"I never saw such a queer girl!" he said, in disgust, "for when I told her dragonflies would never bite, she said: 'They will. They'll sew your eyes, and nose, and mouth up. Po-dunk!' and she hopped back on to the stone, and grinned at me just as she did at first. Say! She made me feel queer to look at her, and I turned and ran away. I wasn't afraid of her, of course, but she did make me feel queer!"
"She'd make any one feel queer," said Nancy as they turned toward the dining-room.
Jack wished that they might have stayed longer in the hall. He had intended to ask them if they knew Arabella, and if she was always doing queer things, but Mrs. Dainty and Aunt Charlotte joined them, and they went in for breakfast.
Mrs. Tiverton, coming in from an early walk, took Jack with her to the other side of the dining-room. He looked across at them, and wondered what they could have told of Arabella if they had had a chance. He decided to question them, whispering softly to himself:
"I'll make them tell me all they know about that funny girl."
For several days he tried to catch Dorothy or Nancy at a time when he could question them.
He chased Dorothy up the long stairway one morning, only to see her disappear into her room. He had not told her that he had wished to talk with her, and she, believing that he was only chasing her for fun, ran from him, laughing as she went.
He found Nancy, a few minutes later, and coaxed her to wait on the landing.
"Now, Nancy," he said, "you've got to tell me something about that queer girl that you and Dorothy know."
"If you mean Arabella," said Nancy, "I don't see what I could tell you, only that she is queer, and you know that now."