r did she speak to you?" asked Rosamund.

And then again Timmy intervened.

"I know more about her than any one of you do. But I don't mean to tell
you what I know," he announced.

No one took any notice of him. By common consent efforts were always made
in the family circle to keep Timmy down--but such efforts were rarely
successful.

"Well, tell us what's she like?" exclaimed Rosamund. "I did so hope we
should escape another widow."

She had hoped for a nice, well-to-do couple, with at least one grown-up
son preferably connected, in some way, with the stage.

Dolly Tosswill, still standing, looked down at her audience.

"She's quite unlike what I thought she would be," she began. "For one
thing, she's quite young, and she's awfully pretty and unusual-looking.
You'd notice her anywhere."

"Did you meet her in the post-office?" asked Betty.

"No, at church. She only arrived this morning, and she said she felt so
lonely and miserable that when she heard the bell ring she thought she'd
go along and see what our church was like."

"Oh, then she's 'pi'?" in a tone of disgust from Rosamund.

"I'd noticed her in church, though she was sitting rather back, close to
the door," went on Dolly, "and I'd wondered who she was, as she looked so
very unlike any of the Beechfield people."

"How do you mean--unlike?" asked Tom.

"I can't explain exactly. I thought she was a summer visitor. And then
something so funny happened--"

Dolly was sitting down now, and Betty handed her a cup of tea, grieving
the while to see how untidy she looked with her hat tilted back at an
unbecoming angle.

"What happened?"

"Well, as we came out of the church together, all at once that old,
half-blind, post-office dog made straight for her! He gave a most awful
howl, and she was so frightened that she ran back into the church again.
But of course I didn't know she was Mrs. Crofton _then_. I got the dog
into the post-office garden and then I went back into the church to tell
her the coast was clear. But she waited a bit, for she was awfully afraid
that he might get out again."

"What a goose she must be"--this from Jack.

"She asked if she were likely to meet any other dog in the road; so I
asked her where she lived, and then she told me she was Mrs. Crofton, and
that she had only arrived this morning. I offered to walk home with her,
and then we had quite a talk. She has the same kind of feeling about dogs
that some people have abou