"Stuck-up? You astonish me. I don't know much of my neighbours, but Mr. and Mrs. Glanville seem pleasant people to talk to, and the children—though I have never spoken to them—always struck me as being well behaved. They go to school, I believe; but I suppose it is holiday-time now. Don't you think you'll be friendly with them, then?"
Tim shook his head decidedly, and his uncle dropped the subject, telling himself that perhaps his nephew, like himself, preferred his own company.
As soon as Mr. Shuttleworth had returned to his study, and the servant had cleared the table, Tim took up his post at the window, on the alert to see what would happen when Kitty and Bob paid their next visit to the back garden. It was less cold than it had been earlier in the day, and the wind had gone down, so he opened the window, and it was not long before he heard voices, and the sister and brother appeared, the former carrying something very carefully in a saucer.
Tim's heart beat unevenly as he watched the children. As he had anticipated, they made straight for the box, and great was the consternation depicted on their faces when they found it had been overturned.
"Oh, Bob, what can have happened?" cried Kitty; and the listener at the window caught a note of alarm in her voice. "Oh, dear! Oh, dear!"
"Don't be frightened," Bob answered reassuringly. "It's only upset; I'll soon put it right. I hope a dog hasn't been here; it wouldn't have been Snip, anyway, for we warned him off, and he quite understood. Oh, be careful, Kitty! You're spilling the bread and milk all over your frock."
"Never mind," broke in Kitty hastily. "It's an old frock, and—oh, Bob, do be quick and see it's not hurt."
Bob had set the box right side up by this time, and was trying to open the lid; but it had become jammed, and it took him a few minutes to prise it open with his pocket-knife.
Tim now saw that the front of the box had been knocked out and a piece of wire netting put in its place, and that he had not been able to see from the top of the wall. He began to feel anxiety as well as curiosity to ascertain what the box contained. Was it something living—some animal? It might be a pet of some kind, and that would account for Kitty's saucer of bread and milk.
Bob had succeeded in opening the box now, and he and his sister were bending over it, their fair, curly heads close together. A strange quietude seemed to have fallen upon them, and when a minute later they stood upright and looked at each other, Tim observed that the colour had fled from both young faces, and that the tears were rolling down Kitty's cheeks. At length Bob spoke in a voice which sounded rather husky.