“We shall have quite a lot of fresh people in the neighbourhood,” she remarked sociably. “Mr. Coventry himself is a stranger to us all, and then there will be a new-comer at the Priory, too.”
“Mrs. Hilyard, you mean?” said Robin.
“Yes.” Miss Caroline looked full of importance. “I hear she arrives to-day. The carrier told our cook that he was ordered to meet the four-thirty train this afternoon—to fetch a quantity of luggage.”
“Is there a Mr. Hilyard?” asked Ann casually. She could see that Miss Caroline was bursting with gossipy news which she was aching to impart.
“No, she’s a widow, I hear, and very wealthy. The furniture that’s been coming down by rail is of most excellent quality—most excellent!”
“How do you know, Caroline?” inquired the rector, his eyes twinkling with amusement.
“Well, entirely by accident, I happened to be taking a basin of chicken broth to old Mrs. Skinner—you know, she lives in one of the Priory cottages—on the very day the pantechnicons were delivering at the house, and I saw quite a number of the chairs and tables as they were being carried in.”
The twinkle in Brian’s eyes grew more pronounced.
“I’m afraid you must have stood and watched the unloading process, then.”
“Well, I suppose I did—just for a minute,” she acknowledged, adding with some asperity: “It would be quite fitting if you took a little keener interest in future parishioners, Brian.”