quite anxious to go on helping you all. She's got so fond of
Betty: she says she'd do anything for her."

"We're managing all right now, and Godfrey really is a help, instead of a
hindrance. He actually suggested that he should do the washing-up this
morning!"

"That's the best thing I've ever heard of Godfrey Radmore," exclaimed
Miss Pendarth. "I sincerely hope--forgive me for saying so, Janet--that
there's really nothing between him and Enid Crofton. I should be sorry
for my worst enemy to marry that woman, if the things I was told about
her were true."

"I don't believe that he is thinking of her, consciously--" Janet
Tosswill spoke slowly, choosing her words.

"Of course she's making a dead set at him. But there's safety in numbers,
even here," observed the other, grimly. "I hear that your Jack simply
lives at The Trellis House. The whole village is talking about it."

Jack? Janet Tosswill felt vexed by what she considered a bit of stupid,
vulgar, village gossip. "Jack's the most level-headed young man about
women I've ever known," she said, trying to speak pleasantly. "If anyone
has fallen in love with Mrs. Crofton, it's our silly little Rosamund!"

CHAPTER XV

The morning after Janet Tosswill's call at Rose Cottage, Rosamund
followed her step-mother into the drawing-room immediately after
breakfast, and observed plaintively that it did seem strange that "Enid"
was never asked to Old Place. "We take anything from her, and never give
anything back," she said.

Janet, who had a certain tenderness for the pretty black sheep of the
family, checked the sharp retort which trembled on her lips. Still, it
was quite true that Rosamund had more than once been kept to lunch at The
Trellis House, and that on the day of Nanna's accident Mrs. Crofton had
issued a sort of general invitation to supper to the young people of Old
Place--an invitation finally accepted, at Betty's suggestion, by Godfrey
Radmore and Rosamund.

Janet admitted to herself that they did owe Mrs. Crofton some civility.
If the thing had to be done, it might as well be done at once, and so,
when Rosamund had reluctantly gone upstairs to do her share of the
household work, his mother beckoned Timmy into the drawing-room, and told
him that she would have a note ready for him to take to The Trellis House
in a few minutes.

"Oh, Mum, do let Jack take it!" the boy exclaimed. "I can't go to The
Trellis House with Flick, and it's such a bore to