Miss Crump looked surprised to think that Milton House should apparently be so well known.
“I bought Milton House.” said Miss Crump, taking a bun herself. “My brother wanted to live in this county, and he seemed to think Milton House would do for us.”
“Oh!” said Daisy, after a nudge from Fatty. “Well - er - why didn’t you go and live there, then? I mean - you seem to live here.”
This wasn’t very clever, but Miss Crump went on cheerfully, “Well, after I’d bought it, a funny thing happened.”
The children pricked up their ears at once. Buster, sensing the general feeling of interest, pricked his up too. “What funny thing happened?” asked Bets eagerly.
“A man came to see me, and begged and begged me to let him buy the house from me,” said Miss Crump, “and all because it used to belong to his dear old mother, and he had been brought up in it, and wanted to go there with his wife and children and live there himself! As he offered me very much more than I had paid for it, which was, let me see, now -”
“Three thousand pounds,” said Pip obligingly, remembering what Fatty had told him.
He got a sharp and angry nudge from both Fatty and Larry immediately. Miss Crump stared at Pip in great astonishment.
“Now how in the world did you know that?” she said. “What an extraordinary thing! That was the price I paid. But how did you know?”
Pip was scarlet. He couldn’t think what to say. Fatty as usual came to the rescue.