her society at his now lonely meals to an almost ridiculous extent,
Radmore would have been much taken aback had an angel from heaven told
him that the real reason he had sought to get in touch with Old Place was
because Enid Crofton had already settled down at Beechfield.




CHAPTER III


After Timmy Tosswill had been to the village shop and done his mother's
errand, he wandered on, his dog, Flick, at his heels, debating within
himself what he should do next.

Like most children who lead an abnormal, because a lonely, childhood, he
was in some ways very mature, in other ways still very babyish. He was at
once secretive and--whenever anything touched his heart--emotionally
expansive. To the indifferent observer Timmy appeared to be an
exceptionally intelligent, naughty, rather spoilt little boy, too apt
to take every advantage of a certain physical delicacy. This was also
the view taken of him by his half-brothers, and by two out of his three
step-sisters. But the three who really loved him, his mother, his nurse,
and his eldest half-sister, Betty, were convinced that the child was
either possessed of a curious, uncanny gift of--was it second sight?--as
his old nurse entirely and his mother half, believed, or, as Dr.
O'Farrell asserted, some abnormal development of his subconscious self.
All three were ruefully aware that Timmy was often--well, his mother
called it "sly," his sister called it "fanciful," his nurse by the good
old nursery term, "deceitful."