had
spent a large sum of money on fencing her little property entirely
round with a stone wall about ten feet high. Also, she never went for
walks; and it was said that tradesmen's carts were not admitted into
the garden, but had to wait outside on the road while the old
housekeeper carried all they brought through a door in the wall, which
she carefully closed behind her. Nobody but the clergyman and the
doctor had been admitted to see Mrs. Howard for years; and they were
neither of them gossips, so the neighbourhood did not learn much after
their visits. Some people said that the old lady was mad; others that
she had committed some terrible crime for which she had been sentenced
to imprisonment for life, but that being very rich, she had been
allowed to escape this disgrace on condition of paying a huge fine and
promising never to go outside those gloomy high walls.

The children firmly believed all the different stories they had been
told by successive nursery-maids, and even a legend started by the old
weeding-woman, to the effect that Mrs. Howard belonged to a very high
family living in London, and that having gone mad she took advantage of
her position to shoot at the Queen as she was driving through Hyde
Park. The story broke off at this point, which was so unsatisfactory
that the children teased Mrs. Bunn to try and remember more, until,
being in a hurry to get on with her weeding, she hazarded a suggestion
that perhaps the poor lady was so mad that she forgot to load the
pistol. As the Queen continued to live and reign, this really seemed
very probable.

Of course the little Wests could have asked their parents about Mrs.
Howard, and found out from them something more nearly approaching the
truth. But on the whole they very much preferred being at liberty to
believe all sorts of wonderful and terrible reports. It is such hard
work to satisfy one's natural craving for romantic adventure when one
is carefully brought up in a well-guarded nursery and schoolroom, that
it would be mere stupid ingratitude not to get all the excitement one
could out of a mysterious neighbour.

After this explanation, it can be better understood how very bold and
thrilling a proposal Madge made when she suggested that the Eagle's
Nest should be built in a beech-tree that actually overhung the
boundary wall.

"How are we to begin? What shall we do first?" inquired the twins, as
with business-like rapidity the three childre