"Is Sir Keith coming first? What!—And leave Lady Denham to manage the journey all alone?"
Mrs. Stockmoor maintained a discreet silence, till further pressed, when she twisted her apron anew and said, "I cannot not tell!" with an emphatic double-negative, which I had already once or twice heard from her.
Then Mr. Stockmoor advanced to his wife's rescue, volunteering information about the surrounding neighbourhood. Had we been yet to see a certain spot, not three miles off; called Gurglepool? It seems from his description to be an odd and mysterious hole in the earth, and I cannot recall hearing the name before, though the girls have evidently been aware of Its existence.
"There are two holes," Nona said, "one big and one little. Eustace told us about them."
I suggested an excursion to the place to-morrow, and Thyrza seconded me.
Maggie immediately protested. She said that "she and the rest" had settled to drive up the Dale in the waggonette. They wanted to see the road to the station by daylight.
"Very well," I replied. "One day is as good as another for Gurglepool."
I noted a gleam of quiet intelligence in Mr. Stockmoor's eyes, and five minutes later, as we were departing, he offered to bring "t' trap" on the morrow to "t' hoose," that I and one or two others might still carry out my project.
As the waggonette could not contain all our party, and I should, of course, be the one left out, I felt no scruple about accepting the offer, with thanks.
But are the Denhams really proposing to stay near us? And if so, is it on our account or on their own? Thyrza thinks their coming very probable.