staircase door to her right
burst open, and Timmy stepped down into the scullery.

CHAPTER XXVI

Since she had had the horrid accident which had laid her up, Timmy had
not gone to see his old Nanna nearly as often as he ought to have done.
Nanna herself, however, with the natural cunning of those who love, had
made certain rules which ensured her a regular, daily glimpse of the
strange little being she had had under her charge, as she would have
expressed it, "from the month." Nanna did not desire his attendance
before breakfast for she would not have considered herself fit to be
seen by him till she herself was neat and tidy. Like all the women of
her class and generation, the Tosswills' old family nurse was full of
self-respect, and also imbued with a stern sense of duty. Timmy stood
far more in awe of her than he did of his mother.

One of the stated times for Timmy's visits to the old night nursery
was just before he had to start for church each Sunday, and on this
particular Sunday, the day after that on which had occurred Dolly's
engagement, and Mrs. Crofton's return from London, he came in a few
moments before he was expected, and began wandering about the room, doing
nothing in particular. At once Nanna divined that he had something on his
mind about which he was longing, yet half afraid, to speak to her. She
said nothing, however, and at last it came out.

"I want you to lend me your Bible," he said, wriggling himself about. "I
want to take it to church with me."

This was the last thing Nanna had expected the boy to ask, for, of
course, Timmy had a Bible of his own, a beautiful thin-paper Bible, which
she herself had given him on his seventh birthday, having first asked his
mother's leave if she might do so. The Bible was in perfect condition. It
stood on a little mat on his chest of drawers, and not long before her
accident Nanna had gone into his bedroom, opened the sacred Book, and
gazed with pleasure on the inscription, written in her own large,
unformed handwriting, on the first page:

Timothy Godfrey Radmore Tosswill on his seventh birthday from his
loving nurse,

Emily Pew.

All this being so, his mother, or even his sister, Betty, would at once
have enquired, "Why don't you take your own Bible to church?" But somehow
Nanna thought it best not to put this question, for a lie, shocking on
any day, is more shocking than usual, or so she thought, if uttered on a
Sunday. So, after a