Betty
will ring the lunch bell in a moment."
Unwillingly he turned round and stood watching her while she read the
four pages of closely written handwriting. But, rather to his relief,
she made no remark, and the bell rang just as she put the letter back in
its envelope. Then she slipped it in her pocket, for Janet Tosswill was
one of the very few women in England who still had a pocket in her dress.
Giving him what he felt to be a condemnatory look, but in that he was
wrong, for she was too surprised, relieved, and, yes, disturbed, to
think of him at all, she motioned the boy to go before her into the
dining-room.
As the Sunday joint was always served cold on Monday, they were all
there, even Betty, but owing, as at any rate most of them believed, to
the unfortunate discovery made by Dolly that the pre-war pound was now
only worth about seven and six, it was rather a mournful meal.
At last Rosamund went out to get the coffee, and then Janet addressed
her son: "Timmy," she observed, "I have something I wish to say to the
others, so will you please go and have your orange with Nanna?"
Timmy obeyed his mother without a word, and then, after the coffee had
come in and been poured out, Janet said slowly:
"I've had a letter from Mrs.
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