"Oh, Mother!" said Jan, who guessed what was coming.
"Yes, I won't have Jan sleeping out of doors. Pneumonia two years ago, you remember, Jan? Or perhaps you don't,—you were too small; but—I do! No, Jan may choose either to sleep at home and join the boys by day, or—" Mrs. Vaughan wrinkled her brow—"perhaps Gardener's wife, Mrs. Brown, has a spare room. Yes, of course she has. Now, Jan, would you feel more on the spot and more of a regular camper if I could arrange for you to sleep in the Island Cottage?" "Oh, yes." Jan's eyes sparkled with delight.
"And the Lennox boys are Scouts too, so they'll be willing enough, I've no doubt," went on Mrs. Vaughan. "In fact I mentioned something of the plan to your aunt, and she seemed very pleased. Well, I think it can be arranged, but—it would be well to wait for really settled weather, wouldn't it?"
"The wind's in a good quarter now," Peter had said.
That had been yesterday, and the Lennoxes were coming in a few hours. It had been decided, though, that for a day or two the newcomers should sleep at the Chase and be introduced to the interests that the house and garden afforded. "You must remember," as Mrs. Vaughan told the children, "everything will be new and interesting to them. It is the first time they have been to the Chase, and the house will mean a good deal to them as belonging to their mother's family for so many generations. They may not want to camp out just at once, and——"
"It's queer, isn't it?" said Peter to the others as they made their way over to the Island, "to think that they've never yet seen the house, though Father is their uncle, and everything!"
"That's because they've always lived so far north," said Robin, "though it isn't as though the Chase is as it used to be, then—in the old days I mean. They'll understand that, though; they must have heard——" he sighed. "It must have been rippingly jolly," he said, "to live here in the old days."
"It is—now," said Jan loyally; but she and Peter knew what Robin meant. For the Chase had been the home of the Vaughan family for generations; it was an old rambling place standing in large grounds, but, ever since the children could remember, most of the house had been shut up and empty. Stories of the old days when their father and his sister had been young—before the change of fortunes had come which had made everything so different—were interesting to hear, if a little strange to understand.
"I often wonder," said Jan, when they were making their way across to the Island for another look at the camping ground on which they had fixed, "exactly what the mystery was."
"I do, too. But Dad never told us. When War's over, and he's back, perhaps he will. We'll be older," said Robin. "It's—a family secret, something to do with something that happened. It killed Grandfather, I believe. He died of a broken heart, or something. There was lots of money to pay, too, and—the Chase has been pretty nearly all shut up ever since, but——"