they would go: into Devonshire or into a cottage at Hampstead where Sarah
Barmby lived now.

Her mother said, "Do you think you'd like to live in Sidmouth, near Aunt
Harriett?"

They had stayed one summer at Sidmouth with Aunt Harriett. She remembered
the red cliffs, the sea, and Aunt Harriett's garden stuffed with flowers.
They had been happy there. She thought she would love that: the sea and
the red cliffs and a garden like Aunt Harriett's.

But she was not sure whether it was what her mother really wanted. Mamma
would never say. She would have to find out somehow.

"Well--what do you think?"

"It would be leaving all your friends, Hatty."

"My friends--yes. But----"

Lizzie and Sarah and Connie Pennefather. She could live without them. "Oh,
there's Mrs. Hancock."

"Well----" Her mother's voice suggested that if she were put to it she
could live without Mrs. Hancock.

And Harriett thought: She does want to go to Sidmouth then.

"It would be very nice to be near Aunt Harriett."