Godfrey is coming, Miss Betty?"
Betty looked round quickly. "No," she said, "I haven't had a chance yet.
Thank you for reminding me."
The old woman slipped away, and Betty suddenly wondered whether Nanna had
really come in to ask that question as to Miss Pendarth. Somehow Betty
suspected that she had.
CHAPTER VII
It was about eleven, when most of her household chores were done, that
Betty started off to pay an informal call on Miss Pendarth, in some ways
the most outstanding personality in the village of Beechfield.
"Busybody"--"mischief-maker"--"a very kind lady"--"a disagreeable
woman"--"a fearful snob"--"a true Christian"--were some of the epithets
which had been, and were still, used, to describe the woman to whose
house, Rose Cottage, Betty Tosswill, with a slight feeling of discomfort
bordering on pain, began wending her way.
Olivia Pendarth and her colourless younger sister, Anne, the latter
now long dead, had settled down at Beechfield in the nineties of the
last century. When both over thirty years of age, they had selected
Beechfield as a dwelling-place because of its quiet charm and nearness
to London. Also because Rose Cottage, which, in spite of its unassuming
name, was, if a small yet a substantial, red-brick house with a good
garden, paddock and stables, exactly suited them, as to price, and as to
the accommodation they then wanted.
Pages:
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96