no,” said Miss Pepper. “Mr. Young is very nice—and a very good coach. You’ve had him before.”
“He’s as dry as dust,” said Diana angrily. “Oh, I do think it’s hateful—holidays without Mummy and Daddy, at a place we don’t know anything about—with Mr. Young and lessons—and . . .”
“Shut up, Di,” said Roger, afraid that his angry sister would say something about Miss Pepper too. “You know we missed the whole of the Easter term because of scarlet fever—we’re behind in a good many things. I meant to do some work anyhow these hols.”
“Yes—but Mr. Young—with his beard and his sniffs and his ‘My dear young lady!’ ” cried Diana. “I hate him. I’ll jolly well write and tell Daddy what I think of him for——”
“That’s enough, Diana,” said Miss Pepper in a sharp voice.
“Is Snubby having coaching too?” asked Roger, kicking the furious Diana under the table to make her stop working herself into a rage.
“Yes. Unfortunately he had a very bad report from the headmaster,” said Miss Pepper.
“That’s nothing new,” growled Diana. “And I ask you—can Mr. Young do anything at all with Snubby? Snubby will lead him a frightful dance.”
“Shall we have another ice?” said Miss Pepper, looking at her watch. “We’ve just time. Or do you feel too upset to have another?”
They certainly didn’t feel too upset to have another ice and a ginger-beer on top of it. Roger began to talk cheerfully about the happenings of the last term, and Diana gloomed over her ice for a minute or two and then cheered up too. After all, it was holidays—and it would be fun to explore a new place—and there would be riding and perhaps boating. Things might be worse!
“Time to go,” said Miss Pepper. “We’re having dinner on the train. I hope you’ll enjoy that. We shall be at Rockingdown by tea-time. Well, come along—and cheer up, Diana dear—I expect you’ll enjoy the holidays just as you usually do!”
CHAPTER II
ROCKINGDOWN COTTAGE
Rockingdown Village was a tiny little place with a butcher’s shop, a baker’s and a general store, and plenty of farms and cottages around. The church tower showed above the trees, and the church bell could be heard quite clearly in the cottage where the children were to stay for the holidays.
This proved to be a very exciting little place. “It’s more than a cottage,” said Diana approvingly. “It’s a jolly nice old house, with lots of rooms.”
“It used to belong to a big mansion about half a mile off—this cottage is actually in the grounds of the mansion,” said Miss Pepper. “It was what is called the Dower House.”
“What’s that?” asked Diana.
“It was a house set aside for the mistress of the big mansion when her husband died and her son and his wife came to take over the mansion,” said Miss Pepper. “She was then called the dowager mother, and came to live here, in this house, with her own servants. I expect the grand-children loved to come and visit her.”
“It’s very old, isn’t it?” said Diana, looking at the oak panelling of the dining-room in which they were having tea. “And I like the wide staircase—and the tiny little back staircase that winds up from the kitchen. We could have wizard games of hide-and-seek here.”
“I like my bedroom,” said Roger. “It’s got a ceiling that slants almost to the floor, and I’ve had to break away strands of ivy across one of the windows, Miss Pepper—it was so overgrown!”
“And I like the way the floors go up and down,” said Diana. “And the funny little steps down to this dining-room and up to the kitchen.”
They were just what Miss Pepper didn’t like. She was rather short-sighted, and in this old house she seemed to stumble everywhere. Still, no doubt she would get used to it!
“This tea is wizard,” said Roger approvingly. “Did you make the scones, Miss Pepper?”
“Dear me, no—I’m afraid I’m no cook,” said Miss Pepper. “Mrs. Round made them. She’s a village woman who comes in each day to do the cleaning and cooking.”
“Is she like her name?” said Diana at once. Miss Pepper considered.
“Well, yes,” she said. “She is rather plumpish—and her face certainly is very round. Yes—Mrs. Round seems a very good name for her.”
The children explored the house after they had had tea—and a very good tea it was, with home-made jam, home-produced honey, scones, and a big fruit cake.
“This is the kind of fruit cake I like,” said Diana, taking a third slice. “You don’t have to look and see if you’ve got any fruit in your slice—there’s plenty all over the cake.”
“You’re a pig, Di,” said Roger.
“People are always pigs at your age,” said Miss Pepper. “Some are worse pigs than others, of course.”
“Am I a worse pig?” demanded Diana.
“Sometimes,” said Miss Pepper, her eyes twinkling behind their glasses. Roger roared at Diana’s indignant face.
“Miss Pepper, Di can eat a whole tin of Nestle’s milk by herself,” he began, and got a kick under the table.
“So could I, once,” said Miss Pepper, surprisingly. The children stared at her. It was quite impossible to imagine the thin, prim Miss Pepper as ever having been greedy enough to devour a whole tin of Nestle’s milk by herself.
“Go on, now, finish your tea,” said Miss Pepper. “I want to do your unpacking.”
They explored, whilst Miss Pepper unpacked their school trunks, exclaiming over the dirty clothes, and looking with horror at the rents and tears in most of Diana’s things. Anyone would think that the girl spent all her time climbing thorny trees, judging by the state of her clothes. Miss Pepper thought of having to unpack Snubby’s trunk the next day, and shuddered. Really, children nowadays were quite impossible!
“Is the old mansion empty?” asked Roger that evening. “We saw it from a distance. There was no smoke coming from the chimneys. It looked a dead place.”
“Yes. I believe it is,” said Miss Pepper. “Roger, where are all the socks you took back to school with you? It says you took back eight on this list, but I can only find one pair, very holey and dirty.”
“I’ve got one pair on,” said Roger helpfully. “That makes two.”
“Miss Pepper, can we go and look over the mansion if it’s empty?” asked Diana.
“No, I shouldn’t think so for a moment,” said Miss Pepper. “Diana, it says on your list that you took four blouses back to... ”
Diana fled. It was dreadful the way grown-ups always put you through a cross-examination about clothes as soon
