For the first time he
began to dimly apprehend the strange and piteous tangle we call life.
Suddenly there broke on the still autumn air the distant sound of sharp
barks and piteous whines. Much against his will, the little boy had had
to bow to the edict that Flick should be shut up in the stable. Dolly,
who so seldom bothered about anything, had seen to this herself, because
Mrs. Crofton, who was coming to supper, hated dogs. Timmy inhospitably
hoped that the new tenant of The Trellis House would very seldom honour
Old Place with a visit. It would be impossible for them always to hide
Flick away like this!
He moved further into the pretty, old-fashioned room. Like most
old-fashioned country drawing-rooms of the kind, it was rather over-full
of furniture and ornaments. The piano jutted out at right angles to a
big, roomy sofa, which could, at a pinch, hold seven or eight people, the
pinch usually being when, for the benefit of Timmy, the sofa was supposed
to be a stage coach of long ago on its way to London. The Tosswills had
been great people for private theatricals, charades, and so on--Timmy's
own mother being a really good actress and an excellent mimic, but she
did not often now indulge in an exhibition of her powers.
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