“Let’s take lunch with us,” broke in Timmy eagerly.  “We can eat it anywhere.”  He had always had a passion for picnics.

Betty was the last human being to make any unnecessary fuss.  Also, somehow, she felt as if to-day was not quite like other days.  She could not have told why.  “All right.  I’ll cut some sandwiches, and then I’ll go and get ready,” she said.

Janet was in the hall when Betty came down.

“That’s right,” she said heartily, “I’m glad you’re going to have a real outing at last!”

She took the girl in her arms and kissed her, and Betty felt touched.  Her step-mother was not given to affectionate demonstration.  And then, all at once, Janet looked round and said in a low voice:  “Betty, I’m dreadfully worried about Jack.  D’you think it’s conceivably possible that there’s anything serious between him and Mrs. Crofton?”

Betty hardly knew what to answer.  For some days past she had felt quite sure that there was something between those two.  Jack had been so odd, so unlike himself, and once he had said to her, “Betty, I do wish you’d make friends with Mrs. Crofton.  After all you’re my sister ...” and then they had been, perhaps fortunately, interrupted.  But if there was anything between Jack and the fascinating widow, Rosamund, who was so devoted to Enid Crofton, knew nothing of it.

“I really can’t say,” she answered at last, “I’ve hardly ever felt so doubtful about anything in my life!  Sometimes I think there is, and sometimes I think there isn’t.”

“I’m afraid there’s no doubt as to what he feels.  I happen to know she’s just had a very good offer for The Trellis House—­seven guineas a week for six months.  But she seems to have settled in here for good and all, doesn’t she?”

“I wonder if she really has,” said Betty.  And then she grew a little pink.

Deep in her heart she had felt quite convinced that Mrs. Crofton had come to Beechfield for Godfrey Radmore, and for no other reason.  Now she wondered if she had been unjust.

“How I wish she’d stay away now, even for a few days longer!” exclaimed Janet.

At that moment Timmy rushed into the hall, Radmore drove up in his motor, and in a couple of minutes the three were off—­Janet looking after them, a touch of wistful longing and anxiety in her kind heart.

She had hoped somehow, that Godfrey would persuade Betty to go alone with him to-day, and she was wondering now whether she could have said a word to Timmy.  Her child was so unlike other little boys.  If selfish, he was very understanding where the few people he cared for were concerned, and his mother had never known him to give her away.

But the harm, if harm there was, was done now, and for some things she was not sorry to get rid of Timmy for some hours.  There had arisen between the boy and his eldest half-brother a disagreeable state of tension.  Timmy seemed to take pleasure in teasing Jack, and Jack was not in the humour to bear even the smallest practical joke just now.