"Did she find out who you were, then?"
"Oh, no—not until long after that—when she was lodging at Higher Brimley. I met her on the beach and she spoke to me, and—and I talked rather much, for I told her my name—she asked me, I think—and all about my accident. Even then she didn't say who she was. But afterwards she came to Lower Brimley and asked permission to go around the garden—Mr. Tiddy had told her she might—and Mrs. Tiddy and I went with her, and just before she left she said I was distantly related to her and explained who she was. After that, she was very nice and kind to me—very kind indeed!"
"But you don't like her, Peggy, do you?" cried Billy. "I thought her such a proud, cross old woman!"
"She speaks in rather a proud way sometimes," Peggy allowed reluctantly, "but she isn't cross when you know her—at least, she wasn't to me. She said she wouldn't have driven away so quickly after I had been knocked down by her horse, if she had known I was blind. Yes, I rather like her, but I don't suppose I shall ever meet her again, though I should like to. And then there's Barnes—"
"Barnes? Is she still with Aunt Caroline?" broke in Mrs. Pringle, eagerly.
"Yes," nodded Peggy, "and she asked me such a lot of questions about you, mother. I like Barnes. She told me about her poor afflicted brother, and—wasn't it strange?—Aunt Caroline had never heard of him till I happened to speak of him to her."
"I dare say not, my dear," Mrs. Pringle answered, evincing no surprise. "I remember about poor Barnes's brother," she proceeded. "He is not right in his mind, and Barnes helps support him and her mother too. The mother must be a very aged woman now."
"Yes," the little girl answered. "Poor Barnes! Aunt Caroline used to speak so sharply to her sometimes—I heard her—but that is her way, I suppose."
"It used to be," Mrs. Pringle admitted with a sigh, "and, from what you tell me, I imagine she has not altered much these last ten years."
"I don't think she's a bit happy," Peggy said, shaking her golden head. "That seems very sad, doesn't it? Barnes told the servants at Lower Brimley that Aunt Caroline has no friends, because she always thinks people who are nice to her want her money."