"Oh, dear!"
The thought of all she was missing stirred angrily inside Jane and when she remembered it was all her own fault she felt crosser than ever.
Tick-tack! Tick-tock! said the clock loudly.
"Oh, be quiet!" cried Jane furiously, and picking up her paint-box she hurled it across the room.
It crashed against the glass face of the clock and, glancing off, clattered down upon the Royal Doulton Bowl.
Crrrrrrack! The Bowl toppled sideways against the clock.
Oh! Oh! What had she done?
Jane shut her eyes, not daring to look and see.
"I say — that hurt!"
A clear reproachful voice sounded in the room.
Jane started and opened her eyes.
"Jane!" said the voice again. "That was my knee!"
She turned her head quickly. There was nobody in the room.
She ran to the door and opened it. Still nobody!
Then somebody laughed.
"Here, silly!" said the voice again. "Up here!"
She looked up at the mantel-piece. Beside the clock lay the Royal Doulton Bowl with a large crack running right across it and, to her surprise, Jane saw that one of the painted boys had dropped the reins and was bending down holding his knee with both hands. The other two had turned and were looking at him sympathetically.
"But—" began Jane, half to herself and half to the unknown voice. "I don't understand." The boy in the Bowl lifted his head and smiled at her.
"Don't you? No, I suppose you don't. I've noticed that you and Michael often don't understand the simplest things — do they?"
He turned, laughing, to his brothers.
"No," said one of them, "not even how to keep the Twins quiet!"
"Nor the proper way to draw bird's eggs — she's made them all wriggly," said the other.
"How do you know about the Twins — and the eggs?" said Jane, flushing.
"Gracious!" said the first boy. "You don't think we could have watched you all this time without knowing everything that happens in this room! We can't see into the Night-Nursery, of course, or the bath-room. What coloured tiles has it?"
"Pink," said Jane.
"Ours has blue-and-white. Would you like to see it?"
Jane hesitated. She hardly knew what to reply, she was so astonished.
"Do come! William and Everard will be your horses, if you like, and I'll carry the whip and run alongside. I'm Valentine, in case you don't know. We're Triplets. And, of course, there's Christina."
"Where's Christina?" Jane searched the Bowl. But she saw only the green meadow and a little wood of alders and Valentine, William and Everard standing together.
"Come and see!" said Valentine persuasively, holding out his hand. "Why should the others have all the fun? You come with us — into the Bowl!"
That decided her. She would show Michael that he and the Twins were not the only ones who could go to a party. She would make them jealous and sorry for treating her so badly.
"All right," she said, putting out her hand. "I'll come!"
Valentine's hand closed round her wrist and pulled her towards the Bowl. And, suddenly, she was no longer in the cool Day-Nursery but out in a wide sunlit meadow, and instead of the ragged nursery carpet, a springing turf of grass and daisies was spread beneath her feet.
"Hooray!" said Valentine, William and Everard, dancing round her. She noticed that Valentine was limping.
"Oh," said Jane. "I forgot! Your knee!"
He smiled at her. "Never mind. It was the crack that did it. I know you didn't mean to hurt me!"
Jane took out her handkerchief and bound it round his knee.
"That's better!" he said politely, and put the reins into her hand.
William and Everard, tossing their heads and snorting, flew off across the meadow with Jane jingling the reins behind them.
Beside her, one foot heavy and one foot light, because of his knee, ran Valentine.
And as he ran, he sang—
"My love, thou art a nosegay sweet,
My sweetest flower I prove thee;
And pleased I pin thee to my breast,
And dearly I do love thee!"
William and Everard's voices came in with the chorus,
"And deeeee-arly I do lo-o-ove thee!"
Jane thought it was rather an old-fashioned song, but then, everything about the Triplets was old-fashioned — their long hair, their strange clothes and their polite way of speaking.
"It is odd!" she thought to herself, but she also thought that this was better than being at Miss Lark's, and that Michael would envy her when she told him all about it.
On ran the horses, tugging Jane after them, drawing her away and away from the Nursery.
Presently she pulled up, panting, and looked back over the tracks their feet had made in the grass. Behind her, at the other side of the meadow, she could see the outer rim of the Bowl. It seemed small and very far away. And something inside her warned her that it was time to turn back.
"I must go now," she said, dropping the jingling reins.
"Oh, no, no!" cried the Triplets, closing round her.
And now something in their voices made her feel uneasy.
"They'll miss me at home. I'm afraid I must go," she said quickly.
"It's quite early!" protested Valentine. "They'll still be at Miss Lark's. Come on. I'll show you my paint-box."
Jane was tempted.
"Has it got Chinese White?" she enquired. For Chinese White was just what her own paint-box lacked.
"Yes, in a silver tube. Come!"
Against her will Jane allowed him to draw her onwards. She thought she would just have one look at the paint-box and then hurry back. She would not even ask to be allowed to use it.
"But where is your house? It isn't in the Bowl!"
"Of course it is! But you can't see it because it's behind the wood. Come on!"
They were drawing her now under dark alder boughs. The dead leaves cracked under their feet and every now and then a pigeon swooped from branch to branch with a loud clapping of wings. William showed Jane a robin's nest in a pile of twigs, and Everard broke off a spray of leaves and twined it round her head. But in spite of their friendliness Jane was shy and nervous and she felt very glad when they reached the end of the wood.
"Here it is!" said Valentine, waving his hand.
And she saw rising before her a huge stone house covered with ivy. It was older than any house she had ever seen and it seemed to lean towards her threateningly. On either side of the steps a stone lion crouched, as if waiting the moment to spring.
Jane shivered as the shadow of the house fell upon her.
"I can't stay long—" she said, uneasily. "It's getting late."
"Just five minutes!" pleaded Valentine, drawing her into the hall.
Their feet rang hollowly on the stone floor. There was no sign of any human being. Except for herself and the Triplets the house seemed deserted. A cold wind swept whistling along the corridor.
"Christina! Christina!" called Valentine, pulling Jane up the stairs. "Here she is!"
His cry went echoing round the house and every wall seemed to call back frighteningly,
"HERE SHE IS!"
There was a sound of running feet and a door burst open. A little girl, slightly taller than the Triplets and dressed in an old-fashioned, flowery dress, rushed out and flung herself upon Jane.
"At last, at last!" she cried triumphantly. "The boys have been watching for you for ages! But they couldn't catch you before — you were always so happy!"
"Catch me?" said Jane. "I don't understand!"
She was beginning to be frightened and to wish she had never come with Valentine into the Bowl.
"Great-Grandfather will explain," said Christina, laughing curiously. She drew Jane across the landing and through the door.