"I'm glad you're having a good time, Bob," she continued more brightly, "and I'm so very proud you've won this beautiful prize."
"So am I," said Mrs. Glanville. "It is a very handsome cup, and it shall have a prominent place on the sideboard, I promise you. Go back to your friends, my boy; your father will see to us."
As soon as the prize-giving was over, Mr. and Mrs. Glanville and Kitty drove home. Mr. Shuttleworth, when informed that his nephew would not return till later, as he was going to take tea with Bob and several other Grammar School boys at Dr. Richards's, was quite satisfied, and expressed himself very pleased at Tim's having increased his number of acquaintances in the place.
Kitty, who was very tired after the excitement of the afternoon, went to bed somewhat early. But she knew she would not be able to sleep until she had seen her brother, and desired that the moment he came home he might be sent upstairs. When at last he returned, it was nearly nine o'clock, and Kitty had grown impatient.
"Tired, old girl?" he asked, as he entered his sister's room, and having turned up the gas, sat down on the edge of the bed. "We've had such a splendid time," continued he, without waiting for a reply. "Mrs. Richards had got us a first-rate tea—ham and pickles, and jams and cake; and the doctor was there, and was ever so jolly. Jack Richards has taken quite a fancy to Tim; they're the same age—that is, Jack was eleven last October, and Tim was eleven in January; and—"
"Oh, Bob, let me tell you about Tom Hatch," interposed Kitty. "I hadn't the chance of speaking to you about him this afternoon. Do you know he never sent me that rabbit he told you he'd give me? He sold it instead. It was very mean of him, wasn't it? Did you ever hear of anything meaner? I don't think I ever did, and father says the same. It makes me so cross to remember how kind I've been thinking him, and how grateful I've felt. Fancy promising to make a present and then not doing it! I can't imagine how anyone can behave like that!"
"But—but—he didn't send the rabbit, you say?" questioned Bob, every whit as astonished as Kitty and his parents had been a short while previously. "Then who did send it? What about Fluffy?"
"Ah! that's what I want to know!" exclaimed Kitty. "Isn't it puzzling? Some one must have put Fluffy in the hutch; but who?"
"Well, I am amazed, simply amazed!" declared Bob. "I should think it is puzzling! Of course I thought Hatch had sent the rabbit, as he had told me about it. I didn't speak of it till we found it in the hutch, because I knew Hatch's word wasn't to be relied on. What a muddle the whole affair is!"
"Yes," agreed Kitty. "Mother and father say the same. I've been lying here thinking of it, and the more I think the more bewildered I get. If only Fluffy could speak!"