Finally--and very likely she ought to have come first--was Runcie, or Mrs.
Runciman, who had not only been the nurse of all the Avories, but of Mrs.
Avory before them, when Mrs. Avory was a slip of a girl named Janet Easton.
Runcie was then quite young herself, and why she was suddenly called Mrs.
no one ever quite knew, for she had never married. And now she was getting
on for sixty, and had not much to do except sympathize with the Avories and
reprove the servants. She had a nice sitting room of her own, where she sat
comfortably every afternoon when such work as she did was done, and
received visits from her pets, as she called the children (none of whom,
however, was quite so dear to her as their mother), and listened to their
adventures.

On those evenings on which he came to "The Gables" Mr. Lenox always looked
in on her for a little gossip; and this was called his "runcible spoon"--the
joke being that Mr. Lenox and Runcie were engaged to be married.

And now you know the Avory family root and branch.



CHAPTER 2: THE SOUND OF MYSTERIOUS WHEELS

One day in late June the Avories and the Rotherams and Horace Campbell were
sitting at tea under the cedar talking about a great tragedy that had
befallen. For Mrs. Avory had just heard that Mrs. Dudeney--their regular
landlady at Sea View, in the Isle of Wight, where they had lodgings
every summer for years and years, and where they were all ready to go next
month as usual--Mrs. Avory had just heard that Mrs. Dudeney had been taken
very ill, and no other rooms were to be had.