life had become a real struggle as +to ways and means, she often asked people in to meals. + +"Her cook didn't turn up," exclaimed Dolly. "And when she asked me if I +knew of any woman in the village who could come in and cook dinner for +her this evening, I said I was sure Janet would like her to come in and +have supper." + +"And I hope," chimed in Rosamund decidedly, "that we shall all dress for +dinner. Why should she think us a hugger-mugger family?" + +"I don't mean to change. I shall only wash my hands!" This from Timmy, +who was always allowed to sit up to dinner. His brothers and sisters were +too fond of their step-mother to say how absurdly uncalled-for they +thought this privilege. + +As everyone pretended not to have heard his remark, Timmy repeated +obstinately: "I shall only wash my hands." + +"Mrs. Crofton won't care how _you_ look," observed Jack irritably. "If we +didn't now live in such a huggery-muggery way, I should always dress. I +do everywhere else." + +Betty looked at him, and her face deadened. Though she would hardly have +admitted it, even to herself, she regretted the way in which everything +at Old Place was now allowed to go "slack." She knew it to be bad for her +sisters. It wasn't as if they did any real housework or gave useful help +in the kitchen. Dolly tried to do so in a desultory way, but in the end +it was she, Betty, who kept everything going in this big, rambling old +house, with the help of the old nurse and a day girl from the village. + +Timmy gave a little cackle, and Jack felt annoyed. He looked across at +his half-brother with a feeling akin to dislike. But Jack Tosswill was +truly attached to his step-mother. He was old enough to remember what a +change she had made in the then dull, sad, austere Old Place. Janet had +at once thrown herself into the task of being sister, rather than +step-mother, to her husband's children, and bountifully had she succeeded! + +Still, with the exception of Betty, they all criticised her severely, in +their hearts, for her weakness where her own child was concerned. And yet +poor Janet never made the slightest difference between Timmy and the +others. It was more the little boy's own clever insistence which got him +his own way, and secured him certain privileges which they, at his age, +had never enjoyed. Timmy also always knew how to manage his delicate, +nervous father. John Tosswill realised that Timmy might some day grow up +to do him credit. Timmy really loved learning, and it was a pleasure to +the scholar to teach his clever, impish, youngest son. + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile Janet, who had remained on in the drawing-room, got up from the +sofa and, going into the corridor, opened the dining-room door. For some +moments she stood there, unseen, watching the eager party gathered round +the table, and as she did so, she looked with a curious, yearning feeling +at each of the young folk in turn. + +How changed, how utterly changed, they all were since Godfrey Radmore had +last been in that familiar room! The least changed, of course, was Betty. +To her step-mother's partial eyes, Betty Tosswill, at twenty-eight, was +still an extraordinarily charming and young-looking creature. Had her +nose been rather less retrousse, her generous, full-lipped mouth just a +little smaller, her brown hair either much darker, or really fair, as was +Rosamund's, she would have been exceptionally pretty. What to the +discriminating made her so much more attractive than either of her +younger sisters was her look of intelligence and quiet humour. But of +course she looked not only older, but different, from what she had looked +nine years ago. Betty had lived a full and, in a sense, a tragic life +during four of the years which had elapsed since she and Radmore had +parted in this very room. + +Janet's eyes travelled past Betty to Jack. Just at that moment he was +looking with no very pleasant expression across at his little brother, +and yet there was something softer than usual in his cold, clear-cut +face. Janet Tosswill would have been touched and surprised indeed had +she known that it was the thought of herself that had brought that look +on Jack's face. Jack was twenty-one, but looked like a man of thirty--he +was so set, he knew so exactly what he wanted of life. As she looked at +him, she wondered doubtfully whether he would ever make that great career +his schoolmaster had so confidently predicted for him. He was so--so--she +could only find the word "conventional" to describe him. + +Janet Tosswill passed over Dolly quickly. To-day Dolly looked a little +different from the others, for she was wearing a hat, and it was clear +that she had just come in from the village. Her step-mother noticed with +dissatisfaction that the over large brooch fastening Dolly's blouse was +set in awry, and that there were wisps of loose hair lying on her neck. + +As for Rosamund, she looked ill-humoured, frankly bored to-day--but oh, +how pretty and dainty, next to the commonplace Dolly! Rosamund's gleaming +fair hair curled naturally all over her head; she had lovely, +startled-looking eyes which went oddly with a very determined, if +beautifully moulded, mouth and chin. + +Betty was convinced that, given a chance, Rosamund would make a success +on the stage, but Betty was prejudiced. There had always been a curious +link of sympathy between the two sisters, utterly different as they were, +and many as were the years that separated them. + +Tom was the only one of the flock who presented no problem. He was far +more human than Jack, but, like Jack, absolutely steady and dependable. + +Janet Tosswill's mind swung back to Godfrey Radmore. She wondered how he +would like the changes in Old Place, whether they would affect him +pleasantly or otherwise. She was woman enough to regret sharply their +altered way of life. When Godfrey had lived in Old Place, there had been +a good cook, a capable parlourmaid, and a well-trained housemaid, as well +as a bright-faced "tweenie" there, and life had rolled along as if on +wheels. It was very different now. + +She wondered if Betty or Timmy had told the others of Radmore's coming +visit. It was so strange, in a way, so painful to know that to most of +them, with the possible exception of Jack, he was only a name. + +Suddenly Betty, turning around, saw her step-mother. "Dolly has met Mrs. +Crofton, and she's utterly unlike what any of us thought she would be!" +she cried out. "She's young, and very pretty--quite lovely in fact! +Dolly asked her into supper to-night, as her cook has not yet arrived." + +She had a sort of prevision that Janet was now going to tell the others +about Godfrey Radmore, and she wanted to get away out of the room first. +But this was not to be. Janet Tosswill had a very positive mind--she +was full of what she had come in to say, and the new tenant at The +Trellis House interested her not at all, so as soon as she had sat down, +she exclaimed, "Perhaps Timmy has told you my news?" + +Then all turned to her, except Betty and Timmy himself. + +"What news?" came in eager chorus. + +"Godfrey Radmore is in England. He telephoned from London just now, and +he's coming down on Friday to spend a long week-end!" + +Rosamund was the only one who stole a look at Betty. + +"Godfrey Radmore here?" repeated Jack slowly. "It's queer he would want +to come--after the odd way he's behaved to us." + +"Yes, it is rather strange," Janet tried to speak lightly. "But there it +is! The whole world has turned topsy-turvy since any of us saw him last." + +"I wonder if he's still very rich," went on Jack. + +Janet Tosswill felt startled. "Why shouldn't he be?" she asked. + +"Oh, I don't know--it only occurred to me that he might have lost some of +this money in the same way that he lost that first fortune of his." + +"It wasn't a fortune"--Betty's quiet voice broke in very decidedly--"and +most of it was lost by a friend of his, not by Godfrey himself at all. He +was too proud to say anything about it to father, but he wrote and told +George." + +A curious stillness fell over the company of young people. They were all +in their different ways very much surprised, for Betty never mentioned +her twin-brother. All at once they each remembered about Betty and +Godfrey--all except Timmy, who had never been told. + +"And now what's this about Mrs. Crofton?" asked Janet at last, breaking a +silence that had become oppressive. "Do I understand that she's coming to +supper to-night?" + +It was Betty who answered: "I hope you don't mind? Dolly thought it the +only thing to do, as the poor woman's cook hadn't arrived." + +"We mustn't forget to ask her in for lunch or dinner on one of the days +that Godfrey is here," observed Janet. "I gather they're friends. He +asked if she'd already come." + + * * * * * + +Timmy was supposed to prepare his lessons between tea and dinner, but +unlike the ordinary boy, he much preferred to wake early and work before +breakfast. This was considered not good for his health, and there was +a constant struggle between himself and his determined mother to force +him to do the normal thing. So after she had finished her tea, she +beckoned to her son, and he unwillingly got up and followed her into +the drawing-room. But before he could settle down at his own special +table Betty came in. + +"Janet, I want to ask you something before I go into the village. There +are one or two things we must get in, if Mrs. Crofton is coming this +evening--" + +The little boy did not wait to hear his mother's answer. He crept very +quietly out of the open window, which was close to his table, and then +made his way round to the first of the long French windows of the +dining-room. He was just in time to hear his brother Tom ask in a very +solemn tone: "I say, you fellows! Wasn't Betty once engaged to this +Radmore chap?" + +Timmy, skilfully ensconced behind the full old green damask curtains, +listened, with all his ears, for the answer. + +"Yes," said Jack at last, with a touch of reluctance. "They were engaged, +but not for very long. Still, they'd been fond of one another for an age +and George was his greatest friend--" + +Rosamund broke in: "Do tell us what he's like, Jack! I suppose you can +remember him quite well?" + +Jack hesitated, rather uncomfortably. + +"Of course I remember Radmore very well indeed. He had quite a tidy bit +of money, as both his parents were dead. His snuffy old guardian had been +at Balliol with father. So father was asked to coach him. And then, well, +I suppose as time went on, and Betty began growing up, he fell in love +with her." + +"And she with him?" interposed Rosamund. + +"A girl is apt to like any man who likes her," said Jack loftily. "But I +believe 'twas he made all the fuss when the engagement was broken off." + +"But why was it broken off?" asked Rosamund. + +"Because he'd lost all his money racing." + +"What a stupid thing to do!" exclaimed Tom. + +"The row came during the Easter holidays," went on Jack meditatively, +"and there was a fearful dust-up. Like an idiot, Radmore had gone and put +the whole of the little bit of money he had saved out of the fire on an +outsider he had some reason to think would be bound to romp in first--and +the horse was not even placed!" + +"Poor fellow!" exclaimed Rosamund. + +"He rushed down here," went on Jack, "to say that he had made up his +mind to go to Australia. And he was simply amazed when father and Janet +wouldn't hear of Betty going with him." + +"Would she have liked to go?" asked Tom. + +"Well, yes--I believe she would. But of course it was out of the +question. Father could have given her nothing, even then, so how could +they have lived? There was a fearful rumpus, and in the end Godfrey went +off in a tearing rage." + +"Shaking the dust of Old Place off his indignant feet, eh?" suggested +Tom. + +"Yes, all that sort of thing. George was having scarlet fever--in a +London hospital--so of course he was quite out of it." + +"Then, at last Godfrey reopened communication via Timmy?" suggested the +younger boy. + +"Timmy's got the letter still," chimed in Rosamund. "I saw it in his +play-box the other day. It was rather a funny letter--I read it." + +"The devil you did!" from Tom, indignantly. + +She went on unruffled:--"He said he'd been left a fortune, and wanted to +share it with his godson. How much did he send? D'you remember?" She +looked round. + +"Five pounds!" said Dolly. + +"I wish _I_ was his godson," said Tom. + +"And then," went on Dolly, in her precise way, "the War came, and nothing +more happened till suddenly he wrote again to Timmy from Egypt, and then +began the presents. I wonder if we ought to have thanked him for them? +After all, we don't _know_ that they came from him. The only present we +_know_ came from him was Flick." + +"And a damned silly present, too!" observed Jack, drily. + +"Do you think he's still in love with Betty?" asked Rosamund. + +"Of course he's not. If he was, he would have written to her, not to +Timmy. Nine years is a long time in a man's life," observed Jack +sententiously. + +"My hat! yes!" exclaimed Tom. "Poor Betty!" + +Jack got up, and made a movement as if he were thinking of going out +through the window into the garden. So Timmy, with a swift, sinuous +movement, withdrew from the curtain, and edging up against the outside +wall of the house, walked unobtrusively back into the drawing-room. + +When his mother--who had gone out to find something for Betty to take +into the village--came back, she was pleased and surprised to find her +little son working away as if for dear life. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Close on eight that same evening, Timmy Tosswill stood by the open centre +window of the long drawing-room, hands duly washed, and his generally +short, rough, untidy hair well brushed, whistling softly to himself. + +He was longing intensely for his godfather's arrival, and it seemed such +a long time off to Friday. A photograph of Radmore, in uniform, sent him +at his own request two years ago, was the boy's most precious personal +possession. Timmy was a careful, almost uncannily thrifty child, with +quite a lot of money in the Savings Bank, but he had taken out 10/- in +order to buy a frame for the photograph, and it rested, alone in its +glory, on the top of the chest of drawers that stood opposite his bed. + +There had been a time when Timmy had hoped that he would grow up to +look like his godfather, but now he was aware that this hope would +never be fulfilled, for Radmore, in this photograph, at any rate, had +a strongly-featured, handsome face, very unlike what his mother had once +called "Timmy's wizened little phiz." + +It seemed strange to care for a person you had never seen since you were +a tiny child--but there it was! To Timmy everything that touched his +godfather was of far greater moment than he would have admitted to +anyone. Radmore was his secret hero; and now, to-night, he asked himself +painfully, why had his hero left off loving Betty? The story he had +overheard this afternoon had deeply impressed him. For the first time he +began to dimly apprehend the strange and piteous tangle we call life. + +Suddenly there broke on the still autumn air the distant sound of sharp +barks and piteous whines. Much against his will, the little boy had had +to bow to the edict that Flick should be shut up in the stable. Dolly, +who so seldom bothered about anything, had seen to this herself, because +Mrs. Crofton, who was coming to supper, hated dogs. Timmy inhospitably +hoped that the new tenant of The Trellis House would very seldom honour +Old Place with a visit. It would be impossible for them always to hide +Flick away like this! + +He moved further into the pretty, old-fashioned room. Like most +old-fashioned country drawing-rooms of the kind, it was rather over-full +of furniture and ornaments. The piano jutted out at right angles to a +big, roomy sofa, which could, at a pinch, hold seven or eight people, the +pinch usually being when, for the benefit of Timmy, the sofa was supposed +to be a stage coach of long ago on its way to London. The Tosswills had +been great people for private theatricals, charades, and so on--Timmy's +own mother being a really good actress and an excellent mimic, but she +did not often now indulge in an exhibition of her powers. + +At last Timmy looked round at the clock. It was ten minutes to eight, and +his mother would not be down for another five minutes. So he went back to +the window. All at once he saw in the gathering twilight, two people +walking up the avenue which led to the house. The little boy felt +surprised. "Who can they be?" was his immediate thought. + +As far as he could make out the one was an elderly-looking +gentleman--Timmy could just see the rough grey Norfolk jacket and +knickerbockers--by whose side there walked, sedately, a wire-haired +terrier. What an extraordinary thing! Surely that dog, walking by the +stranger, was _Flick_--Flick, having escaped from the stable, and +behaving for all the world as if the stranger were his master. But again +there fell on his ears Flick's distant squeals of anger and annoyance and +he felt a queer sensation of relief. + +Timmy turned his attention to the other figure, that of the young lady +who, dressed all in black, tripped gracefully along by the side of her +companion. Evidently some tiresome old gentleman, and his equally +tiresome daughter. He told himself crossly that his absent-minded, +kind-hearted father, or his incurably hospitable mother, forgetting all +about Mrs. Crofton, had asked these two people in to supper. If that was +so, Timmy, who was as much at home in the kitchen as in the drawing-room, +knew that there would not be quite enough to go round comfortably. This +was all the more irritating, as he himself was looking forward to-night +to tasting, for the first time, an especially delicious dish. This was +lobster pie, for which Old Place had been famed before the War, but +which, owing to the present price of lobsters, was among the many +delightful things which the War had caused to vanish from poor little +Timmy's world. One of the few sensible people in the world who know +what other people really like in the way of a present had sent by +parcels-post a lot of lobsters to Timmy's mother--hence the coming +lobster pie to-night. + +Realising that the strangers must be very near the front door by now, he +edged towards the door of the drawing-room, meaning to make a bolt for it +into what was still called the schoolroom. He did not wish to be caught +by himself in the drawing-room. But he was caught, for the door suddenly +opened, and his mother came in. + +Janet Tosswill "paid for dressing" as the old saying is. She looked +charming to-night, in a rather bright blue evening dress, and Timmy, +slipping his hand into hers, said softly: "You do look nice, Mum." + +She smiled, touched and pleased, for her child was not given to +compliments. Also, she had told herself, when glancing at her slim, +active figure in the early Victorian cheval glass which had belonged +to her husband's mother, that this blue dress was really _very_ +old-fashioned, and would probably appear so to Mrs. Crofton. + +In view of Timmy's pleasant compliment, she did not like to ask him if he +had washed his hands and brushed his hair. She could only hope for the +best: "I hope we shall like Mrs. Crofton," she said meditatively. "You +know she's a friend of your godfather, my dear." + +"Yes, I know that," he announced, in rather an odd voice, and she felt +just a little surprised. How did Timmy know that? Then she remembered her +husband had read aloud Mrs. Crofton's pretty, well-turned letter--the +letter which explained that the writer was looking out for a country +house, and would like to find one at Beechfield if possible, as her +friend, Godfrey Radmore, had described it as being the most beautiful +village in England. + +Timmy let go his mother's hand--then he looked searchingly into her face: +"Do you suppose," he asked, "that my godfather is in love with Mrs. +Crofton?" + +She was taken aback, and yes, shocked, by the question: "Of course not. +Whatever put such an extraordinary idea into your head, Timmy?" + +The words had hardly left her lips when the door opened, and the village +girl, who was staying on for two hours beyond her usual time because of +this visitor, announced in a breathless voice:--"Mrs. Crofton, ma'am." + +Timmy saw at once that the visitor was the young lady he had seen walking +up the avenue. Then the old gentleman and his dog--the dog which was +so extraordinarily like Flick--had only brought her as far as the door. +And then, while his mother was shaking hands with Mrs. Crofton, and +shepherding her towards the sofa, Timmy managed to have a good, long look +at the new tenant of The Trellis House. + +Grudgingly he admitted to himself that she was what most people--such +people, for instance, as Rosamund and Betty--would call "very pretty." + +Mrs. Crofton had a small three-cornered face, a ridiculously little, +babyish mouth, and a great deal of dark, curly hair which matched in a +queer kind of way the color of her big, pathetic-looking eyes. Timmy +told himself at once that he did not like her--that she looked "a muff". +It distressed him to think that his hero should be a friend of this +weak-looking, sly little thing--for so he uncompromisingly described Enid +Crofton to himself. + +Hostess and guest sat down on the big, roomy sofa, while Timmy moved +away and opened a book. He was afraid lest his mother should invite him +to leave the room, for he wanted to hear what they were saying. Timmy +always enjoyed hearing grown-up people's conversation, especially when +they had forgotten that he was present. All at once his sharp ears heard +Mrs. Crofton's low, melodious voice asking the question he had been +half-expecting her to ask: "Do you expect Mr. Radmore soon?" + +"Yes, he's coming down on Friday." There was a pause, then Timmy heard +his mother say: "Have you known Godfrey Radmore long?" + +Janet really wanted to know. Somehow, she found it difficult to imagine +a friendship between Godfrey and this little fribble of a woman. But as +to that, Janet Tosswill showed less than her usual intelligence. She +still thought of Godfrey Radmore as of the rather raw, awkward, though +clear-headed and determined lad of twenty-three--the Radmore, that is, +of nine years ago. + +"My husband and I first met him in Egypt," said Mrs. Crofton +hesitatingly. The delicate colour in her cheeks deepened. "One day he +began to talk about himself, and he told me about Beechfield, what a +beautiful village it was, how devoted he was to you all!" + +Janet Tosswill glanced at the clock. "It's already five minutes past +eight!" she exclaimed. "I must go and hurry my young people--their father +likes them to be absolutely punctual. The gong will go in a minute." + +After his mother had left the room, Timmy crept up close to the sofa, +and so suddenly appeared, standing with his hands behind his back, before +the visitor. She felt just a little startled; she had not known the +strange-looking boy was still there. Then she told herself quickly that +this surely must be Godfrey Radmore's godson--the child to whom he had +sent one of her late husband's puppies. + +There came over pretty Mrs. Crofton a slight feeling of apprehension and +discomfiture--she could not have told why. + +"When did you last see my godfather?" he asked abruptly, in an unchildish +voice, and with a quaintly grown-up manner. + +"Your godfather?" she repeated hesitatingly, and yet she knew quite well +who he meant. + +"I mean Major Radmore," he explained. + +She wondered why the disagreeable little fellow had asked such an +indiscreet question. + +Then, reluctantly, she made up her mind she had better answer it truly: +"I saw him the day before yesterday." She forced herself to go on +lightly. "I suppose you're the young gentleman to whom he sent a +puppy last year?" + +He nodded, and then asked another disconcerting question: "Did you leave +your dog outside? Dolly thought you didn't like dogs, so my terrier, +Flick, has been shut up in the stable. I suppose you only like your own +dog--I'm rather like that, too." + +"I haven't got a dog," she answered nervously. "It's quite true that I +don't like dogs--or, rather, I should like them if they liked me, but +they don't." + +"Then the dog that was with you belonged to the old gentleman?" + +"Old gentleman?" repeated Mrs. Crofton vaguely. This time she didn't in +the least know what the child was talking about, and she was relieved +when the door opened, and the Tosswill family came streaming through +it, accompanied by their step-mother. + +Laughing introductions took place. Mrs. Crofton singled out instinctively +her gentle, cultivated-looking host. She told herself with a queer sense +of relief, that he was the sort of man who generally shows a distantly +chivalrous regard for women. Next to her host, his eldest son, Jack +Tosswill, came in for secret, close scrutiny, but Enid Crofton always +found it easy and more than easy, to "make friends" with a young man. + +She realised that she was up against a more difficult problem in the +ladies of the family. She felt a little frightened of Mrs. Tosswill, of +whom Godfrey Radmore had spoken with such affection and gratitude. Janet +looked what Mrs. Crofton called "clever," and somehow she never got on +with clever women. Betty and Dolly she dismissed as of no account. +Rosamund was the one the attractive stranger liked best. There is no +greater mistake than to think that a pretty woman does not like to meet +another pretty woman. On the contrary, "like flies to like" in this, as +in almost everything else. + +But how did they regard her? She would have been surprised indeed had she +been able to see into their hearts. + +Mr. Tosswill, who was much more wideawake than he looked, thought her +a poor exchange for the amusing, lively, middle-aged woman who had +last lived at The Trellis House, and who had often entertained there a +pleasant, cultivated guest or two from London. Jack, though sufficiently +human to be attracted by the stranger's grace and charm, was inclined to +reserve his judgment. The three girls found her very engaging, and their +step-mother, if more critical, was quite ready to like her. As is often +the case with people who only care for those near and dear to them, the +world of men and women outside Janet Tosswill's own circle interested +her scarcely at all. She would make up her mind as to what any given +individual was like, and then dismiss him or her once for all from her +busy, over-burdened mind. + +One thing, however, both Janet and the three girls did notice--that was +the way their new acquaintance was dressed. Her black frock was not only +becoming, but had that indefinable look which implies thought, care, and +cost--especially cost. All four ladies decided immediately that Mrs. +Crofton must be much better off than she had implied in the letter she +had written to Mr. Tosswill some weeks ago. + +Timmy, alone of them all, on that first evening, felt strongly about +their visitor. Already he was jealous of the pretty, pathetic-looking +young widow. It irritated him to think that she was a friend of his +godfather. + +After they had all gone into the dining-room, and had sorted themselves +out, the guest being seated on her host's right, with Jack on the other +side of her, Janet announced: "This is supper, not dinner, Mrs. Crofton. +I hope you don't mind lobster? When I first came to Old Place, almost the +first thing I learnt was that it was celebrated for its lobster pie! +Since the War we have not been able to afford lobsters, but a kind friend +sent us six from Littlehampton yesterday, so I at once thought of our +dear old lobster pie!" + +Mrs. Crofton declared that, far from minding, she adored lobsters! And +then after she had been served, Timmy's fears were set at rest, for his +mother, very improperly the rest of the family thought, served him next, +and to a generous helping. + +As the meal went on, the mistress of Old Place realised that she had made +one mistake about Mrs. Crofton; their visitor was far more intelligent, +though in a mean, rather narrow way, than she had at first supposed. +Also, Mrs. Crofton was certainly very attractive. As the talk turned to +London doings, his step-mother was amused to notice that Jack was becoming +interested in their guest, and eagerly discussed with her a play they had +both seen. + +And the visitor herself? During supper she began to feel most pleasantly +at home, and when she walked into the long, high-ceilinged sitting-room, +which had such a cosy, homelike look she told herself that it was no +wonder Godfrey Radmore liked the delightful old house, and these kindly, +old-fashioned, and--and unsuspicious people. + +Two tall Argand lamps cast a soft radiance over the shabby furniture and +faded carpet. It was a lovely evening, a true St. Martin's summer night, +and the middle one of the three long French windows was widely open on to +the fragrant, scented garden. + +Mrs. Crofton, a graceful, appealing figure in her soft, black chiffon +gown, hesitated a moment--she wondered where they wanted her to sit? +And then Mrs. Tosswill came forward and, taking her hand, led her to the +big sofa, while one of the girls fetched an extra cushion so that she +might sit back comfortably. The talk drifted to the War, and Enid Crofton +was soon engaged in giving an animated account of some of her own +experiences--how she had managed to spend a very exciting fortnight not +far from the Front, in a hospital run by a great lady with whom she had a +slight acquaintance. Soon, sooner than usual, Mr. Tosswill and his three +sons came into the drawing-room, and they were all talking and laughing +together happily when a most unlucky, and untoward, accident happened! +Timmy's dog, Flick, having somehow escaped from the stable, suddenly ran +in from the dark garden, straight through the window opposite the sofa +round which the whole of the party was now gathered together. When about +a yard from Mrs. Crofton, he stopped dead, and emitted a series of short, +wild howls, while his hair bristled and stood on end, and his eyes flamed +blood red. + +They were all so surprised--so extremely taken aback by Flick's +behaviour--that no one moved. Then Mrs. Crofton gave a kind of gasp, and +covering her face with her hands, cowered back in the corner of the sofa. + +Timmy jumped up from the stool where he had been sitting, and as he did +so, his mother called out affrightedly: "Don't go near Flick, Timmy--he +looks mad!" + +But Timmy was no coward, and Flick was one of the few living things he +loved in the world. He threw himself on the floor beside his dog. +"Flick," he said warningly, "what's the matter, old chap? Has anything +hurt you?" As he spoke he put out his skinny little arms, and Flick, +though still shivering and growling, began to calm down. + +The little boy waited a moment, Flick panting convulsively in his arms, +then he gathered the dog to him, and, getting up from the floor, walked +quickly through the open window into the garden. + +For a moment no one stirred--and then Mr. Tosswill, who had been sitting +rather apart from the rest of the party, got up and shut the window. + +"What a curious thing," he said musingly. "I have always regarded Flick +as one of the best tempered of dogs. This is the first time he has ever +behaved like this." + +Mrs. Crofton dragged herself up from her comfortable seat. Her face +looked white and pinched. In spite of her real effort to control herself, +there were tears in her eyes and her lips were trembling. "If you are on +the telephone," she said appealingly, "I should be so grateful if you +should send for a fly. I don't feel well enough to walk home." She tried +to smile. "My nerves have been upset for some time past." + +Janet felt vexed and concerned. "Jack will drive you home in our old pony +cart," she said soothingly. "Will you go and bring it round, Tom?" + +Tom slipped off, and there arose a babel of voices, everyone saying how +sorry they were, Dolly especially, explaining eagerly how she herself had +personally superintended the shutting up of the dog. As for Betty, she +went off into the hall and quietly fetched Mrs. Crofton's charming +evening cloak and becoming little hood. As she did so she told herself +again that Mrs. Crofton must be much better off than they had thought +her to be from her letter. Every woman, even the least sophisticated, +knows what really beautiful and becoming clothes cost nowadays, and Mrs. +Crofton's clothes were eminently beautiful and becoming. + +As Betty went back into the drawing-room, she heard the visitor say:--"I +was born with a kind of horror of dogs, and I'm afraid that in some +uncanny way they always know it! It's such bad luck, for most nice people +and all the people I myself have cared for in my life, have been dog +lovers." + +And at that Dolly, who had a most unfortunate habit of blurting out just +those things which, even if people are thinking of, they mostly leave +unsaid, exclaimed:--"Your husband bred terriers, didn't he? Flick came +from him." + +Mrs. Crofton made no answer to this, and Janet, who was looking at her, +saw her face alter. A curious expression of--was it pain?--it looked more +like fear,--came over it. It was clear that Dolly's thoughtless words had +hurt her. + +Suddenly there came the sound of a tap on the pane of one of the windows, +and Mrs. Crofton, whose nerves were evidently very much out of order, +gave a suppressed cry. + +"It's only Timmy," said Timmy's mother reassuringly, and then she went +and opened the window. "I hope you've shut Flick up," she said in a low +voice. + +"Of course I have, Mum. He's quite quiet now." + +As the boy came forward, into the room, he looked straight up into Mrs. +Crofton's face, and as she met the enquiring, alien look, she told +herself, for the second time that evening, what a pity it was that these +nice people should have such an unpleasant child. + +Tom came in to say that the pony cart was at the door, and that Jack was +waiting there for Mrs. Crofton. + +They all went out in the hall to see her off. It was a bright, beautiful, +moonlight night, and Rosamund thought the scene quite romantic. + +Mr. Tosswill handed his guest into the pony cart with his usual, rather +aloof, courtesy; and after all the good-byes had been said, and as Jack +drove down the long, solitary avenue, Enid Crofton told herself that in +spite of that horrible incident with the dog--it was so strange that +Flick should come, as it were, to haunt her out of her old life, the +life she was so anxious to forget--she had had a very promising and +successful evening. The only jarring note had been that horrid little +boy Timmy--Timmy and his hateful dog. + +And then suddenly Enid Crofton asked herself whether Godfrey Radmore was +likely to go on being as fond of Timmy Tosswill as he seemed to be now. +She had been surprised at the reminiscent affection with which he had +spoken of his little godson. But there is a great difference between an +attractive baby-child of three and a forward, spoilt, undersized boy of +twelve. About a week ago, while they were enjoying a delicious little +dinner in the Berkeley Hotel grill-room, he had said:--"Although of +course none of them know it, for the present at any rate, Master Timmy is +my heir; if I were to die to-night Timmy Tosswill would become a very +well-to-do young gentleman!" + +Even at the time they had been uttered, the careless words had annoyed +Enid Crofton; and now the recollection of them made her feel quite angry. +All her life long money had played a great part in this very pretty +woman's inmost thoughts. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Betty Tosswill sat up in bed and told herself that it was Friday morning. +Then she remembered what it was that was going to happen to-day. + +It was something that she had thought, deep in her heart, would never +happen. Godfrey Radmore was coming back--coming back into her life, and +into all their lives. Though everything seemed just the same as when he +had left Old Place, everything was different, both in a spiritual and +material sense. The War had made a deep wound, nay, far more than one +wound, in the spiritual body politic of Old Place. And it was of a very +material thing that Betty Tosswill thought first, and most painfully, +this morning. This was the fact that from having been in easy +circumstances they were now very poor. + +When Godfrey Radmore had gone out of their lives there had been a great, +perhaps even then a false, air of prosperity over them all. John Tosswill +was a man who had always made bad investments; but in that far-off time, +"before the War," living was so cheap, wages were so low, the children +were all still so young, that he and Janet had managed very well. + +Only Betty knew the scrimping and the saving Jack, at Oxford, and Tom, at +Winchester, now entailed on the part of those who lived at Old Place. +Why, she herself counted every penny with anxious care, and the stupid, +kindly folk who asked, just a trifle censoriously, why she wasn't "doing +something," now that "every career is open to a girl, especially to one +who did so well in the War," would perhaps have felt a little ashamed had +they discovered that she was housemaid, parlourmaid, often cook, to a +large and not always easily pleased family. They never had a visitor to +stay now--they simply couldn't afford it--and she hated the thought of +Godfrey, himself now so unnaturally prosperous, coming back to such an +altered state of things. + +Besides, that was not all. Betty covered her face with her hands, and +slow, bitter, reluctant tears began to ooze through her fingers. She had +tried not to think of Godfrey and of his coming, these last two or three +days. She had put the knowledge of what was going to happen from her, +with a kind of hard, defiant determination. But now she was sorry--sorry, +that she had not taken her step-mother's advice, and gone away for a long +week-end. Betty Tosswill felt like a man who, having suffered intolerably +from a wound which has at last healed, learns with sick apprehension that +his wound is to be torn open. + +Although not even Janet, her one real close friend and confidant, was +aware of it, Godfrey had not been the only man in Betty's life. There had +been two men, out in France, who had loved her, and lost no time in +telling her so. One had been killed; the other still wrote to her at +intervals, begging her earnestly, pathetically, to marry him, and +sometimes she half thought she would. + +But always Godfrey Radmore stood before the door of her heart, +imperiously, almost contemptuously, "shooing off" any would-be intruder. +And yet to-day she told herself, believing what she said, that she no +longer loved him. She remembered now, as if they had been uttered +yesterday, the cruel words he had flung at her during their last hour +together when he had taunted her with not giving up everything and going +off with him--and that though she had known that there was, even then, a +part of his acute, clever brain telling him insistently that she would +be a drag on him in his new life.... She had also been cut to the heart +that Godfrey had not written to her father when his one-time closest +friend, her twin-brother, George, had been killed. + +To-day for the first time, Betty Tosswill told herself that perhaps she +had been mistaken in doing right instead of wrong, in coming here to help +Janet with her far from easy task with the younger children, instead of +getting a good job, as she knew she could have done, after the War. + +There is a modern type of young woman, quite a good young woman, too, +who, in Betty's position, would have thought that it was far better that +she should go out and earn, say, three or four pounds a week, sending +half the money, or a third of the money, home. But poor Betty was no +self-deceiver--she was well aware that what was wanted at Old Place in +the difficult months, aye, and even years, which would follow the end of +the Great War, was personal service. + +And so she had come home, making no favour of it, settling into her often +tiring and tiresome duties, trying now and again to make Rosamund and +Dolly do their share. In a way they did try, but they were both very +selfish in their different ways, and only Janet knew all that everyone +of them owed to Betty's hard, continuous work, and sense of order. Not +that the girl was perfect by any means; now and again she would say a +very sharp, sarcastic word, but on the whole she was wonderfully +indulgent, kindly and understanding--more like a mother than a sister +to the others. + +Everyday life is a mosaic of infinitely little things, whatever those who +write and talk may say. Betty had come back and settled down to life at +home, mainly because her step-mother could no longer "carry on." Janet +could not get servants, and if she could have got them, she could not now +have paid them. Then there had been the silly, vulgar but highly +dangerous affair between Rosamund and their too attractive married +"billet". Had Betty been at home that business would almost certainly +have been checked in the bud. As for Dolly, she was worse than no good in +the home. But--a certain secret hope was cherished both by Janet and by +Betty concerning Dolly. The bachelor vicar of the next parish seemed to +find a strange pleasure in her society. He was away now in Switzerland +and he had written to Dolly a minute account of his long, tiresome +journey. + +She wondered, with a feeling of pain at her heart, what Godfrey would +think of them all. There had been such an air of charm and gaiety about +the place nine years ago. Now, beautiful in a sense as was the stately +Georgian house, lovely as was the garden, thanks to Janet's cleverness +and hard work, there was an air of shabbiness over everything though +Betty only fully realised it on the very rare occasions when she got away +for a few days for a change and rest with old friends. + +This summer her brother Jack had said a word to her, not exactly +complainingly, but with a sort of regret. "Don't you think we could +afford new furniture covers for the drawing-room?" and Betty had shaken +her head. They could afford _nothing_ for the house--she alone knew how +very difficult it was to keep up Jack's own modest allowance. + +There had been a discussion between herself and Janet as to whether Mr. +Tosswill should start taking pupils again in his old age, but they had +decided against it, largely because they felt that the class of pupils +whom he had been accustomed to take before the war, and who could alone +be of any use from the financial point of view, could not now be made +really comfortable at Old Place. Betty was ashamed of feeling how much it +hurt her pride to know how concerned Godfrey would be to find how poor +they had become. She would not have minded this if he had been poor +himself. But she hated the thought of a rich Godfrey, who flung money +about over foolish, extravagant presents, discovering, suddenly, how +altered were their circumstances since the day when he had rushed out +of the house throwing the big cheque kind John Tosswill had shamefacedly +handed to him, on to the floor. + + * * * * * + +After Betty had had her own cold bath, and had prepared a tepid one for +her father, she dressed quickly, and going over to the dressing-table +in the large, low-ceilinged room--a room which, in spite of the fact +that everything in it was old and worn, had yet an air of dainty charm +and dignity, for everything in it was what old-fashioned people call +"good"--she looked dispassionately at herself in the glass. + +Her step-mother had said, "You haven't changed one bit!" But that was +not true. Of course she had changed--changed very much, outwardly and +inwardly, since she was nineteen. For one thing, the awful physical +strain of her work in France had altered her, turned her from a girl into +a woman. She had seen many terrible things, and she had met with certain +grim adventures she could never forget, which remained all the more vivid +because she had never spoken of them to a living being. + +And then, as she suddenly told herself, with a rather bitter feeling of +revolt, the life she was leading now was not calculated to make her +retain a look of youth. Last week, in a fit of temper, Rosamund had said +to her:--"I only wish you could see yourself! You look a regular +'govvy'!" She had laughed--the rather spiteful words passing her by--for +she had never cared either for learning or teaching. But now, as she +gazed critically in her mirror, she told herself that, yes, she really +did look rather like a nice governess--the sort of young woman a certain +type of smart lady would describe as her "treasure". Forty or fifty years +ago that was the sort of human being into which she would have turned +almost automatically when poverty had first knocked at the door of Old +Place. Now, thank God, people who could afford to pay well for a +governess wanted a trained teacher, not an untrained gentlewoman for +their children. + +But Betty did not waste much time staring at herself. Throwing her head +back with what had become a characteristic gesture, she went off and +called her sisters and brothers before running lightly down the back +stairs. + +Nanna was already pottering about the kitchen. She had laid and lit the +fire, and put the kettle on to boil for Mrs. Tosswill's early cup of tea. +The old woman looked up as Betty came into the kitchen, and a rather +touching expression came over her old face. She had a strong, almost a +maternal affection for her eldest nurseling, and she wondered how Miss +Betty was feeling this morning. Nanna had been told of the coming visitor +by Timmy, but with that peculiar touch of delicacy so often found in her +class, she had said nothing about it to Betty. + +"Well, Nanna? I expect Mrs. Tosswill has told you that Mr. Radmore is +coming to-day, and that he's to have George's room." + +Nanna nodded. "It's quite ready, Miss Betty. I went in there yesterday +afternoon while you was all out. He'll find everything there just as he +left it. Eh, dear, I do mind how those dear boys loved their stamps and +butterflies." + +Betty sighed, a sharp, quick sigh. After calling Jack she had thought of +going into the room which had been her brother's and Godfrey's joint room +in the long, long ago. And then she had decided that she couldn't bear to +do so. The room had never been slept in since George had spent his last +happy leave for now there was never any occasion to put a visitor in what +was still called by Nanna "Master George's room." + +"I expect he'll arrive for tea," said Betty, "and I was wondering whether +we couldn't make one of those big seed cakes he and George used to be so +fond of." + +"That's provided for, too," said Nanna quietly. + +And then, all at once, almost as though she were compelled to do so by +something outside herself, Betty went across the kitchen and threw her +arms round her old nurse's neck and kissed her. + +"There, there," said Nanna soothingly, "do you mind much, my dearie!" + +"No, I don't think I do." Betty winked away the tears. "It's George I'm +really thinking of, Nanna." + +"But the dear lad is in the Kingdom of the Blessed, my dear. You wouldn't +have him back--surely?" + +"Not if he's really happier where he is," said the girl, "but oh, Nanna, +it's so hard to believe that." She went across to the big old-fashioned +kitchen range, and poured the boiling water into a little silver teapot. +Then she took the tray to her step-mother's room. + +Next she went down into the drawing-room--she always "did" that room +while Nanna laid the breakfast with the help of the village girl who, +although she was supposed to come in at seven, very seldom turned up +till eight. And then, while Betty was carefully dusting the quaint, +old-fashioned Staffordshire figures on the mantelpiece, the door opened, +and Nanna came in and shut it behind her. "There isn't any wine," she +began mysteriously. "Gentlemen do like a little drop of wine after their +dinner." + +"I think what father and Jack can do without, Mr. Radmore can do without, +too," said Betty. For the first time her colour heightened. "In any case, +I don't see how we can get anything fit to drink by this evening." + +"I was thinking, Miss Betty, that you might borrow a bottle of port wine +at Rose Cottage." + +"I don't think I can do that," said Betty decidedly, "you see, Miss +Pendarth's port is very good port, and we could never give her back a +bottle of the same quality." + +And then, as Nanna sidled towards the door, the old woman suddenly +remarked, a little irrelevantly:--"I suppose you've told Miss Pendarth +that Mr. Godfrey is coming, Miss Betty?" + +Betty looked round quickly. "No," she said, "I haven't had a chance yet. +Thank you for reminding me." + +The old woman slipped away, and Betty suddenly wondered whether Nanna had +really come in to ask that question as to Miss Pendarth. Somehow Betty +suspected that she had. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +It was about eleven, when most of her household chores were done, that +Betty started off to pay an informal call on Miss Pendarth, in some ways +the most outstanding personality in the village of Beechfield. + +"Busybody"--"mischief-maker"--"a very kind lady"--"a disagreeable +woman"--"a fearful snob"--"a true Christian"--were some of the epithets +which had been, and were still, used, to describe the woman to whose +house, Rose Cottage, Betty Tosswill, with a slight feeling of discomfort +bordering on pain, began wending her way. + +Olivia Pendarth and her colourless younger sister, Anne, the latter +now long dead, had settled down at Beechfield in the nineties of the +last century. When both over thirty years of age, they had selected +Beechfield as a dwelling-place because of its quiet charm and nearness +to London. Also because Rose Cottage, which, in spite of its unassuming +name, was, if a small yet a substantial, red-brick house with a good +garden, paddock and stables, exactly suited them, as to price, and as to +the accommodation they then wanted. The surviving sister was now rather +over sixty, and her income was very much smaller than it had been, but it +never even occurred to her to try and sell what had become to her a place +of mingled painful and happy memories. + +In every civilised country a village is the world in little, though it +is always surprising to the student of human nature to find how many +distinct types are gathered within its narrow bounds. And if this is +true of village communities all over Europe, it is peculiarly true of +an English village. + +Miss Pendarth was a clever woman. Too clever to be really happy in the +life to which she had condemned herself. She had been born many years too +early to follow up any of the various paths now open to the intelligent, +educated woman. Yet she belonged, by birth and upbringing, to that +age-long tradition of command which perhaps counts for most of all to the +one class which has remained in England much the same for generations. + +The Pendarths had once been very great people in Cornwall, and long +records of the family are to be found in all county histories. Olivia +Pendarth was wordlessly very proud of their lineage, and it is no +exaggeration to say that she would have died rather than in any way +disgrace it. + +A woman of great activity, she had perforce no way of expending her +energies excepting in connection with the people about her, and always in +intention at least she spent herself to some beneficent purpose. Yet +there was a considerable circle who much disliked her and whom she +herself regarded with almost limitless scorn. These were the folk, idle +people most of them, and very well-to-do, who, having made fortunes in +London, now lived within a radius of five to ten miles round Beechfield. + +Miss Pendarth was on excellent terms with what one must call, for want of +a better name, the cottage class. To them she was a good, firm, faithful +friend, seeing them through their many small and great troubles, and +taking real pains to help their sons and daughters to make good starts +in life. Many a village mother had asked Miss Pendarth to "speak" to her +naughty girl or headstrong son, and as she was quite fearless, her words +often had a surprising effect. She neither patronised nor scolded, and it +was impossible to take her in. + +But when dealing with the affairs of those of her neighbours, who were +well-to-do, and who regarded themselves as belonging to her own class, it +was quite another matter. With regard to them and their affairs she was +what they often angrily accused her of being--a busy-body and even a +mischief-maker. Her lively mind caused her to take a great interest--too +great an interest--in the private affairs of people some of whom she +disliked, and even despised. She was also not as scrupulous as she might +have been in repeating unsavoury gossip. Yet, even so, so substantially +good a woman was she, that what some people called Miss Pendarth's +interfering ways had more than once brought about a reconciliation +between husband and wife, or between an old-fashioned mother and a +rebellious daughter. It was hopeless to try to keep from her the news of +any local quarrel, love-affair, or money trouble--somehow or other she +always found out everything she was likely to want to know--and she +almost always wanted to know everything. + +There was another fact about Miss Pendarth, and one which much +contributed to her importance even with the people who disliked and +feared her: she was the only inhabitant of the remote Surrey village who +was in touch with the world of fashion and society--who knew people whose +"pictures are in the papers." Now and again, though more and more rarely +as time went on, she would leave Rose Cottage to take part in some big +family gathering of the important and prosperous clan to which, in spite +of her own lack of means, she yet belonged, and with whom she kept in +touch. But she herself never entertained a visitor at Rose Cottage, for +a reason of which she herself was painfully aware and which the more +careless of those about her did not in the least realise. This reason was +that she was very, very poor. Before the War, her little settled income +had enabled her to live in comfort in a house which was her own. But now, +had not her one servant been friend as well as maid, she could not have +gone on living in Rose Cottage; and during the last year, as Betty +Tosswill perhaps alone had noticed, certain beautiful things, fine bits +of good old silver, delicate inlaid pieces of furniture, and a pair of +finely carved gilt mirrors, had disappeared from Rose Cottage. + +The house was situated in the village street, with, however, a paved +forecourt, in which stood two huge Italian oil jars gay from April to +November with narcissi, tulips, or pink geraniums. Miss Pendarth was +proud of the fine old Sussex ironwork gate and railing which separated +her domain from the village street. The gate was exactly opposite the +entrance to the churchyard, while at right angles stood the village post +office. From the windows of her drawing-room upstairs, the mistress of +Rose Cottage was able to see a great deal that went on in the village of +Beechfield. + +Miss Pendarth's appearance, as is so often the case with an elderly, +unmarried Englishwoman of her class, gave no clue to her clever, +decisive, and original character. She had a thin, rather long mouth, what +old-fashioned people call a good nose, and grey eyes, and she had kept +the slight, rather stiff, figure of her girlhood. She still wore her +hair, which was only now beginning to turn really grey, braided in the +way which had been becoming to her thirty years before. The effect, if +neat, was rather wig-like, and the one peculiar-looking thing about her +appearance. She always wore, summer and winter, a mannish-looking +tailor-made coat and skirt, and a plainly cut flannel or linen shirt. At +night--and she dressed each evening--she alternated between two black +dresses, the one a velvet dress gown, the other a sequin-covered satin +tea-gown. + +Such was the woman to whom Betty Tosswill had thought it just as well to +go herself with the news of Godfrey Radmore's coming visit to Old Place, +and as she walked slowly up the village street, the girl tried to remind +herself that Miss Pendarth had a very kind side to her nature. Of all the +letters Betty had received at the time of her brother's death, she had +had none of more sincerely expressed sympathy than that from this old +friend whom she was now going to see. And yet? Yet what pain and distress +Miss Pendarth had caused them all at the time of the Rosamund trouble! +Instead of behaving like a true friend, and, as far as possible, stopping +the flow of gossip, she had added to its volume, causing the story to be +known to a far larger circle than would otherwise have been the case. But +Betty, honesty itself, was well aware that her step-mother had made a +serious mistake in not telling Miss Pendarth what there was to tell. A +confidence she never betrayed. + +Betty also reminded herself ruefully that in the far-away days when +Godfrey Radmore had been so often an inmate of Old Place, there had been +something like open war between himself and Miss Pendarth, and when she +had heard of his extraordinary good fortune, she had not hidden her +regret that it had fallen on one so unworthy. + +As Betty went up to the iron gate and unlatched it, she half hoped that +the owner of Rose Cottage would be out. Miss Pendarth, unlike most of her +neighbours, always kept her front door locked--you could not turn the +handle and walk right into the house. + +To-day she answered Betty's ring herself, and with a smile of welcome +lighting up her rather grim face she drew the girl into the hall and +kissed her affectionately. + +"I was just starting to pay my first call on Mrs. Crofton. But I'm so +glad. Perhaps you'll be able to tell me something about her. I hear she +had supper with you the day she arrived!" + +As she spoke, she led the way into a little room off the hall. "I've been +trying to make out to what branch of the Croftons she belongs," she went +on reflectively. "There was a man called Cecil Crofton in my second +brother's regiment a matter of forty years ago." + +"She looks quite young," said Betty doubtfully. + +"Old enough to know better than to get herself talked about the first +hour she arrived," observed Miss Pendarth grimly. + +"I don't think she can have done that--" + +"Not only did she bring a man with her, a Captain Tremaine,--but just +before he left they had some kind of quarrel which was overheard by two +of the tradespeople who were calling to leave their cards." + +"How--how horrid," murmured Betty. But what really shocked her was that +Miss Pendarth should listen to that sort of gossip. + +"It was horrid and absurd too, for the man had turned the key in the lock +of the sitting-room, and it stuck for a minute or two when one of them +tried to unlock the door in answer to the maid's knock!" + +"What an extraordinary thing!" + +"I could hardly believe the story, but now that I've seen Mrs. Crofton, +I'm not so very much surprised!" + +"Then you have seen her?" Betty smiled. + +"I've just had a glimpse of her," admitted Miss Pendarth grudgingly, "as +she came out of church, a day or two ago, with your sister Dolly." + +"She's extraordinarily pretty, isn't she?" + +"Too theatrical for my taste. But still, yes, I suppose one must admit +that she will prove a very formidable rival to most of our young ladies. +I'm told she's a war widow--and she certainly behaves as if she were." + +"I don't think it's fair to say that!" Betty crimsoned. She felt a close +kinship to all those women who had lost someone they loved in the War. + +"You mean not fair to the war widows?" + +"Yes, that is what I do mean. Only a few of them behave horridly--" + +There was a pause. Betty was trying to bring herself to introduce the +subject which filled her mind. But Miss Pendarth was still full of the +new tenant of The Trellis House. + +"I hear that Timmy's dog gave her a fearful fright." + +Betty felt astonished, well used as she was to the other's almost uncanny +knowledge of all that went on in the village. Who could have told her +this particular bit of gossip? + +"I wonder," went on the elder lady reflectively, "what made Mrs. Crofton +come to Beechfield, of all places in the world. Somehow she doesn't look +the sort of woman who would care for a country life." + +"Godfrey Radmore first told her of Beechfield," said Betty, and in spite +of herself, she felt the colour rise again hotly to her cheeks. + +"Godfrey Radmore?" It was Miss Pendarth's turn to be genuinely surprised. +"_Godfrey Radmore!_ Then she's Australian? I thought there was something +odd about her." + +Betty smiled, but she felt irritated. In some ways Miss Pendarth was +surely very narrow-minded! + +"No, she's not Australian--at least I'm pretty sure she's not. They met +during the War, in Egypt. Her husband was quartered there at the same +time as Godfrey." She paused uncomfortably--somehow she found it very +difficult to go on and say what, after all, she had come here to say this +morning. + +"I suppose," said Miss Pendarth at last, "that Godfrey Radmore is back +in Brisbane by now. One of the strange things about this war has been the +way in which those who could have been best spared, escaped." + +In spite of herself, Betty smiled again. "Godfrey has come back to +England for good," she said quietly, "he's coming to-day for a long +week-end." + +"D'you mean," asked Miss Pendarth, "that he's coming to stay with this +Mrs. Crofton at The Trellis House?" + +"Oh, no!" exclaimed Betty. (What odd ideas Miss Pendarth sometimes had.) +"He's coming to Old Place of course: he telephoned to Janet from London, +and proposed himself." + +"I think it's very good of you all to put up with him," said Miss +Pendarth drily, "I've never said so before, my dear, but I thought it +exceedingly ungrateful of him not to have come down here when he was in +England a year ago, I mean when he sent that puppy to your brother +Timmy." + +Betty remained silent, and for once her old friend felt--what she too +seldom did feel--that she might just as well have kept her thoughts to +herself. + +Miss Pendarth was really attached to Betty Tosswill, but she was one of +those people--there are many such--who find it all too easy to hurt those +they love. + +They both got up. + +"I'm afraid you think me very uncharitable," said the older woman +suddenly. + +Betty looked at her rather straight. "I sometimes think it strange," she +said slowly, "that anyone as kind and clever as I know you are, does not +make more allowances for people. For my part, I wonder that Godfrey is +coming here at all. As I look back and remember all that happened--I +don't think that anyone at Old Place behaved either kindly or fairly to +him--I mean about our engagement." + +Miss Pendarth was moved as well as surprised by Betty's quiet words. The +girl was extraordinarily reserved--she very rarely spoke out her secret +thoughts. But Miss Pendarth was destined to be even more surprised, for +Betty suddenly put out her hand, and laid it on the other's arm. + +"I want to tell you," she said earnestly, "that as far as I am concerned, +everything that happened then is quite, quite over. I don't think that +Godfrey would have been happy with me, and so I feel that we both had a +great escape. I want to tell you this because so many people knew of our +engagement, and I'm afraid his coming back like this may cause a lot of +silly, vulgar talk." + +Miss Pendarth was more touched than she would have cared to admit even to +herself. "You can count on me, my dear," she said gravely, "and may I +say, Betty, that I feel sure you're right in feeling that you would have +been most unhappy with him?" + +As Betty walked on to the post office she was glad that _that_ little +ordeal was over. + + * * * * * + +John Tosswill was one of those men who instinctively avoid and put off +as long as may be, a difficult or awkward moment. That was perhaps one +reason why he had not made a better thing of his life. So his wife was +not surprised when, after luncheon, he observed rather nervously that he +was going out, and that she must tell Godfrey Radmore how sorry he was +not to be there to welcome him. + +As she remained silent, he added, rather shamefacedly:--"I'll be back in +time to have a few words with him before dinner." + +Poor Janet! She still loved her husband as much as she had done in the +days when he, the absent-minded, gentle, refined scholar, made his way +into her heart. Nay, in a sense, she loved him more, for he had become +entirely dependent on her. But though she loved and admired him, she no +longer relied on him, as she had once done; he had a queer way of failing +her at the big moments of life, and now, to-day, she felt it too bad of +him to shirk the moment of Godfrey Radmore's return. His presence would +have made everything easier, for he had never admitted either to himself +or her, that Godfrey had behaved in a strange or untoward manner. + +As she turned over the leaves of a nursery-man's catalogue and gazed at +the list of plants and bulbs she could not afford to buy, long-forgotten +scenes crowded on her memory. + +Radmore had been the violent, unreasonable element in the painful +episode, for Betty had behaved well, almost too well. The girl would have +thrown in her lot with her lover, but both her father and step-mother had +been agonised at the thought of trusting her to a man--and so very young +a man--who had made such a failure of his life. That he was going out to +Australia practically penniless--nay, worse than penniless, saddled with +debts of so-called honour--had been, or so they had judged at the time, +entirely his own fault. + +John Tosswill, who had a very clear and acute mind when any abstract +question was under discussion, had told Betty plainly that she would only +be a dangerous hindrance to a man situated as Radmore would be situated +in a new country, and she had submitted to her father's judgment. + +But how ironical are the twists and turns of life! If only they had known +what the future was to bring forth, how differently Betty's father and +step-mother would have acted! Yet now to-day, Janet tried to tell herself +that Betty had had a happy escape. Godfrey had been like a bull in the +net during those painful days nine years ago. He had shown himself +utterly unreasonable, and especially angry, nay enraged, with her, Janet, +because he had been foolish enough to hope that she would take his part +against Betty's father. + + * * * * * + +Acting on a sudden impulse, she went upstairs, and, feeling a little +ashamed of what she was doing, went into the room which was to be Godfrey +Radmore's. Then she walked across to where stood Timmy's play-box, in +order to find the letter which Betty's one-time lover had written to his +godson. + +The play-box had been George's play-box in the days of his preparatory +school, and it still had his name printed across it. + +She turned up the wooden lid. Everything in the box was very tidy, for +Timmy was curiously grown-up in some of his ways, and so she very soon +found the letter she was seeking for. + +It was a quaint, humorous epistle--the letter of a man who feels quite +sure of himself, and yet as she read it through rapidly, there rose +before her the writer as he had last appeared in a railing whirlwind +of rage and fury, just before leaving Old Place--he had vowed at the +time--for ever. She remembered how he had shouted at her, hurling bitter +reproaches, telling her she would be sorry one day for having persuaded +Betty to give him up. But though she, Janet Tosswill, had not forgotten, +he had evidently made up his mind, the moment he had met with his +unexpected and astonishing piece of good luck, to let bygones be bygones. +For, after that first letter to his godson, gifts had come in quick +succession to Old Place, curious unexpected, anonymous gifts, but even +Dolly had guessed at once from whom they came. + +No wonder the younger children were all excited and delighted at the +thought of his coming visit! Radmore was now looked upon as a fairy +godfather might have been. They were too young, too self-absorbed, to +realise that these wonderful gifts out of the blue never seemed to wing +their way to Betty or Janet. Yet stop, there had been an exception. Last +Christmas each had received an anonymous fairing--Betty, a beautiful +little watch, set in diamonds, and Janet, a wonderful old lace flounce. +Both registered parcels had come from London, Godfrey Radmore being known +at the time to be in Australia. But neither recipient of the delightful +gift had ever cared to wear or use it. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +And meanwhile the man of whom every single human being in Old Place, +with the exception of the little village day girl, was thinking this +afternoon, was coming ever nearer and nearer to Beechfield in an ecstasy +of sentient joy at being "at home" again. + +As Radmore motored along the Portsmouth Road through the warmly-beautiful +autumn countryside, a feeling of exultation, of intense personal love +for, and pride in, the old country, filled his heart. Why had he stayed +in London so long when all this tranquil, appealing loveliness of wood, +stream, hill and hollow lay close at hand? There are folk who deny the +charm of Surrey--by whom this delicious county, with its noble stretches +of wild, fragrant uplands, and wide, deep valleys, is dismissed as +suburban. But though they would deny it vehemently, the eyes of such +folk are holden. + +As he was borne along through the soft, lambent air, everything he passed +appealed to his heart and imagination. Each of the small, yet dignified, +eighteenth-century houses, which add such distinction and grace to each +Surrey township--Epsom, Leatherhead, Guildford--gave him a comfortable +feeling of his country's well-being, of the essential stability of +England. Now and again, in some woodland glade where summer still +lingered, he would pass by happy groups engaged in black-berrying; +while on the road there waited the charabancs, the motor-cycles, the +pony-traps, which had brought them. + +Once, when they came to such a spot, he, Radmore, called out to his +chauffeur to stop. They were close to the crest of Boxhill, and below +them lay spread out what is perhaps the finest, because the richest in +human and historic associations, view in Southern England. As he stood up +and gazed down and down and down, to his right he saw what looked from up +here such a tiny toylike town, and it recalled suddenly a book he had +once read, as one reads a Jules Verne romance, "The Battle of Dorking," +a soldier's fairy-tale that had come perilously near being a prophecy. + +Before Radmore's eyes--blotting out the noble, peaceful landscape, rich +in storied beauty--there rose an extraordinarily vivid phantasmagoria of +vast masses of armed men in field grey moving across that wide, thickly +peopled valley of lovely villages and cosy little towns. He saw as in a +vision the rich stretches of arable land, the now red, brown, and yellow +spinneys and clumps of high trees, the meadows dotted with sleek cattle, +laid waste--while sinister columns of flames and massed clouds of smoke +rose from each homestead. + +"Drive on!" he called out, and the chauffeur was startled by the harsh +note in his employer's generally kindly voice. + +On they sped down the great flank of the huge hill, past the hostelry +where Nelson bid a last farewell to his Emma, on and on along narrow +lanes, and between high hedges starred with autumn flowers. And then, +when in a spot so wild and lonely that it might have been a hundred miles +from a town--though it was only some ten miles from Beechfield--something +went wrong with the engine of the car. + +Janet had proposed that tea should be at five o'clock, so as to give the +visitor plenty of time to arrive. But from four onwards, all the younger +folk were in a state of excitement and expectation--Timmy running +constantly in and out of the house, rushing to the gate, from whence a +long stretch of road could be seen, till his constant gyrations got on +his mother's nerves, and she sharply ordered him to come in and be quiet. + +At a quarter to five the telephone bell rang and Jack languidly went to +answer it. Then he came back into the drawing-room. "Radmore's had a +breakdown," he said briefly, "he's afraid he can't get here till seven." + +Here was a disappointing anti-climax! + +"Then we'd better all go and have our tea," said Timmy sententiously, and +everyone felt, in a dispirited way, that, as usual, Timmy had hit the +nail on the head. + +They all trooped into the dining-room, but Timmy was the only one who did +full justice to the cakes and scones which had been made specially in +Godfrey Radmore's honour: all the others felt cross and disappointed, +especially Tom and Rosamund, who had given up going to a tennis-party. + +Tea was soon over, for everyone talked much less than usual, and then +they all scattered with the exception of Timmy and Betty. Janet had +someone to see in the village; Tom persuaded Rosamund that they would +still be welcome at the tennis-party; Betty stayed to clear the table. +She, alone of them all, was glad of even this short respite, for, as the +day had gone on, she had begun to dread the meeting inexpressibly. She +knew that even Tom--who had only been seven years old when Godfrey went +away--would be wondering how she felt, and watching to see how she would +behave. It was a comfort to be alone with only Timmy who was still at +table eating steadily. Till recently tea had been Timmy's last meal, +though, as a matter of fact, he had nearly always joined in their very +simple evening meal. And lately it had been ordained that he was to eat +meat. But much as he ate, he never grew fat. + +"Hurry up!" said Betty absently. "I want to take off the table-cloth. We +can wash up presently." + +Timmy got up and shook himself; then he went across to the window, Flick +following him, while Betty after having made two tray journeys into the +kitchen, folded up the table-cloth. Timmy might have done this last +little job, but he pretended not to see that his sister wanted help. He +thought it such a shame that he wasn't now allowed the perilous and +exciting task of carrying a laden tray. But there had been a certain +dreadful day when... + +Betty turned round, surprised at the child's stillness and silence. Timmy +was standing half in and half out of the long French windows staring at +something his sister could not see. + +Then, all at once, Betty's heart seemed to stop still. She heard a voice, +familiar in a sense, and yet so unlike the voice of which she had once +known every inflection. + +"Hullo! I do believe I see Timothy Godfrey Radmore Tosswill!" and the +window for a moment was darkened by a tall, stalwart figure, which looked +as if it were two sizes larger than that which Betty remembered. + +The stranger took up Timmy's slight, thin figure as easily as a little +girl takes up a doll, and now he was holding his godson up in the air, +looking up at him with a half humorous, half whimsical expression, while +he exclaimed:--"I can't think where you came from? You've none of the +family's good looks, and you haven't a trace of your mother!" + +Then he set Timmy down rather carefully and delicately on the edge of the +shabby Turkey carpet, and stepped forward, into the dining-room. + +"I wonder if I may have a cup of tea? Is Preston still here?" + +"Preston's married. She has five children. Mother says it's four too +many, as her husband's a cripple." Timmy waited a moment. "We haven't got +a parlourmaid now. Mother says we lead the simple life." + +"The devil you do!" cried Radmore, diverted, and then, not till then, did +he suddenly become aware that he and his godson were not alone. + +"Why, Betty!" he exclaimed in a voice he tried to make quite ordinary, +"I didn't see you. Have you been there the whole time?"--the whole time +being but half a minute at the longest. + +And then he strode across the room, and, taking her two hands in his +strong grasp, brought her forward, rather masterfully, to the window +through which he had just come. + +"You're just the same," he said, but there was a doubtful note in his +voice, and then as she remained silent, though she smiled a little +tremulously, he went on:-- + +"Nine years have made an awful difference to me--nine years _and_ the +war! But Beechfield, from what I've been able to see of it, seems exactly +the same--not a twig, not a leaf, not a stone out of place!" + +"We didn't expect you for another hour at least," said Betty, in her +quiet, well-modulated voice. + +She was wondering whether he remembered, as she now remembered with a +kind of sickening vividness, the last time they had been together in this +room--for it was here, in the dining-room of Old Place, that they had +spent their last miserable, heart-broken moment together, a moment when +all the angry bitterness had been merged in wild, piteous tenderness, and +heart-break... + +"I had a bit of luck," he answered cheerfully, "as I went out of the +house where I had managed to get on to a telephone, there came a car down +the road, and I asked the man who was driving it if he would give me a +lift. My luck held, for he was actually breaking his journey for half an +hour here, at Beechfield!" + +He was talking rather quickly now, as if at last aware of something +painful, awkward, in the atmosphere. + +"Others all out?" he asked. "Perhaps you'll show me my room, godson?" + +"Wouldn't you like to see Nanna?" asked Timmy officiously. "She's so +looking forward to seeing you. She wants to thank you for the big +Shetland shawl she supposes you sent her last Christmas, and she has an +idea that the little real silver teapot she got on her birthday came from +you too. It has on it 'A Present for a Good Girl.'" + + * * * * * + +As Radmore followed Timmy up the once familiar staircase, he felt +extraordinarily moved. + +How strange the thought that while not only his own life, but the lives +of all the people with whom he had been so intimately associated, had +changed--this old house had remained absolutely unaltered! Nothing had +been added--as far as he could see--and nothing taken away, and yet the +human atmosphere was quite other than what it had been ten years ago. + +Just now, in the moment of meeting, he had avoided asking Betty about +George. Betty's twin had been away at the time of Radmore's break with +Old Place--away in a sense which in our civilised days can only be +brought about by one thing, an infectious illness. At the time the +agonising debate was going on at Beechfield, he had been in a fever +hospital close on a month, and they were none of them to see him for +three more weeks. It had been at once a pain and a relief that he should +not be there--yet what good could a boy of nineteen have done? + +As to what had happened to George afterwards, Radmore knew nothing. He +believed that his friend had joined the Indian Civil Service. From +childhood George had always intended to make his career in India, his +maternal forebears having all been in the service of John Company. + +During the last few days Radmore had thought a great deal of George, +wondering what had happened to him during the war--whether, for instance, +he had at last managed, as did so many Anglo-Indian officials, to get +leave to join the Army? At one moment, before it had entered into his +mind to write to his little godson, he had thought of opening up +communications through George. But he had rejected the notion. The break +had been so complete, and George, after all, was so closely connected +with Betty! Considering that he had not mentioned Betty's brother, either +when speaking to Janet on the telephone two or three days ago, or again +just when he had made his unconventional re-entry into Old Place, it was +odd how the thought of Betty's twin haunted him as he followed his little +guide upstairs. Odd? No, in a sense very natural, for he and George often +raced each other up these very stairs. They had been such pals in spite +of the four years' difference between them. + +Radmore and Timmy were now in the kind of annex or wing which had been +added some fifty years after the original mansion had been built. The +lower floor of this annex consisted of one big room which, even in the +days of Radmore's first acquaintance with the Tosswills, was only used in +warm weather. Above it were two good bedrooms--the one still called +"George's room," over-looked the garden, and had a charming view of +bracken-covered hill beyond. + +Timmy opened the door with a flourish, and Radmore saw at once that only +one of the two beds was made up; otherwise the room was exactly the same, +with this one great outstanding difference--that it had a curiously +unlived-in look. The dark green linoleum on the floor appeared a thought +more worn, the old rug before the fireplace a thought more shabby--still, +how well things lasted, in the old country! + +He walked across to one of the windows, and the sight of the garden below +now in its full autumn beauty, seemed to bring Janet Tosswill vividly +before him. + +"Your mother as great a gardener as ever?" he asked, without turning +round, and Timmy said eagerly:--"I should think she is! And we're going +to sell our flowers and vegetables. _We_ shall get the money now; the Red +Cross got it during the war." + +As his godfather remained silent, the boy went on insistently:--"Fifteen +shillings a week clear profit is L40 a year, and Mum thinks it will come +to more than that." + +Radmore turned round. + +"I wonder if any of you have yet met a lady who's just come to live +here--Mrs. Crofton?" + +"Oh, yes, we've met her; in fact she's been to supper." Timmy spoke +without enthusiasm, but Radmore did not notice that. + +"I was wondering if you and I could go round and see her between now and +dinner?" + +"I _think_ I could." There was a doubtful touch in Timmy's voice. He knew +quite well he ought to stay and help his sister to wash up the tea-things +and do certain other little jobs, but he also knew that if he asked Betty +to let him off, she would. + +"I shan't be a minute," he exclaimed, and a moment later Radmore heard +the little feet pattering down the carpetless back stairs, and then +scampering up again. + +Timmy ran in breathlessly. "It's all right!" he exclaimed, "I can go +with you--Mrs. Crofton has got The Trellis House--I'll show you the way +there." + +"Show me the way there?" repeated Radmore. "Why, I knew The Trellis House +from garret to cellar before you were born, young man." + +In the hall Timmy gave a queer, side-long look at his companion. "Do you +think we'd better take Flick?" he asked doubtfully, "Mrs. Crofton doesn't +like dogs." + +"Oh, yes, she does," Radmore spoke carelessly. "Flick was bred by Colonel +Crofton. I think she'll be very pleased to see him." + +Timmy would have hotly resented being called cruel, and to animals he was +most humane, yet somehow he had enjoyed Mrs. Crofton's terror the other +night, and he was not unwilling to see a repetition of it. And so the +three set out--Timmy, Radmore, and Flick. Somehow it was a comfort to the +grown-up man to have the child with him. Had he been alone he would have +felt like a ghost walking up the quiet, empty village street. The +presence of the child and the dog made him feel so _real_. + +The two trudged on in silence for a bit, and then Radmore asked in a low +voice:--"Is that busy-body, Miss Pendarth, still alive?" + +They were passing by Rose Cottage as he spoke, and Timmy at once replied +in a shrill voice:--"Yes, of course she is." And then, as if as an +afterthought, he remarked slyly:--"Rosamund often says she wishes she +were dead. Do you hate her, too?" + +"Hate's a big word," said Radmore thoughtfully, "but there was very +little love lost between me and that good lady in the old days." + +They passed the lych-gate of the churchyard, and then, following a sudden +impulse, Radmore turned into the post-office. + +Yes, his instinct had been right, for here, at any rate, was an old +friend, but a friend who, from a young man, had become old and grey. +Grasping the postmaster, Jim Cobbett, warmly by the hand Radmore +exclaimed:--"I'm glad to find you well and hearty, Cobbett." There +came the surprised: "Why, it's Mr. Radmore to be sure! How's the world +been treating you, sir?" + +"Better than I deserve, Cobbett." + +"Can you stay a minute, sir--Missus would like to see you, too?" The +speaker opened a door out of the tiny shop, and Radmore, followed by +Timmy and Flick, walked into a cosy living-room, where an old dog got +up and growled at them. + +"That dog," said Timmy in a hoarse whisper, "frightened poor Mrs. Crofton +very much the other day as she was coming out of church." + +For a moment Radmore thought the room was empty. Then, in the dim +lamp-light, a woman, who had been sitting by the fireplace, got up. + +"Here's Mr. Radmore come all the way from Australia, mother." + +"Mr. Radmore?" repeated the woman dully, and Radmore had another, and a +very painful, shock. + +He remembered Mrs. Cobbett definitely, as a buxom, merry-looking young +woman. She now looked older than her husband, and she did not smile at +him, as the man had done, as she held out her worn, thin hand. + +"A deal has happened," she said slowly, "since you went away." + +"Yes," said Radmore, "a deal has happened, Mrs. Cobbett; but Beechfield +seems unchanged, I cannot see any difference at all." + +"Hearts are changed," she said in a strange voice. + +For the first time since he had been in Beechfield, Radmore felt a tremor +of real discomfort run through him. + +He looked up at the mantelpiece. It was bare save for the photographs, in +cheap frames, of two stolid-looking lads, whom he vaguely remembered. + +"Those your boys?" he asked kindly, and then, making an effort of memory +of which he felt harmlessly proud, he said:--"Let me see, one was Peter +and the other was Paul, eh? I hope they're all right, Mrs. Cobbett?" + +"In a sense, sir," she said apathetically. "I do believe they are. They +was both killed within a month of one another--first Paul, then Pete, as +we called him--so Mr. Cobbett and I be very lonely now." + +As Radmore and Timmy walked away from the post-office, Radmore said +a trifle ruefully:--"I wish, Timmy, you had told me about those poor +people's sons. I'm afraid--I suppose--that a good many boys never came +back to Beechfield." + +He now felt that everything was indeed changed in the lovely, peaceful +little Surrey village. + +"I expect," said Timmy thoughtfully, "that the most sensible thing you +could do"--(he avoided calling Radmore by name, not knowing whether he +was expected to address him as "godfather," "Godfrey," or "Major +Radmore")--"before we see anybody else, would be to take a look at the +Shrine. You have plenty of matches with you, haven't you?" + +"The Shrine?" repeated Radmore hesitatingly. + +"Yes, _you_ know?" + +But somehow Radmore didn't know. + +They walked on in the now fast gathering darkness through a part of the +village where the houses were rather spread out. And suddenly, just +opposite the now closed, silent schoolhouse and its big playground, Timmy +stopped and pointed up to his right. "There's our Shrine," he exclaimed. +"If you'll give me the box of matches, I'll strike some while you look at +the names." + +Radmore stared up to where Timmy pointed, but, for a moment or two, he +could see nothing. Then, gradually, there emerged against the high hedge +a curious-looking wooden panel protected by a slanting, neatly thatched +eave, while below ran a little shelf on which there were three vases +filled with fresh flowers. + +Timmy Tosswill struck a match and held it up, far above his little head. +And Radmore saw flash out the gilded words:-- + + ROLL OF HONOUR, 1914-1918. + PASS, FRIEND. ALL'S WELL. + +The first name was "Thomas Ingleton," then came "Mons, 22nd August, +1914." Immediately below, bracketed together, came "Peter and Paul +Cobbett," followed, in the one case, by the date October 15, 1915, and in +the other, November 19, 1915. And then, in the wavering light, there +seemed to start out another name and date. + +Radmore uttered an exclamation of sharp pain, almost of anger. He did +not want the child to see his shocked, convulsed face, but he said +quickly:--"Not George? Surely, Timmy, not _George_?" + +Timmy answered, "Then you didn't know? Dad and Betty thought you did, but +Mum thought that perhaps you didn't." + +"Why wasn't I told?" asked Radmore roughly. "I should have thought, +Timmy, that you might have told me when you answered my first letter." + +He took the box of matches out of Timmy's hand, and himself lighting a +match, went up quite close to the list of names. Yes, it was there right +enough. + +"When did he, George, volunteer?" he asked. + +"On the seventh of August, two days after the War began," said Timmy +simply. "He was awfully afraid they wouldn't take him. There was such a +rush, you know. But they did take him, and the doctor who saw him +undressed, naked, you know, told Daddy"--the child hesitated a moment, +then repeated slowly, proudly--"that George was one of the finest +specimens of young manhood he had ever seen." + +"And when did he go out?" + +"He went out very soon; and we used to have such jolly times when he came +back, because, you know, he did come back three times altogether, and the +second time--Betty hadn't gone to France then--they all went up to London +together and had a splendid time. I didn't go; Mum didn't think it worth +the expense that I should go, though George wanted me to." + +Hardly conscious that he was doing so, Radmore turned round, and began +walking quietly on along the dark road, with Timmy trotting by his side. +"What I believed," he muttered, half to himself, "was that George was +safe in India, and probably not even allowed to volunteer." + +"George never went to India," said Timmy soberly. "Betty wasn't well, I +think, and as they were twins, he didn't like to go so far away from her. +So he got a job in London. It was quite nice, and he used to come down +once a month or so." He waited a moment, then went on. "Betty always said +he was a born soldier, and that he ought to have been a soldier from the +very beginning. As you care so much," he added a little diffidently, "I +expect Betty would show you the letters his men wrote about him. Dad has +got the letters of his Colonel and of the officers, but Betty has the +others." + +And then all at once Radmore felt a small skinny hand slipped into his. + +"I want to tell you something," muttered Timmy. "I want to tell you two +things. I want to tell you that I'm sure George is in Heaven. I don't +know if you know, but I sometimes see people who are dead. I saw Pete +Cobbett once. He was standing by the back door of the post-office, and +that old dog of theirs saw him too; it was just before we got the news +that he was killed, so I thought he was back on leave. But I've never +seen George--sometimes I've felt as if he were there, but I've never +_seen_ him." + +For a moment Radmore wondered if he had heard the words aright. What +could the child mean? Did Timmy claim the power to see spirits? + +"Now I'll tell you the second thing," went on Timmy, his voice dropping +to a whisper. "The last time George was home he came into the night +nursery one night. Nanna was still busy in the kitchen, so I was by +myself. I have a room all to myself now, but I hadn't then. George came +in to say a special good-bye to me--he was going off the next morning +very early, and Betty wanted to be the only one up to see him go; I mean +really early, half past five in the morning. And then--and then--he said +to me: 'You'll look after Betty, Timmy? If anything happens to me you'll +take my place, won't you, old chap? You'll look after Betty all the days +of her life?' I promised I would, and so I will too. But I haven't told +her what George said, and you mustn't tell anybody. I've only told you +because you're my godfather." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +Mrs. Crofton was walking restlessly about her new home--the house that +was so new to her, and yet, if local tradition could be trusted, one of +the oldest inhabited dwellings in that part of England. + +She had felt so sure that Godfrey Radmore would manage to get away from +Old Place, and call on her this afternoon, for Jack Tosswill had told her +that he was arriving before tea--she felt depressed and disappointed +though she had not yet given up hope. + +She wondered if he would come alone the first time, or if one of +the girls would accompany him. She felt just a little afraid of +Rosamund--Rosamund was so very pretty with all the added, evanescent +charm of extreme youth. She told herself that it was lucky that she, +Enid, and Godfrey Radmore were already friends, and good friends too. + +Twice she went up into her bedroom and gave a long, searching, anxious +look at herself in the narrow panel mirror which she had fixed on to one +of the cupboard doors. That there is no truer critic of herself, and of +her appearance, than a very pretty woman, is generally true even of the +vainest and most self-confident of her sex. + +Enid Crofton had put on a white serge skirt, and a white woolen jumper, +the only concession to her new widowhood being that the white jumper was +bordered in pale grey of a shade that matched her shoes and stockings. +Though her anxious surveys of herself had been reassuring, she felt +nervous, and a trifle despondent. She did not like the country--the +stillness even of village life got on her nerves. Still, Beechfield was +very different from the horribly lonely house in Essex to which she +never returned willingly in her thoughts--though sometimes certain +memories of all that had happened there would thrust themselves upon her, +refusing to be denied. + +Fortunately for the new occupant of The Trellis House, a certain type of +prettiness gives its lucky possessor an extraordinary sense of assurance +and tranquillity when dealing with the average man. Enid Crofton wasn't +quite sure, however, if Godfrey Radmore was an average man. He had never +made love to her in those pleasant, now far-away days in Egypt, when +every other unattached man did so. That surely proved him to be somewhat +peculiar. + +During the whole of her not very long life she had been petted and +spoilt, admired and sheltered, by almost everyone with whom fate had +brought her in contact. + +Enid Crofton's father had been a paymaster in the Royal Navy named +Joseph Catlin. After his death she and her mother had lived on in +Southsea till the girl was sixteen, when her mother had pronounced +her quite old enough to be "out." Mrs. Catlin was still too attractive +herself to feel her daughter a rival, and the two years which had +followed had been delightful years to them both. Then something which +they regarded as most romantic occurred. On the day Enid was eighteen, +and her mother thirty-seven, there had been a double wedding, Mrs. Catlin +becoming the wife of a prosperous medical man, while Enid married a young +soldier who had just come in for L4,000, which he and his girl-wife +at once proceeded to spend. + +To-day, in spite of herself, her mind went back insistently to her first +marriage--that marriage of which she never spoke, but of which she was +afraid she would have to tell Godfrey Radmore some day. She was shrewd +enough to know that many a man in love with a widow would be surprised +and taken aback were he suddenly told that she had been married before, +not once, but twice. + +Unknowingly to them both, the young, generous, devoted, lover-husband, to +whom even now she sometimes threw a retrospective, kindly thought, had +done her an irreparable injury. He had opened to her the gates of a +material paradise--the kind of paradise in which a young woman enjoys a +constant flow of ready money. Though she was quite unaware of it, it was +those fifteen weeks spent on the Riviera, for the most part at Monte +Carlo, which had gradually caused Enid to argue herself into the belief +that she was justified in doing anything--_anything_ which might +contribute to the renewal of that delicious kind of existence--the only +life, from her point of view, worth living. + +Her first husband's death in a motor accident had left her practically +penniless, as well as frightened and bewildered, and so she had committed +the mistake of marrying, almost at once, clever, saturnine Colonel +Crofton, a man over thirty years older than herself. His mad passion had +died down like a straw-fed flame, and when there had come, like a bolt +from their already grey sky, the outbreak of War, it had been a godsend +to them both. + +Colonel Crofton had at once stepped into what had seemed to them both +a good income, with all sorts of delightful extras, and allowances, +attached to it. And while he was in France, at the back of the Front, +absorbed in his job, though resentful of the fact that he was not in +the trenches, Enid had shared a small flat in London with another young +and lonely wife. The two had enjoyed every moment of war-time London, +dancing, flirting, taking part, by way of doing their bit, in every +form of the lighter kind of war charities, their ideal existence only +broken by the occasional boredom of having to entertain their respective +husbands when the latter were home on leave. + +Then had come the short interval in Egypt during which the Croftons had +met Godfrey Radmore, and, after that for Enid, another delightful stretch +of London life. + +She had felt it intolerable to go back to the old, dull life, on an +income which seemed smaller than ever with rising prices, and everything +sacrificed, or so it had seemed to her, to Colonel Crofton's new, +dog-breeding hobby. She resented too, perhaps, more bitterly than she +knew herself, her husband's altered attitude to herself. From having been +passionately, foolishly in love, he had become critical, and, what to her +was especially intolerable, jealous. For a time she had kept up with some +of her war-time acquaintances, but there was a strain of curious timidity +in her nature, and she grew afraid of Colonel Crofton. Even now, when +Enid Crofton, free at last, remembered those dreary months in the shabby +little manor-house which Colonel Crofton had taken after the Armistice, +she told herself, with a quickened pulse, that flesh and blood cannot +stand more than a certain amount of dulness and discomfort. But she +seldom went back in thought to that hateful time. She had wanted to +obliterate, as far as was possible, all recollection of the place where +she had spent such unhappy months, and where had occurred the tragedy +of her husband's death. And it would have been difficult to find two +dwelling-houses more different than the lonely, austere-looking, Fildy +Fe Manor, which stood surrounded by water-clogged fields, some two +miles from an unattractive, suburban Essex town, and the delightful, +picturesque, cheerful-looking Trellis House which formed an integral part +of a prosperous-looking and picturesque Surrey village. + + * * * * * + +At last Mrs. Crofton settled herself down into her low-ceilinged, square +little sitting-room, and, looking round at her new possessions, she told +herself that outwardly her new home was perfect. + +The Trellis House had been for a short time in the possession of a +clever, modern architect who had done his best to restore the building to +what it must have been before it had been transformed, early in the 19th +century, from a farm into a so-called gentleman's house. He had uncovered +the old oak beams, stripped five layers of paper off the walls of the +living rooms, and laid bare what panelling there was--in fact he had +restored the interior of the old building, while leaving the rose and +clematis covered trellis which was on the portion of the house standing +at right angles to the village street, and which gave it its name. + +In a sense it was too much like a stage picture to please a really fine +taste. But to Enid Crofton it formed an ideal background for her +attractive self. She had sold for very high prices the sound, solid, +fine, 18th century furniture, which her husband had inherited, and with +the proceeds she had bought the less comfortable but to the taste of the +moment, more attractive oak furnishings of The Trellis House. + +Enid Crofton was the kind of woman who acquires helpful admirers in every +profession. The junior partner of the big firm of house-agents who had +disposed of the lease of Fildy Fe Manor had helped her in every way +possible, though he had been rather surprised and puzzled, considering +that she knew no one there, at her determination to find a house in, or +near, the village of Beechfield. + +It was also an admirer, the only one who had survived from her war +sojourn in Egypt--a cheery, happy, good-looking soldier, called Tremaine, +now at home on leave from India--who had helped her in the actual task of +settling in. Not that there had been much settling in to do--for the +house had been left in perfect order by its last tenant. But Captain +Tremaine had fetched her from the hotel where she had stayed in London; +he had bought her first-class ticket (Enid always liked someone to pay +for her); they had shared a delightful picnic lunch which he provided +in the train; and then, finally, reluctantly, he had left The Trellis +House--after a rather silly, tiresome, little scene, during which he had +vowed that she should marry him, even if it came to his kidnapping her +by force! + +While hoping and waiting, in nervous suspense, for Godfrey Radmore, she +cast a tender thought to Bob Tremaine. Nothing, so she told herself with +a certain vehemence, would induce her to marry him, for he had only L200 +a year beside his pay, and that, even in India, she believed would mean +poverty. Also she had been told that no woman remained really pretty in +India for very long. But she was fond of Tremaine--he was "her sort," and +far, far more her ideal of what a man should be than was the rich man she +had deliberately made up her mind to marry; but bitter experience had +convinced Enid Crofton that money--plenty of money--was as necessary to +her as the air she breathed. + + * * * * * + +Suddenly there broke on her ear the peal of an old-fashioned bell, +followed by a short, sharp knock on the toy knocker of her front door. +Enid started up, her face full of eagerness and pleasure; something +seemed to tell her that it was--it must be--Radmore! + +While the maid was going to the door, her mind worked quickly. Surely it +was very late for a call? He must have been wishing to see her as soon as +he possibly could, or he would never have managed to get away from Old +Place, and its many tiresome inmates. There came a mischievous smile over +her face. Of one of those inmates, the rather priggish Jack Tosswill, she +had made a real conquest. Under some flimsy excuse he had come every day, +always staying for a considerable time. This very morning he had not gone +till she had told him frankly that she only had lunch enough for one! + +The door opened slowly, and her smile died away, giving place to a +touching, pathetic expression. And then, instead of the tall, dark +man she expected to see walk in, there advanced towards her a small, +freckled-faced, fair-haired little boy--Timmy Tosswill, the child whom +she was already beginning to regard with something akin to real distaste. + +But Enid Crofton was never unpleasant in manner to anybody, and she even +forced herself to smile, as she exclaimed:--"I was not expecting a +visitor so late, but I'm very pleased to see you all the same, Master +Timmy! How wonderful that you should have been able to reach my knocker. +It's placed so very high up on the door--I think I must get it altered." + +"I didn't knock," said Timmy shortly, "it was my godfather who knocked, +Mrs. Crofton." + +And when Radmore followed his godson into the room he was surprised, even +a little touched, at the warmth of Mrs. Crofton's greeting. + +She put out both her hands, "I _am_ glad to see you"--and then she added, +characteristically, for truth was not in her, "I was afraid you wouldn't +have time to look me up for ever so long!" + +But though Radmore was pleased by her evident joy in seeing him, he +looked at her with a curiously critical eye. He was surprised to find her +in a white frock--inclined, even, to be just a little bit shocked. + +And there was something else. Enid Crofton had enjoyed the War--she had +admitted this just a little shamefacedly a week ago, when they two were +having dinner together at the Savoy Grill, where she had been easily the +prettiest woman in the room. At the time he had felt indulgently that it +was a good thing that someone should have gone through that awful time +untouched by the pains and scars of war. But now everything seemed +different, somehow. Beechfield was a place of mourning, and in a place +of mourning this smiling, beautifully dressed, almost too pretty young +creature looked out of place. Still that wasn't her fault, after all. + +As the three sat down, Timmy upset the narrow oak stool on which he had +placed himself with a great clatter, and Radmore suddenly realised that +he had made a mistake in bringing the boy. For the first time since his +return to England he saw something like a frown gather on Mrs. Crofton's +face. Perhaps, unlike most nice women, she didn't like children? + +"I'm awfully grateful to you for having told me about Beechfield," she +exclaimed. "Although I've hardly been here a week, I do feel what a +delightful place it is! Everybody is so kind and friendly. Why the very +first day I was here I was asked to supper at Old Place--and several +people have left cards on me already. What sort of a woman is Miss--" she +hesitated, "Pendarth?" + +Timmy and Radmore looked at one another, but neither spoke for a moment. +Then Radmore answered, rather drily:--"In my time, Miss Pendarth was the +greatest gossip and busy-body within a radius of thirty miles. She must +be an old woman now." + +"Oh, I don't think she would like you to call her that!" exclaimed Timmy, +and both his grown-up auditors laughed. But Enid Crofton felt a little +disappointed, for on Miss Pendarth's card had been written the words:--"I +look forward to making your acquaintance. I think I must have known +Colonel Crofton many years ago. There was a Cecil Crofton who was a great +friend of my brother's--they joined the Ninetieth on the same day." She +had rather hoped to find a kindly friend and ally in the still unknown +caller. + +And then, as if answering her secret thought, Radmore observed +carelessly:--"It's wrong to prejudice you against Miss Pendarth; I've +known her do most awfully kind things. But she had what the Scotch call +a 'scunner' against me when I was a boy. She's the sort of woman who's +a good friend and a bad enemy." + +"I must hope," said his hostess softly, "that she'll be a good friend to +me. At any rate, it was nice of her to come and call almost at once, +wasn't it?" + +"You've delightful quarters here," observed Radmore. "The Trellis House +was a very different place to this in my time; I can remember a hideous, +cold and white wallpaper in this room--it looks twice as large as it did +then." + +"I found the things I sold made it possible for me to buy almost +everything in The Trellis House. Tappin & Edge say that I got a great +bargain." + +"Yes," said Radmore hesitatingly, "I expect you did." + +But all the same he felt that his pretty friend had made a mistake, for +he remembered some of Colonel Crofton's furniture as having been very +good. In the bedroom in which he had slept at Fildy Fe Manor there had +been a walnut-wood tallboy of the best Jacobean period. That one piece +must certainly have been worth more than all the furniture in this +particular room put together. + +Poor Enid Crofton! The call to which she had been looking forward so +greatly was not turning out a success. Godfrey Radmore seemed a very +different man here, in Beechfield, from what he had seemed in London. +They talked in a desultory way, with none of the pleasant, cosy, intimacy +to which she had insensibly accustomed him; and though Timmy remained +absolutely quiet and silent after that unfortunate accident with the +stool, his presence in some way affected the atmosphere. + +All at once Radmore asked:--"And where's Boo-boo? It's odd I never +thought of asking you in London, but somehow one expects to see a dog in +the country, even as highly civilised and smart a little dog as Boo-boo!" + +"I sold her," answered Mrs. Crofton, in a low, pained tone. "I got L40 +for her, and a most awfully good home. Still," she sighed, "of course I +miss my darling little Boo--" and then a sharp tremor ran through her, +for there suddenly fell on her ears the sound of a dog, howling. + +Now Enid Crofton did not believe that what she heard so clearly were real +howls, proceeding from a flesh-and-blood dog. She thought that her nerves +were betraying her, as they had a way of doing since her husband's death. +Often when she fell asleep, there would come to her a strange and +horrible nightmare. It was such a queer, uncanny kind of dream for a +grown-up woman to have! She used to dream that she was a rat--and that +Colonel Crofton's own terrier, a fierce brute called Dandy, was after +her. + +"That's Flick! Perhaps I'd better go and let him out?" Timmy jumped up +as he spoke. "I thought you didn't like dogs, Mrs. Crofton, and so I shut +Flick up in your stable-yard. I expect he's got bored, being in there +all by himself, in the dark!" + +The boy's words brought delicious relief, and then, all at once, she +felt unreasonably angry. How stupid of this odious little fellow to have +brought his horrid, savage dog with him--after what had happened the +other night! + +Timmy shot out of the room and so through the front door, and Radmore got +up too. "I'm afraid we ought to be going," he said. + +His white-clad hostess came up close to him:--"It's so good of you to +have come to see me so soon," she murmured. "Though I do like Beechfield, +and the people here are awfully kind, I feel very forlorn, Mr. Radmore. +Seeing you has cheered me up very much. I hope you'll come again soon." + +There fell on the still air the voice of Timmy talking to his dog +outside. Mrs. Crofton went quickly past Radmore into the tiny hall; she +shut the front door, which had been left ajar; and then she came back. + +"It's quite true that I don't like dogs!" she exclaimed. "Poor Cecil's +terriers got thoroughly on my nerves last winter. I sometimes dream of +them even now." + +He looked at her, surprised, and rather concerned. Poor little woman! +There were actually tears in her eyes. + +"Yes," she went on, as if she could not help the words coming out, +"that's the real reason I sold Boo-boo. I even felt as if my poor little +Boo-boo had turned against me." There was a touch of excitement, almost +of defiance, in her low voice, and Radmore felt exceedingly taken aback +and puzzled. This was an Enid Crofton he had never met. "Come, come--you +mustn't feel like that"--he took her hand in his and held it closely. + +She looked up at him and her eyes filled with tears, and then, suddenly, +her heart began beating deliciously. She saw flash into his dark face a +look she had seen flash into many men's faces, but never in his, till +now--the excited, tender look that she had longed to see there. She +swayed a little towards him; dropping her hand, he put out his arms--in +another moment, what she felt sure such a man as Radmore would have +regarded as irreparable would have happened, had not the door just behind +them burst open. + +They fell apart quickly, and Radmore, with a sudden revulsion of +feeling--a sensation that he had been saved from doing a very foolish +thing--turned to see his godson, Timmy Tosswill. + +Enid Crofton looked at Timmy, too, and if evil thoughts could kill, the +child would have fallen dead. But evil thoughts do not kill, and so all +that happened was that Timmy had a sudden, instinctive feeling that he +must account for his presence. + +Looking up into his godfather's face, he said breathlessly:--"The front +door was shut, so I came in, through the kitchen. It's ever so late, +Godfrey--after half past seven. Dad _will_ be upset if you're not back to +speak to him before dinner!" + + * * * * * + +As the two, the tall man and the short boy, walked away into the +darkness, Radmore was possessed by an extraordinary mixture of feelings. +"You've had an escape! You've got well out of what would have been not +only a dangerous but an absurd situation," so whispered a secret, inner +voice. And yet there was a side of him which felt not only balked and +disappointed, but exasperated... + +"Do you ever think of people's faces when they're not there?" asked Timmy +suddenly, and then, without waiting for an answer, he went on:--"When I +shut my eyes, before I go quite off to sleep, you know, I see a row of +faces. Sometimes they're people I've never seen at all; but last night I +kept seeing Mrs. Crofton's face, looking just as it looked when Flick ran +in and growled at her the other night. It was such an awful look--I don't +think I shall ever forget it." + +As Radmore said nothing, the little boy asked another question: "Do you +think Mrs. Crofton pretty?" This time Timmy waited for an answer. + +"Yes, I think she's very pretty. But gentlemen don't discuss ladies and +their looks, old boy." + +"Don't they? How stupid of them!" said Timmy. He added a little shyly, "I +suppose a gentleman may talk of his sister?" + +Radmore turned hot in the darkness. Was Timmy going to say something of +Betty, and of that old, painful, now he hoped forgotten, episode? But +Timmy only observed musingly:--"You haven't seen Rosamund yet. Of course +we never say so to her, because it might make her vain, but I do think, +Godfrey, that she's very, _very_ pretty." + +And then, rather to his companion's discomfiture, his queer little +mind swung back to the woman to whose house they had just been. "Mrs. +Crofton," he observed, with an air of finality, "may be pretty, but she's +got what I call a blotting-paper face." + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +Radmore felt secretly relieved that he and Timmy got home too late for +him to see Mr. Tosswill alone before dinner. And when at last he came +down, just a minute or two late, for he had to do things for himself to +which he had become unaccustomed--unpacking his bag, putting out his +evening clothes, placing of studs in his evening shirt, and so on--he +found what looked to him like a large party of strangers all gathered +together in the dear old drawing-room. + +As he walked in among them he looked first with quick interest at the +three girls. Yes, Timmy was right--Rosamund was lovely. Dolly struck him +as commonplace, though as a matter of fact she looked more attractive +than usual. Betty looked very hot--or was it that the exquisite +complexion that once had been her chief physical beauty had gone? + +After a moment or two Betty slipped out of the room, leaving Radmore and +Mr. Tosswill shaking hands quite cordially, if a little awkwardly. + +"Well, sir, here I am again, turned up just like a bad penny!" And his +host answered absently:--"Yes, yes, Godfrey--very glad to see you, I'm +sure." + +Then, after he had shaken hands with Janet and Tom, they all stood +together on the hearthrug waiting, so Radmore supposed, for the +parlourmaid to come in and announce dinner. + +But instead of that happening, the door opened and Timmy appeared. "Will +you come into the dining-room? Everything's ready now." + +They all followed him, three of the younger ones--Tom, Dolly and +Rosamund--laughing and whispering together. Somehow Timmy never +associated himself with those of his brothers and sisters nearest to +him in age. + +Radmore came last of all with Janet. He felt as if he were in a strange, +unreal dream. It was all at once so like and so unlike what he had +expected to find it. All these quiet, demure-looking young strangers, +instead of the jolly, familiar children he had left nine years ago--and, +as he realised with a sharp pang--no George. He had not known till +to-night how much he had counted on seeing George, or at least on hearing +all about him. Instead, here was Jack, so very self-possessed--or was it +superior?--in his smart evening jacket. He could hardly believe that Jack +was George's brother. + +For a moment he forgot Betty. Then he saw her come hurrying in. Her +colour had gone down, and she looked very charming, and yet--yes, a +stranger too. + +The table was laid very much as it had been in the old days on a Sunday, +when they always had supper instead of dinner at Old Place. But to-day +was not Sunday--where could all the servants be? + +Janet, looking very nice in the bright blue gown her little son had +admired, placed the guest on her right hand. To her left, Timmy, +with snorts and wriggles, settled himself. The others all sorted +themselves out; Betty sat the nearest to the door, on the right of +her father,--lovely Rosamund on his left. + +Timmy stood up and mumbled out a Latin grace. How it brought back +Radmore's boyhood and early manhood days! But in those days it was Tom, +a simple cherubic-looking little boy of seven, who said grace--the usual +"For what we are going to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful!" +The stranger--how queer to think he was a stranger here, in this familiar +room--did not care for the innovation. + +They all sat down, and Radmore began to eat his soup, served in a covered +cup. It was very good soup, and as he was rather tired and hungry, he +enjoyed it. Then Timmy got up and removed the cup and its cover; and +suddenly the guest became aware that only four people at the table had +taken soup--himself, Mr. Tosswill, Jack, and Timmy. What an odd thing! + +They were all rather silent, and Radmore began to have a strange, uncanny +feeling that none of them could see him, that he was a wraith, projected +out of the past into the present. It was a novel and most disconcerting +sensation. But no one glancing at his keen face, now illumined with a +half humorous expression of interest, would have guessed the mixed and +painful feelings which possessed him. + +He stole a look to his left. Janet, in his eyes, was almost unchanged. Of +course she looked a thought older, a thought thicker--not so much in her +upright figure, as in her clever, irregular-featured face. In the days of +his early manhood she had never seemed to him to be very much older than +himself--but now she looked a lifetime older than he felt. + +Only Mr. Tosswill looked absolutely unchanged. His mild benevolent face, +his deep blue eyes, his grey hair, seemed exactly the same as when +Radmore had last sat down, in the Old Place dining-room, to a full table. +That had been in the Christmas holidays of 1910. Very well he remembered +all that had happened then, for he and Betty had just become engaged. + +At nineteen Betty Tosswill had belonged to the ideal type of +old-fashioned English girlhood--high-spirited, cheerful, artless yet +intelligent, with a strong sense of humour. She had worn a pink evening +frock during those long-ago Christmas holidays, and had looked, at any +rate in her young lover's eyes, beautiful. + +They had been ardently, passionately in love, he a masterful, exacting +lover, and though seeming older than his age, without any of the +magnanimity which even the passage of only a very few years brings to +most intelligent men. Poor little Betty of long ago--what a child she +had been at nineteen!--but a child capable of deep and varied emotions. + +At the time of their parting he had been absorbed in his own selfish +sensations of anger, revolt, and the sharp sense of loss, savagely glad +that she was unhappy too. But after he had gone, after he had plunged +into the new, to him exciting and curious, life of the great vessel +taking him to Australia, he had forced himself to put Betty out of his +mind, and, after a few days, he had started a violent flirtation with the +most attractive woman on board the liner. The flirtation had developed, +by the time they reached Sydney, into a serious affair, and had been the +determining cause why he had not written even to George. Godfrey Radmore +had not thought of that woman for years. But to-night her now hateful, +meretricious image rose, with horrid vividness, before him. It had been +an ugly, debasing episode, and had dragged on and on, as such episodes +have a way of doing. + +Wrenching his mind free of that odious memory, he looked across at Betty. +Yes, it was at once a relief and something of a disappointment to feel +her, too, transformed into a stranger. For one thing she had had, when +he had last seen her, a great deal of long fair hair. But she had cut it +off when starting her arduous war work, and the lack of it altered her +amazingly, all the more that she did not wear her short hair "bobbed," in +what had become the prevailing fashion, but brushed back from her low +forehead, and staidly held in place by a broad, black, snood-like ribbon. + +He looked to his right, down the old-fashioned, almost square dining +table. Jack was the least changed, after his father, of the young people +sitting at this table. Jack, nine years ago, had been a rather complacent +boy, doing very well at school, the type of boy who is as if marked out +by fate to do well in life. Yes, Jack had hardly changed at all, but +Radmore, looking at Jack, felt a sudden intolerable jealousy for +George.... + +He came back with a start to what was going on around him, and idly he +wondered what had happened to all the servants this evening. Truth to +tell he had been just a little surprised and taken aback at not finding +his bag unpacked and his evening clothes laid out before dinner. + +Timmy had slipped out of his chair and brought him a plateful of roast +mutton, and now Rosamund was playing waitress, smiling at his elbow, a +lovely Hebe indeed, with dishes of potatoes and greens. He helped himself +a little awkwardly, while Timmy was taking round platefuls of meat to his +father, to Jack, and finally one to his own little self. + +Then Betty went out of the room, and came back with a large dish of +macaroni cheese, which she put on a side table. Jack got up and whispered +something to her rather angrily. He was evidently remonstrating with her +for not having allowed him to go and get the dish, for he motioned her +rather imperiously back to her seat by her father, while he himself, +calling to Dolly to help him, dealt out generous portions of macaroni +cheese to those who had not taken meat. + +All at once Timmy exclaimed in his shrill voice:--"I like macaroni +cheese. Why shouldn't I have a little to-day, too? Here, Tom, you take +my meat, and I'll have your macaroni cheese." He did not wait for Tom's +assent to this peculiar proposal, and was proceeding to effect the +exchange when Tom muttered crossly, while yet, or so Radmore fancied, +casting rather longing eyes at Timmy's plate. + +"You know perfectly well you've got to have meat to drive the ghosties +out of your silly head." + +Timmy submitted with a grunt of disappointment, and the meal proceeded. +Again Radmore felt surprised and puzzled. Was it conceivable that the +whole family--with the exception of Mr. Tosswill, Jack and Timmy, had +become so High Church that Friday was with them a meatless day? + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +After her visitors had gone, Mrs. Crofton had come back slowly, +languidly, to her easy-chair. + +It was too warm for a fire, yet somehow the fire comforted her, for she +felt cold as well as tired, and, yes, she could admit it to herself, +horribly disappointed. How stupid men were--even clever men! + +It was so stupid of Godfrey Radmore not to have come to see her, this the +first time, alone. He might have found it difficult to have come without +one of the Tosswill girls, but there was no reason and no excuse for his +being accompanied by that odious little Timmy. It was also really unkind +of the boy to have brought his horrid dog with him. Even now she seemed +to hear Flick's long-drawn-out howls--those horrible howls that at the +time she had not believed to be real. What a nervous, hysterical fool +she was becoming! How long would she go on being haunted by the now +fast-disappearing past? + +There came back to Enid Crofton the very last words uttered by Piper, the +clever, capable man who, after having been Colonel Crofton's batman in +the War, had become their general factotum in Essex:--"Don't you go and +be startled, ma'am, if you see the very spit of Dandy in this 'ere +village! As me and your new lad was cleaning out the stable-yard this +morning, a young gentleman came in with a dog as was 'is exact image. +After a bit o'course, I remembered as what we'd sent one of Juno's and +Dandy's pups to a place called Beechfield this time last year--'tis that +pup grown into a dog without a doubt!" + +It was certainly a bit of rank bad luck that there should be here, in +Beechfield, a dog which, whenever she saw it, brought the image of her +dead husband so vividly before her. + +She had just settled herself down, and was turning over the leaves of one +of the many picture papers which Tremaine had bought for her on their +jolly little journey on the day of her arrival at The Trellis House, when +there came a ring at the door. + +Who could it be coming so late--close to seven o'clock? Enid Crofton got +up, feeling vaguely disturbed. + +The new maid brought in a reply-paid telegram, and Mrs. Crofton tore +open the orange envelope with just a faint premonition that something +disagreeable was going to happen:--"May I come and stay with you for the +week-end? Have just arrived in England. Alice Crofton." + +Thank Heaven she had been wrong as to her premonition! This portended +nothing disagreeable--only something unexpected. The sender of this +telegram was the kind, opulent sister-in-law whom she always thought of +as "Miss Crofton." + +Going over to her toy writing-table, she quickly wrote on the reply-paid +form:--"Miss Crofton, Buck's Hotel, Dover Street. Yes, delighted. Do come +to-morrow morning. Excellent eleven o'clock train from Waterloo.--Enid." + +As she settled herself by the fire she told herself that a visit from +Miss Crofton might be quite a good thing--so far as Beechfield was +concerned. Her associations with her husband's sister were wholly +pleasant. For one thing, Alice Crofton was well off, and Enid +instinctively respected, and felt interested in, any possessor of money. +What a pity it was that Colonel Crofton had not had a fairy godmother! +His only sister had been left L3,000 a year by a godmother, and she lived +the agreeable life so many Englishwomen of her type and class live on the +Continent. While her real home was in Florence, she often travelled, and +during the War she had settled down in Paris, giving many hours of each +day to one of the British hospitals there. + +The young widow's mind flew back to her one meeting with Alice Crofton. +It was during her brief engagement to Colonel Crofton, and the latter's +sister, without being over cordial, had been quite pleasant to the +startlingly pretty little woman, who had made such a fool of her brother. + +But at the time of Colonel Crofton's death, his sister had been truly +kind. She had telegraphed L200 to her sister-in-law from Italy, and this +sum of ready money had been very useful during that tragic week--and even +afterwards, for the insurance people had made a certain amount of fuss +after Colonel Crofton's sad suicide, "while of unsound mind," and this +had caused a disagreeable delay. + +The new tenant of The Trellis House had her lonely dinner brought in to +her on a tray, and then, perhaps rather too soon--for she was not much of +a reader, and there was nothing to while away the time--she went upstairs +to her pleasant, cosy bedroom, and so to bed. + +But, try as she might, she found it impossible to fall asleep; for what +seemed to her hours she lay wide awake, tossing this way and that. At +last she got up, and, drawing aside the chintz curtain across one of the +windows, she looked out. The window was open, and in the eerily bright +moonlight the upper part of the hill on which Beechfield village lay +seemed spread before her. There were twinkling lights in many of the +windows--doubtless groups of happy, cheerful people behind them. She +felt horribly lonely and depressed as well as wide awake to-night. + +In her short, healthy life, Enid Crofton had only had one attack of +insomnia. During the ten days that had followed her husband's sudden +death--for the inquest had had to be put off for a day or two--she +had hardly slept at all, and the doctor who had been so kind a friend +during that awful time, had had to give her a strong narcotic. To his +astonishment it had had no effect. She had felt as if she were going +mad--the effect, so he had told her afterwards, of the awful shock she +had had. + +To-night she wondered with a kind of terror whether that terrible +sleeplessness which had ended by making her feel almost lightheaded was +coming back. + +She turned away from the window, and, getting into bed again, tried to +compose her limbs into absolute repose, as the doctor had advised her to +do. And then, just as she was mercifully going to sleep, there floated +in, through the open window, a variant on a doggerel song she had last +heard in Egypt:-- + + "The angels sing-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling, + They've got the goods for me. + The bells of hell ring ting-a-ling-a-ling + For you, as you shall see." + +Enid Crofton sat up in bed. She felt suddenly afraid--horribly, +desperately afraid. As is often the case with those who have drifted away +from any form of religion, she was very superstitious, and terrified of +evil omens. During the War she had been fond of going first to one and +then to another of the fashionable sooth-sayers. + +They had all agreed as to one thing--this was that her husband would die, +and of course she had thought he would be killed at the Front. But he had +come through safe and sound, and more--more _hateful_ than ever. + +One fortune-teller, a woman, small, faded, commonplace-looking, yet with +something sinister about her that impressed her patrons uncomfortably, +had told Enid Crofton, with a curious smile, that she would have yet +another husband, making the third. This had startled her very much, for +the woman, who did not even know her name, could only have guessed that +she had been married twice. Enid Crofton was not given to making +unnecessary confidences. With the exception of her sister-in-law, none of +the people who now knew her were aware that Colonel Crofton had been her +second husband. + +She lay down again, and in the now dying firelight, fixed her eyes on the +chintz square of the window curtain nearest to her. She shut her eyes, +but, as always happens, there remained a square luminous patch on their +retinas. And then, all at once, it was as if she saw, depicted on the +white, faintly illuminated space, a scene which might have figured in one +of those cinema-plays to which she and her house-mate, during those happy +days when she had lived in London, used so often to go with one or other +of their temporary admirers. + +On the white, luminous background two pretty little hands were moving +about, a little uncertainly, over a window-ledge on which stood a row of +medicine bottles. Then, suddenly the two pretty hands became engaged in +doing something which is done by woman's hands every day--the pouring of +a liquid from one bottle into another. + +Enid Crofton did not visualise the owner of the hands. She had no wish to +do so, but she did see the hands. + +Then there started out before her, with astonishing vividness, another +little scene--this time with a man as central figure. He was whistling; +that she knew, though she could not hear the whistling. It was owing to +that surprised, long-drawn-out whistling sound that the owner of the +pretty hands had become suddenly, affrightedly, aware that someone was +there, outside the window, staring down, and so of course seeing the task +on which the two pretty little hands were engaged. + +Now, the owner of that pair of now shaking little hands had felt quite +sure that no one could possibly see what they were engaged in doing--for +the window on the ledge of which the medicine bottles were standing +looked out on what was practically a blank wall. But the man whose long, +surprised whistle had so suddenly scared her, happened at that moment to +be sitting astride the top of the blank wall, engaged in the legitimate +occupation of sticking bits of broken bottles into putty. The man was +Piper, and doubtless the trifling incident had long since slipped his +mind, for that same afternoon his master, Colonel Crofton, had committed +suicide in a fit of depression owing to shell shock. + +Enid Crofton opened her eyes wide, and the sort of vision, or +nightmare--call it what you will--faded at once. + +It was a nightmare she had constantly experienced during the first few +nights which had succeeded her husband's death. But since the inquest she +had no longer been haunted by that scene--the double scene of the hands, +the pretty little hands, engaged in that simple, almost mechanical, +action of pouring the contents of one bottle into another, and the vision +of the man on the wall looking down, slantwise, through the window, and +uttering that queer, long-drawn-out whistle of utter surprise. + +When at last Mrs. Crofton had had to explain regretfully to clever, +capable Piper that she could no longer afford to keep him on, they had +parted the best of friends. She had made him the handsome present of +twenty-five pounds, for he had been a most excellent servant to her late +husband. And she had done more than that. She had gone to a good deal of +trouble to procure him an exceptionally good situation. Piper had just +gone there, and she hoped, rather anxiously, that he would do well in it. + +The man had one serious fault--now and again he would go off and have a +good "drunk." Sometimes he wouldn't do this foolish, stupid thing for +months, and then, perchance, he would do it two weeks running! Colonel +Crofton, so hard in many ways, had been indulgent to this one fault, or +vice, in an otherwise almost perfect servant. When giving Piper a very +high character Mrs. Crofton had just hinted that there had been a time +when he had taken a drop too much, but she had spoken of it as being +absolutely in the past. Being the kind of woman she was, she wouldn't +have said even that, had it not been that Piper had got disgracefully +drunk within a week of his master's death. She had been very much +frightened then, though not too frightened to stay, herself, within +hail of the man till he had come round, and to make him a cup of strong +coffee. When, at last, he was fit to do so, he had uttered broken words +of gratitude, really touched at her kindness, and frightfully ashamed of +himself. + +Lying there, wide awake, in the darkness and utter stillness of +Beechfield village, Enid Crofton reminded herself that she had treated +Piper very well. In memory of the master whom he had served she had also +given him, before selling off her husband's kennel, two prize-winners. +But it is sometimes a mistake to be too kind, for on receiving this last +generous gift the man had hinted that with a little capital he could set +up dog-breeding for himself! She had had to tell him, sadly but firmly, +that she could not help him to any ready money, and Piper had been what +she now vaguely described to herself as "very nice" about it, though +obviously disappointed. + +At the end of their little chat, however, he had said something which had +made her feel rather uncomfortable:--"I was wondering, ma'am, whether +Major Radmore might perhaps be inclined for a little speculation? I +wouldn't mind paying, say, up to ten per cent, if 'e'd oblige me with +a loan of five hundred pounds." + +She had been astonished at the suggestion--astonished and unpleasantly +taken aback. He had surprised her further by going on:--"I believe as +what the Major is coming 'ome soon, ma'am. Perhaps then I might venture +to ask you to say a word for me? Major Radmore was known in the regiment +as a very kind gentleman." + +"I'll do what I can, Piper." She had said the words with apparent +earnestness, but, deep in her heart, she had thought the request totally +unreasonable. + +And now it was this conversation which came back to her as she moved +restlessly about in her bed. She wondered uneasily whether she had made +a mistake. Her capital was very small, and she was now living on her +capital, but after all, perhaps it would have been wiser to have given +Piper that L500. She was quite determined not to mix up Piper with +Godfrey Radmore, but she had a queer, uncomfortable feeling that she had +not done with this man yet. + +At last she fell into a heavy, troubled, worried sleep--the kind of sleep +from which a woman always wakes unrefreshed. + +But daylight brought comfort to Enid Crofton, and after she had had her +early cup of tea and had enjoyed her nice hot bath, she felt quite cheery +again, and her strange, bad night faded into nothingness. She was young, +she was strong, above all she was enchantingly pretty! She told herself +confidently that nothing terrible, nothing _really_ dreadful ever happens +to a woman who is as attractive as she knew herself to be to the sex +which still holds all the material power there is to hold in this strange +world. + +During the last three weeks, she had sometimes wondered uneasily whether +Godfrey Radmore realised how very pretty she was. There was something so +curiously impersonal about him--and yet last night he had very nearly +kissed her! + +She laughed aloud, gaily, triumphantly, as she went down to her late +breakfast. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +At the moment that Enid Crofton was telling herself that everything was +going fairly well with her, and that nothing could alter the fact that +she was now, and likely to remain for a long time, a woman likely to +attract every man with whom she came in contact--Godfrey Radmore, +following Janet Tosswill after breakfast into the drawing-room of Old +Place, exclaimed deprecatingly:--"I feel like Rip Van Winkle!' + +"Do you?" She turned to him and smiled a little sadly. "It's _you_ that +have changed, Godfrey. Everything here is much the same. As for me, I +never see any change from one year to another." + +"But they've all grown up!" he exclaimed plaintively. "You can't think +how odd it seems to find a lot of grown-up young ladies and gentlemen +instead of the jolly little kids who were in the nursery with Nanna nine +years ago. By the way, Nanna hasn't changed, and"--he hesitated, then +brought out with an effort, "Mr. Tosswill is exactly the same." + +She felt vexed that he hadn't included Betty. To her step-mother's fond +eyes Betty was more attractive now than in her early girlhood. "I think +the children have improved very much," she said quickly. "Jack was a +horrid little prig nine years ago!" + +She hadn't forgiven Radmore. And yet, in a sense, she was readjusting her +views and theories about him, for the simple reason that he, Godfrey +Radmore, had changed so utterly. From having been a hot-tempered, +untameable, high-spirited boy, he was now, or so it seemed to her, a +cool, restrained man of the world, old for his years. In fact it was he +who was now a stranger--but a stranger who had most attractive manners, +and who had somehow slipped very easily into their everyday life. Janet +liked his deferential manner to the master of the house, she enjoyed his +kindly and good-humoured, if slightly satirical dealings with Jack and +with pretty Rosamund, and she was very grateful to him for the way he +treated queer, little Timmy, her own beloved changeling child. + +And now something happened that touched her, and made her suddenly feel +as if she was with the old Godfrey Radmore again. + +"Look here," he said, in a low, hesitating voice, "I want to tell you, +Janet, that I didn't know till yesterday about George. You'll think me a +fool--but somehow I always thought of him as being safe in India." And +then with sudden passion he asked:--"How can you say that everything is +the same in Old Place with George not here? Why, to me, George was as +much part of Old Place as--as Betty is!" + +"We all thought you knew--at least I wasn't sure." + +"Thank God _he_ didn't think so poorly of me as that," he muttered, and +then he looked away, his eyes smarting with unshed tears. "Nothing will +ever be the same to me again without George in the world." + +As she said nothing, he went on with sudden passion:--"Every other +country in Europe has changed utterly since the War, but England seemed +to me, till last night, exactly the same--only rather bigger and more +bustling than nine years ago." He drew a long breath. "Timmy and I went +into the post-office last evening, and Cobbett asked me to go in, and see +his wife. I thought I remembered her so well--and when I saw her, Janet, +I didn't know her! Then I asked after her boys--and she told me." + +"It's strange that a man who went through it all himself should feel like +that," she said slowly. + +The door opened suddenly and Rosamund's pretty head appeared: "There's a +message come through saying that your car's all right, and that it will +be along in about an hour," she exclaimed joyfully. To Rosamund, Godfrey +Radmore was in very truth a stranger, and a very attractive stranger at +that. + +As a rule, after breakfast, all the young people went their various ways, +but this morning they were all hanging about waiting vaguely for Godfrey +to come and do something with one or all of them. Rosamund was longing to +ask him whether he knew any of the London theatrical managers; Tom was +wondering whether Godfrey would allow him to drive his car; Dolly and +Timmy, as different in everything else as two human beings could well +be, each desired to take him into the village and show him off to their +friends. The only one of the young people who was not really interested +in Radmore was Jack Tosswill. He was engaged just now in looking +feverishly for an old gardening book which he had promised to lend Mrs. +Crofton, and he was cursing under his breath because the book had been +mislaid. + +As Rosamund looked in, her step-mother and Radmore both stopped speaking +abruptly, and so after a doubtful moment, she withdrew her head, and shut +the door behind her. + +"Tell me about George," he said, without looking at her. + +"I think Betty would like to tell you," she answered slowly: "Ask her +about him some time when you're alone together." + +"Where is she now?" he asked abruptly. + +"In the kitchen I think--but she won't be long." + +Jack, looking ruffled and uneasy, very unlike his quiet, cool self, burst +into the room. "I can't think where that old shabby green gardening book +has gone, Janet. Do you know where it is?" + +"You mean 'Gardening for Ladies'?" + +"Yes." + +"What on earth d'you want it for?" + +"For Mrs. Crofton. Her garden's been awfully neglected." + +"I'll find it presently. I think it's in my bedroom." + +Again the door shut, and Janet turned to Radmore: "Your friend has made +a conquest of Jack!" She spoke with a touch of rather studied unconcern, +for she had been a little taken aback last evening when Timmy had told +her casually of his own and his godfather's call at The Trellis House. + +"My friend?" Radmore repeated uncertainly. + +"I mean Mrs. Crofton. The coming of a new person to live in Beechfield is +still quite an event, Godfrey." + +"I don't think she'll make much difference to Beechfield," again he spoke +with a touch of hesitation. "To tell you the truth, Janet, I rather +wonder that she decided to live in the country at all. I should have +thought that she would far prefer London, and all that London stands for. +But I'm afraid that she's got very little money, and, of course, the +country _is_ cheaper than town, isn't it?" + +"I suppose it is. But Mrs. Crofton can't be poor. I know she paid a +premium for the lease of The Trellis House." + +"That's odd." Radmore spoke in an off-hand manner, but Janet, watching +him, thought he felt a little awkward. He went on:--"I know that Colonel +Crofton was hard up. He told me so, quite frankly, the last time I saw +him. But of course she may have had money of her own." + +Janet looked at him rather hard. A disagreeable suspicion had entered her +mind. She wondered whether there was anything like an "understanding" +between the man she was talking to and the tenant of The Trellis House. +If so, she wished with all her heart that Godfrey Radmore had kept away. +Why stir up embers they had all thought were dead, if he was going to +marry this very pretty but, to her mind, second-rate little woman, as +soon as a decent time had elapsed? + +"What are your plans for the future?" she asked. "Are you going to settle +down, or are you going to travel a bit?" ("After all, he won't be able to +marry Mrs. Crofton for at least another six months," she said to +herself.) + +"Oh, I mean to settle down." His answer was quick, decisive, final. + +He went on: "My idea is to find a place, not too far from here, that +I can buy; and my plan is to go about and look for it now. That's why +I've hired a motor for a month. Perhaps you'd lend me Timmy, and, if it +wouldn't be improper, one of the girls, now and again? We might go round +and look about a bit." + +And then he walked across to where she was standing, and put his hand on +her arm, "How about you?" he asked, "why shouldn't I take you and Timmy a +little jaunt just for a week or so--that would be rather fun, eh?" + +She smiled and shook her head. + +He took a step back. "Look here, Janet--do try and forgive me--I'm a more +sensible chap than I was, honest Injun!" + +"I'm beginning to think you are," she cried, and then they both burst out +laughing. + +He lingered a moment. He was longing, longing intensely, to ask her +certain questions. He wanted to know about Betty--what sort of a life +Betty had made for herself. He still, in an odd way, felt responsible +for Betty--which was clearly absurd. + +And then Janet Tosswill said something that surprised him very much. "I +think you'd better go round and see some of the people in the village +to-day. I was rather sorry you went off straight to The Trellis House +last evening. You know how folks talked, even in the old days, in +Beechfield?" + +He looked uneasy--taken aback, and she felt, if a little ashamed, glad +that she had made that "fishing" remark. + +There was a pause, and then he said with a touch of formality: "Look +here, Janet? I'd like you to know that though I've become quite fond of +Mrs. Crofton, I'm only fond--nothing more, you understand? Perhaps I'll +make my meaning clearer when I tell you that I was the only man in Egypt +who knew her who wasn't in love with her." + +He saw her face change and, rather piqued, he asked: "Did you think I +was?" + +"I thought that you and she were great friends--" + +"Well, so we are in a way. I saw a great deal of her in London." + +"And you went straight off to see her the moment you arrived here." + +"Well, perhaps I was foolish to do that." + +What an odd admission to make. He certainly had changed amazingly in the +last nine years! + +Then it was Janet who surprised him: "Don't make any mistake," she said +quickly. "There's no reason in the world why you shouldn't marry Mrs. +Crofton--after a decent interval has elapsed. All I meant to say--and +I'd rather say it right out now--is that as most people know that her +husband hasn't been dead more than a few weeks, you ought to be rather +careful, all the more careful if--if your friendship should come to +anything, Godfrey." + +"But it won't!" he exclaimed, with a touch of the old heat, "indeed it +won't, Janet. To tell you the truth, I don't think I shall ever marry." + +"_I_ certainly shouldn't if I were a rich bachelor," she said laughing; +and yet somehow what he had just said hurt her. + +As for Radmore, he felt just a little jarred by her words. Had she quite +forgotten all that had happened in that long ago which, in a sense, +seemed to belong to another life? He hadn't, and since his arrival +yesterday certain things had come back in a rushing flood of memory. + +"I've something to do in the garden now." Janet was smiling--she really +did feel perhaps rather absurdly relieved. Like Timmy, she didn't care +for Mrs. Crofton, and the mere suspicion that Godfrey Radmore had come +back here to Old Place in order to carry on a love affair had disturbed +her. + +"By the way, how's McPherson?" he asked abruptly. "He _is_ a splendid +gardener and no mistake! I've never seen a garden looking more beautiful +than yours does just now, Janet. I woke early this morning and looked +out of my window. I suppose McPherson's about--I'll go out and speak to +him." + +Her face shadowed. "McPherson," she said slowly, "was one of the first +men to leave Beechfield. He was perfectly fit, and he made up his mind to +go at once. You know, Godfrey--or perhaps you don't know--that the Scotch +glens emptied first of men?" + +"D'you mean...?" + +She nodded. "He was killed at the second battle of Ypres. He was sent to +the Front rather sooner than most, for he was a very intelligent man, and +really keen. I've got a boy now, a lad of seventeen--not half a bad sort, +but it does seem strange to give him every Saturday just double the money +I used to give McPherson!" + +She went out, through into the garden, on these last words, and again +there came over Radmore a feeling of poignant sadness. How strange that +he should have spent those weeks in London, knowing so little, nay, not +knowing at all, what the War had really meant to the home country. + +He opened the door into the corridor, and listened, wondering where they +had all gone. He had some business letters to write, and he told himself +that he would go and get them done in what he still thought of in his +mind as George's room. He had noticed that the big plain deal writing +table was still there. + +He went upstairs, and when he opened the bedroom door, he was astonished +to find Rosamund kneeling in front of George's old play-box, routing +among what looked like a lot of papers and books. + +"I'm hunting for a prescription for father," she said, looking up. "Timmy +thinks he put it in here one day after coming back from the chemist's at +Guildford." She looked flushed, and decidedly cross, as she went on: "No +one's taught Timmy to put things in their proper place, as we were taught +to do, when we were children!" + +Radmore felt amused. She certainly was very, very pretty, and did not +look much more than a child herself. + +"Look here," he said good-naturedly, "let me help. I don't think you're +going the right way to work." He felt just a little bit sorry for Timmy; +Rosamund was raking about as if the play-box was a bran-pie. + +Bending down he took up out of the box a bundle of envelopes, copybooks, +and Christmas cards. Then he sat himself down on a chair in the window, +and began going through what he held, carefully and methodically. + +Suddenly through the open door there came a cry of "Miss Rosamund, I want +you!" + +Rosamund got up reluctantly. "Nanna's a regular tyrant!" + +"Leave all this to me," he said. "I'll find the prescription if it's +here." + +She went off, and almost at once he came to a folded bit of paper. +Perhaps this was the prescription? He opened it, and this is what he +read:-- + + March 12, 1919. This is the happiest day of my life. One of my + godmothers has died and left me L50. I am going to buy two nanny-goats, + a boy and a girl. They will have kids, and I shall make munny. We shall + then have a propper cook, and I shall never help Betty wash up any + more. I wish my other godmother would die. She is very genrus and + kind--she would go strait to Heaven. But she is very hellfy. + +Poor little Timmy! Dear little unscrupulous child of nature! Would Timmy +wish him, Godfrey Radmore, dead, if some accident were to reveal to him +what a great difference it would make to them all? He hoped not. But he +couldn't feel sure, for, from being well-to-do the Tosswills must have +become poor, painfully and, to his mind, unnaturally poor. + +Further search proved the prescription was not in the play-box, and he +went downstairs. Still that same unnatural silence through the house. +Where could Timmy be? Somehow he felt that he wanted to see Timmy and +find out about the nanny-goats. He feared his godson's expectations of +wealth had not been fulfilled, but he supposed that there was a "propper +cook," probably the lack of her had been quite temporary. + +He wandered into the drawing-room. In the old days all five sitting-rooms +had been in use. Now four of them were closed, and the drawing-room was +everybody's meeting place. Dolly was there working a carpet-sweeper +languidly. + +"Where's everybody?" he asked. + +"I think Betty and Timmy are still in the scullery. I don't know where +Rosamund is." + +"I suppose _I_ can go into the scullery?" + +She looked at him dubiously. "Yes, if you'd like to--certainly. Betty +loves cooking and all that sort of thing. I hate it--so in our division +of labour, I do the other kind of housework." She looked ruffled and he +told himself, a little maliciously, that she was not unlike a lazy, +rather incompetent, housemaid. "If it's Timmy you want," she continued, +"I'll go and see if he can come." + +"Please don't trouble. I'll find him all right." + +Radmore went out into the passage. As the baize door, which shut off the +kitchen quarters, opened, he saw his godson and Rosamund before they saw +him, and he heard Rosamund say, in a cross tone: "It only means that +someone else will have to help her; I think it's very selfish of you, +Timmy." + +From being full of joy Timmy's face became downcast and sullen. + +"Hullo!" Radmore called out, "I want you to show me the garden, Timmy. +Where's Betty?" + +"She's in the scullery, of course. I tell you I _have_ done, Rosamund. +You _are_ a cruel pig--" + +"Come, Timmy, don't speak to your sister like that." + +It ended in the three of them going off--Rosamund to look for the +prescription, and the other two into the garden. + + * * * * * + +Nanna waddled into the scullery: "I'll wipe up them things, Miss +Betty," she said good-naturedly; "you go out to Mr. Godfrey and Master +Timmy--they was asking for you just now." + +Betty hesitated--and then suddenly she made up her mind that, yes, she +would do as Nanna suggested. + +In early Victorian days women of Betty Tosswill's class and kind worked +many of their most anxious thoughts and fears, hopes and fancies, into +the various forms of needlework which were then considered the only +suitable kind of occupation for a young gentlewoman; and often Betty, +when engaged on the long and arduous task of washing up for her big +family party, pondered over the problems and secret anxieties which +assailed her. Though something of a pain, it had also been to her a great +relief to realise that the living flesh and blood Godfrey Radmore of +to-day had ousted the passionately devoted, if unreasonable and violent, +lover of her early girlhood. In the old days, intermingled with her deep +love of Radmore, there had been a protective, almost maternal, feeling, +and although Radmore had been four years older than herself, she had +always felt the older of the two. But now, in spite of the responsible, +anxious work she had done in France during the War, she felt that the +roles were reversed, and that her one-time lover had become infinitely +older than she was herself in knowledge of the world. + +Old Nanna hoped that Miss Betty would go upstairs and change her plain +cotton dress for something just a little prettier and that she would put +on, maybe, a hat trimmed with daisies which Nanna admired. But Betty did +nothing of the sort. She washed her hands at the sink, and then she went +out into the hall, and taking up her big plain old garden hat went +straight out into the keen autumnal air. + +And then, as she caught sight of the tall man and of the little boy, +she stayed her steps, overwhelmed by a flood of both sweet and bitter +memories. + +During the year which had followed the breaking of her engagement there +had been corners and by-ways of the big, rambling old garden filled with +poignant, almost unbearable, associations of the days when she and +Godfrey had been lovers. There had been certain nooks and hidden oases +where it had been agony to go. She had considered all kinds of things as +being possible. Perhaps her most certain conviction had been that he +would come back some day with a wife whom she, Betty, would try to teach +herself to love; but never had she visioned what had now actually +occurred, that is Radmore's quiet, commonplace falling-back into the +day-to-day life of Old Place. + +All at once she heard Timmy's clear treble voice:--"Hullo! There's +Betty." + +Radmore turned and said something Betty did not hear, and the child went +off like an arrow from the bow. Then Radmore, turning, came towards her +quickly. She had no clue to the strange look of pain and indecision on +his face, and her heart began to beat, strangely. + +When close to her:--"Betty," he said in a low voice, "I want to tell you +that I didn't know about George till last night. How could you think I +did?" + +"I suppose one does think unjust things when one's in great trouble," she +answered. + +He felt hurt and angry and showed it. "I should have thought you would +all have known me well enough to know that I should have written at +once--at once. Why, the whole world's altered now that I know that George +is no longer in it! Perhaps that sounds foolish and exaggerated, as I +never wrote to him. But I think _you'll_ know what I mean, Betty? It was +all right, as long as I knew he was somewhere, happy." + +She said almost inaudibly:--"I think that he is happy somewhere. You +know--but no, you don't know--that George was a born soldier. Those +months after he joined up, and until he was killed, were, I do believe, +by far the happiest of his life. He always said they were." + +As he made no answer she went on:--"I'll show you some of his letters +if you like, and father will show you the letters that were sent to +us--afterwards." + +By now they had left the garden proper, and were walking down an avenue +which was known as the Long Walk. It was here that they two, with George +always as a welcome third, used to play "tip and run" and "hide and seek" +with the then little children. + +"Tell me something about the others," he said abruptly. "I'm moving in a +world unrealised." + +She smiled up into his face. Somehow that confession touched her, and +brought them nearer to one another. + +"Jack frightens me a bit, you know--he's so unlike George. And then the +girls? Is it true what Timmy says--that Rosamund wants to be an actress?" + +There was a slight tone of censorious surprise in his voice, and Betty +reddened. + +"I don't see why she shouldn't be an actress if she wants to be! Father's +making her wait till she's twenty-one." + +"Let me see," he said hesitatingly, "Dolly's older than Jack, isn't she?" + +"Oh, no. Dolly will only be twenty next Thursday." + +There came over her an overwhelming impulse to tell him something--the +sort of thing she could only have told George. + +"You know that pretty old church at Oakford?" + +He nodded. + +"Well, Mr. Runsby is dead. They've got a bachelor clergyman now, and +Janet and I think that he's becoming very fond of Dolly! He's away just +now, or you would have already seen him. He's very often over here." + +"I should have thought--" He hesitated in his turn, but already he was +falling again into the way of saying exactly what he thought right out to +Betty--"that with you and Rosamund in the house, no one would look at +Dolly!" + +Betty blushed, and for a fleeting moment Godfrey saw the blushing, +dimpling Betty of long ago. + +"Rosamund has the utmost contempt for him. As for me, he never sees +me--I'm always in the kitchen when he comes here." She added with a touch +of the quiet humour he remembered, "I don't think Dolly's in any danger +from me!" + +"_Why_ are you always in the kitchen, Betty?" he asked. "Is it really +necessary?" + +"Yes, it really is necessary," she answered frankly. "Father's got much +poorer, and everything's about a hundred times as dear as it was before +the War. But you mustn't think that I mind. I like it in a way--and it +won't last for ever. Some of father's investments are beginning to +recover a little even now, and prices are coming down--" + +They had now come back to the garden end of the Long Walk. "I must go +now," she said. "Would you like me to send out one of the girls to +entertain you?" + +He shook his head. "No, I think I'll stroll about the village for a bit." + +They both felt as if the first milestone of their new relationship had +been set deep in the earth, and both were glad and relieved that it was +so. + +Radmore walked about a bit, admiring Janet's autumnal herbaceous borders, +and then he remembered a door that he had known of old which led from the +big kitchen garden into the road. If it was open he could step out +without walking across the front of the house. + +He turned into the walled garden, and walked quickly down a well-kept +path past the sun-dial to the door. It was open. He walked through it, +and then, with a rather guilty feeling--a feeling he did not care to +analyse--he made his way round the lower half of the village till he +reached the outside wall of The Trellis House. + +There he hesitated for a few moments, but even while he was hesitating he +knew that he would go in. Before he could turn the handle the door in the +garden wall was opened by Enid Crofton herself. Radmore was surprised to +see that she was dressed in a black dress, with the orthodox plain linen +collar and cuffs of widowhood. It altered her strangely. + +He was at once disappointed and a little relieved also, to find Jack +Tosswill in the garden with her. But soon the three went indoors, and +then, as had often been Mrs. Crofton's experience with admirers in the +past, each man tried to sit the other out. + +At last the hostess had to say playfully:--"I'm afraid I must turn you +out now, for I'm expecting my sister-in-law, Miss Crofton." + +And then they both, together, took their departure; Radmore feeling that +he had wasted an hour which might have been so very much more profitably +spent in going to see some of his old friends among the cottagers. As to +Jack Tosswill, he felt perplexed, and yes, considerably put out and +annoyed. He had been a good deal taken aback to see how close was the +acquaintance between Mrs. Crofton and Godfrey Radmore. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +There is nothing like a meal, especially a good meal, for inducing +between two people an agreeable sense of intimacy. When Enid Crofton and +her elderly sister-in-law passed from the dining-room of The Trellis +House into the gay-looking little sitting-room, with its old-fashioned, +brightly coloured chintz furnishings, and quaint reproductions of +eighteenth-century prints, the two ladies were far more at ease the one +with the other than before luncheon. + +Enid, in the plain black woollen gown, with its white linen collar and +cuffs, which she had discarded almost at once after her husband's +funeral, felt that she was producing a pleasant impression. As they sat +down, one on each side of the cheerful little wood fire, and began +sipping the excellent coffee which the mistress of the house had already +taught her very plain cook to make as it should be made, she suddenly +exclaimed:-- + +"I do want to thank you again for the money you sent me when poor Cecil +died! It was most awfully good of you, and very useful, too, for the +insurance people did not pay me for nearly a month." + +These words gave her visitor an opening for which she had waited during +the last hour: "I'm glad my present was so opportune," said Miss Crofton +in her precise, old-fashioned way. "As we have mentioned money, I should +like to know, my dear, how you are situated? I was afraid from something +Cecil told me last time he and I met that you would be very poorly left." + +She stopped speaking, and there followed a long pause. Enid Crofton was +instinctively glad that she was seated with her back to the window. She +was afraid lest her face should betray her surprise and discomfiture at +the question. And yet, what more natural than that her well-to-do, +kind-hearted sister-in-law should wish to know how she, Enid, was now +situated? + +Cecil Crofton's widow was not what ordinary people would have called a +clever woman, but during the whole of her short life she had studied how +to please, cajole, and yes--deceive, the men and women about her. +Unfortunately for her, Alice Crofton was a type of woman with whom she +had never before been brought in contact; and something deep within her +told her that she had better stick as close to the truth as was +reasonably possible with this shrewd spinster who was, in some ways, so +disconcertingly like what Enid Crofton's late husband had been, in the +days when he had been a forlorn girl-widow's protecting friend and ardent +admirer. + +Yet, even so, she began with a lie: "When my mother died last year she +left me a little money. I thought it wise to spend it in getting this +house, and in settling down here." She said the words in a very low +voice, and as Miss Crofton said nothing for a moment, she added +timidly:--"I do hope that you think I did right? I know people think +it wrong to use capital, but the War has changed everything, including +money, and one simply can't get along at all without paying out sums +which before the War would have seemed dreadful." + +"That's very true," said Miss Crofton finally. + +Enid, feeling on sure ground now, went on: "Why, I had to pay a premium +of L200 for the lease of this little house. But I'm told I could get that +again--even after living for a year or two in it." + +Miss Crofton began looking about her with a doubtful air: "I suppose you +mean to spend the winter here," she said musingly, "and then let the +house each summer?" + +"Yes," said Enid, "that is my idea." + +As a matter of fact, she had never thought of doing such a thing, though +she saw the point of it, now that it was put by her sister-in-law. She +hoped, however, that long before next summer her future would be settled +on most agreeable lines. + +"Then I suppose the balance of what your mother left you forms a little +addition to your pension, and to what poor Cecil was able to leave you?" + +As the other hesitated, Miss Crofton went on, in a very friendly +tone:--"I hope you won't think it interfering that I should speak as I am +doing? I expected to find you much less comfortably circumstanced, and I +was going to propose that I should increase what I had feared would be a +very small income, by two hundred a year." + +Enid was as much touched by this unexpected generosity as it was in +her to be, and it was with an accent of real sincerity that she +exclaimed:--"Oh, Alice, you _are_ kind! Of course two hundred a year +would be a _great_ help. Nothing remains of what my mother left me. But +you must not think that I'm extravagant. I sold a lot of things, and that +made it possible for me to take over The Trellis House exactly as you see +it. But even during the very few days I have been here I have begun to +find how expensive life can be, even in a village like this." + +"All right," said Miss Crofton. She got up from her easy chair with a +quick movement, for she was still a vigorous woman. "Then that's settled! +I'll give you a cheque for L100 to-day--and one every six months as +long that is, as you're a widow." Then she smiled a little satirically, +for Enid had made a quick movement of recoil which Alice Crofton thought +rather absurd. + +"It's early to think of such a thing, no doubt," she said coolly. "But +still, I shall be very much surprised, Enid, if you do not re-make your +life. I myself have a dear young friend, very little older than you are, +who has been married three times. The War has altered the views and +prejudices even of old-fashioned people." + +"I want to ask you something," said Enid, "d'you think I ought to tell +people that I have already been married twice?" + +Miss Crofton told herself quickly that such questions are always put with +a definite reason, and that she probably would not be called upon to pay +her sister-in-law's allowance for very long. + +"I don't think you are in the least bound to tell anyone such a fact +about yourself, unless"--she hesitated,--"you were seriously thinking of +marrying again. In such a case as that I think you would be well advised, +Enid, to tell the man in question the fact before you become obliged to +reveal it to him." + +There was a pause, and then Miss Crofton abruptly changed the subject by +saying something which considerably disturbed her young sister-in-law. + +"I should be much obliged, my dear, if you would tell me a few details as +to my poor brother's death. Your letter contained no particulars at all," +and as the other made no immediate answer, Miss Crofton went on:--"I know +there was an inquest, for one of my friends in Florence saw a report of +it in an English paper. Perhaps you would kindly let me see any newspaper +account or cuttings you may have preserved?" + +"I have kept _nothing_, Alice!" Enid Crofton uttered the words with a +touch of almost angry excitement. Then, perhaps seeing that the other was +very much surprised, she said more quietly:--"The inquest was a purely +formal affair--the Coroner himself told me that there must always be an +inquest when a person died suddenly." + +"Oh, but surely the question was raised, and that very seriously, as +to whether Cecil took what he did take on purpose, or by accident? I +understood from my friend that the account of the inquest she saw in some +popular Sunday paper was headed 'An Essex Mystery.'" + +Enid felt as if all the blood in her body was flowing towards her face. +She congratulated herself that she was sitting with her back to the +light. These remarks, these questions made her feel sick and faint. Yet +she answered, composedly:--"Both the Coroner and the jury felt _sure_ he +had taken it on purpose. Poor Cecil had never been like himself since the +unlucky day, for us, that the War ended!" And then to Miss Crofton's +surprise and discomfiture Enid burst into tears. + +The older lady got up and put her hand very kindly on the younger one's +shoulder:--"I'm sorry I said anything, my dear," she exclaimed; "I'm +afraid you went through a much worse time than you let me know." + +"I did! I did!" sobbed Enid. "I cannot tell you how terrible it was, +Alice." + +Then she made a determined effort over herself, ashamed of her own +emotion. Still neither hostess nor guest was sorry when there came a +knock at the door, followed a moment later by the entry into the room of +a stranger who was announced by the maid as "Miss Pendarth." + +Enid Crofton got up, and as she shook hands with the newcomer she +tried to remember what it was that Godfrey Radmore had said of her +old-fashioned looking visitor. That she was a good friend but a bad +enemy? Yes, that had been it. Then she remembered something else--the +few kind words scribbled on a visiting card which had been left at The +Trellis House a day or two ago. + +She turned to her sister-in-law:--"I think Miss Pendarth knew poor Cecil +years and years ago," she said softly. + +"Are you--you must be Olivia Pendarth?" There was a touch of emotion in +Alice Crofton's level voice. + +"Yes, I am Olivia Pendarth." + +Enid was surprised--not over pleased by the revelation that these two +knew one another. + +"I suppose it's a long time since you met?" she said pleasantly. + +"Miss Crofton and I have never met before," said Miss Pendarth quietly. +"But I knew your husband very well in India, when he and I were both +young. My brother was in his regiment." + +"The dear old regiment!" exclaimed Miss Crofton. + +Enid Crofton smiled a little to herself. It amused her to see that these +two old things--for so she described them to herself--had so quickly +become friends. "The Regiment!" How sick she had got of those two words +during her second married life! She was sorry that Alice, whom she liked, +should be so queerly like Cecil. Even their voices were alike, and she +had uttered the two words with that peculiar intonation her husband +always used when speaking of any of his old comrades-in-arms. + +All the same Miss Pendarth's sudden appearance had been a godsend. Enid +hated going back to the dreadful time of her husband's death. + +And then, when everything seemed going so pleasantly, and when Enid +Crofton was still feeling a glow of joy at the thought of the cheque for +L100, one of those things happened which seem sometimes to occur in life +as if to remind us poor mortals that Fate is ever crouching round the +corner, ready to spring. The door opened, and the buxom little maid +brought in two letters on the salver she had just been taught to use. + +One of the envelopes was addressed in a clear, ordinary lady's hand; the +other, cheap and poor in quality, was in a firm, and yet unformed, +handwriting. + +Enid glanced at the two elder ladies; they were talking together eagerly. +She walked over to the bow-shaped window, and opened the commoner +envelope: + + Dear Madam, + + I hope you will excuse me writing to tell you that my husband has had + to leave Mr. Winter's situation. Piper considers he has been treated + shameful, and that if he chose he could get the law on Mr. Winter. I am + writing to you unknown to Piper. If you could see me I think I could + explain exactly what it is I want Piper to get. There do seem a + difficulty now in getting jobs of Piper's sort, but from what he has + told me there were one or two other jobs you heard of that might have + suited him. + + Yours respectfully, + Amelia Piper. + +Enid Crofton stared down at the signature with a sensation of puzzled +dismay. _Piper married?_ This was indeed a complication, and a +complication which in her most anxious communings she had never thought +of. The man had always behaved like a bachelor--for instance he had +always made love to the maids. There also came back to her the memory of +something her husband had once said, with one of his grimly humorous +looks:--"Piper's a regular dog! If he'd been born in a different class +of life he'd have been a real Don Juan." She now asked herself very +anxiously how far a married Don Juan of any class confides in his wife? +Does he tell her his real secrets, or does he keep them to himself? +Judging by her own experience the average man who loves a woman is only +too apt to tell her not only his own, but other people's secrets. + +Slowly she put the letter back in its envelope. She had gone to a great +deal of trouble, and even to some little expense, over procuring Piper a +really good situation. She had seen not only his new employer, but also +what she liked doing far less, his new employer's wife; and she had got +him extraordinarily good wages, even for these days. It was too bad +that he should worry her, after all she had done for him. As for his +wife--nothing would induce her to see Mrs. Piper. Neither did she wish +Piper to come down to Beechfield. She was particularly anxious that the +man should not learn of Godfrey Radmore's return to England. +Unfortunately Radmore was on the lookout for a good manservant. + +She took up the other letter. It was a nice, prosperous-looking, well +addressed envelope, very different from the other. Perhaps this second +letter would contain something that would cheer her up. But alas! when +she opened it, she found it was from Mrs. Winter, Piper's late employer's +wife. + +Poor Enid Crofton! As she stood there reading it, she turned a little +sick. Piper had got drunk the very first day he had been in his new +situation. While drunk he had tried to kiss a virtuous young housemaid. +There had been a regular scene, which had ended in the lady of the house +being sent for. There and then Piper had been turned out neck and crop. + +It was not only a justifiably angry letter, it was a very disagreeable +letter, the writer saying plainly that Mrs. Crofton had been very much to +blame for recommending such a man.... + +Feeling very much disturbed she turned and came back towards her two +visitors. They were now deep in talk, having evidently found a host of +common associations: "I find I ought to answer one of my letters at +once," she said. "Will you forgive me for a few moments?" + +They both looked up, and smiled at her. She looked so pretty, so fragile, +so young, in her widow's mourning. + +She went through into the dining-room. There was a writing-table in the +window, and there she sat down and put her head in her hands; she felt +unutterably forlorn, frightened too--she hardly knew of what. It had +given her such a horrible shock to learn that Piper was married.... + +Taking up a pen, she held it for a while poised in the air, staring out +of the window at the attractive though rather neglected old garden, in +which only this morning she had spent more than an hour with Jack +Tosswill. + +Then, at last, she dipped her pen in the ink, and after making two rough +drafts, she decided on the following form of answer to Mrs. Piper, +telling herself that it might be read as addressed to either husband or +wife:-- + + Mrs. Crofton is very sorry to hear that Piper has lost his good + situation. She will try and hear of something that will suit him. Mrs. + Crofton cannot see Mrs. Piper for the present, as she is leaving home + to start on a round of visits, but she will keep in touch with Mr. and + Mrs. Piper and hopes to hear of something that may suit Piper very + soon. + +She began by writing "Mr. Piper," on one of her pretty black-edged mauve +envelopes; then she altered the "Mr." to "Mrs." After all it was Piper's +wife who had written to her, and she suddenly remembered with a slight +feeling of apprehension, that Mrs. Piper, for some reason best known to +herself, had not told Piper that she was writing. On the other hand it +was quite possible that the husband and wife had concocted the letter +between them. + +Having addressed the envelope, she suddenly got up and ran up to her +bedroom. There she opened her dressing-table drawer. Quite at the back +lay an envelope containing four L5 notes. She took one of the notes, +and running down again, slipped it in the envelope and added a postscript +to her letter:-- + + Mrs. Crofton sends L5, which she hopes will be of use while Piper is + out of a situation. + +She went downstairs, giving her letter, on her way back to the +drawing-room, to the cook to take out to the post-box. + +As she opened the drawing room door, something which struck her as a +little odd happened. Her two visitors, the murmur of whose voices she had +heard in deep, eager converse while she was stepping across her hall, +abruptly stopped talking, and she wondered uneasily what they could have +been saying that neither wished her to hear. + +As a matter of fact that sudden silence was owing to a kindly, +old-fashioned, wholly "ladylike" instinct, on the part of the two older +women. Miss Crofton had been talking of her brother's death, confiding +to Miss Pendarth her desire to learn something more as to how it had +actually come about. With what was for her really eager sympathy, Miss +Pendarth had offered to write to a friend in Essex, in order to discover +the name of the local paper where, without doubt, a full account of the +inquest on Colonel Crofton must have been published. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Saturday, Sunday, Monday, slipped away, and on Tuesday there seemed no +reason why Godfrey Radmore should leave Old Place. And so he stayed on, +nominally from day to day, settling down, as none of them would have +thought possible that anyone now a stranger could settle down, to the +daily round and common task of the life led by the Tosswill family. After +two or three days he even began to take command of the younger ones, and +Janet was secretly amused to see how he shamed both Rosamund and Dolly +into doing something like their full share of the housework. + +In relation to the two younger girls, his attitude was far more that +of a good-natured, rather cynical, elder brother than was his attitude +to Betty. Into her special department, the kitchen, he seldom intruded, +though when he did so it was to real purpose. Thus, Dolly's twentieth +birthday was made by him the excuse for ordering from a famous London +caterer a hamper containing enough cold and half-cooked food to keep them +junketing for two or three days. Janet was rather puzzled to note that +Betty, alone of them all, seemed to look askance at the way Radmore spent +his substance in showering fairy-godfather-like gifts on the inmates of +Old Place. + +The happiest of them all was Timmy. Most men would have been bored by +having so much of a child's company, but Radmore was touched and +flattered by the boy's devotion, and that though there was a side of his +godson which puzzled and disturbed him. Now and again Timmy would say +something which made Radmore wonder for a moment if he had heard the +words aright, but he followed the example silently set him by all the +others of taking no notice of Timmy's claim both to see and foresee more +than is vouchsafed to the ordinary mortal. + +Miss Crofton had also stayed on in Beechfield, but only a day longer than +she had intended to do--that is, till the Tuesday. She and Miss Pendarth +had met more than once, striking up something like a real friendship. But +this, instead of modifying, had intensified Miss Pendarth's growing +prejudice against the new tenant of The Trellis House. She felt convinced +that the pretty young widow had made her kind sister-in-law believe that +she was far poorer, and more to be pitied, than she really was. + +Life in an English village is in some ways like a quiet pool--and, just +as the throwing of a pebble into such a pool causes what appears to +create an extraordinary amount of commotion on the surface of the water, +so the advent of any human being who happens to be a little out of the +common produces an amount of discussion, public and private, which might +well seem to those outside the circle of gossip, extravagant, as well as +unnecessary. + +The general verdict on Mrs. Crofton had begun by being favourable. Both +with gentle and simple her appealing beauty told in her favour, and very +soon the village people smiled, and looked knowingly at one another, as +they noted the perpetual coming and going of Jack Tosswill to The Trellis +House. No day went by without the young man making some more or less +plausible excuse to call there once, twice, and sometimes thrice. + +It was noticed, too, by those interested in such matters--and in +Beechfield they were in the majority--that Mr. Godfrey Radmore, whose +return to Old Place had naturally caused a good deal of talk and +speculation--was also a frequent visitor at The Trellis House. Now and +again he would call there in his car, and take Mrs. Crofton for a long +drive; but they never went out alone--either Dolly or Rosamund, and +invariably Timmy, would be of the party. + +As the days went on, each member of the Tosswill family began to have a +definite and, so to speak, crystallised view of Enid Crofton. Rosamund +had become her champion, thus earning for the first time in her life the +warm approval of her brother Jack; but Dolly and Tom grew rather jealous +of their sister's absorption in the stranger. Rosamund was so very often +at The Trellis House. In fact, when Jack was not to be found there, +Rosamund generally was. But she had soon discovered that her new friend +preferred to see her visitors singly. Betty kept her thoughts as to Mrs. +Crofton to herself--for one thing the two very seldom met. But Janet +Tosswill was more frank. With her, tepid liking had turned into dislike, +and when she alluded to the pretty widow, which was not often, she would +tersely describe her as "second-rate." + +Now there is no word in the English language more deadly in its vague +import than that apparently harmless adjective. As applied to a human +being, it generally conveys every kind of odious significance, and +curiously enough it is seldom applied without good reason. + +Mrs. Crofton had gentle, pretty manners, but her manner lacked sincerity. +She was not content to leave her real beauty of colouring and feature to +take care of itself; her eye-brows were "touched up," and when she +fancied herself to be "off colour" she would put on a suspicion of rouge. +But what perhaps unduly irritated the mistress of Old Place were Mrs. +Crofton's clothes! To such shrewd, feminine eyes as were Janet +Tosswill's, it was plain that the new tenant of The Trellis House had +taken as much pains over her widow's mourning as a coquettish bride takes +over her trousseau. + +Janet Tosswill was far too busy a woman to indulge in the village game +of constant informal calls on her neighbours. She left all that sort of +thing to her younger step-daughters; and as Mrs. Crofton never came to +Old Place--making her nervous fear of the dogs the excuse--Janet only saw +the new tenant of The Trellis House when she happened to be walking about +the village or at church. + +But for a while, at any rate, an untoward event drove the thoughts +of most of the inmates of Old Place far from Mrs. Crofton and her +peculiarities, attractive or other. + + * * * * * + +One day, when Radmore had already been at Beechfield for close on a +fortnight, Timmy drew him aside, and said mysteriously: "Godfrey, I want +to tell you something." + +Radmore looked down and said pleasantly, though with a queer inward +foreboding in his mind: "Go ahead, boy--I'm listening." + +"Something's going to happen to someone here. I saw Dr. O'Farrell last +night, I mean in a dream. You were driving him in your car through our +gate. Last time I dreamt about him Dolly had measles; she was awfully +ill; she nearly died." + +As he spoke, Timmy kept looking round, as if afraid of being overheard. +"I don't mean to tell anyone else," he added confidentially. "You see it +upsets Mum, and makes the others cross, if I say things like that. But +still, I just thought I'd tell _you_." + +Radmore was impressed, disagreeably so, in spite of himself; but: "Look +here, Timmy," he said chaffingly. "The Greeks have a proverb about the +bearer of ill-tidings; don't let yourself ever become that, old man! +Have you ever heard, by the by, about 'the long arm of coincidence'?" + +Timmy nodded. + +"Don't you think it possible that your having dreamt about Dr. O'Farrell +just before Dolly was taken ill may have been that long arm of +coincidence--and nothing more? I can't help thinking that probably your +mother said something about sending for Dr. O'Farrell--for people don't +get measles in a minute, you know; they are seedy for some days +beforehand--and that made you dream of him. Eh?" + +But Timmy answered obliquely, as was rather his way when brought to book +by some older person than himself. "I think this time it's going to be an +accident," he said thoughtfully. + +And an accident it was! Old Nanna, who, in spite of her age, had become +the corner-stone of the household as regarded its material well-being, +slipped on the back staircase, and sprained her leg, and of course it was +Radmore who went off in his car to fetch and bring back Dr. O'Farrell. + +A slight alleviation to their troubles was brought about by Miss +Pendarth, who was going off on a visit the very day the accident +happened, and who practically compelled Janet to accept the temporary +service of her own excellent servant. It was her readiness to give that +sort of quick, kindly, decisive help which made so many of those who had +the privilege of her acquaintance regard Miss Pendarth with the solid +liking which is founded on gratitude. + +But the help, offered and accepted in the same spirit, could not go on +for long, for Miss Pendarth came home after a four days' absence; and, +for the first time in many months, Janet Tosswill made time to pay a +formal call at Rose Cottage in order that she might thank her old friend. +She intended to stay only the time that strict civility enjoined, and she +would have been surprised indeed had she been able to foresee what a +pregnant and, to her, personally, painful train of events were to follow +as a result of the quarter of an hour she spent in Miss Pendarth's +old-fashioned upstairs sitting-room where only privileged visitors were +ever made welcome. + +"Will you come upstairs to-day, Janet? I have something about which I +want to consult you." + +And then, when they had sat down, Miss Pendarth said abruptly: "While I +was in Essex I came across some people who had been acquainted with Mrs. +Crofton and her husband." + +Janet looked across at the speaker with some surprise. "What an odd +thing!" she exclaimed, and she did think it rather odd. + +But Olivia Pendarth was a very honest woman--too honest, some people +might have said. "It was not exactly odd," she said quickly, "for, to +tell you the truth, I made it my business while there to make certain +enquiries about the Croftons. In fact, I partly went to Essex for that +purpose, though I did not tell my friends so." + +The visitor felt rather shocked, as well as surprised. Surely Olivia +Pendarth's interest in her neighbours' concerns was, to say the least +of it, excessive. But the other's next words modified her censorious +thoughts. + +"Colonel Crofton and one of my brothers were in the same regiment +together. I knew him quite well when he and I were both young, and when +Miss Crofton came to see her sister-in-law a fortnight ago, I offered to +make certain enquiries for her." + +There was a touch of mystery, of hesitation in the older lady's voice, +and Janet Tosswill "rose" as she was perhaps meant to do. "What sort of +enquiries?" she asked. "I thought Miss Crofton was on the best of terms +with her sister-in-law." + +"So she is; but she wanted to know more than Mrs. Crofton was inclined to +tell her about the circumstances--the really extraordinary circumstances, +Janet--concerning Colonel Crofton's death. And now I'm rather in a +quandary as to whether I ought to tell her what I heard, and indeed as to +whether I ought even to send her the report of the inquest which appeared +in a local paper, and which I at last managed to secure." + +"Of course I know that Colonel Crofton committed suicide." Janet Tosswill +lowered her voice instinctively. "That poor, second-rate little woman +seems to have told Rosamund as much, and Godfrey Radmore confirmed it." + +"Yes, I suppose one ought to say that there is no real doubt that he +committed suicide." Yet Miss Pendarth's voice seemed to imply that there +was some doubt. + +She went on: "It was suggested at the inquest that the chemist who made +up a certain heart tonic Colonel Crofton had been in the habit of taking +for some time, had put in a far larger dose of strychnine than was +right." + +Janet Tosswill repeated in a startled tone: "Strychnine! You don't mean +to say the poor man committed suicide with that horrible poison?" + +Miss Pendarth looked up, and Janet was struck by her pallor and look of +pain. "Yes, Janet; he died of a big dose of strychnine, and the medical +evidence given at the inquest makes most painful reading." + +"It _must_ have been a mistake on the part of the chemist. No sane man +would take strychnine in order to commit suicide. Besides, how could he +have got it?" + +"There was strychnine in the house," said Miss Pendarth slowly. "When +Mrs. Crofton was in Egypt it was prescribed for her. You know how people +take it by the drop? A chemist out there seems to have given her a much +greater quantity than was needed, and in an ordinary, unlabelled medicine +bottle, too." The speaker waited a moment, then went on: "Though she +brought it back to England with her, she seems to have quite forgotten +that she had it. But _he_ must have known it was there, for after his +death the bottle was found in his dressing room." + +"What a dreadful thing! And how painful it must have been for her!" + +"Yes, I think she did go through a very dreadful time. But, Janet, what +impressed me most painfully, and what I am sure would much distress Miss +Crofton were I to tell her even only a part of what I heard, was the fact +that the husband and wife were on very bad terms. This was testified to, +and very strongly, by the only woman servant they had at the time of his +death." + +"I never believe servants' evidence," observed Janet Tosswill drily. + +"The Coroner, who I suppose naturally wished to spare Mrs. Crofton's +feelings, told the jury that it was plain that Colonel Crofton was a very +bad-tempered man. But the people with whom I was staying, and who drove +me over to look at the God-forsaken old house where the Croftons lived, +said that local feeling was very much against her. It was thought that +she really caused him to take his life by her neglect and unkindness." + +"What a terrible idea!" + +"I fear it's true. And now comes the question--ought I to tell his sister +this? Some of the gossip I heard was very unpleasant." + +"Do you mean that there was another man?" + +"Other men--rather than another man. She was always going up to London to +enjoy herself with the various men friends she had made during the War, +and the only guests they ever entertained were young men who were more or +less in love with her." + +Janet smiled a little wryly. "There's safety in numbers, and after all +she's extraordinarily attractive to men." + +"Yes," said Miss Pendarth, "there _is_ safety in numbers, and it's said +that Colonel Crofton was almost insanely jealous. They seem to have led a +miserable existence, constantly quarrelling about money, too, and often +changing their servants. On at least one occasion Mrs. Crofton went away, +leaving him quite alone, with only their odd man to look after him, for +something like a fortnight. Colonel Crofton's only interest in life was +the terriers which he apparently bred with a view to increasing his +income." + +"They can't have been so very poor," said Janet abruptly. "Look at the +way she's living now." + +"I feel sure she's living on capital," said Miss Pendarth slowly, "and I +think--forgive me for saying so--that she hopes to marry Godfrey Radmore. +I'm sure that's why she came to Beechfield." + +"You're wrong there! She settled to come here before Godfrey came home." + +"I'm convinced that she knew he was coming home soon." + +Janet got up. "I must be going now," she exclaimed. "There's a great deal +to do, and only Betty and I to do it." + +"I suppose Godfrey Radmore will be leaving now?" + +"I hope not, for he's a help rather than a hindrance. He takes Timmy off +our hands--" + +"--And he's so much at The Trellis House. I hear he dined there last +night." + +"Yes, with Rosamund," answered Janet shortly. + +Miss Pendarth accompanied her visitor down and out to the wrought-iron +gate. There the two lingered for a moment, and than Janet Tosswill +received one of the real surprises of her life. + +"Colonel Crofton and I were once engaged. I went out to India to stay +with my brother, and it happened there. _Now_ we should have married. But +things were very different _then_. When my father found Captain Crofton +was not in a position to make what was then regarded as a proper +settlement, he declared the engagement at an end." + +Janet felt touched. There was such a depth of restrained feeling in her +old friend's voice. Somehow it had never occurred to her that Olivia +Pendarth could ever have been in love! + +"It must be very painful for you to have her here," she said +involuntarily. + +"In a way, yes. But I suspected she was his widow from the first." + +"I think that, if I were you, I would say nothing to his sister," +observed Janet. + +"Very well. I will take your advice." + +She changed the subject abruptly. "Let me know if Kate can be of any more +use. She's quite anxious to go on helping you all. She's got so fond of +Betty: she says she'd do anything for her." + +"We're managing all right now, and Godfrey really is a help, instead of a +hindrance. He actually suggested that he should do the washing-up this +morning!" + +"That's the best thing I've ever heard of Godfrey Radmore," exclaimed +Miss Pendarth. "I sincerely hope--forgive me for saying so, Janet--that +there's really nothing between him and Enid Crofton. I should be sorry +for my worst enemy to marry that woman, if the things I was told about +her were true." + +"I don't believe that he is thinking of her, consciously--" Janet +Tosswill spoke slowly, choosing her words. + +"Of course she's making a dead set at him. But there's safety in numbers, +even here," observed the other, grimly. "I hear that your Jack simply +lives at The Trellis House. The whole village is talking about it." + +Jack? Janet Tosswill felt vexed by what she considered a bit of stupid, +vulgar, village gossip. "Jack's the most level-headed young man about +women I've ever known," she said, trying to speak pleasantly. "If anyone +has fallen in love with Mrs. Crofton, it's our silly little Rosamund!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +The morning after Janet Tosswill's call at Rose Cottage, Rosamund +followed her step-mother into the drawing-room immediately after +breakfast, and observed plaintively that it did seem strange that "Enid" +was never asked to Old Place. "We take anything from her, and never give +anything back," she said. + +Janet, who had a certain tenderness for the pretty black sheep of the +family, checked the sharp retort which trembled on her lips. Still, it +was quite true that Rosamund had more than once been kept to lunch at The +Trellis House, and that on the day of Nanna's accident Mrs. Crofton had +issued a sort of general invitation to supper to the young people of Old +Place--an invitation finally accepted, at Betty's suggestion, by Godfrey +Radmore and Rosamund. + +Janet admitted to herself that they did owe Mrs. Crofton some civility. +If the thing had to be done, it might as well be done at once, and so, +when Rosamund had reluctantly gone upstairs to do her share of the +household work, his mother beckoned Timmy into the drawing-room, and told +him that she would have a note ready for him to take to The Trellis House +in a few minutes. + +"Oh, Mum, do let Jack take it!" the boy exclaimed. "I can't go to The +Trellis House with Flick, and it's such a bore to shut him up." + +"Why can't Flick go with you?" + +"Mum! Don't you remember? Mrs. Crofton is _terrified_ of dogs. Do let +Jack take it!" + +"But are you sure Jack is going there this morning?" she asked, and then +she remembered Miss Pendarth's ill-natured remark. + +"He goes there every morning," said Timmy positively, "and this morning +he's going there extra early, as he's lending Mrs. Crofton our best +preserving pan. She wants to make some blackberry jam." + +And then there occurred one of those odd incidents which were always +happening in connection with Timmy and with which his mother never knew +quite how to deal. He screwed up his queer little face for a moment, +shaded his eyes with his hand, and said quietly: "I think Jack is just +starting down the drive now. You'll catch him if you'll open the window +and shout to him, Mum--it's no good my going after him--he wouldn't come +back for _me_." + +Janet Tosswill got up from her writing-table. She opened the nearest +window and, stepping out, looked to her right. Yes, there was Jack's +neat, compact figure sprinting down the long, straight avenue towards the +gate. He was holding a queer-looking, badly done up parcel in his hands. + +"Jack! Jack! Come here for a minute--I want you," she called out in her +clear, rather high-pitched voice. + +He slackened, and it was as if she could see him hesitating, wondering +whether he dare pretend he had not heard her. Then he turned and ran back +down the drive and across the wide lawn to the window. + +"What is it?" he asked breathlessly. "I'm late as it is! I'm taking one +of our preserving pans to The Trellis House. The fruit was all picked +yesterday." + +"I won't be a moment. I want you to take a letter for me to Mrs. Crofton. +I'm asking her to come in to dinner to-night." + +She turned back into the room and, sitting down, took up her pen: "Timmy? +Go into the scullery, and help Betty for a bit." + +After her little son had left the room, she called out to Jack, "Do come +inside; it fidgets me to feel that you're standing out there." + +After what seemed to Jack Tosswill a long time, though it was only three +minutes, his step-mother turned, and held out her note: "She needn't +write--a verbal answer will do. If she can't come we shall have done the +civil thing." + +And then, thinking aloud, she went on: "Somehow I don't expect her to +stay long in Beechfield. She's too much of a London bird." + +"I don't suppose she would have come at all if she had known what a +beastly, inhospitable place Beechfield is," said Jack sharply. Though he +was in such a hurry to be off, he waited in order to add: "She's been +here nearly a month, and you've never called on her yet--it's too bad!" + +Janet Tosswill flushed deeply. Jack had not spoken to her in such a tone +since he was fifteen. + +"What nonsense! She must be indeed silly and affected," she exclaimed, +"if she expected me to pay her a formal call, especially as we had her in +to supper the very first day she was here! I might retort by saying that +she might have sent or called to know how poor old Nanna was! Everyone in +the village has done so--but then your friend, Jack, is not what my +father used to call '18 carat'!" + +"I think it's we who are not '18 carat,'" he answered furiously. "We have +shown Mrs. Crofton the grossest discourtesy, and I happen to know that +she feels it very much." + +Janet Tosswill looked at her elder stepson with a feeling of blank +amazement. It had often astonished her to notice how completely Jack had +his emotions and temper under control. Yet here he was, his face aglow +with anger, his voice trembling with rage. + +Poor Janet! She had had long days of fatigue and worry since the old +nurse's accident, and suddenly she completely lost her temper. "I don't +want to say anything unkind about the little woman, but I do think her +both silly and second-rate. I took a dislike to her when she behaved in +such a ridiculous manner over Flick." + +"You were almost as frightened as she was," said Jack roughly. + +"It's quite true that I was frightened for a moment, but only because +I was afraid for Timmy." + +"I can tell you one thing--she won't come here again to supper unless +I can give her my word that all our dogs are really shut up. And I fear +I must ask you to undertake to see that Timmy does not let Flick out +after I _have_ shut him up." + +Janet Tosswill held out her hand. "I think you'd better give me that note +back," she said curtly. "We certainly don't want anyone here of the kind +you have just described. From something Godfrey said to me it's clear +that Mrs. Crofton's horror of dogs is just a pose she thinks makes her +interesting. Why, her husband bred terriers; Flick actually came from +there! And Godfrey says that she herself had a little dog called by the +absurd name of 'Boo-boo' to which she was devoted." + +"'Boo-boo' was the exception that proves the rule," answered Jack hotly. +"As for Colonel Crofton, it was beastly of him to breed terriers, knowing +how his wife felt about dogs! She told me herself she would never have +married him if she had known there was any likelihood of that coming to +pass. She feels about dogs as some people feel about cats." + +"I never heard such nonsense!" + +"Nonsense?" he repeated in an enraged tone. "It isn't nonsense! The best +proof that that horror of dogs is instinctive with her is the effect that +she herself has on every dog she comes across. That was shown the evening +she was here." + +"Really, Jack, that's utterly absurd! Flick was not thinking of her at +all. Something in the garden had frightened him. Your father feels sure +that it was a snake which he himself killed the next morning." And then, +for she was most painfully disturbed by this scene between herself and +Jack, she said quietly: "I'm sorry that Mrs. Crofton ever came to +Beechfield. I didn't think there was anyone in the world who would make +you speak to me as you have spoken to me now." + +"I hate injustice!" he exclaimed, a little shamefacedly. "I can't think +why you've turned against her, Janet. It's so mean as well as so unkind! +She has hardly any friends in the world, and she thought by the account +Godfrey gave of us that _we_ should become her friends." + +"It's always a woman's own fault if she has no friends, especially when +she's such an attractive woman as Mrs. Crofton," said Janet shortly. She +hesitated, and then added something for which she was sorry immediately +afterwards: "I happen to know rather more about Mrs. Crofton than most of +the people in Beechfield do." + +She spoke with that touch of mysterious finality which is always so +irritating to a listener who is in indifferent sympathy with a speaker. + +"What d'you mean?" cried Jack fiercely. "I insist on your telling me what +you mean!" + +Janet Tosswill told herself with Scotch directness that she had been a +fool. But if Jack was--she hardly knew how to put it to herself--so--so +bewitched by Mrs. Crofton as he seemed to be, then perhaps, as they had +got to this point, he had better hear the truth: + +"Mrs. Crofton made herself very much talked about in the neighbourhood of +the place where she and her husband settled after the War. She was so +actively unkind, and made him so wretched, that at last he committed +suicide. At least that is what is believed by everyone who knew them in +Essex." + +"I suppose a woman told you all this?" he said in a dangerously calm +voice. + +"Yes, it was a woman, Jack." + +"Of course it was! Every woman, young or old, is jealous of her because +she's so pretty and--so--so feminine, and because she has nothing about +her of the clever, hard woman who is the fashion nowadays! The only +person who does her justice in this place is Rosamund." + +"I disapprove very much of Rosamund's silly, school-girlish, adoration of +her," said Janet sharply. + +She was just going to add something more when she saw Timmy slipping +quietly back into the room. And all at once she felt sorry--deeply +sorry--that this rather absurd scene had taken place between herself and +Jack. She blamed herself for having let it come to this pass. + +"I daresay I'm prejudiced," she exclaimed. "Take this note, Jack, and +tell Mrs. Crofton that Flick shall be securely shut up." + +"All right." Jack shrugged his shoulders rather ostentatiously, and +disappeared through the window, while Janet, with a half-humorous sigh, +told herself that perhaps he was justified in condemning in his own mind, +as he was certainly doing now, the extraordinary vagaries of womankind. +She turned back to her writing-table again. However disturbed and worried +she might feel, there were the weekly books to be gone through, and this +time without Nanna's shrewd, kindly help. + +Suddenly she started, for Timmy's claw-like little hand was on her arm: +"Mum," he said earnestly, "do tell me what Colonel Crofton was really +like? Did that lady--you know, I mean the person Jack thinks is jealous +of Mrs. Crofton--tell you what he was like?" + +"No--yes--oh, Timmy! I'm afraid you must have been listening at the door +just now?" + +"I didn't like to come in," he said, wriggling uneasily. "I've never +heard Jack speak in such an angry way before. He was in a wax, wasn't he? +But, Mum, do tell me what Colonel Crofton looked like--I do _so_ want to +know." + +She put down her pen, and turning, gazed down into the child's eager, +inquisitive little face. + +"Why should you wish to know, Timmy?" She spoke rather coldly and +sternly. + +She was sorry indeed now that she had been tempted to repeat what was +perhaps after all only the outcome of Miss Pendarth's unconscious +jealousy of the woman who had made a fool of the man she had loved as a +girl. It was unfortunately true that Olivia Pendarth had an unconscious +prejudice against all young and pretty women. + +"I want to know," mumbled Timmy, "because I think I do know what he was +like." + +"If you know what he was like, then there is nothing more to say." + +"I want to be sure," he repeated obstinately. + +"But how absurd, Timmy! Why should you want to know about a poor old +gentleman who is dead, and of whom you are not likely ever to hear +anything? I have often told you how horrid it is to be inquisitive." + +Timmy paused over that remark. "I want to know," he said in a low +mumbling voice, "because I think I have seen him." He did not look up at +his mother as he spoke. With the forefinger of his right hand he began +tracing an imaginary pattern on the blue serge skirt which covered her +knee. + +She looked around apprehensively. Yes, the door was shut. She remembered +that Dr. O'Farrell had told her never to encourage the child's +confidences, but, on the other hand, never to check them. + +"I first saw him the evening she came to supper," Timmy mumbled. "They +were walking together down the avenue. I thought he was a real old +gentleman. There was a dog with him, a terrier exactly like Flick, only a +little bigger. Of course I thought it was a real dog too. But now I know +that it wasn't. I know now that it was a ghost-dog. It is _that_ dog, +Mum, that frightens the other dogs who meet them--not herself, as she's +come to think." + +"Oh, Timmy,"--Janet felt acutely uncomfortable--"you know I cannot bear +to think that such things really happen to you. If you really think them +I'd rather know, but I'd so much rather, dear boy, that you didn't think +them." + +But Timmy was absorbed in what he was saying. "I know now that it was +Colonel Crofton," he went on, "because I've seen an old photograph of +him, Mum. Mrs. Crofton brought a tin box full of papers with her, and +there were some old photographs in it. There was one of an officer in +uniform, and it had written across it, 'Yours sincerely, Cecil Crofton.' +She tore it up the day after she came here, and threw it in the +waste-paper basket, but her cook took it out of the dustbin, and +that's how I saw it." + +"How disgusting!" exclaimed his mother, feeling herself now on firm +ground. "How often have I had to tell you, Timmy, not to go into other +people's kitchens and sculleries? No nice boy, no little gentleman, would +do such a thing. Of course it was seeing that photograph made you believe +you saw Colonel Crofton's--" + +She stopped abruptly, for she never, if she could help it, used the word +"ghost," or "spirit," to the child. + +"Up to now I've always supposed that animals had no souls, Mum, but now I +know they have. I know another thing, too," but there was a doubtful note +in his voice. "I suppose that ghost-dog hates Mrs. Crofton because she +was so unkind to his master. That's why he makes the other dogs fly at +her, I expect--or d'you think it's just because they're frightened that +they do it?" + +Janet Tosswill was an unconventional woman, also she was on terms of very +close kinship with her strange little son. Still, she reddened as she +drew him closer to her and said: "Look here, Timmy, I want to tell you +something. I'm sorry now I said what I did say to Jack about Mrs. +Crofton. I ought not to have said it--I'm ashamed of having said it! It +was told me by someone who is rather fond of repeating disagreeable, +sometimes even untrue, things." + +Timmy had also grown very red while his mother was making her little +confession. He took up her hand and squeezed it impulsively, as an older +person might have done. + +"I think I know who you mean," he said. "You mean Miss Pendarth?" + +"Yes," said his mother steadily, "I do mean Miss Pendarth. I think it +quite possible that poor little Mrs. Crofton was never really unkind to +Colonel Crofton at all." + +"But you wouldn't like Jack to marry her, Mum, would you?" + +Janet felt a shock of dismay go through her. There flashed into her mind +that sometimes most disturbing text--"Out of the mouths of babes and +sucklings...." + +"I shouldn't like it at all," she exclaimed, "and I think you're old +enough to understand that such a thing would be impossible. Jack won't +make enough money to keep a wife for years and years." She hesitated, and +then added, speaking to herself rather than to Timmy, "Still, I hope with +all my heart that he won't get foolish about her." + +"He _is_ foolish about her," said Timmy positively. "Even Nanna +thinks"--he waited a moment, then said carefully--"that he is past +praying for. She said yesterday to Betty that there were some things +prayers didn't help in at all, and that love was one of them. She says +that Jack's heart has gone out of his own keeping. Isn't that a funny +idea, Mum?" + +"It is a terrible idea," and, a little to her own surprise, tears rose to +Janet Tosswill's eyes. Timmy, looking up into her face, felt his heart +swell with anger against the person who was causing his mother to look as +she was looking now. + +He moved away a little bit, as if aware that what he was going to say +would not meet with her approval, and then he said in a peculiar voice, +a defiant, obstinate voice which she knew well: "I do wish that Mrs. +Crofton would die--I do hate her so!" + +Janet Tosswill looked straight into her little son's face. She felt that +she had perhaps made a mistake in treating Timmy as if he were grown up. +"My dear," she said very gravely, "remember the Bible says--'Thou shalt +not kill.'" + +"Of course I know _that_,"--he spoke with a good deal of scorn. "Of +course I want her to die a _natural_ death." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +"No, you mustn't come in; I'm tired. Besides, I've got someone coming to +tea." + +The ready lie slipped easily off Enid Crofton's tongue, as Jack Tosswill +looked down into her face with a strained, pleading look. They were +standing in the deserted road close to the outside door set in the +lichen-covered wall of The Trellis House. It was already getting dusk, +for they had been for a long walk. + +"I shall never, never forget to-day!" He gripped her hand hard as he +spoke, and she looked up and down the empty road a little apprehensively. +But no one was coming or going, and the group of little old cottages +opposite The Trellis House held as yet no twinkling lights. + +"I shall never forget it, either," she said softly. "But I really _must_ +go in now--you know we are meeting this evening?" + +"May I come and fetch you?" he asked. + +"No, I'd rather you didn't do that--if you don't mind," and then, seeing +his look of deep disappointment, she added, "Perhaps you will walk back +with me after dinner?" + +"Of course I will, but I'm afraid Radmore or one of the girls will want +to come too." + +As he gazed down into her face there was a look of infinite longing in +his eyes, and even she felt a certain touch of genuine emotion sweep over +her. It is so very, very delicious to be loved. + +"Good-bye, darling," he whispered huskily; and, before she had time to +stop him, he had taken her in his arms and kissed her, passionately, +lingeringly. Then, with no other word, he released her and went off +quickly down the road. + + * * * * * + +After Enid Crofton had shut the heavy door in the wall behind her, she +did not go straight along the path which led to her front door. Instead, +she turned in the gathering darkness to the left, and started walking +round the garden which in daylight looked so different, now that Jack +Tosswill had put in so many hard mornings' work at it. + +She felt more surprised and moved by what had happened this afternoon +than she would have thought possible. Poor Jack! Poor, foolish, adoring, +priggish boy! + +When he had come in this morning, bringing the note of invitation from +his step-mother, he had seemed excited and ill at ease. She had felt +vexed at his coming so early, as she was anxious to superintend the +jam-making herself. Enid Crofton had a very practical side to her +character, and she was the last person to risk the wasting of good sugar +and good fruit through the stupidity of an inexperienced cook. + +While Jack was still there one of her new acquaintances had come in for a +moment, for she had already made herself well liked in the neighbourhood, +and after the visitor had gone, Jack, exclaiming angrily that they were +never left in peace together, had begged her to go for a walk with him +that afternoon. This she had consented to do, after discovering that +Godfrey Radmore had gone up to London for the day. + +And then, during their walk, Jack had suddenly made her a pompous offer +of marriage! + +No wonder she smiled mischievously to herself, when pacing slowly up and +down the path between a row of espaliered apple trees. + +She told herself that in a sense it had been her fault. They were sitting +on a fallen tree trunk, in a lonely little wood, Jack, as he seldom was, +tongue-tied and dull. Piqued, she had twitted him on his silence. And +then, all at once, he had turned and, seizing her roughly, had kissed her +with the pent-up passion of a man in love who till now has never kissed a +woman. + +Pacing slowly in her dark garden, Enid Crofton's pulse quickened at +the recollection of those maladroit, hungry kisses. Something--a mere +glancing streak of the great shaft of ecstasy which enveloped Jack +Tosswill's whole being had touched her senses into what had seemed to +him marvellous response. + +When at last he had released her, and in words of at once triumphant and +humble adoration, had made her an offer of marriage, she had felt it an +absurd anti-climax to a very delicious and, even in her well-stored +memory, a unique experience. + +And now she remembered the last time a man had kissed her. It was quite +a little while ago, on the day she had taken possession of The Trellis +House. Of course Captain Tremaine had tipped the guard so that they +should have a carriage to themselves. But she had been uncomfortably +aware that he was half-ashamed of himself--that he remembered, all the +time, that she was a newly-made widow. + +Somehow Jack Tosswill hadn't remembered that. Jack hadn't thought of it. +But oh! how absurd he had been when his first rapture was over. Without +even waiting for an answer to his proposal, he had coolly suggested they +should wait till he had made a start at the Bar! At last she had managed +to make him listen to her plea that, till a year had elapsed, she could +not think of re-marriage. And he had believed her! + +All at once she told herself, a little ruefully, that she had perhaps +been foolish; that this affair, slight and altogether unimportant as it +was, might become a tiresome complication. Of course she could keep him +in order, but she was well aware that when a man had kissed her once, he +generally wanted to kiss her again, and very soon. + +In principle, she had no objection to Jack Tosswill's kisses. There was +something fresh, alluring, wholly delightful, even to so hardened a flirt +as was Enid Crofton, in being the object of a youth's first love. But she +told herself, almost fiercely, that she must make him understand very, +very clearly that, though they might sometimes kiss, they must never be +caught. Fortunately Jack was curiously cautious for so young a man. That +had been one of the reasons why she had been tempted to--well--to make +him lose his head. + +And then another figure, one of far greater importance and moment to +herself than poor Jack Tosswill, came and challenged Enid Crofton to +anxious attention. How did she stand with regard to Godfrey Radmore? + +She stopped in her pacing, and stared straight before her. For the first +time in her life she was quite at a loss as to what a man, of whom she +was seeing a great deal, really felt about her. + +Rosamund Tosswill was very young, and Enid secretly thought her very +stupid, but there could be no doubt as to her essential truthfulness. +Now, a day or two ago, Rosamund had said: "Isn't it funny of Godfrey? He +told Janet when he first came here that he had made up his mind to remain +a bachelor!" + +And yet they two, she, Enid, and Godfrey, had had something tantamount to +an emotional little scene the first time he had come to see her at The +Trellis House. True, it had only lasted two or three seconds, but while +it lasted it had been intense. Had Timmy Tosswill not burst into the room +in that stupid, inopportune way, Radmore would have certainly taken her +in his arms. Though Radmore was no innocent, high-principled boy, even +one kiss between them would have altered their whole attitude, the one to +the other. She would have seen to that. In her heart she had cursed Timmy +for his idiotic intrusion, and now she cursed him again. + +Lately she had thought Radmore was becoming aware of Jack Tosswill's +growing absorption in her, and she had suspected, as well as hoped, that +he was a trifle jealous. Now jealousy, as Enid knew well, is a potent +quickener of feeling between a man and a woman. It was unfortunate that +Radmore seemed to regard Jack Tosswill as a mere boy--a rather tiresome, +priggish boy. Still, that had its good side. Jack was only a very slight +complication after all! + +Again she cast a fleeting thought to Tremaine. In a sense he was her real +mate, her real soul, and, yes, body mate. If only he wasn't so poor! She +felt for a moment tempted to throw up everything--to do what he had so +urged her to do, what he was always writing and begging her to do. That +was to marry him quickly just before the end of his leave, and go out to +India with him. He wrote to her every day, and his last letter was in the +little silk bag now hanging on her arm. + +It was the kind of love-letter that Enid understood, and enjoyed +receiving: full of ardent, if rather commonplace, expressions, and of +comparisons, very pleasant to her vanity, between her pretty self and the +stupid, ugly women he said he was now meeting. He had been with his +people in Cornwall--but for that he would of course have come down to see +how she was getting on. In this particular letter he announced that he +was going to be in London very soon, and might he run down for a day? He +had added a question, chaffingly worded, and yet, as she well knew, +seriously intended. Did she think it would be improper for him to come +and spend two or three days with her? And now she told herself, very +decidedly, that of course she couldn't have him here--in stupid, +old-fashioned Beechfield. It would be a tiresome, useless complication. +But why shouldn't she go up to London for three or four days and have a +good time with him there? + +Enid was well aware that absence frequently makes the heart grow fonder, +and that distance does lend enchantment to the view. But she would not +have put it in those exact words. + +At last she began walking towards the house, telling herself that she +felt oddly tired, and that it would be very pleasant, for once, to have a +solitary cup of tea. Her house-parlourmaid was shaping very nicely. Thus +the girl had evidently brought the lamps into the sitting-room, though +she had forgotten to draw the curtains. + +Enid knocked and rang. She had a theory that the possession of a latchkey +by their mistress makes servants slow to answer the door. + +"There's a person waiting for you in the drawing-room, ma'am. She says +she's come down on purpose from London to see you. She came just after +you went out first." + +There swept over Enid Crofton a strong, sudden premonition of evil. She +realised that for the last ten days she had been secretly dreading that +this would happen to her. She blamed herself sharply, now that it was too +late, for having done nothing further to help the Pipers; but she had +hoped the five pounds would have kept them quiet. + +"I'll go upstairs and take off my things," she said wearily. "Bring me a +cup of tea in my bedroom--I don't want anything to eat--and then I'll +come down and see this person." She forced herself to add, "I suppose +it's a Mrs. Piper?" + +The girl answered at once, "She didn't give her name, ma'am. She just +said that she wanted to see you, and that it was urgent. She's not got +very long; she wants to catch the six o'clock train from Telford. She +wouldn't believe at first that you wasn't in." + +Enid found some comfort in those words, and she made up her mind that she +would linger upstairs as long as she possibly could, so as to cut short +her coming interview with the tiresome young woman. After all there was +very little to say. She had behaved in a kind and generous manner to her +late husband's servant, and she had already said she would do her best to +help him again. + +When she got upstairs she lit the two high brass candlesticks on the +dressing-table, and then, after she had taken off her hat and long black +woollen coat, she sat down in her easy-chair by the wood fire. Soon there +came a familiar rap and a welcome cup of tea. + +She was sipping it, luxuriously, when there suddenly came a very +different kind of rap on the door. It was a sharp, insistent knock, +and before she could call out "Come in," the door opened, and a +singular-looking figure advanced into the luxurious-looking, +low-ceilinged bedroom. + +"Excuse me coming up like this, Modam. But I'm afraid of losing my +train." + +The speaker was small and stout, with a sallow face which might once have +held a certain gipsy-like charm, for, in the candlelight, the luminous +dark eyes were by far its most arresting feature. She wore a small, +old-fashioned-looking, red velvet bonnet perched on her elaborately +dressed hair. + +Enid Crofton looked at her odd-looking visitor with astonishment. Who on +earth could this be? Certainly not Piper's wife. A feeling of intense +relief came over her when the strange-looking woman came towards her +with a soft, gliding step, and handed her a card on which was written: + + Madame Flora + + Ladies' wardrobes, gold teeth, and old jewellery purchased at the + highest prices known in the trade + +"I do 'ope you will excuse me coming up like this," she said again, and +her queer Cockney voice sounded quite pleasantly in Enid Crofton's ears. +"I've not got very long, and I've been 'ere since four o'clock." + +As she spoke she did not look at the pretty young lady sitting by the +fire. Her dark eyes were glancing furtively round the attractively +furnished bedroom, as if appraising everything that was there, from the +uncommon-looking high brass candlesticks on the dressing-table to the +pink silk covered eiderdown and drawn linen coverlid on the bed. + +Perhaps because she was so extraordinarily relieved, Enid Crofton spoke +to this somewhat impudent old-clothes woman very graciously. + +"I'm sorry," she began, "but I've nothing in the least suitable for you, +Madame Flora. It's a pity you wasted your time waiting for me. There are +several other people in Beechfield with whom I expect you might have done +business." She smiled as she spoke. + +"I wish I'd thought of that, Modam." The woman spoke with a touch of +regret. "But your maids expected you might be back any minute, and I did +want to meet you, for Piper's that down on 'is luck, I sometimes don't +know what to do with 'im! Instead of wanting to employ ex-soldiers, as in +course they ought ter, people seem just to avoid them--" + +"Piper?" repeated Enid Crofton in a low, hesitating voice. "Then are you +Mrs. Piper?" + +Was it conceivable that this strange-looking old thing was Piper's wife? + +"I've been Mrs. Piper eighteen years," replied Madame Flora composedly, +"but I've always kep' on my business, Modam. It's not much of a business +now, worse luck! Ladies won't part with their clothes, not when they're +dropping off them. In old days, if Piper was down, I was up, so we was +all right. But we've both struck a streak of bad luck." + +For a few moments neither of them spoke. Mrs. Crofton was staring, +astonished, at her visitor, and through her shallow mind there ran the +new thought of how very, very little any of us know of other people's +lives. After her first shock of dismayed surprise to find that Piper was +married at all, she had imagined Piper's wife as something young and, of +course, in a way, attractive and easily managed. + +"Did you ever come down to my house in Essex?" she asked, still trying to +speak pleasantly. + +"No, Modam, I never was there. Piper and I 'as always kep' clear of each +other's jobs, and I wouldn't be interfering _now_, but that the matter's +becoming serious. Piper's worse than no good when 'e's idle." She +hesitated, then went on, "If 'e's to keep off 'is failing, 'e must be +working." + +There was a pause, and then Enid Crofton spoke, in a low, uncertain tone. +"Believe me, Mrs. Piper, when I say that I really will do all I can for +him. But it's not easy now to hear of good jobs, and Piper doesn't seem +easy to suit." + +"You wouldn't care to take my 'usband on again yourself, Modam?" + +Again there followed that curious pause which somehow filled Enid with a +vague fear. + +"I wish I could," she said at last, "but I can't afford it, Mrs. Piper. +As a matter of fact, I've done a foolish thing in coming here, to +Beechfield, at all. Only the other day one of my husband's relations +advised me to let the house." + +"Piper thinks, Modam, as how you might 'elp 'im to a job with Major +Radmore." The name tripped quickly off the speaker's tongue, as if she +was quite used to the sound. + +Enid felt a throb of dismay. Did the Pipers know Godfrey Radmore was +back? + +"We was wondering," said the woman, "if you would give us the major's +address?" + +Then they didn't know he was back--or did they? + +"I don't know it." + +Enid Crofton was one of those women--there are more than a truthful world +suspects--who actually find it easier to lie than to tell the truth. But +she saw the look of incredulity which flashed over the sallow face of her +unwelcome visitor. + +"Mr. Radmore," she went on hastily, "is taking a motor tour. But he'll be +back in London soon, and I'll let you know the moment I know he's settled +down." + +"I should 'ave thought," said the woman, "that the Major would 'ave 'ad a +club where Piper could 'ave written." + +"If he has, I don't know it." + +And then, all at once, Enid Crofton pulled herself together. After all +the interview was going quite smoothly. Nothing--well, disagreeable--had +been said. + +She got up from her chair. "I hope you'll forgive me, Mrs. Piper, for +saying that Piper will never keep any job if he behaves as he did with +these last people--I had a very disagreeable letter from the lady." + +Mrs. Piper, alias Madame Flora, grew darkly red. + +"Piper 'ad a shock this last July," she said, moving a little farther +into the room, and so nearer to Enid Crofton. "The thing's been +a-weighing on 'is mind for a long time. It's something 'e won't exactly +explain. But it's on 'is conscience. Only yesterday 'e says to me, 'e +says, 'If I'm drinking, my dear, it's to drown care; I ought to have +spoken up very differently to what I done at the poor Colonel's inquest." + +The terrible little woman again took a step or two forward, and then she +waited, as if she expected the lady to say something. But Enid, though +she opened her lips, found that she could not speak. Hardly knowing what +she was doing, she sat down again. And, after what seemed to the owner of +the attractive, candle-lit room an awful silence, Mrs. Piper went on, +speaking now in quite a different tone--easy, confidential, and with a +touch of wheedling good nature in it. + +"Thanks to your late gentleman, Piper knows all about dogs, and all +'e requires, Modam, to set 'im up as a dogfancier, so to speak, is a +moderate bit o' money. As 'e says 'imself, five hundred pound would do it +easy. If I may make so bold, that's what reely brought me 'ere, Mrs. +Crofton. It do seem to us both, that, under the circumstances, you might +feel disposed to find the money?" + +Enid looked down as she answered, falteringly: "I told Piper some time +ago that it was quite impossible for me to do anything of the kind." + +In her fear and distress she uttered the words more loudly than she was +aware, and the woman looked round at the closed door with an apprehensive +look: "Don't speak so loud. We don't want to tell everyone our business," +she said sharply. + +Now she came quite close up to her victim, for by now Enid Crofton knew +that she was in very truth this woman's victim. + +"You think it over," whispered Madame Flora. "We're not in a 'urry to a +day or two. And look here, Modam, I'll be open with you! If you'll do +that for Piper, it'll be in full discharge of anything you owe 'im--d'you +take my meaning?" + +Enid Crofton got up slowly from her chair almost as an automaton might +have done. She wanted to say that she did not in the least know what Mrs. +Piper _did_ mean. But somehow her lips refused to form the words. She was +afraid even to shake her head. + +"I told you a fib just now"--Mrs. Piper's voice again dropped to a +whisper. "Piper's made a clean breast o' the matter to me, and I do think +as what it's common justice to admit that my 'usband's evidence at that +inquest was worth more than twenty-five pound to you. It wasn't what +Piper said; _it was what 'e didn't say that mattered_, Mrs. Crofton. It's +been on 'is mind awful--I'll take my Bible oath on that. But 'live and +let live,' that's my motter. We don't want to do anything unkind, but +we're in a fix ourselves--" + +"I haven't got five hundred pounds," said Enid Crofton desperately; +"that's God's truth, Mrs. Piper." + +To that assertion Madame Flora made no direct answer; she only observed, +in a quiet conversational tone, and speaking no longer in a whisper. "The +insurance gent told Piper as what 'e was not entirely satisfied, and 'e +said as 'e'd be pleased to see Piper any time if anything 'appened as +could throw further light on the Colonel's death. 'An extraordinary +occurrence'--that's what the insurance people's gentleman called it, Mrs. +Crofton--'an extraordinary occurrence.'" + +And then Enid was stung into saying a very unwise thing. "The Coroner did +not think it an extraordinary occurrence," she said quietly. + +"'E says sometimes as what 'e ought to give 'imself up and say what 'e +saw," went on Mrs. Piper with seeming irrelevance. + +There was another brief pause: "If you 'aven't got five hundred pounds, +Modam, I take it the insurance money has not yet been paid, for it was a +matter of two thousand pounds--or so Piper understood from that party +what came down to make enquiries." + +Enid Crofton looked at her torturer dumbly. She did not know what to +say--what to admit, and what to deny. + +"Think it over," said the terrible little woman. "We're not in a 'urry to +a day or two. We'll give you a fortnight to find the money." + +She put her hand, fat, yet claw-like, on Mrs. Crofton's shoulder. +"There's nothing to look so frightened about," she said a little gruffly. +"Piper and me aren't blackmailers. But we've got to look out for +ourselves, same as everybody else does. It's Piper's idea--that five +hundred pounds is. 'E says 'twould ease 'is conscience to carry on the +pore old Colonel's dog-breeding. As for me, I'd just as lief 'ave 'im in +a good job--what gentlefolk call 'a cushy job'--with a gentleman like +this Major Radmore seems to be. But there! Piper's just set on them nasty +dogs, and 'e's planned it all out." + +"Five hundred pounds is a great deal of money." Enid Crofton spoke in a +dull, preoccupied tone. + +"Not so much as it used to be, not by any manner of means," said +Mrs. Piper shrewdly. "Think it over, Mrs. Crofton--and let us know +what you _can_ do. Perhaps it needn't be paid all in one; but best to +write to Piper next time. 'E says 'e'd like to feel you and 'im were +partners-like. I'll tell 'im I arranged for you to 'ave ten days to a +fortnight to think it over." + +"Thinking won't make money," said Enid in a low voice. + +"Such a beautiful young lady as yourself, Modam, can't find it difficult +to put 'er 'and on five hundred pounds," murmured Mrs. Piper, and as she +said the words there came a leering smile over her small, pursed-up +mouth. + +And then, turning, she glided across the candle-lit room, and noiselessly +opening the door, she slid through it. + +Enid Crofton sank farther back into her chintz-covered easy-chair. She +was trembling all over, and her hands were shaking. She had not felt so +frightened as she felt now, even during the terrible moments which had +preceded her being put in the witness-box at the inquest held on her +husband's body; and with a feeling of acute, unreasoning terror, she +asked herself how she could cope with this new, dreadful situation. + +What, for instance, did that allusion to the insurance company mean? She +had had the two thousand pounds, and she had spent about a quarter of it +paying bills of which her husband had known nothing. Then the settling +in at The Trellis House had cost a great deal more than she had expected. +Of course she had some left, but five hundred pounds would make a hideous +hole in her little store. + +What could the Pipers do to her? Could they do anything? The sinister +woman's repetition of Piper's curious remark, "'E says sometimes as what +'e ought to give 'imself up, and say what 'e saw," came back to her with +sickening vividness. + +She looked round her, timorously. The candles on her dressing-table gave +such a poor light. How stupid of a village like Beechfield not to have +electric light! She stood up and rang for a hot-water bottle. At any rate +she might as well try to get a little beauty sleep before dressing to go +to the Tosswills. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +Although no definite suggestion or order had been issued by Janet +Tosswill, it was understood by everyone in Old Place that special honour +was to be paid to Mrs. Crofton this evening. + +Janet, when giving Betty a slight but vigorous sketch of the scene which +had taken place between herself and Jack, observed, "If she's _that_ sort +of woman I think we ought to give her a proper dinner, don't you?" And +Betty heartily agreed. + +This was the reason why Betty herself, Tom, who acted as butler, and +Timmy, who was supposed to help generally both in the kitchen and in the +dining-room, did not sit down to table with the others. + +Mrs. Tosswill's sarcastic observation was so far justified in that Enid +Crofton did feel vaguely gratified to find herself treated to-night far +more as a guest of honour than she had been on the first occasion when +she had come to the house. The guest herself had done honour to the feast +by putting on the most becoming of her diaphanous black evening dresses, +and, as she sat to the right of her host, each of her three feminine +critics admitted to their secret selves that she was that rather rare +thing, a genuinely pretty woman. Features, colouring, hair, were all as +near perfection as they well could be, while her slight, rounded figure +was singularly graceful. + +How fortunate it is that we poor mortals cannot see into each other's +hearts and minds! Who, looking at Jack Tosswill's composed, secretive, +self-satisfied face, could have divined, even obscurely, his state of +mingled pride, ecstasy, and humble astonishment at his own good fortune? +To him the lovely young woman sitting next his father was as much his own +as though they had already been through the marriage ceremony, and he +felt awed and uplifted as well as triumphantly glad. + +As for Godfrey Radmore, he also was affected rather more than he would +have cared to admit even to himself by the presence of Enid Crofton this +evening. + +She had become to him something of a mystery, and there is always +something alluring in a mystery, especially if the mystery be young, and +endowed with that touch of pathos which makes feminine beauty always a +touch more attractive to the masculine heart. He was aware that she +preferred to see him alone, and this flattered him. While he was able +to assure himself confidently that he was in no sense in love with her, +his heart certainly beat a little quicker on the comparatively few +occasions when he went over into her garden, or, better still, into her +little sitting-room, and found her by herself. He also thought it very +good-natured, if a little tiresome, of her, to put up with so much of +the company of a prig like Jack, and of a selfish girl like Rosamund. + +To-night Radmore wondered, not for the first time, why Janet Tosswill did +not like Enid Crofton, for he felt, somehow, that there was no love lost +between them. He told himself that he must ask Betty to try to become +friends with her. Instinctively he relied on Betty's judgment, and that +though he saw very little of her, considering what very old friends he +and she were. And then, when he was thinking these secret, idle thoughts, +he became suddenly conscious that Betty was not among those sitting at +the full dining-table. + +When Tom came in, bearing a huge soup tureen, and looking, it must be +confessed, very red and embarrassed, Janet observed composedly that the +person on whom they had relied to help them to-night had failed them at +the last moment, and they had decided that it would be simpler for them +to wait on themselves. + +Radmore muttered to his neighbour, Rosamund, "Where's Betty?" + +"In the kitchen. She's the only one of us who knows how to cook. She +_loves_ cooking. She'll come into the drawing-room later if she's not too +tired." + +Radmore felt indignant. It was too bad that Betty, whom he vividly +remembered as the petted darling of the house, should now have become--to +put it in a poetical way--the family Cinderella! But as the dinner went +on, and as the soup was succeeded by some excellent fish, as well as by +roast chicken, a particularly delicious blackberry fool, and a subtly +composed savoury, he began to wonder whether some good professional cook +had not been got in after all. He could hardly believe that Betty had +cooked and dished up this really excellent dinner. + +All through the meal Timmy flitted in and out, bringing round and +removing the plates, but it was Tom who did most of the waiting. + +At last Janet, catching Enid Crofton's eye, got up and delivered +as parting injunction, "Please don't stay too long behind us, +gentlemen--we're going to have coffee in the drawing-room." + +Jack Tosswill sprang to the door, and tried to catch Mrs. Crofton's eye +as she passed out first, but of course he failed, and as he came back to +the table, he observed: "I do hope Betty won't be too tired to come into +the drawing-room. Mrs. Crofton was saying the other day that she wished +she knew her better." He was in a softened mood, the kind of mood which +makes a man not only say, but think, pleasant things. + +And then Mr. Tosswill made one of his rare practical remarks. "I have +always thought that every woman ought to be taught cooking," he said +musingly. "We have certainly just had a very good dinner; I must remember +to tell Betty how much I enjoyed that savoury." + +"Did Betty cook it all?" asked Radmore. + +It was Jack who answered, "Yes, of course she did. Early in the War there +was a great shortage of cooks in some of the country hospitals, and so +Betty asked a friend of ours to allow her to spend a few weeks in her +kitchen. So now we have the benefit of all she learnt there." + +Five minutes later the three men stood at the open door of the +drawing-room, and at once Radmore saw that Betty was not there. That was +really too bad! What selfish girls her sisters were! + +Acting on an impulse he could not have analysed, he stepped back into the +corridor and walked quickly towards the green baize door which led to the +kitchen quarters. Just as he reached it, the door burst open, and Tom, +rushing through, almost knocked him over. + +"Hullo! Steady there! Where are you going?" + +"I'm so sorry, Godfrey, but I'm in the devil of a hurry, for I've got to +clear the dining-room. Once that's done, my work's over, and I can go +into the drawing-room." Tom was grinning good-humouredly. "I say, Mrs. +Crofton does look a peach to-night, doesn't she?" + +Even as he spoke, he was hooking the door back. Then he hurried into the +dining-room without waiting for an answer. + +Godfrey went on with rather hesitating steps down the broad, +stone-flagged passage. According to tradition, this part of Old Place was +mediaeval, and it was certainly quite different from the rest of the +house. He felt a little awkward for he knew he had no business there, +and when he got to the big, vaulted kitchen, he stopped and looked round +him dubiously. The fire in the old-fashioned, wasteful range had been +allowed to die down, and on the round wooden table in the middle of the +room were heaped up the dinner plates and dishes. + +Suddenly he noticed that the door which led into the scullery was ajar, +and he heard Betty's clear, even voice saying: "When you've tidied +yourself up a bit, run down and let me see how you look. I'm afraid +they're not likely to play any games this evening. It's a real, proper +dinner-party, you know, Timmy." + +Then he heard his godson's eager voice. "Oh, Betty, do come too! Mrs. +Jones can do the washing-up to-morrow morning. If you want to dress I'll +hook you up." + +"I'm too tired to go up and dress," and Betty's voice did sound very +weary. There was a despondent note in it, too, which surprised the man +standing in the kitchen. Excepting during the few moments, to him +intensely moving and solemn moments, when they had spoken of George +within a day or two of his return to Beechfield, he had always seen Betty +extraordinarily cheerful. + +"You can go just as you are," he heard Timmy say eagerly. "You could +pretend you'd just been to a fancy ball as a cook!" He added, +patronizingly, "If you put on a clean apron, you'll look quite nice." + +Radmore did not catch the answer, but he gathered that it was again in +the negative, and a moment later Timmy's little feet scampered up the +uncarpeted flight of stairs which led into the upper part of the house. + +Walking forward, he quietly pushed open the scullery door, and for some +seconds he stood unseen, taking in the far from unattractive scene before +him. + +The scullery of Old Place was a glorified kind of scullery, for, just +before the War, Janet had spent a little of her own money on "doing it +up." Since then she had often congratulated herself on the fact that in +the days when the process was comparatively cheap, she had had the +scullery walls lined five feet up with black and white tiles matching the +linoleum which covered the stone floor. + +Against this background Betty Tosswill was now standing, a trim, neat +figure, in her pink cotton gown and big white apron. She was engaged in +washing, drying, and polishing the fine old table glass which had been +used that evening. + +It was such a relief to her to be alone at last! For one thing, though +Timmy and Tom both loved her dearly, their love never suggested to them +that it must be disagreeable to her to hear them constantly bickering +the one with the other, and they would have been surprised indeed had +they known how their teasing squabbles had added to the strain and +fatigue of serving the elaborate dinner she had just cooked. + +She felt spent, in body and in mind, and in the mood when a woman craves, +above all things, for solitude. + +"Look here, Betty, can't I do anything to help?" + +She started violently, and gave a little cry, while the stem of the +wine-glass she held in her hand snapped in two. But Radmore, to her +relief, did not notice the little accident. + +"There isn't anything to do, thank you." She tried to speak composedly +and pleasantly. "I'm going to leave most of the washing-up to the woman +who comes in every morning to help us." + +"Then why don't you come into the drawing-room now? I heard what Timmy +said--and it's quite true!" + +"What Timmy said just now?" She turned and looked at him, puzzled. + +Godfrey Radmore, in his well-cut dress clothes and the small, but +perfect, pearl studs in the shirt of which she had heard Jack openly envy +the make and cut, seemed an incongruous figure in the Old Place scullery. + +He blundered on. "Timmy said that you look as if you had been at a fancy +dress ball as a cook. He ought to have said 'cordon bleu,' for I've never +eaten a better dinner!" + +And then to his aghast surprise, Betty sat down on one of the wooden +chairs near the table where she had been standing and burst into tears. +"I don't want to be a 'cordon bleu,'" she sobbed. "I _hate_ cooking--and +everything connected with cooking." Then, feeling ashamed of herself, she +pulled a clean handkerchief out of her apron pocket, and dabbed her eyes. +"I'm just tired out, that's what it is!" she exclaimed, trying to smile. +"We had a worrying half-hour, thinking the fish was not going to arrive. +You see, Janet dislikes poor Mrs. Crofton so much that she suddenly made +up her mind that it was her duty to kill the fatted calf, and in such a +case I have to do the killing!" + +"It's such a waste for you to be doing the things you are doing now." He +spoke with a touch of anger in his voice. "Why, you and I hardly ever see +one another! After all, even if you've forgotten the old times, _I_ often +remember them--I mean the times when you and I and George were so much +together and such good pals. I love every brick of Old Place because of +those days." He was speaking with deep feeling now. "Sometimes I feel as +if I should like to run away--it's all so different here from what it +used to be." + +He saw a kind, moved, understanding look come over her eyes, and firm, +generous mouth, and quickly, man-like, he pressed his advantage. + +"Look here," he said coaxingly, "don't you think we might hit on some +kind of compromise? Won't you allow me just to get some sort of temporary +housekeeper who can look after things while poor Nanna is laid up?" + +She shook her head. "I don't think any of us would like that," she said. +"But I daresay I have become too much of a Martha." + +She got up, feeling painfully afraid that she was going to cry again. +"I don't see why I shouldn't do as Timmy said--change my apron, I mean, +and go into the drawing-room. For one thing, I should like to see Mrs. +Crofton's dress. Tom says she looks a regular peach! That's his highest +form of praise, you know." + +Radmore suddenly resolved to say something which had been on his mind of +late. "Don't you think that Jack's making rather a fool of himself over +that pretty little lady?" + +Betty looked across at him with the frank, direct gaze that he remembered +so well. "I'm afraid he is," she answered. "He and Janet had quite a row +about her this morning. He seemed to think we had been rude to her; he +was most awfully huffy about it. But I suppose saying anything only makes +things worse in such a case, doesn't it?" + +"I don't see why I shouldn't speak to _her_. She and I know each other +pretty well. She was a desperate little flirt when I first knew her in +Egypt." And then, as he saw a look cross her face to which he had no +clue, he added hastily:--"She's quite all right, Betty. She's quite a +straight little woman." + +"I'm sure she is," said Betty cordially. + +She was wondering, wondering, wondering what Godfrey really thought of +Enid Crofton? Whether or no there had been a touch of jealousy in what he +had said about Jack just now? He had said the words about Jack's making a +fool of himself very lightly. Still there had been a peculiar expression +on his face. + +During the last fortnight, while doing the hundred and one things which +fell to her share, Betty had given the subject of Enid Crofton and +Godfrey Radmore a good deal of thought, while telling herself all the +time that, after all, it was none of her business--now. + +All at once she became aware that Radmore was looking hard at her. "Look +here," he exclaimed, coming up close to where she was again engaged in +drying and polishing the heavy old crystal goblets. "I want to ask you +a favour, Betty. It's absurd that I should be here, with far more money +than I know what to do with, while the only people in the world I care +for, are all worried, anxious, and overworking themselves. Janet says +it's impossible to get a cook. What I want to do if you'll let me--" he +looked at her pleadingly, and Betty's heart began to beat: thus was he +wont to look at her in the old days, when he wanted to wheedle something +out of her. + +"What I want to do," he went on eagerly, "is to go up to London to-morrow +morning and bring back a cook in triumph! Life has taught me _one_ +thing,--that is that money can procure anything." As she remained silent, +he added in a tone of relief, "There, that's settled! You go up to bed +now. I'll be off early in the morning, and we'll have a cook back by +lunch-time." + +"Indeed you won't!" She faced him squarely. "I know you mean very kindly, +Godfrey--I know exactly how you feel. I've often felt like that myself; +you feel that + + "'Sympathy without relief + Is like mustard without beef.' + +"That's the organ-grinder's motto, and a very good motto, too. But we're +the exception which proves the rule. We're grateful for your sympathy, +but we don't want your relief." + +As he gazed at her, both dismayed and very exasperated, she went on, +speaking a little wildly:--"Mustard's a very good thing. I think I needed +a little mustard just now to binge me up!" + +"But that's perfectly absurd!" he exclaimed. "Why not have the beef as +well as the mustard? And look here. I don't think it's fair to me." He +stood, looking straight at her, his face aglow with feeling. And again +it was as if the old Godfrey of long ago, the Godfrey that had been +impetuous, hot-tempered, unreasonable, and yet so infinitely dear to her, +who stood there, so near to her that had she moved, he must have touched +her. She sat down, and unseen by him, she put her two hands on the edge +of the well-scrubbed table, and pressed her fingers down tightly. Then +she smiled up at him, and shook her head. + +"You're treating me like a stranger," he protested doggedly; "however +badly I've behaved, I've not deserved that." + +He was looking down at her hair, the lovely fair hair which had always +been her greatest beauty--the one beauty she now shared with Rosamund. He +wondered if it would ever grow long again. And yet now he told himself +that he did not want to see her different from what she had become. + +"Treating you like a stranger? You're the first visitor we've had to stay +at Old Place since the Armistice." + +As he said nothing, she went on, a little breathlessly, "D'you remember +what a lot of people used to come and go in the old days? That was one of +the nice things about Janet. She loved to entertain our friends, even +our acquaintances. But now we never have anybody. It shows how we feel +about you that we are having you here, like this. But we can only do it +if you'll take us as we are." + +"Of course I take you as you are," he said aggrieved, "but I don't see +why I shouldn't do my little bit, when it's so easy for me to do it. +People talk such rot about money! They'll take anything in the world but +money from those who--" he hesitated, and then boldly brought out the +word--"love them." + +"And yet," said Betty quietly, "you yourself contemptuously rejected the +money that father wanted to give you when he could well afford it--the +day you left Beechfield nine years ago." + +He hesitated, unutterably astonished, and yes, very much moved, too, at +this, her first reference to their joint past. + +"I know I did," he said at last, "and I was a fool to do it. That cheque +of Mr. Tosswill's would have made all the difference to me during certain +awful weeks in Australia when I didn't know where to turn for a shilling. +I've been right up against it--the reality of things, I mean--and I know +both how much and how little money counts in life. It counts a lot, +Betty." + +"I've been up against the reality of things, too," said Betty slowly, +"and I've learnt how very little money counts. You'd have known that, if +you'd been with the French Army. That was the difference between the +French and the English. The French _poilu_ had no money at all, and the +English Tommy had plenty. But it made no difference in the big things." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +Meanwhile Timmy, upstairs, had performed what was for him quite an +elaborate toilet. He possessed a new Eton suit of which he was secretly +proud, for in this as in so many things unlike most little boys, he took +great care of his clothes, and had an almost finicking dislike to what +was rough or untidy. His two younger sisters' untidiness was a perpetual +annoyance to him, and he still felt sore and angry at the way Rosamund +had upset his toy-box when looking for that old prescription. + +To-night he felt queerly excited and above himself. After-dinner coffee +had been made in a way Betty had learnt in France, and she had foolishly +allowed him to drink a cup of the strong, potent, delicious fluid. This +had had a curious effect on him, intensifying his already acute +perceptions, and making him feel both brave and bold as well as +wary--wary Timmy Tosswill always was. + +And now he was eagerly debating within himself whether he could carry +out an experiment he had an eager wish to try. It had filled his mind, +subconsciously, ever since he had slipped quickly in front of his brother +Jack to open the front door to Mrs. Crofton, a couple of hours ago. + +Mrs. Crofton was very much of a town lady, and she had actually been +accompanied, during her short progress through the dark village, by her +parlourmaid. When Timmy opened the front door, she had been engaged in +giving the girl a few last directions as to how a lighted candle was to +be left out for her in her hall, for she had brought her latchkey with +her. After ringing the bell, the lady and her maid had moved away from +the door a little way, and Timmy, staring out at the two figures, who +stood illumined by the hall light out on the gravel carriage drive, had +seen Something Else. + +He did not invariably see Mrs. Crofton accompanied or companioned by that +of which he had spoken to his mother. Sometimes days would go by and he +would see nothing, though he was a constant, if never a welcome, visitor +at The Trellis House. + +Then all at once, sometimes when she was in the garden, at other times +in the charming little parlour, Timmy would see the wraith of Colonel +Crofton, and the wraith of Colonel Crofton's terrier, Dandy, looking as +real as the flesh-and-blood woman beside whom they seemed to stand. +Sometimes they appeared, as it were, intermittently, but now and again +they would stay quite a long time. + +As long as he could remember, Timmy had been aware of what Nanna +expressed by the phrase "things that were not there," and he was so +accustomed to the phenomena that it did not impress his own mind as +anything very much out of the way, or strange. + +Dr. O'Farrell had always shown a keen interest in Timmy's alleged visions +and presentiments. Like so many country doctors of the old school, he +was a man not only of great natural shrewdness, but of considerable +intellectual curiosity, and, from his point of view, by far the most +inexplicable of the little boy's assertions had concerned a long vanished +building which had stood, for something like three centuries, close to +the parish church, right on the main street of the village. + +One Easter Sunday, Timmy, coming out of church, had excitedly exclaimed +that he saw to his right a house where no house had been up to yesterday. +His sisters had laughed at him and his mother had snubbed him. But when +Janet had told Dr. O'Farrell of her little boy's latest and most peculiar +claim to having seen something which was not there, the doctor had gone +home and looked up an old county history, to find that up to Waterloo +year there had still been standing in the pretty little hamlet of +Beechfield, a small Elizabethan manor-house which had figured in the +Titus Oates conspiracy. + + * * * * * + +But to return to the evening of Mrs. Crofton's second visit to Old Place. + +Timmy had given his mother his word of honour that Flick should not be +released from the stable till their visitor had left. But no casuist +ever realised more clearly than did Timothy Tosswill, the delicate +distinctions which spread, web-like, between the spirit, and the letter, +of a law. And while he moved nimbly about his bedroom, the plan, or +rather the plot he had formed, took formal shape. + +Josephine, Timmy's white Angora cat, was now established in a comfortable +basket in a corner of the scullery. There she lay, looking like a ball of +ermine, with her two ten-days old kittens snuggling up close to her. +Josephine was a nervous, fussy mother, but she was devoted to her master, +and he could do with her anything he liked. + +Very softly he crept past Nanna's door, and as he started walking down +the back staircase, he heard voices. + +Then Betty and Godfrey were still in the scullery? That was certainly a +bit of bad luck, for though he thought he could manage his godfather, he +knew he couldn't deceive Betty. Betty somehow seemed to know by instinct +when he, Timmy, was bent on some pleasant little bit of mischief. + +He need not have been afraid, for as he slowly opened the door at the +bottom of the stairs, Betty exclaimed, "I'm going into the drawing-room +after all! But first I must run upstairs and make myself tidy. You two go +on, and I'll follow as soon as I can." + +She ran past Timmy, and at once the boy said firmly to Radmore, "I'm +going to take my cat, Josephine, into the drawing-room. Ladies who hate +dogs nearly always like cats." + +"I don't think Mrs. Crofton cares for cats," answered Radmore carelessly. + +"Oh, yes, she does--and the other day she said The Trellis House was +overrun with mice. Betty thinks it would be a very good home for one of +Josephine's new kittens." + +Even while he was speaking, the big white cat had left her basket and was +walking round her master, purring. He stooped down and lifted her up. + +"If Mrs. Crofton sees Josephine, she will simply long to have one of her +kittens! Will you bring along the white one, Godfrey--the one we call +Puff? We do so want to find him a good home." + +Radmore walked across to where the big basket stood on the floor, and +peered into it dubiously: "Why, Timmy, they're tiny! Poor little +wretches! I wouldn't dream of bringing one of them along--it would be +sheer cruelty. Of course you can bring the cat if you feel like it, but +I shouldn't if I were you." + +"I'll only take her in for a minute." + +Timmy felt just a little sorry Radmore had refused to bring Puff along, +for he was well aware that a cat is never so fierce as when she imagines +she is defending her young. + +They went off together, Radmore in front, Timmy, hugging Josephine, +behind. Just outside the drawing-room door the boy stopped for a moment, +and shifted the cat's weight from one arm to the other. There had come +over him a rather uncomfortable premonition of evil, but he now felt +strung up to go through with his experiment. + +From within the drawing-room there came the sound of laughter and +talking. It was evident that the party was going well, and that everyone +in there was merry and at their ease. + +"Would you mind opening the door, Godfrey?" There was a slight quiver of +apprehension in Timmy's voice. + +Radmore opened the door, and for a fleeting moment he saw an attractive, +placid scene spread out before him. + +The two girls, in their pretty light dresses, were standing by the wood +fire. On the sofa, to their left, with the light from one of the lamps +focussed full on her, sat Mrs. Crofton, her bare left arm hanging over +the side of the low couch. Jack, perched on the arm of a big chair, was +looking at her, all his soul in his eyes. Mr. Tosswill sat some way off +under a shaded reading lamp; his wife, knitting, not far from him. Tom +was surreptitiously reading a book in a corner behind the sofa. + +And then, all at once, Radmore found himself whirled into an unutterable +scene of confusion and terror. + +As Timmy walked through the open door Josephine had leapt out of his arms +on to the floor. For a flashing second the cat stood on the carpet, her +white fur all abristle, her back arched, and her tail lashing furiously +in the air. Then, uttering a hoarse cry of rage and fear, she sprang +towards Mrs. Crofton, and dug first her claws, and then her teeth, into +the white arm that hung over the side of the couch.... Josephine's +terrified victim gave a fearful cry, everyone in the room got up and +rushed forward, and at that exact instant Betty came into the +drawing-room. Sweeping a piece of embroidery off the piano, she threw it +over the cat's head, took up the now struggling, helpless bundle, and +rushed out of the room with it. + +Then followed a scene of appalling confusion. Enid, completely losing +control of herself, screamed and screamed and screamed. + +Few people, fortunately for themselves, have ever heard a woman scream, +and some of those present felt they would never forget the sound. In +the minds of most of the grown-up people there was the same unspoken +question--had the cat suddenly gone mad? Had she got hydrophobia? + +They all crowded round their unfortunate guest--all but Timmy, who stood +aside with a look in which remorse, fear, and triumph struggled for +mastery on his queer little face. + +And then at last, when Mrs. Crofton lay back, moaning, on the sofa, +surrounded by her distracted and horrified hosts, somebody suggested that +Dr. O'Farrell should be sent for, and Jack rushed into the hall to find +Betty already at the telephone. + +Meanwhile Janet Tosswill was doing her best to persuade the victim of +Josephine's savage aggression to come upstairs and await the doctor +there; but, shudderingly, Enid Crofton refused to stir. + +A slight diversion was created when Betty came in with a basin of warm +water, soap, and a sponge. Again everyone crowded round the sofa, and +Jack and Radmore both felt alarm, as well as horror, when they saw the +wounds made by the cat's claws and the cat's teeth. + +While her arm was being bathed, Mrs. Crofton grew so pale that Janet +feared she was going to faint, and Rosamund was sent flying up to the +medicine cupboard to get some brandy. + +Dr. O'Farrell was at home when telephoned for, but the quarter of an hour +which elapsed before he reached Old Place seemed very long to some of the +people waiting there. The doctor came in smiling, but his face altered +and grew very grave when he saw Mrs. Crofton's arm, and heard the +confused, excited account of what had happened. + +To the patient he made light of the whole matter, but while someone was +putting on Mrs. Crofton's overshoes and while her evening cloak was being +brought in he moved a little aside with Jack, Mr. Tosswill, and Radmore. +None of them noticed that Timmy was hovering on the outskirts of the +group. + +"I want to say," he began in a low voice, "that of course that cat will +have to be kept under observation, or else she'll have to be destroyed +and her body sent up to town to make sure of--you know what! Meanwhile, +no one must go near her. Where is she now?" + +Mr. Tosswill looked vaguely round. "I think Betty took her into the +kitchen," he said slowly, and then he called out, "Betty?" + +The girl came up. "Yes, father?" + +"What did you do with Timmy's cat?" + +"I put her back in the scullery, with her kittens. They only opened their +eyes yesterday. Of course Timmy ought never to have brought her into the +drawing-room." + +Dr. O'Farrell looked much relieved. He turned round: "Oh, she's just had +kittens, has she? That probably accounts for the whole thing." + +Mrs. Crofton roused herself. "I do hope that horrible cat will be killed +at once," she cried hysterically. "I can't stay in Beechfield if she's +left alive." + +Dr. O'Farrell answered soothingly, "Don't you fret, Mrs. Crofton. She's a +vicious brute, and shot she shall be." + +No one noticed that Timmy had heard every word of this conversation; no +one noticed the expression on his face. + +It had been arranged that the doctor should take Mrs. Crofton home in his +car, and that only when she was comfortably in bed should those ugly +little wounds be properly dressed. + +As the doctor was hurrying down the passage into the hall, he was +surprised to see Timmy at his elbow and to hear the boy's voice pipe up: +"If my cat's not mad, she won't have to be killed, doctor, will she?" He +asked the question in a quiet, matter-of-fact tone. + +"Yes, my little friend, mad or not mad, she's deserved death--and no one +must go near her till the fell deed is done!" And then, as he suddenly +caught sight of Timmy's strained, agonised face, he added kindly: "She'll +be in the cats' heaven before she knows she's touched. I'll come down in +the morning and I'll shoot her through the window myself--I'm a dead +shot, Timmy, my boy." + +As Janet came along, Timmy burst out crying, and his mother, distracted, +turned to Radmore. "Oh, Godfrey, do get him away upstairs! He's tired +out, that's what it is. Unfortunately the cat belongs to him, and he's +very fond of her--he's almost as fond of Josephine as he is of Flick." + +Radmore put his hand on his godson's shoulder. "Come, Timmy, don't cry. +It's unmanly." + +But Timmy, instead of making an effort to control himself, wrenched +himself away and ran down the long corridor towards the kitchen. Even as +a tiny child he had hated to be caught crying. + +There followed an absurd scene at the front door, Jack and Rosamund +almost quarrelling as to which of them should accompany Mrs. Crofton +home. In the end they had both gone, and Janet, ordering everyone else +to bed, sat up, wearily awaiting their return, for neither of them had +thought of taking a latchkey. + +Poor Janet! Her thoughts were sad and worried thoughts, as she waited, +trying to read, in the drawing-room. At the very last, Betty had lingered +for a moment after the others, and she had noticed that the girl's eyes +were full of tears. + +"Why, Betty, what's the matter? I don't think we need really worry over +Mrs. Crofton." + +"I'm not thinking of Mrs. Crofton. I can't bear the thought of poor +Josephine being shot to-morrow morning." + +"Oh, my dear, don't _you_ turn sentimental! I never did like that poor +cat; to me there's always been something queer and uncanny about her." + +"You've never liked cats," Betty answered, rather aggressively. "Timmy +and I are devoted to Josephine--so is Nanna." + +Janet had checked the contemptuous words trembling on her lips. Abruptly +she had changed the subject: "I want to tell you, Betty, how splendidly +the dinner went off to-night. Your cooking was first chop!" + +Betty at once softened. But all she said was: "I would give anything for +Mrs. Crofton to leave Beechfield, Janet. Did you see Jack's face?" + +"Yes, and I do feel worried about it. Yet one can't do anything." + +"I suppose one can't. But it's too bad of her. I think her a horrid +woman. Jack is just a scalp to her. I don't mind her flirtation with +Godfrey--that's much more reasonable!" + +Then she had hurried off upstairs without waiting for an answer, and her +step-mother, looking back, rather wondered that Betty had said that. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +Two hours later Janet Tosswill, after having tried in vain to read +herself to sleep, got out of bed and put on her dressing gown. Somehow +she felt anxious about Timmy. She had gone to his room on her way up +to bed; but, hearing no sound, she had crept away, hoping that he had +already cried himself to sleep. + +All sorts of curious theories and suspicions drifted through her mind as +she lay, tossing this way and that, trying to fall asleep. She wondered +uneasily why Timmy had brought Josephine at all into the drawing-room. +Of course there had been nothing exactly wrong in his doing so, though, +as Betty had justly remarked, it was a stupid thing to do so soon after +the birth of the cat's kittens. And Timmy was not stupid. + +Janet told herself crossly that it was almost as if Mrs. Crofton had the +evil eye, as far as animals were concerned! There had come back to her +the unpleasant scene which had occurred on the first evening their late +guest had come to Old Place, when Flick, most cheerful and happy-minded +of terriers, had behaved in such an extraordinary fashion. But +disagreeable as that affair had been, it was nothing to what had happened +to-night. + +She felt she would never forget the scene which had followed on the white +cat's attack on Mrs. Crofton. And yet, while concerned and sorry, she had +been shocked at the poor young woman's utter lack of self-control. + +It was quite true, as Betty had somewhat bitterly remarked, that she, +Janet Tosswill, did not care for cats. Unfortunately there was a certain +sentimental interest attached to Josephine, for she had been brought from +France as a kitten, a present from Betty to Timmy, by an officer who had +been George's closest pal. She was also ruefully aware that old Nanna +would very much resent the disappearance of "French pussy," as she had +always called Josephine. As for Timmy, Janet had never seen her boy look +as he had looked to-night since the dreadful day that they had received +the War Office telegram about George. + +Leaving her room, she walked along the corridor till she came to Timmy's +door. She tried the handle, and, finding with relief that the door was +unlocked, walked in. At once there came a voice across the room, "Is that +you, Mum?" + +"Yes, Timmy, it's Mum." + +Shutting the door, she felt her way across the room and came and sat down +on Timmy's bed. He was sitting up, wide awake. + +She put her arms round him. "I'm so sorry," she said feelingly; "so +sorry, Timmy, about your poor cat! But you know, my dear, that if--if she +were left alive, we could never feel comfortable for a single moment. You +see, when an animal has done that sort of thing once, it may do it +again." + +"Josephine would never do it again," said Timmy obstinately, and he +caught his breath with a sob. + +"You can't possibly know that, my dear. She would of course have other +kittens, and then some day, when some perfectly harmless person happened +to come anywhere near her, she would fly at him or her, just as she did +at Mrs. Crofton." + +"No, she wouldn't--she didn't do anything like that when she had her last +kittens." + +"I know that, Timmy. But you heard what Dr. O'Farrell said." + +"Dr. O'Farrell isn't God," said Timmy scornfully. + +"No, my dear, Dr. O'Farrell is certainly not God; but he is a very +sensible, humane human being--and the last man to condemn even an animal +to death, without good reason." + +There was a rather painful pause. Janet Tosswill felt as if the child +were withdrawing himself from her, both in a physical and in a mental +sense. + +"Mum?" he said in a low, heart-broken voice. + +"Yes, my dear?" + +"I want to tell you something." + +"Yes, Timmy?" + +"It's I who ought to be shot, not Josephine. It was all my fault. It had +nothing to do with her." + +"I don't know what you mean, Timmy. You mustn't talk in that exaggerated +way. Of course it was foolish of you to bring the cat into the +drawing-room, but still, you couldn't possibly have known that she would +fly at Mrs. Crofton, or you wouldn't have done it." + +"I _did_ think she'd fly at Mrs. Crofton," he whispered. + +Janet felt disagreeably startled. "What d'you mean, Timmy? D'you mean +that you saw the cat fly at her before it happened?" + +She had known the boy to have such strange, vivid premonitions of events +which had come to pass. + +But Timmy answered slowly: "No, I don't mean that. I mean, Mum, that I +wanted to try an experiment. I wanted to see if Josephine would see what +Flick saw--I mean if she'd see the ghost of Colonel Crofton's dog. She +did, for the dog was close to Mrs. Crofton's arm--the arm hanging over +the side of the sofa, you know." + +"Oh, Timmy! How very, very wrong of you to do such a thing!" + +"I know it was wrong." Timmy twisted himself about. "But it's no good you +saying that to me now--it only makes me more miserable." + +"But I _have_ to say so, my boy." Janet was not a Scotch mother for +nothing. "I have to say so, Timmy, and I shall not be sorry this +happened, if it makes you behave in a different way--as I hope it +will--the whole of your life long." + +"It won't--I won't let it--if anything is done to Josephine!" + +But she went on, a little desperately, yet speaking in a quiet, collected +way: "I believe the things you say, Timmy. I believe you do see things +which other people are not allowed to see. But that ought to make you +far, far more careful--not less careful. Try to be an instrument for +good, not for evil, my dear, dear child." + +Timmy did not answer at once, but at last he said in a queer, muffled +voice: "If I were to tell Dr. O'Farrell what I did, do you think it would +make any difference? Do you think that he'd let Josephine go on being +alive?" + +"No," his mother answered, sadly, "I don't think it would make any +difference." + +"I thought by what the doctor said at first that they were going to take +Josephine somewhere to see if she was really mad," said Timmy in a +choking voice, "just as they did to Captain Berner's dog last year." + +Janet Tosswill got up from her little boy's bed. She lit a candle. Poor +Timmy! She had never seen the boy looking as he was looking now; he +seemed utterly spent with misery. + +"I'll tell you what I'll do, my dear. I'll speak to Dr. O'Farrell myself +in the morning, and I'll ask him whether something can't be done in the +way of a reprieve. I'll tell him we don't mind paying for Josephine to be +sent away for a bit to a vet." + +Hope, ecstatic hope, flashed into Timmy's tear-stained face. "You mean to +a man like Trotman?" + +"Yes, that's what I do mean. But I mustn't raise false hopes. I fear Dr. +O'Farrell has made up his mind; he promised Mrs. Crofton the cat should +be shot. Still, I'll do my _very_ best." + +Timmy put his skinny arms round his mother's neck. + +"I'm glad you're my mother, Mum," he muttered, "and not my step-mother." + +She smiled for the first time. "That's rather a double-edged compliment, +if I may say so! But I suppose it's true that I would do a good deal more +for you than I would for any of the others." + +"I didn't mean _that_," exclaimed Timmy, shocked. "I only meant that I +wouldn't love you as well. I don't mean ever to be a step-father--I shall +start a lot of boys and girls of my own." + +"All right," she said soothingly, "I'm sure you will. Lie down now, and +try to go to sleep." She hoped with all her heart that the boy would +sleep late the next morning, as he very often did when tired out, and +that the execution, if execution there must be, would be over by the time +he woke. + +She bent down, tucked him up, kissed him, blew out the candle, and then +went quickly out of the room. + + * * * * * + +As soon as his mother had shut the door, Timmy sat up in bed, and then +he gave a smothered cry. It was as if he had seen flash out into the +darkness his beloved cat's wistful face, her beautiful, big, china-blue +eyes, gazing confidently at him, as if to say, "You'll save me, Master, +won't you?" + +He listened intently for a few minutes, then he slipped down and felt his +way to the door. He opened it; but there came no sound from the sleeping +house. Closing the door very, very softly, he lit his candle and rapidly +dressed himself in his day clothes, finally putting on a thick pair of +walking shoes, and over them goloshes. Timmy hated goloshes, and never +wore them if he could help it, but he had read in some detective story +that they deadened sound. + +Then he blew his candle out, and again he went across to the door and +listened. Opening it at last, he slithered along the familiar corridor +till he reached the three shallow steps which led up to the comparatively +new part of Old Place. There he felt his way with his fingers along the +wall to the room which had always been called, as long as he could +remember, "George's room." Turning the handle of the door slowly, he saw, +to his great surprise and gladness, that his godfather was not asleep. + +Radmore was sitting up in bed, reading luxuriously by the light of four +candles which he had placed on a table by his bedside. + +"Hello!" he exclaimed, as his godson's odd-looking little figure shuffled +across the room. "Why, what's the matter?" He spoke very kindly, for +Timmy's face was scared, his eyes red-rimmed with crying. + +"Come to have a chat, old boy? Why, Timmy--" as he suddenly realised the +boy was fully dressed, "whatever have you been doing? I thought you'd +gone to bed ever so long ago!" + +"I've been in bed a long time," answered Timmy, sidling up close to his +bed, "but I've just had a talk with Mum. I've come to ask you, Godfrey, +if you'll help me with something very important." He added: "Even if +you won't help me, I trust you to keep my secret." + +"Of course I'll keep your secret, old son." + +"I'm going to take Josephine and her kittens to Trotman," Timmy announced +solemnly. "I've been wondering, coming along the passage, if you would +take us there in your motor. But if you don't feel you want to do that, +I'm going to walk. It's not very far, only seven miles if one goes by +footpaths, and I could get a lift back." + +"Trotman?" repeated Radmore. "Who's Trotman?" + +It was Timmy's turn to be surprised. "I thought everyone--I mean every +man--in the world, knew about Trotman! Why, there was an account of him +once in the _London Magazine_. He's the famous vet--he lives at Epsom." + +Radmore lay back, and whistled thoughtfully. + +Timmy went on eagerly. "Last year there was a man near here who thought +he had a mad dog--and he took _him_ to Trotman. Trotman kept him for ever +so long, and it turned out that the dog was not mad at all. I _know_ that +Josephine isn't mad." + +"I don't think she's mad," said Radmore frankly, "but she's a pretty +vicious brute, Timmy. Is this the first time she's ever flown at anyone?" +He looked searchingly at his godson. + +"The very first time of all," answered the boy passionately. "I know why +Josephine flew at Mrs. Crofton--at least she didn't fly at her--at Mrs. +Crofton. She flew at the dog Mrs. Crofton always has with her." + +Radmore gave the child a long, steady look. + +"Come, Timmy, you know as well as I do that Mrs. Crofton had no dog with +her." + +"She had a dog with her," repeated Timmy obstinately. "It's not a dog +_you_ can see, but I see him and Flick sees him. I wanted to see if +Josephine would see him too. That's why I took her in there. So if she's +shot it will be all my fault." His voice broke, and, covering his face +with his hands, he turned his back on the bed and its occupant. + +Radmore stared at the small heaving back. There could be no doubt that +Timmy was speaking the truth _now_. "All right," he said quickly. "I'll +do what you want, Timmy. So cheer up! I suppose you've got a big basket +in which you can put your cat and her kittens? While I put on some +clothes, you can go and get her ready. But I advise you for your own sake +to be quiet. Our game will be all up, if your mother wakes. I simply +shouldn't dare to disobey _her_, you know." He smiled quizzically at the +child, and, as he mentioned Janet, he lowered his voice instinctively. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +However long Radmore lives, he will never forget that strange drive +through the autumn night. Fortunately, from the two conspirators' point +of view, there were only old-fashioned stables at Old Place, and +Radmore's car was kept in the village in a barn which had been cleverly +transformed by the blacksmith into a rough garage. + +While he dressed, and, indeed, after he joined the boy downstairs, he had +puzzled over Timmy--over the mixture of cruelty and kindness the child +had shown that evening. He could not but recall, with a feeling of +discomfort, the simple, innocent way in which the boy had explained why +he wanted to take his cat, Josephine, into the drawing-room--really +to do a kindness to the mistress of The Trellis House! It was somewhat +disagreeable to reflect how he, Radmore, who rather prided himself on +his knowledge of human nature, had been taken in. + +Off the two started at last, creeping out of one of the back doors. But +in his agitation over the business of getting the cat and her kittens +safely out of Old Place, Timmy had forgotten to put on a coat. They +were halfway down the avenue before Radmore noticed that the boy was +shivering, and then, mindful of Janet, he ordered him to go back and get +the warmest coat he could. + +And then, while he waited impatiently in the avenue, Radmore visualised +the extraordinary scene which had taken place in the drawing-room last +evening. Had the cat really seen anything of a supernatural nature? Or +was it only that she had been frightened by being suddenly brought into +a room full of people? If so, it was perhaps natural that she had blindly +flown at the one stranger there. + +At last Timmy returned, and they started off, neither speaking a word +until they were clear of the village. Radmore thought he knew every inch +of the way, for he and Betty had once cycled together all over the +countryside. He checked a sigh as he thought of those days--how happy he +had been, with that simple, unquestioning happiness which belongs only to +extreme youth. He wondered if Betty ever remembered those far-off days. +They had come very near, the one to the other, last evening, and yet, +from his point of view, theirs was an unsatisfactory kind of friendship. +It was as if she was always holding something back from him. And then, +while he was thinking of Betty, the little boy sitting by his side +suddenly observed: + +"Perhaps we might tell Betty--I mean when we get back again--where +Josephine and her kittens are? She was awfully upset last night; almost +as upset as I was. You see, Josephine's a French cat. She was brought +home--I mean to England, you know--by the officer who now wants to marry +Betty." Timmy uttered these words in a very matter-of-fact voice. Then, +for a moment, he forgot Betty, for the car swerved suddenly. + +"The officer who wants to marry Betty?" repeated Radmore. "I didn't know +there was an officer who wanted to marry Betty." + +"Nobody's supposed to know," said Timmy composedly. "But Mum and I, as +well as father, know. Only a very vulgar sort of girl lets anyone know +when someone wants to marry her. Mr. Barton is so ridiculous about Dolly, +following her about and always looking at her, that we all know it, +though Mum wonders sometimes if he knows it himself. But neither Dolly +nor Rosamund knows about Betty's man. Luckily, they were away when he +last came here and saw father. The first time Betty meant him to send +the kitten in a basket from London. She even gave him the money for +Josephine's fare, but he _would_ give it back to father. He brought her +himself because he wanted to see father, and talk to him about Betty and +George." + +"Then he knew George, too?" + +"Yes, that's how he got to know Betty, when she was in France, you know, +and why she gave him the kitten to bring home on leave. He knew all about +_us_, and when father called me into the study to take Josephine, he +said: 'Is this Timmy?' And then after that he just went straight on about +Betty, as if I wasn't there. He said that if he got through, he meant to +wait--he didn't mind how long, if only Betty would say 'Yes' in the end." + +"Has he been here since Betty came home?" asked Radmore abruptly. + +Somehow this revelation astonished and discomfited him very much. It had +never occurred to him that Betty might marry. + +"No," said Timmy. "He has never come again, for he's in Mesopotamia; but +he writes to Betty, and then she writes back to him. You see he was a +friend of George's--that makes her like him, I suppose." + +They drove on for a while in silence, and then Timmy enquired, rather +anxiously: "You won't tell Betty I've told you, will you, Godfrey? I +don't think she wants anyone to know. He sent me a lovely picture +postcard once--it was to Timmy Tosswill, Esq.--and then I asked Betty +whether she meant to marry him, as he was such a nice sort of man. She +was awfully angry with me for knowing about it, and she began to cry. So +you won't say anything to her, will you?" + +"No, of course I won't," said Radmore hastily. + +They were now emerging on the wide sweep of down commanding the little +old country town which stands to the whole world as the racing capital of +England. To their left, huge and gaunt against the night sky, rose the +Grand Stand. + +"Where does Trotman hang out?" asked Radmore. "Shan't we have a devil of +a difficulty in knocking him up?" + +"I don't think we shall," said his small companion, confidently. "You see +there must always be some sick animal for someone to sit up with. I'd +rather be nurse to a dog than to a woman, wouldn't you?" + +They turned into the steep road leading into the town, flashing past +shuttered villas set in gardens, till they reached a labyrinth of quaint, +narrow, walled thoroughfares dating from the 18th century. + +"We're very near now," said Timmy. "Isn't it funny, Godfrey, to feel that +everybody's asleep but us?" They had come to a corner where high walls +enclosed what might once have been the kitchen garden of a Georgian +manor-house. + +"Here it is!" cried the boy. + +Radmore stopped the car and then he jumped out and struck a match. Over +a door, set in the wall, stood out in clear lettering the words, "John +Trotman, Veterinary Surgeon." Feeling a little doubtful of what their +reception would be like, he pulled the bell. There was a pause, a long +pause, and then they heard the sound of light, quick footsteps, and the +door was unlocked. + +"Who's there? What is it?" came in a woman's voice, and a quaint figure, +dressed in a short, dark dressing-gown, and looking not unlike Noah's +wife, appeared holding a lantern in her hand. She had a kindly, shrewd +face, and when Radmore said apologetically, "I'm sorry to disturb you, +but the matter is really urgent, and we've brought a sick animal many +miles in order that it may benefit by Mr. Trotman's skill," her face +cleared, and she said cordially: "All right, sir, come right in." + +As they walked along through a curious kind of trellised tunnel, Timmy +carrying Josephine and her kittens, there arose an extraordinary chorus +of sounds in which furious barking predominated. + +"You have a regular menagerie here," said Radmore, smiling. + +"Why, yes, sir," she answered simply, "but they'll all quiet down after a +bit. They're startled like, hearing strange footsteps." + +She led them into the house, and so through into a pleasant little +parlour, full of the good 18th Century furniture which may still be found +in the older houses of an English country town. Sporting prints--some of +considerable value--hung on the walls. There was still a little fire +alight in the deep grate, throwing out a warmth that was comforting to +both the man and the boy. + +"If you'll wait here, I'll get my husband." + +While Mrs. Trotman had left the room, Radmore remarked: "I've made up my +mind what to say to Trotman, so please don't interrupt." + +And Timmy listened silently to the explanation his godfather gave of +Josephine's strange behaviour of the night before. It was an explanation +that squared with the facts--at any rate, according to the speaker's +point of view--for Radmore told the famous vet that the cat, upset by the +sight of a strange dog, had flown at a lady and bitten her. He added +frankly that the doctor had suggested that the animal should be kept +under observation, and then he managed to convey that money was no +object, as the cat was a cherished pet sent from France during the War. + +Everything was soon arranged, for Mr. Trotman was a man of few words. +Radmore gave his own name and the address of Old Place, and then, just +before leaving the house, he put down a L5 note on the table. + +The sturdy, grizzled old man took up the note and held it out to his new +client. "I'd rather not take this, sir, if you don't mind," he said a +little gruffly. "We'll send you in a proper bill in due course. You +needn't be afraid. The cat shall have every care, and of course, if +things should go wrong--you know what I mean--I'll at once give you a +telephone call. But, as far as I can tell, you're right, and it was just +fear for her young made her behave so." He turned to his wife. "Now then, +mother, you just get back to bed! I'll see to these gentlemen, and to +poor pussy." + +They shook hands with Mrs. Trotman, and then the famous vet took them +down the trellised path and stood in the doorway till they got into the +car. + +"I'm glad to have met you, Mr. Trotman," Radmore called out heartily. +"I'd like to come over here one day, and go over your place." + +As they raced up towards the Downs, Radmore suddenly turned to Timmy: +"The more time goes on, the more it's borne in on me that there's nothing +like the old people of the old country." And as the boy, surprised, said +nothing for once, he went on, "I hope that the stock won't ever give +out." + +"How d'you mean?" + +"Well, take those two people, that man and woman. We get them out of +their warm, comfortable bed in the middle of the night, they knowing +nothing about us, except that we bring a cat which may be mad; and yet +they take it all in the day's work; they're civil, kindly, obliging--and +the man won't take money he hasn't earned! I call that splendid, Timmy. +You might almost go the world over before you'd find a couple like +that--anywhere but in England." + + * * * * * + +They drove on and on, and then all at once, Radmore, glancing down to his +left, saw that Timmy had fallen asleep. Now Timmy, asleep, looked like an +angelic cherub, and so very different from his usual alert, inquisitive, +little awake self. And there welled up in Radmore's heart the strangest +feeling of tenderness--not only for Timmy but for the whole of the +Tosswill family--not only for the Tosswill family, but for the whole of +this sturdy, quiet, apparently unemotional world of England to which he +had come back. + +The human mind and brain work in mysterious ways. Radmore will never +know, to the day of his death, the effect that this curious night drive +had on the whole of his future life. He was not a man to quote poetry, +even to himself, but to-night there came into his mind some words he had +heard muttered by a corporal in Gallipoli: + + "What do they know of England + Who only England know?" + +When he had left his homeland, now nearly ten years ago, he had been in a +bitter mood. It had seemed to him that his own country was rejecting him +with scorn. But now his heart swelled proudly at the thought of the old +country--of all that she had endured since then. He had thought England +altered and very much for the worse, when he was in London on his two +brief "leaves" during the War, but now he knew how unchanged his country +was--in the things that really matter.... + +When he had come back for good, this summer, he had looked forward to an +easy, selfish life--the sort of life certain men whom he had envied as a +boy used to lead before the war. + +Radmore knew, as every man who has lived to the age of thirty-two must +know, that marriage brings with it certain cares, responsibilities, and +troubles, and so he had deliberately made up his mind to avoid marriage, +though he had been conscious the while that if he fell violently in love, +then, perhaps, half knowing all the time that he was a fool, he might +find himself pushed into marriage with some foolish girl, or what was +perchance more likely, with a pretty widow. + +To-night he realised with a sort of shame that there were moments--he +was glad that they were only moments--when he felt uneasily yet strongly +attracted to Enid Crofton, and that though he knew how selfish, how +self-absorbed and, yes, how cruel she could be. For well he knew she had +been cruel to her elderly husband. He was sorry now that she had come to +Beechfield. She had become an irritating, disturbing element in his life. + +Radmore had looked at every eligible property within a radius of twenty +miles of Old Place, but though some of them did not fall far short of the +ideal he had in his mind, he hadn't felt as if he wanted any of them. +They were too trim, too new--in a word, too suburban. Even the very old +houses had been transformed by their owners much as The Trellis House had +been transformed, into something to suit modern taste. He told himself +that he must begin looking again--looking in real dead earnest, going +farther afield. + +Absorbed in his thoughts, he had driven on and on, almost mechanically, +till suddenly they came to four cross-roads. He drew up under a +sign-post, jumped out and struck a match, and as he read the painted +words he realised, with vexation, that he had gone a good bit out of his +way. There was nothing for it now but to go on till they struck the +Portsmouth Road. It was the quietest hour of the twenty-four, and it was +very unlikely they would meet with anyone who could put them right. + +And then, while going up a lane, which he knew to be at any rate in the +right direction, he came to a park gate. Just within was a lodge, and in +one of the windows of the lodge there shone a light. Again Radmore +stopped the car and jumped out, Timmy still heavily asleep. + +He went up to the door of the lodge and rapped with his knuckles. It +opened and revealed a young woman, fully dressed. "What do you want?" she +exclaimed, in a frightened voice. + +"I've lost my way," he said, "and seeing a light in your window, I +ventured to knock. I've no idea where I am--I want to get to Beechfield." + +"Beechfield? Why, you're nigh forty miles from there," she said, +surprised. + +"Can you tell me how I can get on to the Portsmouth Road?" + +"Aye, I think I could do that; but stop your engine, please--I've a +little girl in here as is very ill." + +He ran out and did what she asked. Then he came back, and as she took him +into her tiny living-room, he saw that there were tears rolling down her +tired face. + +"Is your child very ill?" he asked. + +She nodded. "Doctor says if she can get through the next two days she may +be all right." + +"Is your husband with you?" + +She shook her head. "I'm a widow, sir; my husband was killed in the War. +I'm only caretaking here. When the house up there is sold, they'll turn +me out." + +"I'm looking for a country house. Perhaps I'll come over and see it one +day. Is it an old house?" + +"Well," she said vaguely, "it isn't a new house, sir. It's a mighty fine +place, and they do say it's going dirt cheap." And then she added slowly, +"There's a map hanging in the kitchen. It was hanging up yonder in the +servants' hall but I brought it down here, as so many people asks the +way." + +It was an old-fashioned country road map, and Radmore, bending down, saw +in a moment where he was, and the best way home; and then feeling in a +queer kind of mood, a mood in which a man may do a strange and unexpected +thing, he took out of his pocket the L5 he had offered to Mr. Trotman. + +"Look here," he said, "I'd like you just to take this and get your little +girl whatever you think necessary when she's on the mend. She'll want a +lot of care, eh?" + +Twice the woman opened her mouth, and found she couldn't speak. + +He held out his hand, and she squeezed it with her thin, work-worn +fingers. "I do hope God will bless you, sir!" she said. And he went back +to the car, feeling oddly cheered. + + * * * * * + +It was past five when Radmore and Timmy crept like burglars through one +of the back doors of Old Place. He sent the boy straight up to bed, but +he himself felt hopelessly wide awake, so he went out of doors again, +into Janet's delightful scented garden, and tramped up and down a bit to +get warm. Suddenly he knew that he was hungry. Why shouldn't he go into +the scullery and brew himself a cup of tea? + +As he went into the kitchen, he saw on the table a kettle, a spirit +stove, a cup and saucer, tea caddy and teapot, even a thermos full of hot +water--everything ready to make an early cup of tea. He left the thermos +alone, and filled up the kettle at the scullery sink. + +Radmore was still very much of an old campaigner. Still it was a long +time since he had made himself a cup of tea, and he became a little +impatient for the cold water took a long time to boil. + +The kettle was just beginning to sing, when the door which led to the +flight of stairs connecting the scullery with the upper floors of the +house opened quietly, and Betty appeared--Betty, in a becoming blue +dressing-gown, which intensified the peachy clearness of her skin, +and the glint of pale gold in the shadowed fairness of her hair. Morning +was Betty's hour. As the day wore on, she was apt to become fagged and +worried, especially since Nanna's accident. + +Just for a moment she looked very much taken aback, then she smiled, +"I've come down to make a cup of tea for Nanna." + +"So I suppose, but _you_ must have a cup first. See, I'm making some for +you." + +"Are you?" She tried not to show the surprise she felt. + +"While you're having it, we'll make Nanna a cup of tea with the water in +the thermos there. But where's the milk?" + +He saw her face from merry become sad. "I always save some milk for +Josephine," she said. "I'll go and get it now. But we mustn't use it all; +I must save some for that poor cat." + +"You'll have to go a long way to give milk to Josephine," he observed. + +She looked at him, startled, and going to the scullery door, glanced +quickly at the corner where stood the now empty basket. + +"Where is she?" she exclaimed--and her whole face lightened. "Oh, +Godfrey, have you managed to hide her away?" + +He nodded. "Yes, ever so many miles away, where no one will find her." + +"What do you mean?" She could not conceal her astonishment--her +astonishment and her intense relief. + +"Timmy and I spirited her away," he went on, "to a cat's paradise where +she's going to be kept under observation." + +"Won't Dr. O'Farrell be very angry?" + +"I don't think he'll mind as much as he'll pretend to. The moment he was +told about her kittens he knew that the cat wasn't mad at all." + +"The person who will be angry," exclaimed Betty, "is Mrs. Crofton! I +thought it horribly cruel of her to say what she did last night." + +"It was rather vindictive," he said reflectively. "On the other hand, you +must remember that she'd had an awful shock. I don't wonder she felt +angry with Josephine, eh?" He looked a little quizzically, a little +deprecatingly, over at Betty. + +"Still it seemed so--so unnecessary that she should _ask_ for the cat to +be killed." Betty was now bustling about the kitchen with a heightened +colour. + +Radmore poured out a cup of tea. "Now then," he said, "do come and sit +down quietly, and take your tea, Betty." Rather to his surprise, she +meekly obeyed. + +Presently she asked him, "But why have you got up so early?" + +And then he told her the story of his and Timmy's night expedition, +ending up with: "I intend going round to Dr. O'Farrell's house about +eight o'clock. It wouldn't be fair to let the old fellow come down here +to indulge his sporting instincts, eh?" + +To that Betty made no answer, and as the water was now boiling she went +across to the dresser and brought a clean cup and saucer. "Now then, +Godfrey, this cup is for you. Nanna can wait a little longer for hers." + +He sat down opposite to her, and into both their minds there came the +thought that if they had married and gone out to Australia they would +have often sat thus together in the early morning. + +And then, when Nanna's cup of tea was at last ready, together with some +nice thin bread and butter cut, he asked, "Can't I carry the tray up for +you?" + +She shook her head, smiling. + +"I suppose you'll be down again soon? Isn't there anything else I can +help you with?" + +But this time Betty shook her head even more decidedly than before. + +"Oh, no!" she exclaimed. "I've got to make Nanna comfortable for the day, +and it's a long business, for she's dreadfully particular. As a matter of +fact, Rosamund and Dolly will be down before I am. They'll start +everything going for breakfast. They've been very good lately, you know! +Perhaps you'd like to give _them_ a hand?" + +He looked at her hard. There was just the flicker of a mischievous smile +on her face. + +"I suppose I ought to help them," he said without enthusiasm. "But I'll +go and have a bath now. You'll let me be your scullion when you're +getting lunch ready, eh, Betty?" He added hastily, "I think Timmy ought +to stay in bed all day to-day. You _will_ let me take the place of Timmy, +won't you, Betty?" + +"That will be very kind of you," she replied demurely. And then, before +she could say a word of protest, he had taken the heavy tray out of her +hands. "You'll find me much more useful than Timmy," he said, with a +touch of his old masterfulness. "Now you lead the way up, and I'll hand +you over the tray at Nanna's door." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +Some three or four hours later, Miss Pendarth, attired in a queer kind +of brown smock which fell in long folds about her tall, still elegant +figure, and with a gardening basket slung over her arm, stood by the +glass door giving into her garden, when suddenly she heard a loud double +knock on her stout, early Victorian knocker. + +She turned quickly into her morning room. Who could it be? She knew the +knock and ring of each of her neighbours, and this was none of them. + +Her maid hurried out of the kitchen, and a moment later she heard a man's +voice exclaim: "Will you kindly give this note to Miss Pendarth? I will +return for the answer in about an hour." + +Miss Pendarth knew the voice, and, stepping out of her morning room, she +called out: "Come in just for a few minutes, Mr. Radmore." + +In the old days she had always called him "Godfrey," but when Timmy had +brought him to call within a day or two of his return to Beechfield, she +had used the formal mode of address. + +Radmore had to obey her, willy-nilly, and as he came down the hall +towards her, she was struck by the keenness and intelligence of his +dark face. She told herself grudgingly that he had certainly improved +amazingly, at any rate in outward appearance, during the last ten years. + +"Do let us go into your garden," he said courteously. "I hear that you +are still Mrs. Tosswill's only rival!" + +She softened, in spite of herself. The Godfrey Radmore of ten years ago +would not have thought of saying such a civil, pleasant thing. + +They walked through the glass door, and proceeded in silence down the +path. The herbaceous borders were in fuller beauty than anything the Old +Place garden could now show, but Radmore paid no further compliment, and +it was she who broke the silence. + +"You must see amazing changes at Old Place," she said musingly. "The rest +of Beechfield has altered comparatively little, but Old Place is very +different, with George gone, and all those young people who were children +when you went away, grown up. As for Timmy, he was little more than a +baby ten years ago." + +"Timmy is my godson," said Radmore quickly. Her allusion to George had +cut him. + +Miss Pendarth turned on him rather sharply. "Of course I know that! I +remember his christening as if it was yesterday. It must be twelve or +thirteen years ago. I can see you and Betty standing by the font--" and +then she stopped abruptly, while Radmore blushed hotly under his tan. + +He said hastily: "Timmy's a dear little chap, but I confess I can't make +him out sometimes." + +Miss Pendarth turned and looked at him. She knew everything there was to +know about Timmy Tosswill. His mother had early confided in her, and she +never spoke of the child to other people. Like so many gossips, when +really trusted with a secret, Miss Pendarth could keep a confidence--none +better. + +But she felt that Godfrey Radmore was entitled to know the little she +could tell him, so "Timmy is a very queer child," she said slowly, "but +I can't help thinking, Mr. Radmore--" + +"Do call me Godfrey," he exclaimed, and at once she went on: + +"Well, Godfrey, I think a certain amount of his oddity is owing to the +fact that he's never been to school or mixed with other boys. I'm told +he's a good scholar, but he's a shocking speller! Where's the good of +knowing Latin and Greek if you can't spell such a simple word as +chocolate--he spells it 'chockolit.' Still, I'm bound to admit the child +sees and foresees more than most human beings are allowed to see and +foresee." + +And then, as Radmore remained silent, she went on: "Do you yourself +believe in all that sort of thing, Godfrey--I mean second sight, and so +on?" + +Radmore answered frankly: "Yes, I think I do. I didn't before the War--I +never gave any thought to any of these subjects. But during the War +things happened to me and to some of my chums which made me believe, +in a way I never had believed till then, in the reality of another state +of being--I mean a world quite near to this world, one full of spirits, +good and evil, who exercise a certain influence on the living." + +They had come to a circular stone seat which was much older even than +this old garden, and Miss Pendarth motioned her visitor to sit down. + +"It isn't a new thing with Timmy," she said. "As a matter of fact, even +before you left Beechfield, Dr. O'Farrell regarded the child as being in +some way abnormal." + +"D'you mean while he was still a baby?" asked Radmore. + +"Well, when he had just emerged from babyhood. But I doubt if anyone knew +it but Timmy's parents, the doctor, myself, and yes, I mustn't forget +Nanna. He was a very extraordinary little child. He spoke so very early, +you know." + +"I do remember that." + +"Unfortunately," went on Miss Pendarth, "it's difficult to know when +Timmy is telling the truth, or what he believes to be the truth, about +his gift. I think that often--and I know that Betty agrees with me--the +boy invents all kinds of fantastic tales in order to impress the people +about him." + +"As far as I can make out," said Radmore slowly, "he's always told _me_ +the truth." + +"I'll tell you something curious that happened--let me see, about seven +years ago. You remember an old man we used to call Gaffer John? He had +Wood Cottage, and lived in a very comfortable sort of way." + +"Of course I remember Gaffer John! He was well over ninety when I left +Beechfield, and he had been valet years ago to one of Queen Victoria's +cousins." + +"Yes, that's the man I mean. At last he was found dead in his chair. He +had what was by way of being rather a grand funeral. Timmy, for some +reason or other (I think he had a cold), wasn't allowed to attend the +funeral, and as he was set on seeing it, Janet said that he might come +and see it from one of my windows. Well, after the funeral was over, he +stayed on with me for a few minutes, and suddenly he exclaimed: 'Gaffer +John isn't dead at all, Miss Pendarth.' I naturally answered, 'Of course +he is, Timmy. Why, we've just seen him buried.' And then he said: 'Don't +you see him walking out there, along the road, quite plainly? He's behind +an old gentleman dressed up for a fancy ball.' Then, Godfrey, the child +went on to describe the kind of uniform which would have been worn +seventy years ago by a staff officer. I couldn't help being impressed, in +spite of myself, for I'd never given Timmy the slightest encouragement to +talk in that sort of way, and it's the only time he's ever done it, with +me." + +"What does his mother really think of this queer power of his?" asked +Radmore. "I've never liked to talk to her about it." + +"It's difficult to say. In some ways Janet Tosswill's a very reserved +woman. But I'll tell you another curious thing about the child." +Instinctively she lowered her voice. + +"The day before poor George was killed, Timmy cried and cried and cried. +It was impossible to comfort him--and he wouldn't give any reason for his +grief. Both Janet and Betty were dreadfully upset. They thought he had +some pain that he wouldn't tell them of, and they would have sent for Dr. +O'Farrell, but they knew he was away, some miles off, at a very difficult +case. Betty actually came in and asked if _I_ would try to make him say +what was the matter! But of course I could do nothing with him. I think +you know that he was passionately fond of George." + +"What does Dr. O'Farrell think of it all?" + +"He's convinced that Timmy has got a kind of peculiar, rare, +thought-reading gift. He won't hear of its being in any sense +supernatural. I haven't spoken to him about it lately, but the last time +he mentioned the child, he told me he was sure that what he called the +boy's 'subconscious self' would in time sink into its proper place." + +"I wonder if it will?" exclaimed Radmore. "I don't see why it should." + +"No, nor do I, excepting that, as time goes on, Timmy has become much +more like a normal boy than he used to be. I'm convinced that very often +he pretends to see things that he doesn't see. He loves frightening the +village people, for instance, and some of them are really afraid of him. +They think he can heal certain simple ailments, and they're absolutely +certain that he can what they call 'blight' them!" + +"What a very convenient gift," observed Radmore drily. "I've known a good +many people in my time I should have liked to 'blight'!" + +Even as he spoke, an unpleasant question was obtruding itself. Was it +possible that Timmy had a "scunner" against poor little Enid Crofton? + +"D'you think the child has a jealous disposition?" he asked abruptly. + +Miss Pendarth looked round at him, rather surprised by the question. +"He's never any occasion to be jealous," she said shortly. "Betty and +Janet both worship him, and so does his old nurse. I don't think he cares +for anyone else in the world excepting these three. Perhaps I ought to +make an exception in _your_ favour--from what I'm told he cherishes a +romantic affection for _you_." + +Miss Pendarth went on: "Mind you--I think there's often a touch of malice +about the boy! Timmy wouldn't be at all averse to doing mischief to +anyone he didn't like, or whom he thought ill of." + +"There are a good many grown-up people of whom one can say that," +observed Radmore. + +And then, almost as if the other had seen into his mind, Miss Pendarth, +with a touch of significance in her voice, observed musingly: "I fancy +Timmy doesn't much like the pretty young widow who has taken The Trellis +House. The first evening Mrs. Crofton came to see the Tosswills, she got +an awful fright. Timmy's dog, Flick, rushed into the room and began +snarling and growling at her. There was a most disagreeable scene, and +from what one of the girls said the other day, it seems to have +prejudiced the boy against her." + +Radmore looked straight into Miss Pendarth's face. Then she hadn't yet +heard about last night? + +There was a slight pause. + +"Yes," said Radmore at last. "I'm afraid that Timmy does dislike Mrs. +Crofton." + +"Perhaps," said Miss Pendarth slowly, "the boy has more reason to dislike +her than we know." As Radmore said nothing, she went on: "Mrs. Crofton is +behaving in a very wrong, as well as in a very unladylike, way with Jack +Tosswill." + +Radmore moved uneasily in his seat. It was time for him to escape. This +was the Miss Pendarth of long ago--noted for the spiteful, dangerous +things she sometimes said. + +He got up. "Jack certainly goes to see her very often," he said, "but I +don't think that's her fault. Forgive me for saying so, Miss Pendarth, +but you know what village gossip is?" + +"I'm afraid that she's giving Jack a great deal of deliberate +encouragement. Even her servants believe that he regards himself as +engaged to her." + +"What absolute nonsense!" exclaimed Radmore vigorously. "Why, if it comes +to that, Rosamund's quite as much at The Trellis House as Jack is, and +even _I_ go there very often!" + +"Yes, I know you do; at one time you were first favourite," said Miss +Pendarth coolly. + +She had never been lacking in courage. + +"And yet I can assure you," he exclaimed in a challenging tone, "that I, +at any rate, am not at all in love with Mrs. Crofton." + +"Sit down, Godfrey. There's something I want to ask you." + +Unwillingly he obeyed. + +"I think you knew Colonel Crofton?" + +"Yes, and I liked him very much." + +"I'm afraid from what I've heard that she wasn't a particularly good wife +to him." Radmore was surprised at the feeling in her voice, but he asked +himself irritably how the devil had Miss Pendarth heard anything of the +Croftons and their private affairs? + +He got up again, feeling vexed with himself for having come in to Rose +Cottage. + +She also rose from the stone seat. + +"Stop just one moment, Godfrey. I didn't realize that you knew Mrs. +Crofton as well as you seem to do. I do beg of you to convey to her that +she ought to be more prudent. I'm quite serious as to the talk about Jack +Tosswill. They seem to have gone on a walk together yesterday afternoon, +and the girl at the post-office, who is often sent long distances with +telegrams and messages, saw them in the North Wood kissing one another." + +Godfrey uttered an exclamation of surprise and disgust. + +How extraordinary that a woman of Miss Pendarth's birth and breeding +should listen to, and believe, low village gossip! + +"Really," he said at last, "that's too bad! I can't understand, Miss +Pendarth, how you can believe such a story--" He nearly added, "or allow +it to be told you!" + +"I wouldn't believe everybody," she said in a low voice, "but I do +believe Jane Nichol. She's a sensible, quiet, reserved girl. She seems to +have passed quite close to them, but they were so absorbed in themselves +that they didn't see her. She told no one but her aunt, and her aunt told +me. I'm sorry to say I do believe the story, and I think you will agree +that what may be sport to your pretty friend might mean lifelong +bitterness to such a boy as Jack Tosswill." She added earnestly, "Can't +you say just a word to her?" + +"Well, no, I don't see how I can! Still I promise you to try to do it if +I get the chance." + +He felt sharply disturbed and annoyed, and yet he didn't believe a word +of that vulgar story! Of course it was foolish of Enid Crofton to go for +a long walk alone with Jack Tosswill. That sort of thing was bound to +make talk. What would the village people think if they knew how often he, +Radmore, and Mrs. Crofton had dined and lunched together during the three +weeks that he had been there? Thank Heaven, they didn't know, and never +would. + +"Did you ever read the report of the inquest on Colonel Crofton?" asked +Miss Pendarth meaningly. + +"I hadn't the chance. I was still in Australia," he said shortly. + +"If you'll wait a moment I'll bring it to you," was the, to him, +astonishing reply. + +Miss Pendarth walked off with her quick, light footsteps towards the +house, and Radmore, gazing after her, told himself that she was indeed +a strange woman. In some ways he had liked her far better to-day than he +had ever liked her before, but the low, silly bit of gossip she had just +told him filled him with disgust. + +Very soon she was back, holding in her hand a newspaper. + +An inquest of the kind that was held on Colonel Crofton is a godsend to +any local sheet, and Radmore saw at a glance that this county paper had +made the most of it. + +"Will you read it here, if you're not in a hurry? I don't want it taken +away; so while you're reading it, I'll go and do some potting over +there." + +She disappeared into a glass-house built across a corner of her garden, +and he settled down to read the long newspaper columns. + +Soon his feeling quickened into intense interest. The local Essex +reporter had a turn for descriptive writing, and, as he read, Godfrey +Radmore saw the scene described rise vividly before him. He seemed to +visualise the intensely crowded little court-house, the kindly coroner, +the twelve good men and true, and the motley gathering of small town and +country folk drawn together in the hope of hearing something startling. + +Yet the facts were simple enough. Colonel Crofton had died from either an +accidental, or a deliberate, over-dose of strychnine. And his death had +been a terrible one. + +The outstanding points of interrogation were: Had he consciously added +to a tonic which he was taking an ounce or more of the deadly drug? Or, +as some people were inclined to believe, had the local chemist by some +mistake or gross piece of carelessness, put a murderous amount of +strychnine into a mixture which had been prescribed for his customer +about a fortnight before? + +But for the fact that a bottle of nux vomica had been actually found on +the ledge of the dead man's dressing-room window, it would have gone hard +with the chemist. But there the bottle had been found, and in her +evidence, evidently given very clearly and simply, Mrs. Crofton had +explained that, during the war, while in Egypt, she had palpitations of +the heart, and so many drops of diluted strychnine had been ordered her. + +When asked why there was so large a bottle full of the deadly stuff, she +had answered that it had come from the Army Stores, where they always did +things in a big and generous way. At that there had been laughter in +Court. + +Mrs. Crofton had further explained that, as a matter of fact, she had +brought the bottle back to England without really knowing that she had +done so; and that she had never given it a thought till it had been +found, as described, after her husband's death, by the doctor who had +been called in to attend Colonel Crofton in his agonizing seizure. + +One thing stated by Mrs. Crofton much surprised Radmore. She had +asserted, quite definitely, that her husband had suffered from +shell-shock. That Radmore believed to be quite untrue. + +With quickened, painful interest he read her account of how odd and how +cranky Colonel Crofton had become when wholly absorbed in his hobby of +breeding wire-haired terriers. How, when one of his dogs had failed to +win a prize, he would go about muttering to himself, and visiting his +annoyance and disappointment on those about him. + +She had drawn a sad picture of the last long months of their joint life +together and Radmore began to feel very, very sorry for her.... What an +awful ordeal the poor little woman had gone through! + +The doctor's evidence made painful reading, but what had really clinched +the matter was the evidence of one Piper, the Croftons' general odd man +and trusted servant. He had been Colonel Crofton's batman during part of +the war, and was evidently much attached to him. When Piper repeated the +words in which his master had once or twice threatened to take his own +life, his evidence had obviously made a strong impression on both coroner +and jury. + +Radmore remembered Piper with a faint feeling of dislike. It was Piper +who had prepared the puppy, Flick, for the cross-country journey to +Beechfield, and Radmore had given the man a handsome tip for all the +trouble he had taken. + +Yes, he had not liked Piper; so much he remembered. He had thought the +man self-assertive, over self-confident, while disagreeably cringing in +manner. + +He read through the coroner's charge, which was given fully, very +attentively. It was quite clear that the coroner was strongly biased, +if one could put it that way, in Mrs. Crofton's favour. He had spoken +touchingly of the difficult time the poor young lady had had with her +husband. Then he had recalled that the Colonel's own favourite terrier, +Dandy, on which he had built great hopes, had only been commended, +instead of winning, as he had hoped, the first prize at an important +show, and that had thoroughly upset him. Indeed, according to Piper's +evidence, he had used the exaggerated phrase, "My life is no longer worth +living." Finally the coroner had touched lightly, but severely, on +evidence tendered by a spiteful ex-woman-servant of the Croftons who had +drawn a very unpleasant picture of the relations existing between the +husband and wife. + +Yet when the verdict of _felo de se_ had been returned, there had been +murmurs in Court, at once sharply checked by the coroner. + +Radmore felt surprised. Surely everyone present should have rejoiced from +every point of view. Had a different verdict been returned, it would have +put the unfortunate chemist in a very difficult position, and might +easily have ruined his business. + +Though Radmore was grateful to Miss Pendarth for allowing him to read the +report, it had an effect very different from that she had intended, for +it made him pity Mrs. Crofton intensely. Somehow he had never realised +what a terrible ordeal the poor little woman had been through. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +A week later Enid Crofton lay in her drawing-room on the one couch which +The Trellis House contained. She looked very charming in her new guise +of invalid. + +Several people had already called to know how she was, including Jack +Tosswill and his father, but no visitor had yet been admitted. Now it was +past four, and she was expecting the doctor--also, she hoped, in due +course, Godfrey Radmore. That was why she had come downstairs, after +having had an early cup of tea in her bedroom, and lain herself on the +sofa. + +The door opened, and as his burly form came through the door, Dr. +O'Farrell told himself that he had seldom if ever attended such an +attractive looking patient! She was still very pale, for the shock had +been great; but to-day, for the first time since her widowhood, she had +put on a pink silk jacket, and it supplied the touch of colour which was +needed by her white cheeks. She had made up her mind that even a little +rouge would be injudicious, but she had just used her lip-stick. It was +pleasant to know that she had every right to be an interesting invalid +with all an interesting invalid's privileges. + +And yet, well acquainted as she was with the turns and twists of +masculine human nature, Mrs. Crofton would have been surprised to +know how suddenly repelled was the genial Irishman when she exclaimed +eagerly:--"I do hope that horrible cat has been killed! Didn't I hear +you say that you meant to shoot her yourself?" + +It was not without a touch of sly satisfaction that Dr. O'Farrell +answered:--"That was my intention certainly, Mrs. Crofton. But I was +frustrated. The cat and her kittens vanished--just entirely away!" + +"Vanished?" she exclaimed. "Then perhaps someone else has killed her?" + +"Bless you, no. I'm afraid that the brute has still got her nine lives +before her! She was spirited away by that broth of a boy. Timmy +Tosswill's a good hater and a good lover, and that's the truth of it! I +wasn't a bit surprised when I got the news that my services wouldn't be +wanted--that the cat wasn't any longer at Old Place." + +"D'you mean you don't know what's happened to the horrible creature?" she +exclaimed vexedly. + +"That's just what I do mean, Mrs. Crofton. That smart little fellow just +spirited the creature away." + +As he spoke, sitting with his back to the window, he was observing his +pretty patient very closely. She had reddened angrily and was biting her +lips. What a little vixen _she_ was, to be sure! And suddenly she saw +what he was thinking. + +"I'd like to put a question to you, Mrs. Crofton." + +"Do!" she insisted, but his question, when it came, displeased her. + +"Is it true that that wasn't the first time you'd had an unpleasant +experience with an animal at Old Place?" + +Dr. O'Farrell had not meant to ask his patient this question to-day, but +he really felt curious to know the truth concerning something Godfrey +Radmore had told him that morning. + +"Yes," she answered, slowly, "the first time I was in Old Place, Timmy +Tosswill's dog frightened me out of my wits." + +"That's very strange," said the doctor, "Flick's such a mild-mannered +dog." + +Enid Crofton lifted herself up from her reclining position. "Dr. +O'Farrell! I wouldn't say so to anyone but you, but don't you think +there's something uncanny about Timmy Tosswill? My little maid told me +last night that the village people think he's a kind of--well, I don't +know what to call it!--a kind of boy-witch. She says they're awfully +afraid of him, that they think he can do a mischief to people he doesn't +like." As he said nothing for a moment, she added rather defiantly:--"I +daresay you think it is absurd that I should listen to village gossip, +but the truth is, I've a kind of horror of the child. He terrifies me!" + +Dr. O'Farrell looked round the room as if he feared eavesdroppers. He +even got up and went to see if the door was really shut. "That's very +curious," he said thoughtfully. "Very curious indeed. But no, I'm not +thinking you absurd, Mrs. Crofton. The child's a very peculiar child. +Have you ever heard of thought transference?" + +She looked at him, astonished. "No," she answered, rather bewildered, "I +haven't an idea what you mean by that." + +"Well, you've heard of hypnotism?" + +"Oh, yes, but I've never believed in it!" + +To that remark he made no answer, and he went on, more as if speaking +to himself than to her:--"We needn't consider what the village people +say. Timmy just tries to frighten them--like all boys he's fond of his +practical joke, and of course it's a temptation to him to work on their +fears. But the little lad certainly presents a curious natural +phenomenon, if I may so express myself." + +She looked at him puzzled. She had no idea what he meant. + +"If that child wasn't the child of sensible people, he'd have become +famous--he'd be what silly people call a medium." + +"Would he?" she said. "Do you mean that he can turn tables and do that +sort of thing?" + +The doctor shook his head. "What I mean is that in some way as yet +unexplained by science, he can create simulacra of what people are +thinking about, or of what may simply be hidden far away in the recesses +of their memory. In a sort of way Timmy Tosswill can make things seem to +appear which, as a matter of fact, are not there. But how he does it? +Well, I can't tell you _that_." + +Enid Crofton stared at Dr. O'Farrell. It was as if he were speaking to +her in a foreign language, and yet his words made her feel vaguely +apprehensive. Surely Timmy could not divine the hidden thoughts of the +people about him? She grew hot with dismay at the idea. + +The doctor bent forward, and looked at her keenly: "I should like to ask +you another question, Mrs. Crofton. Have you in your past life ever had +some very painful association with a dog--I mean any very peculiar +experience with a terrier?" + +The colour receded from her face. She was so surprised that she hardly +knew what to answer. + +"I don't think so. My first experience of a really disagreeable kind was +when that boy's terrier flew at me. It's true that I've always had a +peculiar dislike to dogs--at least for a long time," she corrected +herself hastily. She added after a moment's pause, "I expect you know +that Colonel Crofton bred dogs?" + +"Aye, and that very dog, Flick, was bred by your husband--isn't that so?" + +"I believe he was." + +She was wondering anxiously why he asked her this question, and her mind +all at once flew off to Piper and Mrs. Piper, and she felt sick with +fear. + +"I ask you these questions," said the doctor very deliberately, "because, +according to Mrs. Tosswill, Timmy thinks, or says he thinks, that you are +always accompanied by--well, how can I put it?--by a phantom dog." + +"A phantom dog?" + +She stared at him with her large dark eyes, and then, all at once, she +remembered Dandy, her husband's terrier, who, after his master's tragic +death, had refused all food, and had howled so long and so dismally that, +in a fit of temper, she had herself ordered him to be destroyed. + +She lay back on her pretty, frilled pillow, and covered her face with the +hand belonging to the arm that was uninjured. + +"Oh," she gasped out, "I see now. What a horrible idea!" + +"Then you have no painful associations with any one particular terrier +apart from Flick?" persisted Dr. O'Farrell. + +He really wanted to know. According to his theory, Timmy's subconscious +self could in some utterly inexplicable way build up an image of what was +in the minds of those about him. + +"Perhaps I have," she confessed in a very low voice. "My husband had a +favourite terrier called Dandy, Flick's father in fact. The poor brute +got into such a state after his master's death that he had to be sent to +one of those lethal chambers in London. The whole thing was a great +trouble, and a great pain to me." + +Dr. O'Farrell felt a thrill of exultation run through him. To find his +theory thus miraculously confirmed was very gratifying. + +"That's most interesting!" he exclaimed, "for Timmy, even the very first +time he saw you walking down the avenue towards the front door of Old +Place, thought you were followed by a dog uncommonly like his terrier, +Flick. His theory seemed to be that both Flick and the cat did not fly at +_you_, but at your invisible companion." + +"My invisible companion?" + +He saw the colour again receding from her face. "Don't for a moment +believe _I_ think there is any phantom dog there," he said soothingly. +"All I believe--and what you have told me confirmed my theory--is that +Timmy Tosswill can not only see what's in your subconscious mind, but +that he can build up a kind of image of it and produce what is called, I +believe, in the East, collective hypnotism. I should never be surprised, +for instance, if someone else thought they saw you with a dog--that is +as long as that boy was present. It's a most interesting and curious +case." + +"It's a very horrible case," said Enid faintly. + +She felt as if she were moving in a terrible nightmare world, +unsuspected, unrealised by her till then. + +"All abnormality is unpleasant," said the doctor cheerfully, "I always +thought the boy would grow out of it, and, to a certain extent, he _has_ +grown out of it. You'll hardly believe me, Mrs. Crofton, when I tell +you that, as a little child, Timmy actually declared he could see +fairies and gnomes, 'the little people' as we call them in my country! +I think that's what first started this queer reputation of his among +the village folk. I tell you he's anything but a welcome guest in the +cottages--people with evil consciences, you know!" The doctor laughed. +"They're afraid of Master Timmy, that's what the bad folks in Beechfield +are--they think he can 'blight' them, bring ill-luck on them. Well, well, +I mustn't stop, gossiping here with you, though it's very pleasant. By +the way, I'll ask you to keep all I've said to you to yourself--not +but what the boy's parents know quite well what I think about him!" + +Then followed a few professional questions and answers, and then the +doctor went off, well satisfied with his visit. + +After Dr. O'Farrell had gone, Enid Crofton lay back and shut her eyes. +Her nerves had by no means recovered from the horrible experience, +and she felt a sort of utter distaste to Beechfield and to everybody +there--with the one exception of Godfrey Radmore. She promised herself +fiercely that if Radmore did what she was always telling herself secretly +he would surely end by doing, then she would make it her business to see +that they never, either of them, came back to this horrible place any +more. + +Apart from anything else, Jack Tosswill was already beginning to be more +of a complication than was pleasant to one in her weak, excited state. +He had left a letter when he called that morning--an eager, ardent +love-letter, entirely assuming that they were engaged to be married. + +She took it out of the pretty fancy bag, which lay on her pale blue silk +eiderdown, and read it through again with a mixture of amusement and +irritation. It was a long letter, written on the cheap, grey Old Place +notepaper, very unlike another love-letter she had had to-day, written +on nice, thick, highly-glazed letter-paper which had a small coronet +embossed above the address. In that letter Captain Tremaine urgently +asked to be allowed to come down for the next week-end. He pointed out +that his leave was drawing to a close, and that they had a lot of things +to discuss. He, too, considered himself engaged to her, but somehow she +didn't mind that. She told herself pettishly that Providence has a way of +managing things very badly. If only Tremaine had Radmore's money, even +only a portion of his money, how gladly she would leave England behind +her, and start a new, free, delightful life in India! Tremaine knew the +kind of grand, smart people she longed to know. He was staying with some +of them now. + +Just as this thought was drifting through her mind, the door opened +and she hurriedly stuffed Jack's letter beneath her silk quilt. +Radmore walked in, and his face softened as he looked down on the pale, +fragile-looking girl--for she did look very much like a girl--lying on +the sofa. + +"I've brought you a lot of messages from Old Place," he began. "They +really are most awfully miserable about you!" + +"I'm glad the cat hasn't been killed after all," she said weakly. + +She had at last seen the look of recoil on Dr. O'Farrell's face, and she +was now trimming her sails accordingly. + +"That's very magnanimous of you." Radmore smiled. He was surprised, and a +little touched, too. "May I sit down?" + +He drew up a chair, and then he touched the hand belonging to the +bandaged arm. "I do hope you are fairly free from pain?" he said +solicitously. + +"It does hurt a good deal." + +There was a pause; his hand was still lying protectingly over her hand. + +She lay quite still--a vision of lovely Paris frocks, a Rolls-Royce +running smoothly by a deep blue sea, a long rope of pearls, flashed +before her inner consciousness. Then she was awakened from this dream of +bliss by Radmore's next words:--"My godson's going to write you a letter +of apology," he said. + +And then, to her chagrin, he took his hand away; it was as though Timmy's +malign influence had fallen between them. His very tone changed; it was +no longer tender, solicitous--only kindly. + +"Mr. Radmore, I want to tell you something. I'm horribly afraid of +Timmy!" + +There was an accent of absolute sincerity in her low voice. She went +on:--"Dr. O'Farrell has been talking to me about him. He seems a most +strange, unnatural child. The village people believe that he has +supernatural powers. Do you believe that?" + +"I don't quite know what I think about Timmy," he answered hesitatingly. +He felt acutely uncomfortable, also rather shocked that Dr. O'Farrell had +said anything about a child who might, after all, be regarded as his +patient. But Enid Crofton was looking at him very intently, and so he +went on:-- + +"I've never spoken to any of them about it, but, yes, if you ask me for +my honest opinion, I do think the child has very peculiar powers." + +And then, all at once, Enid Crofton burst into tears. "Timmy terrifies +me," she sobbed. "I wish he never came near me! He hates me--I feel it +all the time. I'm sure he made that cat fly at me!" + +Radmore remained silent--he didn't know what to say, what to admit. He +wondered uncomfortably how she had come so near the truth. + +"Come, come," he said, bending forward, "you mustn't feel like that. I +don't think the child hates you, but I do think that he loves trying +experiments with that queer power of his. I'm afraid he wanted to see +whether the cat would behave as the dog had done." + +"That's what I mean," she exclaimed, dabbing her eyes, "that's exactly +what I mean! I don't want to hurt his feelings, or to make a fuss, but I +should be so grateful if you could manage to prevent his coming here. I +don't want to make you vain," she smiled, very winningly, "but sometimes +I do feel that 'two's company.' Since I've been here I've hardly ever +seen you alone. I used to enjoy our talks in London! I feel, I know that +you're the only friend I've got in Beechfield." + +"That's rather hard on Jack Tosswill," and though he smiled, he looked at +her significantly. + +Enid was so surprised that for a moment her composure gave way, and the +colour rushed into her pale face. Then she pulled herself together. "It +really hasn't been my fault," she said plaintively. + +"I'm sure it hasn't. But in a village one has to be careful. Would +it surprise you to hear that as I came along this morning, one of +the inhabitants of Beechfield spoke to me of you and Jack, and +suggested--forgive me for saying so--not only that the boy was very much +in love with you but that you--well--encouraged him!" + +Enid Crofton sat up. "I've always heard that villages were far more +wicked places than towns, and now I know it's true!" + +"Steady on," he said smiling, "forgive me for having repeated a silly bit +of gossip. But, after all, what you said just now is quite true--I am +your oldest friend by a long way, and so I feel I ought to give you a +word of warning. I do think the poor boy _is_ very fond of you, eh?" + +Enid Crofton put out her hand and took his in hers. She squeezed it +convulsively. "I feel so miserable," she sobbed, "so miserable and +lonely!" + +"Do you, dear--" And then they both started violently, and Radmore moved +his chair away with a quick movement, for the door behind them had swung +open, and Jack Tosswill, quite unaware of the other man's presence, came +through it, and at once began speaking eagerly, excitedly, in a voice so +unlike his usual "home" voice that Radmore hardly recognised it:-- + +"I'm so glad you're downstairs. I came this morning I hope you got +my--" and then he saw the other man, and checked himself abruptly. + +He had given the beloved woman he regarded as his future wife, his most +solemn word of honour that no one should suspect that they were more than +mere acquaintances. So, after a perceptible pause, he concluded, lamely, +"my step-mother's message." + +"Yes, I did; thank you very much." + +He saw that she had been crying, and his heart welled up with tenderness, +and with angry, impatient annoyance against Radmore's presence. + +Why didn't the stupid fellow go? Surely he must realise, surely there +must be something in the atmosphere, which must tell even the blindest of +onlookers, how things were between him, Jack Tosswill, and the invalid? + +But Radmore was quite impervious to the atmosphere of emotion and +strain--or so it seemed. On and on he sat, Enid Crofton languidly making +conversation with them both in turn, until at last Rosamund came in, and +both men rose to leave together. + +And then something curious happened. Radmore, even while conscious that +he was a fool, felt a violent desire to see Enid Crofton again and very +soon, alone. He was trying to make up a form of words to convey this to +her before the other two, when good fortune seemed to favour him, for +brother and sister began--as they were wont to do--wrangling together. + +Seeing his opportunity he bent down a little over Mrs. Crofton's couch in +order to suggest to her that he should come again to-morrow. And then, in +a flash, the whole expression of his face altered and stiffened. Half +under the lace coverlet over the eiderdown a letter written on familiar +looking pale grey notepaper was sticking out, and he couldn't help +seeing the words:--"My own darling angel." + +Straightening himself quickly and hardly knowing what he was saying, he +exclaimed, "I do hope you'll soon feel all right again." + +And then he saw that she was aware of what had happened for she became +even whiter than she had been before. Every bit of colour fled from her +face--except for the unnaturally pink lips. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +As he walked away from The Trellis House Radmore felt terribly disturbed, +and maddened with himself for feeling so disturbed. + +After all, Enid Crofton meant very little to him! He even told himself +that he had never really liked, still less respected, her and yet there +had been something that drove him on, that allured him, that made him +feel as he had felt to-night. But for the accident of his having seen +that letter from poor foolish Jack Tosswill he might, by this time +to-morrow, have been in the position of Enid Crofton's future husband! +The knowledge turned him sick. + +Just now he felt that he never wished to see her again. + +As he walked on, leaving the village behind him, and emerging on the +great common which stretched between Beechfield and the nearest railway +station--he asked himself whether or no it was possible that she had +genuinely fallen in love with Jack Tosswill? + +And then he stayed his steps suddenly. He had remembered the look of +terror, the look of being "found out," which had crossed her face, when +she had realised that he had seen that fatally revealing corner of her +love-letter. + +Why had she looked like that? And then, all at once, he knew. It was for +him that Enid Crofton had come to Beechfield, for him, or rather for his +money. He felt hideously disturbed as certain tiny past happenings +crowded on his memory. He felt he would give half his possessions were it +possible thereby to transplant The Trellis House hundreds of miles from +Beechfield. + +He threw a rueful thought to Jack Tosswill. Miss Pendarth had been right, +after all. That sort of experience might well embitter the whole of the +early life of such a priggish, self-centred youth; and while he was +chewing the cud of these painful, troubling thoughts there came a woman's +voice out of the darkness. + +"Does this lead on into Beechfield, sir? I want to find The Trellis +House. I've been there once before, but it was broad daylight then." + +Radmore peered at the speaker: a thin, medium-sized woman she seemed to +be; obviously not one of the country folk--by her accent a Londoner. + +"Go straight on, and in about a quarter of an hour, you'll find The +Trellis House on your right. But you'd better enquire as soon as you get +into the village itself. Is it Mrs. Crofton's house that you want to +find?" + +"Yes, that's the place I'm bound for," said the woman. + +"Look here," said Radmore good-naturedly. "I was only going for a walk. +I'll take you along to The Trellis House. You might easily miss it." + +He turned, and they began walking along the road side by side. + +"I suppose Mrs. Crofton 'asn't gone away yet, I'm sure to find 'er there, +sir?" There was a doubting, almost a resentful, tone in the mincing +voice. + +"I think she's at home. Isn't she expecting you?" Radmore had taken the +woman for a superior servant. + +"She's not expecting me exactly, but me and my 'usband have been 'oping +for a letter from Mrs. Crofton. As nothing's come, I thought I'd just +come down and see 'er. My 'usband asked 'er to get the address of a +gentleman who 'e thinks might 'elp 'im--Major Radmore. I don't suppose +as what you've ever 'eard of 'im, sir?" + +Radmore said quietly, "I know Major Radmore rather well. May I ask your +name?" + +She hesitated, then answered:--"Mrs. Piper, sir. My 'usband was Colonel +Crofton's dog-breeding assistant, and 'e's about to start for 'imself in +the same line, if 'e can get the money that's been promised 'im. If 'e +can't get that money--well, 'e'll have to go into service again, and 'e +thought that Major Radmore, who's a kind, generous gentleman, might 'elp +'im to a job." + +Radmore felt amused, interested, and, yes, a little touched. Evidently +his distaste for Piper had not been reciprocal. + +"I suppose to start dog-breeding requires a good bit of money," he said. + +"Well, sir, it's this way. Fancy dogs fetch a good bit more money than +they did. Such a lot o' breeding stopped during the War. But what with +one thing and another, and prices 'aving gone up so, Piper says 'twould +be no good going in for such a thing under a matter of L500. But we've +got good hopes of getting the money," said the woman composedly. + +"Have you indeed?" + +Then he felt rather ashamed of the little game he was playing with this +no doubt excellent woman. + +"Look here, Mrs. Piper," he exclaimed, "perhaps I ought to tell you +frankly that _my_ name is Radmore. I no longer call myself 'Major +Radmore.' My address for the present is Old Place, Beechfield. But +Beechfield alone would find me, and I hope your husband will let me +know if I can do anything for him." + +"There now! Could one ever hope for such a thing coming to pass as my +meeting you, sir, accidental like?" + +Mrs. Piper was genuinely moved and excited. She felt that Providence, in +whom she only believed when she was in trouble, had done her a good turn. +For a moment or two she remained silent, thinking intently, wondering +whether she dared take advantage of this extraordinary chance--a chance +that might never occur again. + +"I take it, sir," she said at last, "that you are a friend of Mrs. +Crofton's?" + +"Of course I am well acquainted with the lady you name." There came a +tone of reserve, instantly detected by the woman's quick ear and quicker +mind, into the speaker's voice. "And I had a great regard for your +husband's late employer, Colonel Crofton," he added. + +"Aye, 'e was a good gentleman and no mistake," said Mrs. Piper feelingly. + +She was wondering how far she dare go. She knew the man walking by her +side was very rich; Piper had called him a millionaire. + +"I 'ope you won't think me troublesome, sir, if I tells you 'ow matters +are between Mrs. Crofton and my 'usband?" + +There came no immediate answer to her question. Still she decided to go +on. + +"Piper was with the Colonel a long time, sir. And after the poor +gentleman's death Mrs. Crofton promised Piper that she'd oblige 'im in +the matter of financing 'is new business." + +Radmore was very much surprised. He felt certain that Enid Crofton had +no money to spare, then he told himself that women are sometimes very +foolish, especially if any matter of sentiment is in question. But +somehow he would not have thought that particular woman would ever be +tempted to show herself impulsively generous. + +"You spoke just now, Mrs. Piper, as if there was some doubt about the +money?" + +"Did I, sir? Well, one can never tell in this world. But I think Mrs. +Crofton _will_ find the money." She added, almost in a whisper, "It's to +'er interest to do so, sir." + +"To her interest?" repeated Radmore. "What exactly do you mean?" + +"I don't quite understand it myself, sir." Mrs. Piper spoke with a touch +of light indifference in her voice, "Piper don't tell me very much. I was +in Islington, conducting a little business I've got, when Colonel Crofton +came by 'is sad death. Mrs. Crofton spoke to Piper most feelingly, sir, +about the service 'e'd done her by what 'e said at the inquest. I've +always 'ad my belief, sir, that Piper might 'ave said something more and +different that would have been, maybe, awkward for Mrs. Crofton." She +waited a moment, realising that she had burnt her boats. "Do you take my +meaning, sir?" + +"No," said Radmore sternly, "I don't take your meaning at all, Mrs. +Piper. I don't in the least understand what you meant to imply just now." + +A most disturbing suspicion had begun to assail him. Was this woman, with +her low, mincing voice, and carefully chosen words, something of a +blackmailer? + +They walked on in silence for a few minutes, and on her side, Mrs. Piper +began to doubt very much whether she had acted for the best in being so +honest--"honest" was the word she used to herself. But she told herself +that now she had started, perhaps she had better go straight on with it. + +"It's my belief that Piper did ask Mrs. Crofton to speak to you, sir, +about the matter, and I thought, maybe, that she 'ad done so. 'Ave I your +permission to say, sir, that I met you in the road, and that the subject +cropped up as it were?" + +"You can say anything you like," said Radmore coldly. + +He could not ask this strange, sinister woman to remain silent, yet the +thought that Enid Crofton was about to be told that he and this Mrs. +Piper had discussed her affairs was very disagreeable to him. + +Radmore was tempted for a moment to do a quixotic act, to say to the +woman, "I will find this money for your husband; don't trouble Mrs. +Crofton," and but for what had happened not an hour ago he would almost +certainly have done so. But now he felt as if he never wanted to hear +Enid Crofton's name mentioned again, and he would have given a good deal +to obliterate her and her concerns entirely from his memory. + +They were now, much to his relief, close to The Trellis House: "I will +ring the bell for you," he said courteously, and then, without waiting +for her thanks, he hurried off towards Old Place. + + * * * * * + +The next evening Jack Tosswill drew Radmore aside. "Look here," he said +awkwardly, "I wonder if you'd kindly wait a bit after the others have +gone to bed? I want to ask you something, Godfrey." + +"Of course I will, old chap." Radmore looked hard into the young man's +moody, troubled face, and came to a certain conclusion. Doubtless Enid +Crofton had given Jack his dismissal, and the foolish fellow was going to +pour it all out. He felt he was in for a disagreeable, not to say +painful, half hour. Few people of a kindly disposition even reach the age +Radmore had reached without having had more than one such talk with a +young man crossed in love. + +As soon as they settled themselves down, each with his pipe, in front +of the drawing-room fire, Jack began, speaking obviously with a great +effort, and yet with a directness and honesty which the older man +admired:-- + +"Look here, Godfrey? It's no use beating about the bush. I want to know +if you can lend me L500, and I want to say at once that I don't know when +I shall be able to pay you back. Still, I shall be able to pay you +interest. I suppose one pays the bank rate? I don't know anything about +those things. Of course, you may ask why don't I go to my father, but--" + +Radmore stopped him. "It's all right, old chap. I'll give you a cheque +this evening before we go to bed." + +"I say--" Jack turned round. "You're a good fellow, Radmore; I wouldn't +do it, only--only--" + +"I know," said Radmore coolly. "I quite realise it isn't for yourself. I +suppose it's to oblige a pal. You needn't tell me anything more about it. +As a matter of fact I meant to ask you whether you'd take a present from +me of just that sum. I don't suppose you know how I feel about you all. +George and I were just like brothers. He'd have given me anything." + +"No, no! I want this to be a business transaction, Godfrey." He said the +words just a little fiercely. + +"So it shall be--if you want it that way. I'll go and get my cheque book +now." + +When he came back, the cheque made out in his hand, he said thoughtfully, +"I hope your friend hasn't got into the sort of scrape which means that +one has to pay money of a--well, of a blackmailing sort? There's no end +to _that_, you know." + +Jack Tosswill looked surprised. "Good Heavens, no! He's only being rushed +over a bill--legal proceedings threatened--you know the sort of thing?" + +"I've made out the cheque to self and endorsed it," observed Radmore. + +"Thanks awfully. You _are_ a good sort. I am far more grateful than I can +say, far more than--than--if it was only for myself--" + +He stopped abruptly, and there was an awkward pause. Then Jack, speaking +rather breathlessly, asked an odd question:-- + +"You knew Crofton very well, didn't you, Godfrey? What kind of a chap was +he?" + +He brought out the question with an effort. But he did so want to know! +For the first time in his self-confident, comfortable, young life Jack +Tosswill was in love and full of painful, poignant, retrospective +jealousy. + +Radmore looked away, instinctively. "I liked Colonel Crofton, I always +got on with him--but he was not popular. He was not at all happy when I +knew him, and unhappy people are rarely popular." + +He was wondering whether he had better say anything to Jack--whether the +favour he had just done him gave him the right to speak. + +"I suppose he was at least thirty years older than Mrs. Crofton?" + +Radmore nodded, and then they neither spoke for a few moments. Each was +waiting for the other to say something, and at last Jack asked another +question. + +"They didn't get on very well together, did they?" + +"When I first knew them they seemed to be all right. But he was very +jealous of her, and he had cause to be, for most of the fellows out there +were in love with her, and well, not to put too fine a point on it, she +liked it!" He hesitated. "She was rather too fond of telling people that +her husband wasn't quite kind to her." + +"I think that was very natural of her!" exclaimed Jack, and Radmore felt +a surge of pity for the young fellow. Still he forced himself to go on: +"It's no use pretending. She was--and still is--a tremendous flirt." + +Jack made a restless movement. + +"I'm afraid you think me rather a cad for saying that, and I wouldn't say +it to anyone but you. She was bred in a bad school--brought up, so I +understood from a man who had known her as a girl, in Southsea, by a +widowed mother as pretty as herself. Her first husband--" + +"But--but surely Colonel Crofton was her first husband?" + +"No," again Radmore avoided looking at his companion, "she's been married +twice. Her first husband, a good-looking young chap in the 11th Hussars, +died quite soon after the marriage, the two of them having 'blued' all +they had between them. I suppose she foolishly thought there was nothing +left for it but for her to marry Colonel Crofton. And the real trouble +was that Colonel Crofton was poor. I fancy they'd have got on perfectly +well if he had had pots of money." + +"I--I don't agree to that," Jack said hotly. + +"I'm afraid it's true. But we really oughtn't to discuss a woman, even as +we are doing now. The only excuse is that we're both so fond of her," +said Radmore lightly. + +But even as he spoke he felt heavy-hearted. Jack Tosswill had got it very +badly, far worse than he had suspected, and somehow he didn't believe +that the medicine he had just administered had done the young man any +good. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +Two days went by, and now Saturday had come round again. + +In a sense nothing had happened during those two days, and to some of the +inmates of Old Place the week had seemed extremely long and dull. + +Mrs. Crofton had suddenly gone up to town for two nights, and both Jack +and Rosamund, in their very different ways, felt depressed and lonely in +consequence. But she was coming back to-day, and Rosamund was going to +meet her at the station with the Old Place pony cart. + +At breakfast Rosamund suggested that perhaps Godfrey might like to motor +her there instead, but to her vexation he didn't "rise" at all. He simply +observed, rather shortly, that he was going on a rather long business +expedition: and Rosamund retorted, pertly, "Business on a Saturday? How +strange!" to receive the dry reply: "Yes, it does seem strange, doesn't +it?" + +Half an hour later Betty and Timmy were busily engaged in washing up the +breakfast things when Godfrey Radmore strolled into the scullery. + +"I thought that I was always to be in on this act?" he exclaimed. And it +was true that he had fallen into the way of helping to wash up, turning +what had always been a very boresome task into what Timmy to himself +called "great fun" for while Radmore washed and dried the plates and +dishes, he told them funny things about some of his early experiences in +Australia. + +"We've done quite well without you. We're nearly through," said Betty +merrily. Somehow she felt extraordinarily light-hearted to-day. + +Her visitor--for very well she knew he was her visitor rather than +Timmy's--came a little nearer, and shut the scullery door behind him. + +"Look here," he said mysteriously, "I want just us three to take a secret +expedition to-day. I think I've found my house of dreams! If you'll then +both run upstairs and put on your things, we could go there and be back +in quite good time for tea." + +"For tea?" repeated Betty, startled. "But who would look after lunch?" + +"There's plenty of delicious cold mutton in the house," said Radmore +decidedly. He added with a certain touch of cunning: "I did ask your +mother, Timmy, if she'd come too, but she can't leave the house this +morning: she's expecting a very important telephone message--something +to do with the garden. She'll see about lunch, for she's particularly +anxious,"--he turned to Betty,--"that _you_ should have a good blow this +time. We shall get a little lunch while we are out, and be home by four." + +"Let's take lunch with us," broke in Timmy eagerly. "We can eat it +anywhere." He had always had a passion for picnics. + +Betty was the last human being to make any unnecessary fuss. Also, +somehow, she felt as if to-day was not quite like other days. She could +not have told why. "All right. I'll cut some sandwiches, and then I'll go +and get ready," she said. + +Janet was in the hall when Betty came down. + +"That's right," she said heartily, "I'm glad you're going to have a real +outing at last!" + +She took the girl in her arms and kissed her, and Betty felt touched. Her +step-mother was not given to affectionate demonstration. And then, all at +once, Janet looked round and said in a low voice: "Betty, I'm dreadfully +worried about Jack. D'you think it's conceivably possible that there's +anything _serious_ between him and Mrs. Crofton?" + +Betty hardly knew what to answer. For some days past she had felt quite +sure that there was something between those two. Jack had been so odd, so +unlike himself, and once he had said to her, "Betty, I do wish you'd make +friends with Mrs. Crofton. After all you're my sister ..." and then they +had been, perhaps fortunately, interrupted. But if there was anything +between Jack and the fascinating widow, Rosamund, who was so devoted to +Enid Crofton, knew nothing of it. + +"I really can't say," she answered at last, "I've hardly ever felt so +doubtful about anything in my life! Sometimes I think there is, and +sometimes I think there isn't." + +"I'm afraid there's no doubt as to what _he_ feels. I happen to know +she's just had a very good offer for The Trellis House--seven guineas a +week for six months. But she seems to have settled in here for good and +all, doesn't she?" + +"I wonder if she really has," said Betty. And then she grew a little +pink. + +Deep in her heart she had felt quite convinced that Mrs. Crofton had come +to Beechfield for Godfrey Radmore, and for no other reason. Now she +wondered if she had been unjust. + +"How I wish she'd stay away _now_, even for a few days longer!" exclaimed +Janet. + +At that moment Timmy rushed into the hall, Radmore drove up in his motor, +and in a couple of minutes the three were off--Janet looking after them, +a touch of wistful longing and anxiety in her kind heart. + +She had hoped somehow, that Godfrey would persuade Betty to go alone with +him to-day, and she was wondering now whether she could have said a word +to Timmy. Her child was so unlike other little boys. If selfish, he was +very understanding where the few people he cared for were concerned, and +his mother had never known him to give her away. + +But the harm, if harm there was, was done now, and for some things she +was not sorry to get rid of Timmy for some hours. There had arisen +between the boy and his eldest half-brother a disagreeable state of +tension. Timmy seemed to take pleasure in teasing Jack, and Jack was +not in the humour to bear even the smallest practical joke just now. + + * * * * * + +On and on sped the party in the motor, Timmy sitting by his godfather in +front, Betty, in lonely state, behind. + +They hadn't gone very far before the countryside began to have all the +charm of strangeness to Betty Tosswill, and she found herself enjoying +the change of scene as only a person who has been cooped up in one +familiar place for a considerable time can enjoy it. + +"Why, we must be on the borders of Sussex!" she called out, at a point +where Radmore, slowing down, was consulting a sign-post. He turned round +and nodded. + +They started again. And then something rather absurd happened. Betty's +hat blew off! It was an ordinary, rather floppy hat, and she had tied it +on, as she thought, securely with a veil under her chin. + +Both Timmy and Radmore jumped out to pick the hat up, and as they came +back towards the car, Timmy exclaimed: "It's a shame that Betty hasn't +got a proper motor bonnet! Rosamund's got a lovely one." + +"Why hasn't Betty got one?" + +"Because they're so expensive," said Timmy simply. He went on, "When I've +got lots of money, I shall give Betty heaps of beautiful clothes; but +only one very plain dress apiece to Rosamund and Dolly." + +"Betty! You ought to have a motor bonnet," called out Radmore as he came +up to the car. + +Her fair hair, blowing in the wind, formed an aureole round her face. She +looked very, very different to the staid Betty of Old Place. + +She answered merrily: "So I will when my ship comes home! I had one +before the War, and I stupidly gave it away." + +"Surely we might get one somewhere to-day," suggested Radmore. + +"Get one to-day--what an extraordinary idea? Motor bonnets don't grow on +hedges--" + +But when they were going through--was it Horsham?--Radmore, alone of the +three, espied a funny little shop. It was called "The Bandbox": its +woodwork was painted bright green, and in the window were three hats. + +"Now then," he exclaimed, slowing down, "this, I take it, is where motor +bonnets grow. At any rate we'll get down and see." + +"What a lark!" cried Timmy delightedly. "Please, _please_ Betty, don't +make yourself disagreeable--don't be a 'govvey'!" + +And Betty, not wishing to be a "govvey," got out of the car. + +"But I've no money with me," she began. + +"I wouldn't let you pay for what's going to be a present," said Radmore +shortly. "You're the only inhabitant of Old Place to whom I haven't given +a present since I've been home." + +Home? It gave Betty such pleasure to hear him call it that. + +They all three marched into the tiny shop where the owner of "The +Bandbox," described by Timmy to his mother, later, as a "rather +spidery-looking, real lady," sat sewing. + +She received them with a mixture of condescension and pleasure at the +thought of a new customer, which diverted Radmore, who was new to the +phenomenon of the lady shopkeeper. But when it came to business, she +took a very great deal of trouble, bringing out what seemed, at the time, +the whole of her considerable stock, for "The Bandbox" was cleverly lined +with deep, dust-proof cupboards. + +At last she produced a quaint-looking little blue and purple bonnet, with +an exquisitely soft long motor veil of grey chiffon. + +"My sister is at Monte Carlo," she observed, "and when she was passing +through Paris she got me a dozen early autumn models. I have already +copied this model in other colours, but this is the original motor +bonnet. May I advise that you try it on?" + +It was in its way a delightful bit of colour, and Betty hardly knew +herself when she looked in the glass and saw what a very pretty +reflection was presented there. She was startled--but oh, how pleasantly +startled--to see how young she still could look. + +"Of course you must have that one," said Radmore, in a matter of fact +tone, "and leave the horrid thing you wore coming here behind you." Then +he turned to Timmy:--"Now then, don't you think _you_ could choose +something for your mother?" + +The lady of the shop turned patronisingly towards the little boy. She +went across to a corner cupboard and opened what appeared to be a rather +secret receptacle. Though she had not been in business long, she already +realised what an advantage it is to deal, as regards feminine fripperies, +with a man-customer. Also, Radmore, almost in spite of himself, looked +opulent. + +"I think I have the very thing!" she explained. "It's a little on the +fantastic side, and so only suits a certain type of face." + +As she spoke she brought out a miniature brown poke bonnet which was +wreathed with one uncurled ostrich feather of a peculiar powder blue +tint. She put it deftly on Betty's head, then stepped back and gazed +delightedly into the smiling face and dancing eyes of her new client. + +"I have kept this back," she began, "hoping I should come across a +bride-elect whom it might really suit, for it would make a perfect +'going-away' hat! But it is so extraordinarily becoming to _this_ lady, +that I feel I ought to let _her_ have it!" + +She turned appealingly to Radmore, but Timmy intervened:--"That's not my +mother!" he cried, going off into fits of laughter. "We want a hat for my +_mother_. That's only my sister!" + +The shop-lady looked vexed, and Radmore felt awkward. He realised that he +and Betty had been taken for husband and wife, Timmy for their spoilt +little boy. + +"I'm quite sure I could find something that would suit Janet," exclaimed +Betty, hastily taking off the delightful bit of headgear. + +She put on the motor bonnet again, and then she went over to where a +black garden hat, with just one rose on the brim, and with long blue +velvet strings, was lying on a table. + +"I think Timmy's mother would look very nice in this," she said smiling. + +The black hat was slipped into a big paper-bag, and handed to Timmy. Then +Radmore exclaimed: "Now then, we've no time to lose! Help your sister +into the car, Timmy, while I stop behind and pay the bill." + +The bill did not take a minute to make out, and Radmore was rather +surprised to find that the three hats--for he bought three--cost him not +far short of fifteen pounds between them, though the lady observed +pleasantly, "Of course I can afford to sell my hats at a _much_ less +price than London people charge." + +To Betty's eyes, Godfrey looked rather funny when he came out of the gay +little painted door with a flower-covered bandbox slung over his right +arm. + +She had thought it just a little mean that the shop-woman should give +Timmy Janet's hat in a paper-bag. Though Betty would have been horrified +indeed at the prices paid by Radmore, she yet suspected that "The +Bandbox" lady asked quite enough for her pretty wares to be able to throw +in a cardboard box, so "Is that for Janet's hat?" she called out. + +"This," he said, looking up at her, "is that queer-looking brown thing +with the blue feather that suited you so well. Of course I meant you to +have it too." + +Betty felt at once disturbed, and yet, absurdly pleased. "I'm afraid it +was very expensive," she began. And then suddenly Radmore told himself +that after all the poke bonnet had been cheap indeed if the thought of it +could bring such a sparkle into Betty's eyes, and such a vivid while +delicate colour to her cheeks. + +There came a day, as a matter of fact the day when Betty wore that +quaint-looking bonnet for the first time, when she did venture to ask +Godfrey what it had cost. He refused to tell her, simply saying that +whatever he had paid he had had the best of the bargain as it had been +worth its weight in gold. Even so it is very unlikely that she will ever +know what that queer little bonnet, which she intends to keep as long as +she lives, really meant to Godfrey Radmore--how it had suddenly made him +feel that here was the young Betty of nine years ago come back, never to +disappear into the mists of time again. + +Something else happened in the High Street of that little Sussex town. +Radmore decided that it was Timmy's turn to sit behind, and the boy gave +in with a fairly good grace; though after they had left the houses behind +them and were again moving swiftly between brown hedges, he called out +patronisingly:--"The back of your head looks very nice now, Betty--quite +different to what it looked in that horrid old hat you left in the shop." + +At last the car slowed down in front of a gate, on one side of which was +a big board. On this board was painted a statement to the effect that the +historic estate of Doryford House was to be let or sold, furnished or +unfurnished, "Apply to the principal London agents." + +The finding of the place had not been quite easy, and Radmore drew a +breath of relief as he helped Betty down. + +"When Timmy and I were last here," he said hurriedly, "there was a child +very ill at the lodge. So I think I'd better go and just find how things +are." + +He was hoping with all his heart that the news he would see on the +mother's face would be good news. Somehow he felt that it would be of +happy augury for himself. + +As he rang the bell his heart was beating--a feeling of acute suspense +had suddenly come over him, of which he was secretly ashamed, for it was +almost entirely a selfish distress. And then, when the door opened, he +saw that all was well, for the young woman's worn face was radiant. + +"Is that you, sir? Oh, I did hope that you would come again!" she +exclaimed, "The doctor says that my little girl's certain to get well. I +was terrible anxious the day before yesterday, but now though she's weak +and wan, you'd hardly know she'd been bad, sir." + +"I wonder if you could give me the keys of Doryford House?" began +Radmore. "I want to go over it, and we need not trouble you to come with +us." + +"I'm supposed always to go up with visitors," she said hesitatingly, +"even if I leaves them there," but she looked troubled at the thought of +leaving her child. Then, all at once, Radmore had a happy inspiration. + +"Would you feel easier if we left the little boy we've brought with us in +charge? He's very intelligent. He might sit in your kitchen." + +She looked across to where Betty Tosswill and Timmy were standing. "Why, +yes!" she exclaimed, relieved. "If the young gentleman don't mind, +perhaps he would sit with Rosie. 'Tain't nothing infectious, you know, +sir, and it would please her like to have a visitor. She's got a book in +which there's a picture of a little sick girl and someone coming to see +her. She said to me yesterday, 'No one comes to see me, mother, 'cepting +doctor.'" + +Radmore went off to the other two. + +"The woman evidently feels that she ought to come up herself to the +house. But she's nervous about leaving her little girl. I was wondering +whether Timmy would mind staying and amusing the child? We might have +our picnic in the house itself, if it's in any way possible." + +"What sort of a little girl is she?" began Timmy, but his godfather cut +him short. + +"Never mind what sort of a little girl she is--she's longing for a +visitor, and you will be the first one to see her since she's been ill." + +He turned to Betty. "Perhaps you'd like to go in and see what sort of a +place it is? Meanwhile I'll open the gate and get the car through." + +Betty and Timmy followed the woman through the kitchen of the lodge to a +bedroom, where lay a pale-faced little girl of six. On the patchwork +counterpane were a pair of scissors and a big sheet of paper. It was +evident that the child had been trying to amuse herself by cutting out +patterns. As the visitors came in, she sat up, and her little face +flushed with joy. Here was her dream come true! Here were some +visitors--a beautiful lady in a peculiarly lovely blue bonnet, and a +pleasant-looking young gentleman too! + +Timmy, who was quite unshy, went up to her bedside. "Good-morning," he +said in a polite, old-fashioned way. "I'm sorry you're ill, and I hope +you'll soon be quite well. I've come to look after you while your mother +goes up to the house with my godfather and my sister. If you like, I'll +cut you some beautiful fairy figures out of that paper, and then we can +pretend they're dancing." + +He looked round and espied a chair, which he brought up close to the bed. + +Rosie was far too excited and shy to speak. + +"What's your name?" he began. "Mine is Timothy Godfrey Radmore Tosswill." + +The little girl whispered "Rosamund." + +"I've got a sister called Rosamund; now, isn't that curious?" cried +Timmy. + +He had already seized the scissors, and was engaged in cutting out some +quaint, fantastic looking little figures. + +After the others had left the room, Rosamund's mother turned to Betty. "I +never saw such a nice, kind, young gentleman!" she exclaimed. "He fair +took my breath away--a regular little doctor he'd make." + + * * * * * + +Houses are like people--they have their day, their hour, even, one feels +inclined to add, their moods of sadness and of joy, of brightness and of +dulness. + +To-day the white Corinthian-looking building called Doryford House was at +its best, in the soft lambent light of an autumn day. For a moment, when +the long, pillared building first came into view, Radmore had felt a +thrill of unreasonable disappointment. He had hoped, somehow, for a +red-brick manor-house--a kind of glorified Old Place. But a few minutes +later, when the mahogany front doors had been unlocked, and they passed +into a light, circular hall and so into a delightful-looking sunny +drawing-room filled with enchanting examples of 18th century furniture, +he began to think that this was, after all, a very attractive house. + +"In what wonderful order everything seems to be!" he exclaimed. "Have the +people to whom the place belongs only just left it?" + +"It's this way, sir. The gentleman to whom it belongs has several other +homes--he don't care for this place at all. But it's all kep' up +proper--one of the gardeners sees to the furnace--and about all this here +furniture, anybody who takes the house unfurnished, or buys the place, +will be able to keep what they likes at a valuation. Perhaps you and your +lady would like to go over the house by yourselves? People often do, I +notice. If you'll excuse me, I'll just nip away. I wants to go to the +village for a few minutes--that is if your little boy will be so kind as +to stay with my Rosie till I'm back." + +"I'm sure he will," said Radmore heartily. He told himself that it was +very natural that everyone should think that he and Betty were married. + +The front door shut behind the caretaker, and the two left behind began +going through the ground floor of the great empty house. Their progress +gave Betty an eerie feeling. She felt as if she was in a kind of dream; +the more so that this was quite unlike any country house into which she +had ever been. + +They finally came to the last living-room of all, and both exclaimed +together: "This is the room I like best of all!" + +It was an octagon library, lined with mahogany bookcases filled with +bound books which looked as though they hadn't been disturbed for fifty +years. The wide, fan-shaped window looked out on a formal rose garden. + +And then, all at once, Radmore's quick eye detected a concealed door in +the wall, on which there were encrusted the sham book titles often to be +found on the doors of an old country home library. Quickly he went across +and, opening it, found it gave straight on to a corkscrew staircase. + +Filled with a queer sense of adventure, he motioned Betty to go up first, +in front of him. + +The staircase led up to a tiny lobby, into which opened a most beautiful +bedchamber, a replica as to shape and size of the library beneath. + +The furniture there interested Betty, for she had never seen anything +like it, except once in a chateau near Arras. It was First Empire, and on +the pin-cushion, lying on the ornate dressing-table, someone had written +in a fine Italian hand on an envelope, the words: "This room was +furnished from Paris in 1810. The bed is a replica of a bed made for the +Empress Josephine." + +They went on through many of the rooms on the upper floor, full to-day of +still, sunny late autumn charm. + +Radmore scarcely spoke at all during their curious progress through the +empty house, and Betty still felt as if in a dream. She had asked herself +again and again if he could really be thinking of buying this stately +mansion. + +The mere possibility of such a thing meant that he must be thinking of +marrying Mrs. Crofton, and also that he must be much richer than any of +them knew. + +At last they came down a wide staircase which terminated in a corridor +leading into the circular hall, and then it was Betty who broke what was +becoming an oppressive silence: + +"Shall we go on and see the kitchen and the servants' quarters, Godfrey?" + +"No; they're sure to be all right." + +Again came what seemed to Betty a long, unnatural silence. + +"Do you really like the house?" he asked at last. + +"I like it very much," she said frankly. "But wouldn't it cost a +tremendous lot of money, Godfrey? It would be a pity not to buy it +exactly as it stands. It all seems so--so--" + +"I know! As if the furniture had grown there," he broke in. + +"So beautiful and so--so unusual," Betty went on diffidently. + +"I'm afraid I'm a commonplace person, Betty. I like a room to be +beautiful, but I like comfort, and I think this is a very comfortable +house. I feel, somehow, as if happy, good people had lived here. I like +that, too." + +He was standing by one of the round pillars which carried out the type of +architecture which had been the fashion at the time Doryford was built; +and he was gazing at her with what seemed to her a rather odd expression +on his dark face. Was he going to tell her of his hopes or intention with +regard to Mrs. Crofton? + +Betty felt, for the first time that day, intensely shy. She walked away, +towards the big half-moon window opposite the front door. A wide grass +gallop, bordered with splendid old trees, stretched out as if +illimitable, and she began gazing down it with unseeing eyes. + +He came quickly across the hall, and stood by her. Then he said slowly, +"I'm wondering, wondering, wondering if I shall ever be in this house +again!" + +"You must think it well over," she began. + +But he cut her short. "It depends on _you_ whether Doryford becomes my +home or not." + +"On me?" she repeated, troubled. "Don't trust to my taste as much as +that, Godfrey." + +"But you do like it?" he asked insistently. + +"Of course I like it. If it comes to that, I don't know that I've ever +been in so beautiful and perfect a house. And then, well perhaps because +we've everything so shabby at Old Place, I do like to see everything in +such apple-pie order!" + +A little disappointed, he went on, "I fear it isn't your ideal house, +Betty? Not your house of dreams?" + +And then, all at once, she knew that she couldn't answer him, for tears +had welled up in her eyes, and choked her speech. + +Her house of dreams? Betty Tosswill's house of dreams had vanished, she +thought, for ever, so very long ago. Betty's house of dreams had been +quite a small house--but such a cosy, happy place, full of the Godfrey +of long ago, and of good, delicious dream children.... + +She turned her head away. + +"Well," he exclaimed, "that's that! We won't think about this house +again. We'll go and look at another place to-morrow." + +His matter-of-fact, rather cross, tone made her pull herself together. +What a baby he was after all! + +"Don't be absurd, Godfrey. I don't believe if we were to look England +through, that I should see a house I thought more delightful than this +house. I'm a little overawed by it, that's all! You see I've never dwelt +in marble halls--" + +"Oh, one gets used to that!" + +"Yes, I expect one does." + +"Whether I buy this place depends on you," he said obstinately. + +"Well, then, if I'm to decide, I say buy it!" She turned and smiled at +him a little tremulously, keeping her head well down--her face shadowed +by the deep brim of her motor-bonnet. + +More and more was this like a scene out of a dream to Betty Tosswill. In +a way, it was, of course, natural that she and Godfrey should be alone, +and that he should turn to her as his closest friend. And yet it seemed +strange and unnatural, too. But Betty had a very generous nature--and to +this man, who was looking at her with such an eager, searching look, she +felt in a peculiar relation. So she repeated, with greater ease and +lightness, "Let's settle, here and now, that this is to be the future +residence of Godfrey Radmore, Esquire! Timmy's a little bit like a cat, +you know. He'll simply adore this house. He'll love all the pretty things +in it. Perhaps you'd run him up in the motor presently, while I stay with +the little girl and that nice woman?" + +And then all at once he took a step forward and roughly took her two +hands in his: "Betty," he said, "don't you understand? I shall never +enter this house again unless you're willing to come and share it with +me. No place would be home to me without you in it. Why, Old Place is +only home now because you're there." + +She looked at him with a long, searching, measuring look; a look that +was, unconsciously, full of questioning; but her hands remained in his +strong grasp. + +"Don't you know that I've always been yours?" he asked--"that I shall +always be yours even if you won't have me--even if I end by marrying +another woman, as I daresay I shall do if you won't have me, for I'm a +lonely chap--" And then something in her face made him add: "Try to love +me again, Betty. I want you to say to yourself--'a poor thing but mine +own.' Do, my dear." + +And then Betty burst out crying, and found herself clasped in his arms, +strained to his heart, while his lips sought and found her soft, +tremulous mouth. + +He was gentle with her, gentle and strangely restrained. And yet as the +happy moments went by in that silent, sunny house, something deep in her +still troubled heart told her that Radmore really loved her--loved her as +perhaps he had not loved her ten years ago, in his hot, selfish, +impulsive youth. + +"We needn't tell anyone for a little while, need we?" she whispered at +last. + +She had shared her life, given her services to so many during the last +nine years, and she longed to keep this strange new joy a secret for a +while. + +"If you like, we need never tell them at all," he answered. "We can just +go out, find a church, and be married!" + +"Oh, no; that wouldn't be fair to Janet." And yet the notion of doing +this fascinated her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + +And meanwhile what had been going on at Old Place? Outwardly very little, +yet one long-expected, though when it happened, surprising, thing had +occurred. Also Janet, as the day went on, felt more and more worried +about Jack. + +He wandered in and out of the house like an unhappy, unquiet spirit, for +the sudden departure of Enid Crofton for London two days before had taken +him utterly by surprise, the more so that she had left no address, and +he was suspicious of--he knew not what! It was reasonable to suppose she +had gone to pay the debt for which he had provided the money; but then +why keep her address in town secret from him? + +At last, this morning, there had come a postcard to Rosamund, asking to +be met at the station, alone, with the Old Place pony-cart. It was a +reasonable request, for the funny little vehicle only held two people and +a minute quantity of luggage. Still Jack had felt annoyed she had not +asked him to meet her. She seemed to him absurdly over-cautious. + +About ten minutes before the motoring party's return, Rosamund hurried in +with a casual message that Enid was very tired, and so had gone straight +to bed; that she hoped some of them would come in and see her on the +morrow, Sunday. In any case they would all meet at church. + +Jack was puzzled, hurt, and bitterly disappointed, and at once he went +off to write a note which should be, while wildly loving, yet clear in +its expressions of surprise that she had not sent him some sort of +message appointing a time for their next meeting. He found the letter +unexpectedly difficult to write, and he had already torn up two +beginnings, when the door behind him burst open, and, turning round +irritably, he saw Timmy rush across to a window and shout exultantly, +"Mum? We're back! And we've brought Josephine and her kittens. Mr. +Trotman said she'd be all right now." + +Jack Tosswill jumped up from his chair. It was as if his pent-up feelings +of anger had found a vent at last: "You have, have you?" he cried in an +enraged voice. "Then I'll see to the shooting of the brute this very +minute!" + +Quick as thought, Timmy rushed back to the door and turned the key in the +lock. Then he bounded again to the open window. "Mum!" he screamed at the +top of his voice. "Come here--I'm frightened!" + +Janet Tosswill, walking quickly across the lawn, was horrified at the +look of angry despair on the child's face. + +"What's happened?" she asked, and then, suddenly, she saw Jack's blazing +eyes. + +"J-Janet," he began, stuttering in his rage, "either that cat is shot +to-day, or I leave this house for ever." + +Even in the midst of poor Janet's agitation, she could not help smiling +at the melodramatic tone in which the usually self-contained Jack uttered +his threat. Still-- + +"It was very, very wrong of you, Timmy, to bring back your cat to-day," +she said sternly. "Had I known there was any idea of such a thing I +should have absolutely forbidden it. Josephine is not fit to come back +here yet; you know what Dr. O'Farrell said." + +The colour was coming back into Timmy's face. He had a touching belief in +his mother's power of saving him from the consequences of his own naughty +actions. + +"I'm very sorry," he began whimperingly. "It was not my fault, Mum. Even +Mr. Trotman said there was nothing the matter with her." + +And now Jack was beginning to repent of his hasty, cruel words. He was as +angry as ever with Timmy, but he was ashamed of having spoken as he had +done to Janet--the woman who, as he knew deep in his heart, was not only +the best of step-mothers, but the best of friends, to his sisters and +himself. + +"Of course I don't mind her being at Trotman's, but I do very much object +to her being here," he said ungraciously. + +"I'll see about her being sent back to Epsom to-day," said Janet quietly. +She turned to her son: "Now then, Timmy, I'm afraid we shall have to ask +poor Godfrey to start back at once after tea." + +"Oh, I say," called out Jack awkwardly. "I don't want the cat to go as +soon as that, Janet. To-morrow will do all right. All I ask is that the +brute shall be taken away before it has a chance of seeing Mrs. Crofton +again." + +"Very well; the cat shall go to-morrow." + +Drawing her little boy quickly after her, Janet left the drawing-room, +crossed the corridor, walked into the empty schoolroom, and then, to +Timmy's unutterable surprise, burst into bitter tears. + +Now Timmy had never seen his mother cry--and she herself was very much +taken aback. She would have given a great deal to have been left alone +just then to have her cry out, but Timmy's scared little face touched +her. + +"I can't think why you did it," she sobbed. "I always thought you were +such an intelligent boy. Oh, Timmy, surely you understood how angry it +would make Jack and Rosamund if you brought Josephine back now, to-day?" + +"I never thought of them," he said woefully. "We were so happy, +Mum--Godfrey, Betty and I. Oh, why are people so horrid?" + +"Why are people so selfish?" she asked sadly. "I'm surprised at Betty; I +should have thought that she, at least, would have understood that the +cat must stay away a little longer." + +"It wasn't Betty's fault," said Timmy hastily. He waited a moment, then +added cunningly, "It was really Mr. Trotman's fault; he said Josephine +ought to come home." + +But his mother went on a little wildly: "It isn't an easy job, taking +over another woman's children--and doing the very best you can for them! +To-day, Timmy, you've made me feel as if I was sorry that I ever did it." + +"Sorry that you married Daddy?" asked Timmy in an awe-struck voice. + +Janet Tosswill nodded. + +"Sorry that I was ever born?" cried Timmy. He flung his skinny arms round +her bent neck. + +She looked up and smiled wanly. "No, Timmy, I shall never be able to say +that, however naughty you may be." + +But Timmy was not to be let off yet. + +"What happened to-day has hurt me very, very much," she went on. "It will +be a long time before I shall feel on the old, happy terms with Jack +again. Without knowing it, Timmy, you've pierced your mother's heart." + +But even as she uttered these, to Timmy, dreadful words, Janet Tosswill +got up, and dried her eyes. "Now then, we must go and see about Josephine +being shut up in some place of safety, where she and her kittens will not +offend the eyes of Jack and Rosamund. How about the old stable?" + +She was her own calm, satirical, determined self again. But Timmy felt, +perhaps for the first time in his life, deeply conscious of sin. His +mother's phrase made him feel very uneasy. Had he really pierced her +heart--could a mother's heart be permanently injured by a wicked child? + +It was a very mournful, dejected, anxious boy who walked into the kitchen +behind Janet Tosswill. + +Timmy had a very vivid imagination, and during the drive back he had +amused himself by visualising the scene when he would place Josephine and +her kittens in their own delightful, roomy basket in the scullery. It +would be such fun, too, introducing Flick to the two kittens! At Betty's +suggestion, Flick had been shut out from the scullery after Josephine's +kittens were born, and that though the dog and the cat got on extremely +well together. In fact, Flick was the only creature in the world with +whom Josephine, since she had reached an approximately mature age, ever +condescended to play. + +And now poor Josephine and her kittens were to be banished to the old +stable, and to-morrow driven back ignominiously to Epsom, all because of +that tiresome, hateful Mrs. Crofton! + +There was no one in the kitchen, and it did not look as tidy as it +generally looked; though the luncheon things had been washed up, they had +not been put away. + +Mother and son walked on into the scullery to find Betty there, boiling +some water over a spirit lamp. "Betty? How very delightful you look!" her +step-mother exclaimed. "Just like an old picture, child! Wherever did you +get that charming motor-bonnet?" + +And then Timmy chipped in: "_I_ thought of it," he said triumphantly; "it +was _my_ idea, Mum, but Godfrey paid for it. He said he hadn't given +Betty a proper present yet, so he _had_ to pay for it, and, and--" + +Janet was just a little surprised. She was very old-fashioned in some +ways, and she had brought up her step-daughters to be, as regarded money +matters at any rate, as old-fashioned as herself. It seemed to her very +strange that Betty had allowed Godfrey Radmore to give her such a present +as a hat! Yet another thing puzzled her. She had understood that the +three of them were going off some way into Sussex to look at a house, but +they had evidently been up to London. Motor bonnets don't grow on country +hedges. + +"Where's the cat?" she asked, looking round. + +"Godfrey has taken her up to the nursery," said Betty, "partly to show +her to Nanna, and partly because we thought it would be better for her to +be quiet up there than down here." + +"Oh, Mum--do say that she can stay up there," cried Timmy pleadingly. "I +hate the thought of her being in that dark old stable!" + +"Very well; put her in the night nursery." + +Even as she spoke, Janet was still gazing at her eldest step-daughter. +Betty certainly looked extraordinarily charming this afternoon. It showed +that the child required more change than she had had for many a long day. +They had got too much, all of them, into thinking of her as a stand-by. +After all she was only eight and twenty! Janet, with a sigh, looked back +to the days when she had been eight and twenty, a very happy, independent +young lady indeed, not long before she had met and married her quiet, +wool-gathering John, so losing her independence for ever. + +"I suppose you haven't heard the great news," she exclaimed, forgetting +that Timmy was there. + +"What news?" asked Betty. + +She glanced at her step-mother. Surely Janet hadn't been crying? Janet +never cried. She had not cried since that terrible day when the news had +come of George's death. + +"What news?" she asked again. + +"Mr. Barton--I really can't call him Lionel yet--came over this afternoon +and--and--" + +Timmy rushed forward in front of his mother, his little face all aglow: +"Oh, Mum! You don't mean to say that he's popped?" he cried. + +"Timmy, don't be vulgar!" exclaimed Janet severely. + +Betty began to laugh a little wildly. "How very, very strange that it +should have happened to-day--" + +"I don't think it's strange at all," said Janet quietly. "The strange +thing is that it hasn't happened before! But there it is--they're engaged +now. He seems to have told her that he thought it wrong to make his offer +until he had saved L100. She has gone over to Oakford, and they are busy +making an inventory of the things they will have to buy." + +"Has he actually saved L100?" asked Betty. + +"No, he never could have done that. He's had a legacy left him, and he +seems to think that L100 will start them most splendidly and comfortably +on their married life. He _is_ a fool!" + +The door which gave on to the stairs which led from the scullery to the +upper floor opened, and Godfrey Radmore stepped down. "Am I the fool?" he +asked pleasantly. + +Janet answered, smiling: "No, no; you're anything but that. I was only +telling Betty that Dolly and Mr. Barton are engaged at last." She turned +to Betty. "Of course, he's coming to supper to-night. I've been wondering +what we can do in the way of something extra to celebrate the occasion. +We _were_ going to have cold mutton." + +"At any rate I'll go and see what the village pub. can produce in the way +of champagne," exclaimed Godfrey. He turned to his godson. "Timmy? Run up +and look at Josephine and her kittens. I've put them in the old night +nursery for a bit." + +And then, when the boy had gone, he went up to Janet and, to her +surprise, put his arm through hers: "I'm glad about Dolly," he said +heartily. + +"It proves how very little one really knows of human nature." She sighed, +but it was a happy sigh. "I was beginning to believe that he would never +what Timmy calls 'pop,' and yet the poor fellow was only waiting to be a +little forward in the world. Someone's left him L100, so he felt he could +embark on the great adventure. Your father and I have already talked it +over a little"--she turned to Betty--"and we think we could squeeze out +L100 a year somehow." + +"I think we could," said Betty, hesitatingly. "After all, L1 is now only +what 8/- was before the War." + +"But not to us," cried Janet; "not to us!" + +And then, to the utter discomfiture of both her companions, she began to +laugh and cry together. + +Godfrey rushed over to the sink. He took up a cup, filled it with water, +rushed back to where Janet was standing, shaking, trembling all over, +making heroic efforts to suppress her mingled tears and laughter, and +dashed the water into her face. + +"Thank you," she gasped; "thank you, Godfrey! I'm all right now. I may as +well tell you both the truth. There's been a row--an awful row--between +Jack and Timmy, and it thoroughly upset me. It was only over the +cat--over Josephine--but of course it proved that what Betty and I were +talking about this morning is true. Jack's madly in love with Mrs. +Crofton--and--and--it's all so pitiful and absurd--" + +"I doubt if you're quite fair to Mrs. Crofton, Janet," said Godfrey, in a +singular tone. "I fancy she really does care for Jack. Of course it seems +odd to all of us, but still, after all, odder things have been known! If +you ask me whether they will marry in the end--that's quite another +matter. If you ask me whether they're engaged, well, yes, I'm inclined to +think they are!" + +Even Betty felt violently disturbed and astonished. + +"Oh, Godfrey!" she exclaimed. "D'you really think that?" + +"I can't tell you what makes me think so, or rather I'd rather not tell +you. But I don't think you need worry, if you'll only take a long view. +They can't marry yet, and long before they could marry, she'll have got +tired of him, and fond of someone else." + +Betty gave him a quick look. Was he really unconscious of the reason why +Mrs. Crofton had come to Beechfield? + +Through her mind in a flash there crowded the many small, almost +imperceptible, impressions made on her mind by the new tenant of The +Trellis House. Enid Crofton in love with Jack? Betty shook her head. The +idea was absurd. And yet Godfrey had spoken very decidedly just now. But +men, even very shrewd, intelligent men, are at a hopeless disadvantage +when dealing with the type of woman to which Enid Crofton belonged. + +As for Janet she exclaimed, with sudden passion, "I would give anything +in this world to see Mrs. Crofton leave Beechfield for ever--" She +stopped abruptly, for at that moment the staircase door to her right +burst open, and Timmy stepped down into the scullery. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + +Since she had had the horrid accident which had laid her up, Timmy had +not gone to see his old Nanna nearly as often as he ought to have done. +Nanna herself, however, with the natural cunning of those who love, had +made certain rules which ensured her a regular, daily glimpse of the +strange little being she had had under her charge, as she would have +expressed it, "from the month." Nanna did not desire his attendance +before breakfast for she would not have considered herself fit to be +seen by him till she herself was neat and tidy. Like all the women of +her class and generation, the Tosswills' old family nurse was full of +self-respect, and also imbued with a stern sense of duty. Timmy stood +far more in awe of her than he did of his mother. + +One of the stated times for Timmy's visits to the old night nursery +was just before he had to start for church each Sunday, and on this +particular Sunday, the day after that on which had occurred Dolly's +engagement, and Mrs. Crofton's return from London, he came in a few +moments before he was expected, and began wandering about the room, doing +nothing in particular. At once Nanna divined that he had something on his +mind about which he was longing, yet half afraid, to speak to her. She +said nothing, however, and at last it came out. + +"I want you to lend me your Bible," he said, wriggling himself about. "I +want to take it to church with me." + +This was the last thing Nanna had expected the boy to ask, for, of +course, Timmy had a Bible of his own, a beautiful thin-paper Bible, which +she herself had given him on his seventh birthday, having first asked his +mother's leave if she might do so. The Bible was in perfect condition. It +stood on a little mat on his chest of drawers, and not long before her +accident Nanna had gone into his bedroom, opened the sacred Book, and +gazed with pleasure on the inscription, written in her own large, +unformed handwriting, on the first page: + + Timothy Godfrey Radmore Tosswill on his seventh birthday from his + loving nurse, + + Emily Pew. + +All this being so, his mother, or even his sister, Betty, would at once +have enquired, "Why don't you take your own Bible to church?" But somehow +Nanna thought it best not to put this question, for a lie, shocking on +any day, is more shocking than usual, or so she thought, if uttered on a +Sunday. So, after a moment's hesitation, she replied: "Certainly, Master +Timmy, if such is your wish. But I trust you will be very careful with +it, my dear." + +"I will be very, very careful!" he exclaimed. "And I will bring it +straight back to you up here after church." + +He threw her a grateful look. He did more, and Nanna felt amply rewarded +as he climbed up on her bed and, putting his arms round her neck, kissed +her on each cheek. + +"I hope," she said impressively, "that you are going to be a good boy in +church--a boy that Nurse can be proud of." + +Nanna never called herself "Nanna" to the children. + +"I am always very good in church," cried Timmy, offended. "I don't +see why you should go and spoil everything by saying that!" With +these cryptic words he slid off the bed, taking with him the large +old-fashioned Bible which always lay by Nanna's bedside. + +Dolly, and Rosamund, who was Dolly's stable-companion, were attending the +service held by Dolly's fiance, Lionel Barton, in the next parish. As for +Betty, her heart was very full, and as she did her morning's work and +while she dressed herself for church, she still felt as if she was living +through a wonderful dream. + +Jack, who did not always go to church, had elected to go to-day; so had +Tom and Godfrey; and thus, in spite of the absence of the two younger +girls, quite a considerable party filed into the Tosswill pew. + +All the people belonging to Old Place were far too much absorbed in their +own thoughts on this rather strange Sunday morning to give any thought to +Timmy. So it was that he managed, after a moment's thought, to place +himself between his father and his godfather. He judged, rightly, that +neither of them would be likely to pay much attention to him or to his +doings. + +When the rather nervous young rector had got well away with his sermon, +and had begun to attract the serious attention of Mr. Tosswill and of +Godfrey Radmore, Timmy very quietly drew out of his little, worn tweed +coat a long sharp pin. Wedging the Bible, as he hoped reverently, but +undoubtedly very securely between his knees, he thrust the pin firmly in +the middle of the faded, gilt-edged leaves of Nanna's Bible, where there +were already many curious little brown dots caused by similar punctures, +the work of Nanna herself. + +Having done this, Timmy carefully lifted the Bible from between his knees +and let it fall open at the page the pin had found. The text where the +point rested ran as follows: + + Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. + +His father's eyes flickered for a moment and fixed themselves on Timmy +with a worried, disturbed expression. As a child he himself would have +been sternly reproved for reading, even the Bible, during a sermon, but +he supposed that Janet knew better than his own mother had done. Timmy +certainly loved Janet far, far more than he, John Tosswill, had loved his +own good mother. So he averted his eyes from his little son, and tried to +forget all about him. + +But John Tosswill did not know his Janet. Though three off from +Timmy, she had become aware that her son was bending over a very big, +shabby-looking book, instead of sitting upright, listening sedately. She +gave him one glance, and Timmy, with a rather confused and guilty look, +hurriedly shut Nanna's Bible, and turned his mind to the sermon. He had +seen what he wanted to see; and further, he had made a mental note of the +page and place. + +At last the service was over, and the congregation streamed out of +church. Timmy hung back a little, behind his mother. He did not wish +her to see that he had Nanna's Bible instead of his own, but she was +far too full of her own exciting and anxious thoughts to give any +attention to her little boy. Rather to her surprise, she found her mind +dwelling persistently on Enid Crofton. It was at once a relief and a +disappointment not to see the young widow's graceful figure, and her +heart ached when she saw the cloud come down over Jack's face. + +All at once she felt a detaining gesture on her arm, and turning, she +found Miss Pendarth at her elbow. They generally had a little talk after +church, for it was often the only time in the week when these two, both +in their several ways busy women, felt that they had a few minutes to +spare for gossip. + +"I wonder if you could come in to Rose Cottage for a minute? I want to +show you something which I think will interest you as much as it has me." + +Neither of them noticed that Timmy had crept up quite close and was +listening eagerly. In a village community the gossip holds a place apart, +and Olivia Pendarth, though by no means popular with the young people of +Old Place, nevertheless had her value as the source of many thrilling +tales. + +Janet Tosswill hesitated. "I wish I could come back with you," she said +at last, regretfully. "But I promised to go straight home this morning." + +She debated within herself whether she should say anything here and now +about Dolly's engagement; then she made up her mind not to do so yet. + +Miss Pendarth, slightly lowering her voice, went on: "Perhaps I might +come in this afternoon, and bring what I want to show you with me? It's a +full report of the inquest held on Colonel Crofton." + +Janet looked up quickly. "I confess I should very much like to read +that," she exclaimed, and then she added, "but I shan't be in this +afternoon. I've promised to go over to Oakford." + +That much information she would vouchsafe her old friend. + +A slightly satirical look came over Miss Pendarth's face. She told +herself how foolish it was of Janet to suppose for a single moment that +that good-looking young clergyman was ever likely to make an offer to +tiresome, stupid, untidy Dolly Tosswill! + +"I wonder if you would lend me the paper?" Janet suggested hesitatingly. +"Timmy could go for it now, and I would send it you back the moment I had +read it." + +"Very well," said the other, not very graciously. "I suppose Timmy can be +trusted to be careful of it? I went to great trouble to get a copy, and I +don't think I should be able to get another." She added slowly: "I got it +at the request of Colonel Crofton's sister, but I have not yet sent it to +her because I thought it would distress her too much." + + * * * * * + +A few minutes later Timmy was gazing round the hall of Rose Cottage with +eager, inquisitive eyes. Miss Pendarth did not care for children, and +though Timmy frequently came to her door with a note, he was very seldom +invited inside the house. + +Even now his hostess said rather sharply: "Run out into the garden, +Timmy, while I go upstairs and find an envelope big enough in which to +put the paper for your mother. I daresay I shall be away five minutes, +for I want you to take her a note with it." + +The boy went through the glass door into the garden. He walked briskly up +the path, kicking a pebble as he went, and then he sat down on the bench +where, not so very long ago, Olivia Pendarth and Godfrey Radmore had sat +discussing the curious and tragic occurrence which still filled Miss +Pendarth's mind. + +Timmy asked himself what exactly was the meaning of the word inquest? Why +had a paper printed what Miss Pendarth called a full account of the +inquest on Colonel Crofton's death? Was it "inquest" or "henquest"? +His agile mind swung back to the mysterious words he had heard Mrs. +Crofton's ex-man-servant utter in the stable-yard of The Trellis House. + +At last Miss Pendarth opened the door giving into the garden, and Timmy, +jumping up, hurried down the path toward the house. He then saw that she +held a neat-looking brown paper roll in her hand, and over the roll was +slipped an india-rubber band. + +"I thought it a pity to waste a big envelope," she observed, "so I have +done up the newspaper and my note to your mother into a roll. Will you +please ask your mother to put it back exactly as it is now--with the +india-rubber band round it? These bands have become so very expensive. +She need not send it back. I will call for it to-morrow morning about +twelve. Mind you give it to her at once, Timmy. I don't want to have a +thing like that left lying about." + +Timmy slipped into Old Place by a back way often used by the young +people, for it was opposite a garden door set in the high brick wall +which gave on to one of the by-ways of the village. + +But instead of seeking out his mother, as he ought at once to have done, +he went upstairs and so into what had been the day nursery. There he +locked the door, and having first put Nanna's Bible on the big, round +table, at which as a baby boy he had always sat in his high chair, he +went over to the corner where Josephine was peacefully reposing with her +kittens, and sat down on the floor by the cat's basket. + +Very carefully he then slipped the india-rubber band off the roll of +brown paper which had been confided to him by Miss Pendarth. He spread +out the sheet of newspaper, putting aside the brown paper in which it had +been rolled, as also Miss Pendarth's open letter to his mother. And then, +with one hand resting on his cat's soft, furry neck, he read through the +long account of the inquest held on Colonel Crofton's death. As he worked +laboriously down the long columns, Timmy's freckled forehead became +wrinkled, for, try as he might, he could not make out what it was all +about. The only part he thoroughly understood was the description of +Colonel Crofton's last hours; the agony the dying man had endured, the +efforts made by the doctor, not only to save his life, but to force him +to say how the virulent poison had got into his system--all became +vividly present to the boy. + +Timmy felt vexed when he realised, as he could not help doing, that Mrs. +Crofton had looked very pretty when she was giving evidence at the +inquest; in fact, the descriptive reporter had called her "the dead man's +beautiful young widow." + +And then, all at once, he bethought himself of Miss Pendarth's letter to +his mother. + +Now Timmy was well aware that it is not an honourable thing to read +other people's letters; on the other hand, his mother always left Miss +Pendarth's notes lying about on her writing table, and more than once she +had exclaimed: "Betty? Do read that note, and tell me what's in it!" + +And so, after a short conflict between principle and curiosity, in which +curiosity won, he began to read the letter. As he did so, he realised +that it formed a key to the newspaper report he had just read, for Miss +Pendarth's letter ran: + + My dear Janet, + + I am longing to talk over the enclosed with you. I was lately in Essex, + and when we meet I will tell you all that was said and suspected there + at the time of Colonel Crofton's death. + + _Someone we wot of got off very lightly._ You will realise from even + this rather confused report that _someone_ must have put the bottle of + strychnine into the unhappy man's bedroom--also that he absolutely + denied having touched it. No one connected with the household, save of + course Mrs. Crofton, had ever seen the bottle until after his death. + + It is a strange and sinister story, but I remember my father used to + say that Dr. Pomfrett (who for fifty years was the great medical man of + _our_ part of the world) had told him that not one murder in ten + committed by people of the educated class was ever discovered. + + I think you know that Mrs. C. has had a very handsome offer for The + Trellis House from that foolish Mrs. Wallis, but I believe that up to + yesterday she had not vouchsafed any answer. + + Your affectionate, + + Olivia Pendarth. + + P.S.--Please burn this note as soon as read. I don't want to be had up + for libel. + +Timmy read the letter twice through. Then he very carefully folded up the +newspaper in its original creases, put Miss Pendarth's letter inside, and +made as tidy a roll as he could with the help of the brown paper. Finally +he slipped on the india-rubber band, and scrambling up from the floor, +unlocked the door. Taking Nanna's Bible off the round table, he went into +his own bedroom and there laboriously copied out, with the help of a very +blunt pencil, the text where the pin had rested in church. Then he took +the Bible into Nanna's room. + +"What's that you're holding?" she asked suspiciously. + +"It's something I have to give to Mum." + +Somehow the sight of Nanna, sitting up there in her big armchair, made +him feel extremely guilty, and he was relieved when she said mildly: "You +run along and give it to her, then." + +He found his mother in his father's study, and they both stopped abruptly +when he came in. Timmy supposed, rightly, that they had been speaking of +Dolly and her engagement. + +Janet took the roll of paper from her boy and slipped off the band +absently: "What's this?" she exclaimed. And then, "How stupid of me! I +remember now." She turned to her husband. "It's an account of the inquest +held on Colonel Crofton. What a tremendous long thing! I shall have to +put it aside till after lunch." + +She did, however, read through Miss Pendarth's letter. + +"Oh! John," she said, smiling, "this letter is _too_ funny! Olivia +Pendarth may be a good friend, but she's certainly a good hater. She +simply loathes Mrs. Crofton." Then, deliberately, she went over to the +fireplace and, lighting a match, set fire to the letter. + +Timmy watched the big sheet of paper curling up in the flame. He was glad +indeed that he had read the letter before it was burnt, but he made up +his mind that when he was a grown-up man, he also would burn any letter +that he thought the writer would prefer destroyed. In a way Janet was her +son's great exemplar, but he was apt to postpone following the example he +admired. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + +It was after seven, on the evening of that same Sunday, that Enid +Crofton, after having spent the whole day in her bedroom, came down to +her pretty, cheerful, little sitting-room. + +She had returned from London in an anxious, nervous, strung-up frame of +mind. For the first time in her life she did not know what it was she +really wanted, or rather she was uncertain as to what it would be best +for her to do. + +The thought of seeing Jack Tosswill, of having to fence and flirt with +him in her present disturbed state of mind, had been intolerable. That +was the real reason why she had stayed upstairs all to-day. He had called +three times, and the third time he had brought with him a letter even +more passionately loving, while also even more angry and hurt in tone, +than the one which she had received from him the day before. + +As she read this second epistle she had told herself, with something like +rage, that it was not her fault that what she had intended should be a +harmless flirtation had caused such havoc. Still, deep in her heart she +was well aware that but for the havoc she had caused, she could never +have confided to him her urgent need of the five hundred pounds which he +had procured with such surprising ease. + +Jack had been quite honest with the woman he loved. He had told her of +his talk with Radmore, of Radmore's immediate, generous response, and the +cheque he had given which he, Jack, handed to her as a free gift. + +She had gone up to London fully intending to see the Pipers after she had +cashed the cheque. But when it came to the point she had shirked the +second half of her programme, telling herself, with perhaps a certain +amount of truth, that by waiting till the last day of grace allowed her +by that terrible old-clothes woman she would get better terms. Perhaps +then they would be satisfied with three hundred pounds, or even less, +and acting on that hope, she had expended a portion of the money in +purchasing a few of the pretty dress etceteras which are so costly +nowadays. + +Apart from the time occupied by those pleasant purchases, she had spent +every waking minute of the day with Harold Tremaine, lunching and dining +at the big smart restaurants which both her soul and her body loved, +going to the play, and listening in between to the most delightful +love-making.... + +Small wonder that during that long, dull Sunday, spent perforce in her +bedroom, Enid Crofton's mind often took refuge in the thought of the only +man now in her life with whom all her memories and all her relations had +been, and were, absolutely satisfactory. Captain Tremaine was a simple, +happy, cheerful soul. Though he was always what he called "dashed short," +when with a woman he flung about his money right royally. Also he was an +expert, not a teasing, lover. He knew, so Enid reminded herself +gratefully, when to stop, as well as when to begin, making love. How +unlike inexpert, tiresome Jack Tosswill! And yet he also was in dead +earnest. He knew exactly what he wanted, and more than once, in a +chaffing, yet serious, fashion, he had assured her that she had best +submit at once, as he always "got there in the end." What he wanted was +that they should be married, by special license, within a week from +now, so that they might go back to India, a happy, honeymooning couple, +in a fortnight! And while he was with her, describing in eloquent, eager +language what their life would be like and what a delightful, jolly time +they would have, Enid had been sorely, sorely tempted to say "yes." + +And yet? Though Tremaine was Enid Crofton's ideal of what a lover, even a +husband, should be, and she had never liked any man as well, she knew +with a painful, practical knowledge the meaning of the words "genteel +poverty." Tremaine's regiment would not remain for ever in India, and +then would begin the enforced economies, the weary struggle with an +inadequate income she had known with Colonel Crofton. No, no--it wasn't +good enough!--or at any rate not good enough as long as there was a hope +of anything better. Even so, it was comfortable to know that Harold +Tremaine would still be there, a second string to her bow, in six months' +or a year's time. + +It was of all this that she thought, a little despondently, as she +settled herself down in the easy chair close to the little wood fire. +In a few moments her supper would be brought in by her pleasant-faced, +rosy-cheeked parlourmaid. Enid Crofton was dainty and particular as to +her food. The bad cooking she had had to endure during those miserable +months she had spent in Essex, after her husband had been demobilised, +had proved a very real addition to her other troubles. + +She had brought a nice sweetbread with her from London yesterday, and she +was now looking forward to having it for her supper. + +All at once there came a ring at the front door, and a feeling of keen, +angry annoyance shot through her. Of course it was Jack--Jack again! He +would ask tiresome, inconvenient questions about the mythical woman +friend, the almost sister, for whom she had required the money, and she +would have to make up tiresome, inconvenient lies. Also he would want to +kiss her, and she did so want her dinner! + +She stood up--and then the door opened and, instead of Jack, Timmy +Tosswill came through it. For the first time in their acquaintance she +was glad to see the boy, though she told herself that of course he had +brought her a letter--another of those odious, reproachful letters from +Jack. + +"Good evening, Timmy," she spoke, as she always did speak, pleasantly. +"Have you brought me a message from Rosamund? I hope she hasn't thrown me +over? I'm expecting her to lunch to-morrow, you know." + +"I didn't know," he said gravely, "and I've not brought a message from +anyone, Mrs. Crofton. My coming is a secret." + +"A secret?" Again she spoke easily, jokingly; but there came over her a +strange, involuntary feeling of repulsion for the odd-looking child. + +He came up close to her, and, putting his hands behind his back, began to +stare fixedly beyond her, at the empty space between her chair and the +white wall. + +There crept over Enid Crofton a sensation of acute discomfort. She +stepped back, and sat down in her low, easy-chair. What was Timmy looking +at with that curious, fixed stare? + +It was in vain that she reminded herself that no sensible person now +believes in ghosts, and that she had but to press the bell on the other +side of the fireplace to ensure the attendance of her cheerful servant. +These comforting reflections availed her nothing, and a wave of fear +advanced and threatened to engulf her. + +After what seemed to her an interminable pause, but which was really less +than a minute, Timmy's eyes met hers, and he said abruptly, "Is it true +that someone has asked you to go to India? Rosamund says it is." + +She gave a little gasp of relief. On her way home from the station in the +Old Place pony-cart, she had told her companion that while in London she +had met a man who had fallen in love with her in Egypt, during the War. +Further, that this handsome, brilliant, rich young soldier had urged her +to marry him and go off to India with him at once. She was surprised as +well as dismayed by this quick betrayal of her confidence. What a goose +Rosamund was! + +"Yes, Timmy," she bent forward and smiled a little, "it is quite true +that I have been asked to go to India, but that doesn't mean that I'm +going." + +"I would, if I were you," said the child gravely. + +"Would you?" Again she smiled. "But I've only just come to Beechfield. +I hope you're not in a hurry to get rid of me?" + +"No," he said, "I'm not in a hurry, exactly. It's you who ought to be in +a hurry, Mrs. Crofton." He waited a moment and then added: "India is a +very nice place." + +"Yes, indeed. Full of tigers and leopards!" she said playfully. + +"I should go as soon as you can if I were you." + +She looked at him distrustfully. What exactly did he mean? + +_"Someone we wot of got off very lightly at the inquest."_ + +His voice sank almost to a whisper, but Enid Crofton felt as if the +terrible sentence was being shouted for all the world to hear. + +Timmy's eyes were now fixed on the gay-looking blue rug spread out before +the fender to his right. He was remembering something he had done of +which he was ashamed. + +Then he lifted his head and began again staring at the space between Mrs. +Crofton's chair and the wall. + +Enid Crofton opened her mouth and then she shut it again. What did the +boy know? What had he seen? What had he been told? She remembered that +Mr. Tosswill was a magistrate. Had the Pipers been down to see him? + +"There were some people," went on the boy, and again he spoke in that +queer, muffled whisper, almost as if the words were being dragged out of +him against his will, "who thought"--he stopped--"who thought," he +repeated, "that Colonel Crofton did not take that poison knowingly." + +She told herself desperately that she must say something--something +ordinary, something of no account, before a power outside herself forced +her to utter words which would lead to horror incalculable. + +Speaking in such a loud discordant voice that Timmy quickly moved back a +step or two, she exclaimed: "I was not going to tell anybody yet--but as +you seem so anxious to know my plans, I will tell you a secret, Timmy. +I _am_ going to India after all! A splendid strong man, an officer and a +gentleman who would have won the V.C. ten times over in any other war, +and who would _kill_ anyone who ever said a word against me, has asked me +to be his wife, and to go out to India very, very soon." + +"And have you said you will?" he asked. + +"Of course I have." + +"And will you be married soon?" went on her inquisitor. + +"Yes, very soon," she cried hysterically. "As soon as possible!" + +"Then you will have to leave Beechfield." + +She told herself with a kind of passionate rage that the child had no +right to ask her such a silly, obvious question, and yet she answered at +once: "Of course I shall leave Beechfield." + +"And you will never come back?" + +"I shall never, _never_ come back." And then she added, almost as if in +spite of herself, and with a kind of strange, bitter truthfulness very +foreign to her: "I don't like Beechfield--I don't agree that it's a +pretty place--I think it's a hideous little village." + +There was a pause. She was seeking for a phrase in which to say +"Good-bye," not so much to Timmy as to all the others. + +"Will you go away to-morrow?" he asked, this time boldly. And she +answered, "Yes, to-morrow." + +"Perhaps I'd better not tell any of them at Old Place?" It was as if he +was speaking to himself. + +She clutched at the words. + +"I would far rather you did not tell them--I will write to them from +London. Can I trust you not to tell them, Timmy?" + +He looked at her oddly. "Jack and Rosamund will be sorry," he said +slowly. And then he jerked his head--his usual way of signifying +"Good-bye" when he did not care to shake hands. + +Turning round he walked out of the room, and she heard the front door +bang after him, as also, after a moment or two, the outside door set in +the garden wall. + +Enid Crofton got up. Though she was shaking--shaking all over--she walked +swiftly across her little hall into the dining-room. There she sat down +at the writing-table, and took up the telephone receiver. "9846 Regent." + +It was the number of Harold Tremaine's club. She thought he would almost +certainly be there just now. + +She then hung up the receiver again, and, going to the door which +led into the kitchen, she opened it: "Don't bring in my supper yet. +I'll ring, when I'm ready for it." She then went back to the little +writing-table and waited impatiently. + +At last the bell rang. + +"I want to speak to Captain Tremaine. Is he in the Club? Can you find +him?" + +She felt an intense thrill of almost superstitious relief when the answer +came: "Yes, ma'am. He's in the Club. I'll go and fetch him." + +She remembered with relief that Tremaine had told her that no one could +overhear, at any rate at his end, what was being said or answered through +the telephone--but she also remembered that it was not the same here, in +The Trellis House. + +Judging others by herself, as most of us do in this strange world, she +felt sure that her two young servants were listening behind the door. +Still, in a sense there was nothing Enid Crofton liked better than +pitting her wits against other wits. So when she heard the question, +"Who is it?" she simply answered, "Darling! Can't you guess?" + +In answer to his rapturous assent, she said quietly, "I've made up my +mind to do what you wish." + +And then she drank in with intense delight the flood of eager, exultant +words, uttered with such a rush of joy, and in so triumphant a tone, that +for a moment she thought that they must be heard, if not here, then +there, if not there, then here. But, after all, what did it matter? She +would have left this hateful place for ever to-morrow! + +And then came a rather difficult moment. She did not wish to tell her +servants to-night that she was leaving The Trellis House to-morrow, and +yet somehow she must convey that fact to Tremaine. + +As if he could see into her mind, there came the eager question, "Can you +come up to-morrow, darling? The sooner, the better, you know--" + +She answered, "I will if you like--at the usual time." + +He said eagerly, "You mean that train arriving at 12.30--the one I met +you by the other day?" + +And again she said, "Yes." + +He asked a little anxiously, "How about money, my precious pet? Are you +all right about money?" + +For once her hard, selfish heart was touched and she answered truly: "You +need not bother about that." + +And then there came a whispered, "Call me darling again, darling." + +And she just breathed the word "Darling" into the receiver, making a +vague resolution as she did so that she would be, as far as would be +possible to her, a good wife to this simple-hearted, big baby of a man +who loved her so dearly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + +Timmy went straight home. He entered the house by one of the back ways +and crept upstairs. Late that afternoon he had gratified Nanna by sharing +her high tea, and so he was not expected in the dining-room. + +He felt intensely excited--what perhaps an older person would have called +uplifted. He wandered about the corridors of the roomy old house, his +hands clasped behind his back, thinking over and exulting in his great +achievement. He felt just a little bit uneasy as to the contents of the +letter Mrs. Crofton had said she would write explaining her departure. As +to certain things, Timmy Tosswill was still very much of a child. He +wondered why their enemy, for so he regarded her, should think it +necessary to write to anyone, except perhaps to Rosamund, who, after all, +had been her "pal." He was disagreeably aware that his mother would not +have approved of the method he had used to carry out what he knew to be +her ardent wish, and he wondered uncomfortably if Mrs. Crofton would +"give him away." + +At last he opened the door of what was now his godfather's bedroom, and +walked across to the wide-open window. All at once there came over him a +feeling of wondering joy. He seemed to see, as in a glass darkly, three +figures pacing slowly along the path which bounded the wide lawn below. +They were Godfrey Radmore, Betty, and with them another whom he knew was +his dear brother, George. George, whom Timmy had never seen since the +day, which to the child now seemed so very long ago, when, rather to his +surprise, his eldest brother had lifted him up in his arms to kiss him +before going out to France at the end of his last leave. And as he gazed +down, tears began to run down his queer little face. + +At last he turned away from the window, and as he went towards the door +he saw the outline of a paper pad on the writing table which in old days +George and Godfrey had shared between them. + +Blinking away his tears, he took up the pad, and carried it down the +lighted passage to his own room. There he sat down, and with a pencil +stump extracted from his waistcoat pocket, he wrote: + + Dear Mum, + + This is from Timmy. I hope you don't still feel the pierce. + + Your affectionate son, + Timothy Godfrey Radmore Tosswill. + +He put the bit of paper into a grubby envelope in which he had for some +time kept some used French stamps; then, licking down the flap, he left +his room and went into his mother's, where he propped up the envelope on +the fat pin-cushion lying on her dressing-table, remembering the while +that so had been propped an anonymous letter written many years before +by a vengeful nursery maid, who had been dismissed at Nanna's wish. + + * * * * * + +Monday morning opened badly for more than one inmate of Old Place. Dolly +and her lover had discovered with extreme surprise that one hundred +pounds would only achieve about a fifth of that which they considered +must be done before his vicarage would be fit for even the most +reasonable of brides. With Dolly this had produced an extremely +disagreeable fit of bad temper--of temper indeed so bad that it had been +noticed by Godfrey Radmore, who had followed Janet into the drawing-room +after breakfast to ask what was the matter. + +Jack Tosswill had gone off as early as he felt he decently could go, to +The Trellis House, only to find its mistress gone--and gone, which +naturally much increased his disappointment and anger, only ten minutes +before his arrival! He had interviewed both servants, they only too +willing, for his infatuation was by now known to the whole village. But +what they had to say gave him no comfort--indeed, it was almost exactly +what the house-parlourmaid had said last week, when Enid had gone off to +town, leaving no address behind her. This time, however, she had said she +would telephone from town. + +As he was turning away, feeling sick at heart, the cook suddenly +vouchsafed the information that her mistress had left a letter for Mrs. +Tosswill, and that The Trellis House odd man, on his way back from the +station, where he had gone with Mrs. Crofton, for she had taken two +large trunks this time, would deliver it at Old Place. + +But when he reached home the letter had not yet been delivered, and Jack, +half consciously desiring to visit his misery on someone else, hunted up +Timmy in order to demand why Josephine and her kittens had not been sent +back to Epsom ere now. There had followed a lively scrap, leaving them +both in a bad mood; but at last it was arranged that Godfrey, Betty and +Timmy should motor to Epsom with the cat and her kittens after luncheon. + +The morning wore itself slowly away. Only two of the younger people were +entirely happy--Betty, doing her usual work, and Godfrey Radmore. Even he +was more restless than usual, and kept wandering in and out of the +kitchen in a way which Rosamund, who was helping Betty, thought very +tiresome. As for Timmy, his mother could not make him out. He seemed +uncomfortable, and, to her practised eye, appeared to have something on +his conscience. + +Three times in one hour Jack came into the drawing-room and asked his +step-mother whether she had not yet had a letter from The Trellis House. +Now Jack Tosswill had always been reserved, absurdly sensitive to any +kind of ridicule. Yet now he scarcely made an effort to conceal his +unease and suspense. Indeed, the third time he had actually exclaimed, +"Janet! Are you concealing anything from me?" And she had answered, +honestly surprised, "I don't know what you mean, Jack. I've had no +communication from Mrs. Crofton of any kind. Are you sure she wrote +me a letter?" And he had answered in a wretched tone: "Quite sure." + +And then, about five minutes before luncheon, and luncheon had to be a +very punctual meal at Old Place, for it was the one thing about which its +master was particular, Timmy came in with a letter in his hand, and +sidling up to his mother, observed with rather elaborate unconcern: "A +letter for you, Mum." + +She looked at him quite straight. "Has this letter only just been left, +my dear?" + +He answered rather hurriedly: "It came a little while ago, but I put it +in my pocket and forgot it." + +Janet broke the seal, for the letter was sealed, and then she called out +to her son, who was making for the door: "Don't go away, Timmy. Betty +will ring the lunch bell in a moment." + +Unwillingly he turned round and stood watching her while she read the +four pages of closely written handwriting. But, rather to his relief, +she made no remark, and the bell rang just as she put the letter back in +its envelope. Then she slipped it in her pocket, for Janet Tosswill was +one of the very few women in England who still had a pocket in her dress. + +Giving him what he felt to be a condemnatory look, but in that he was +wrong, for she was too surprised, relieved, and, yes, disturbed, to +think of him at all, she motioned the boy to go before her into the +dining-room. + +As the Sunday joint was always served cold on Monday, they were all +there, even Betty, but owing, as at any rate most of them believed, to +the unfortunate discovery made by Dolly that the pre-war pound was now +only worth about seven and six, it was rather a mournful meal. + +At last Rosamund went out to get the coffee, and then Janet addressed +her son: "Timmy," she observed, "I have something I wish to say to the +others, so will you please go and have your orange with Nanna?" + +Timmy obeyed his mother without a word, and then, after the coffee had +come in and been poured out, Janet said slowly: + +"I've had a letter from Mrs. Crofton, and as she asks me to tell you all +what is in it, I think it will be simpler if I read it out now." + +She waited a moment, gathering up her courage, wondering the while +whether she was doing the best thing by Jack. On the whole she thought +_yes_. There are blows which are far better borne among one's fellows +than in solitude. + +She wished to make her reading as colourless as possible, but she could +not keep a certain touch of sarcasm out of her voice as she read aloud +the first two sentences: + + "Dearest Mrs. Tosswill, + + "You have always been so kind to me that I feel I must write and tell + you why I am leaving the dear Trellis House and delightful Beechfield." + +She looked up, but no one spoke; Jack was staring straight before him, +and she went on: + + "To my _utter_ surprise a very old friend of my late husband's and mine + has asked me to be his wife. He is going back to India in a fortnight, + and so, much as I shrink from the thought of all the bustle and hurry + it will involve, I feel that as it must be now or never, it must be + _now_, and the fact that I have a good offer for The Trellis House + seemed to me a kind of sign-post. + + "Though perhaps I ought not to say so, he is a splendid soldier and did + extremely well in the war. He won a bar to his M.C., which my husband + once told me would have won him a V.C. in any other war. + + "He is anxious that I should not come down to Beechfield again. The + time is so short, and there is so much to be done, that I fear I shall + not see any of you before I leave for India. I would have liked + Rosamund to come to my wedding, but we shall be married very quietly, + and the day and hour will probably be fixed at the last minute. + + "I am purposely not telling you where I am staying as I do not want to + give you the bother of answering this rather unconventional letter. As + for presents I have always hated them. + + "All the business about The Trellis House is being done by a kind + solicitor I know, who arranged about the lease for me. + + "Might I ask you to remember me very kindly to everybody, and to give + my special love to Rosamund and to sweet Miss Betty? I wish I had known + her better. + + "Again thanking you for your kindness, and assuring you I shall always + look back to the happy days I spent at Beechfield, + + "Believe me to remain, + Yours very sincerely, + Enid Crofton." + +There was a long pause. Jack was now crumbling up his bread and then +smoothing out the crumbs with a kind of mechanical, steam-roller movement +of his right-hand forefinger. + +Rosamund was the first to speak. "Why, she hasn't even told us his name!" +she exclaimed. "How very funny of her!" + +And then Godfrey Radmore spoke, just a thought more sharply than usual: +"I'm not at all surprised at that. She wants to start quite clear again." + +Betty said quietly: "That's natural enough, isn't it?" But her heart was +full of aching sympathy for her brother. She felt, rather than saw, his +rigid, mask-like face. + +They all got up, and slowly began to disperse. After all, there was only +one among them to whom this news was of any real moment. + +Janet, feeling curiously tired, went into the drawing-room. The moment +she had finished Enid Crofton's letter she had begun to torment herself +as to whether she had done right or wrong after all? + +To her relief Godfrey Radmore came into the drawing-room. "I want to put +those two unfortunate people out of their misery, Janet. Shall I tell +Dolly, or will you tell her, that I want to give her a thousand pounds as +a wedding present?" + +Janet had very strong ideas of what was right and wrong, or perhaps it +would be better to say of what was meet and proper. + +"I don't think they could take a present of that sort from you," she said +very decidedly. "These are hard times, Godfrey, even for rich people. But +you always talk as if you were made of money!" + +"Do I?" + +He looked taken aback, and even hurt. + +"No, no," she said, "I don't mean that, but I'm upset to-day. What with +one thing and another, I hardly know what I'm saying." She caught herself +up. "I'll tell you what I think would be reasonable. As you are so kind, +give Dolly a hundred pounds. It will make a real difference." + +"No," he said, "it's going to be a thousand." + +"I'm quite sure that John would not allow Dolly to accept it." + +Radmore knew that when Janet invoked John, it meant that she had made up +her mind as to what must be. + +He went to the door, opened it, and called out in what seemed to Janet a +very imperious tone: "Betty?" And yet no glimmer of the truth came into +Janet's mind. + +"It's no good sending for Betty," she said sharply. "There are things +that can be done, and things that can't be done." + +As she uttered that very obvious remark, Betty appeared. + +"Yes," she said a little breathlessly. "Yes, Godfrey, what is it? We have +just started washing up--" + +He took her hand and led her in front of Janet. "We have got to tell her +_now_," he said. "We must do it for Dolly's sake; I never saw anyone +looking so woe-begone as she has looked all the morning." + +And then, at last, Janet began to understand. + +"I don't think Mr. Tosswill will be able to object to Dolly's _brother_ +giving her a thousand pounds," he said, and then, very much to Janet's +surprise, he suddenly threw his arms round her, and gave her a great hug. + + + + * * * * * + + + +By MRS. BELLOC LOWNDES + +WHAT TIMMY DID +FROM OUT THE VASTY DEEP +THE LONELY HOUSE +GOOD OLD ANNA +LOVE AND HATRED +LILLA: A PART OF HER LIFE +THE RED CROSS BARGE + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT TIMMY DID*** + + +******* This file should be named 17381.txt or 17381.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/3/8/17381 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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