What Timmy Did

that was so new to her, and yet, if local tradition could be trus

and call on her this afternoon, for Jack Tosswill had told her that he was arriving

little afraid of Rosamund-Rosamund was so very pretty with all the added, evanescent charm of extreme youth. S

ror which she had fixed on to one of the cupboard doors. That there is no truer critic of herself, and of her

hough her anxious surveys of herself had been reassuring, she felt nervous, and a trifle despondent. She did not like the country-the stillness even of village life got on her nerves. Still, Beechfield was very differ

nd tranquillity when dealing with the average man. Enid Crofton wasn't quite sure, however, if Godfrey Radmore was an average man. He had never mad

en petted and spoilt, admired and sheltered, by almos

atlin was still too attractive herself to feel her daughter a rival, and the two years which had followed had been delightful years to them both. Then something which they regarded as most romantic occurred. On the day Enid was eighteen, an

of which she was afraid she would have to tell Godfrey Radmore some day. She was shrewd enough to know that many a man in lo

radise-the kind of paradise in which a young woman enjoys a constant flow of ready money. Though she was quite unaware of it, it was those fifteen weeks spent on the Riviera, for the most part at Monte Carlo, which had gradu

e mistake of marrying, almost at once, clever, saturnine Colonel Crofton, a man over thirty years older than herself. His mad passion had died down

job, though resentful of the fact that he was not in the trenches, Enid had shared a small flat in London with another young and lonely wife. The two had enjoyed every moment of war-time London, dancing, flirting, taking par

h the Croftons had met Godfrey Radmore, and, after th

e acquaintances, but there was a strain of curious timidity in her nature, and she grew afraid of Colonel Crofton. Even now, when Enid Crofton, free at last, remembered those dreary months in the shabby little manor-house which Colonel Crofton had taken after the Armistice, she told herself, with a quickened pulse, that flesh and blood cannot stand more than a certain amount of dulness and discomfort. But she seldom went back in thought to that hateful time. She had wanted to obliterate, as far as was possib

, square little sitting-room, and, looking round at her new poss

th century, from a farm into a so-called gentleman's house. He had uncovered the old oak beams, stripped five layers of paper off the walls of the living rooms, and laid bare what panelling there was-in fact he

attractive self. She had sold for very high prices the sound, solid, fine, 18th century furniture, which her husband had inherited, and w

-agents who had disposed of the lease of Fildy Fe Manor had helped her in every way possible, though he had been rather surprised

ng in to do-for the house had been left in perfect order by its last tenant. But Captain Tremaine had fetched her from the hotel where she had stayed in London; he had bought her first-class ticket (Enid always liked someone to pay for her); they had shared a d

beside his pay, and that, even in India, she believed would mean poverty. Also she had been told that no woman remained really pretty in India for very long. But she was fond of Tremaine-he was "her sort," and far, far more h

t, sharp knock on the toy knocker of her front door. Enid started up, her face full o

ed to get away from Old Place, and its many tiresome inmates. There came a mischievous smile over her face. Of one of those inmates, the rather priggish Jack Tosswill, she had made a real conque

of the tall, dark man she expected to see walk in, there advanced towards her a small, freckled-faced, fair-haired

I was not expecting a visitor so late, but I'm very pleased to see you all the same, Master Timmy! How wonderful that

shortly, "it was my godfath

e room he was surprised, even a little touch

e added, characteristically, for truth was not in her, "I was

ooked at her with a curiously critical eye. He was surprised to find

the prettiest woman in the room. At the time he had felt indulgently that it was a good thing that someone should have gone through that awful time untouched by the pains and scars of war. But now everything seem

ore suddenly realised that he had made a mistake in bringing the boy. For the first time since his return to England

do feel what a delightful place it is! Everybody is so kind and friendly. Why the very first day I was here I was asked to s

admore answered, rather drily:-"In my time, Miss Pendarth was the greatest goss

s Pendarth's card had been written the words:-"I look forward to making your acquaintance. I think I must have known Colonel Crofton many years ago. There was a Cecil Cr

u against Miss Pendarth; I've known her do most awfully kind things. But she had what the Scotch call

l be a good friend to me. At any rate, it was nice

s a very different place to this in my time; I can remember a hideous, col

me to buy almost everything in The Trellis House

re hesitatingly,

aving been very good. In the bedroom in which he had slept at Fildy Fe Manor there had been a walnut-wood tallboy of the best

n Beechfield, from what he had seemed in London. They talked in a desultory way, with none of the pleasant, cosy, intimacy to which she had insensibly accustom

ght of asking you in London, but somehow one expects to see a dog in t

wfully good home. Still," she sighed, "of course I miss my darling little Boo-" and then a s

as they had a way of doing since her husband's death. Often when she fell asleep, there would come to her a strange and horrible nightmare. It was such a queer, uncan

e. "I thought you didn't like dogs, Mrs. Crofton, and so I shut Flick up in your

unreasonably angry. How stupid of this odious little fellow to have brough

the front door, and Radmore got up too.

n," she murmured. "Though I do like Beechfield, and the people here are awfully kind, I feel ve

side. Mrs. Crofton went quickly past Radmore into the tiny hall; she

med. "Poor Cecil's terriers got thoroughly on my ner

her concerned. Poor little woman! Th

oo-boo had turned against me." There was a touch of excitement, almost of defiance, in her low voice, and Radmore felt exceedingly taken abac

nto many men's faces, but never in his, till now-the excited, tender look that she had longed to see there. She swayed a little towards him; dropping her hand, he put out

n of feeling-a sensation that he had been saved from doing a

ld have fallen dead. But evil thoughts do not kill, and so all that happened was

shut, so I came in, through the kitchen. It's ever so late, Godfrey-after half

feelings. "You've had an escape! You've got well out of what would have been not only a dangerous but an absurd situation," so

es, before I go quite off to sleep, you know, I see a row of faces. Sometimes they're people I've never seen at all; but last night I kept seeing Mrs. Crof

another question: "Do you think Mrs. Crofton

. But gentlemen don't discuss l

Timmy. He added a little shyly, "I supp

he hoped forgotten, episode? But Timmy only observed musingly:-"You haven't seen Rosamund yet. Of course we

to the woman to whose house they had just been. "Mrs. Crofton," he observed, with a