CHAPTER IV
Timmy went on into the dining-room to find his brothers and sisters all gathered there excepting Dolly. But as he sat down, and as Betty began to pour out tea, Dolly came in from the garden with the words:—"Guess who I've met and had a talk with?"
She looked round her eagerly, but no one ventured an opinion. There were so many, many people whom Dolly might have met and had a talk with, for she was the most gregarious member of the Tosswill family.
At last Timmy spoke up:—"I expect you've seen Mrs. Crofton," he observed, his mouth already full of bread and butter.
Dolly was taken aback. "How did you know?" she cried. "But it's quite true—I have seen Mrs. Crofton!"
"What is she like?" asked Jack indifferently.
"How old is she?" This from Betty, who somehow always seemed to ask the essential question.
"D'you think she'll prove a 'stayer'?" questioned Tom.
He had hoped that someone with a family of boys and girls would have come to The Trellis House. It was a beautiful little building—the oldest dwelling-house in the village, in spite of its early Victorian name. But no one ever stayed there very long. Some of the older village folk said it was haunted.
"Did you speak to her, or did she speak to you?" asked Rosamund.