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asked.
    Aunt Patty burst into laughter. “We are going to cast aside our troubles and enjoy life. That’s right, eh, Violet?”
    “So you say, Patty.”
    “Yes,” said Aunt Patty. “The fact of the matter is, dear, that I have been thinking for some time that I should retire and I should have done it long ago but for…” She looked at me and I said: “But for me. You were keeping it for me.”
    “I thought it would be a future for you. I thought I’d retire and just be an adviser when I was wanted or something like that. It was the idea behind Schaffenbrucken.”
    “And you sent me to that expensive school when you were already in financial difficulties.”
    “I was looking ahead. The trouble is things have gone a bit too far. There would have been the enormous expenditure on repairs. It would have been crippling. Well, not exactly but it would have made the alternative impossible. So…the opportunity came and I decided to sell.”
    “Will it be a school?”
    “No. Some millionaire who wants to restore the place and be a lord of the manor.”
    “Aunt Patty, what about us?”
    “All arranged, dear. Most satisfactorily. We have an enchanting house in Moldenbury…near Nottingham. It’s a lovely village right in the heart of the country. It’s not as big as Grantley of course and I can only take Mary Ann with me. I hope the rest of the staff will stay on to serve the new owners of Grantley. The parents have all had their notices. We are closing down at the end of the Spring term. It is all settled.”
    “And this house—where is it? Moldenbury?”
    “We are negotiating for it. It will pass into our hands shortly. Everything is arranged to our mutual satisfaction. We shall have enough to live on in a simple way perhaps but adequate for our needs and we shall give ourselves up to life in the country, following all sorts of pursuits which we never had time for before. We shall adjust happily, as I keep telling Violet.”
    I glanced at Violet. She was not quite as optimistic as my aunt, but optimism was not one of Violet’s qualities.
    “Dear Aunt Patty,” I said. “You should have told me before. You shouldn’t have let me go on at that place. It must have been ridiculously costly.”
    “Having put my hand to the plough I was not going to spoil the ship for a ha ’p ’orth of tar, and if a job is worth doing it is worth doing properly. I can’t think of any more maxims but I am sure they abound to support me. I have done the right thing by you, Cordelia. Schaffenbrucken will never be wasted. I’ll tell you more later on. I’ll show you the books and how things are going. Also I’ve got to talk to you about our new home. We’ll go and see it one day before the start of next term. You’ll love it. It’s the dearest little village and I have already made the acquaintance of the rector who seems a very charming gentleman with a wife who is overflowing with welcome for us. I think we are going to find it amusing.”
    “And different,” said Violet somberly.
    “Change is always stimulating,” said Aunt Patty. “I think we have been moving along in the same groove for too long. A new life, Cordelia. A challenge. We shall be working for the good of our new village…fetes, bazaars, committees, feuds. I can see we are going to have an interesting time.”
    She believed it. That was the wonderful thing about Aunt Patty. She saw everything as amusing, exciting and challenging and she had always been able to convince me, if she was not managing to do the same with Violet. But then Aunt Patty and I always said that Violet enjoyed adversity.
    I went to bed rather bemused. There were hundreds of questions to be asked. The future was a little hazy at the moment.
    ***
    During the next day I learned more from Aunt Patty. The school had been, as she said, ticking over, for some little time. Perhaps her fees were not high enough; she had, she was told by her financial advisers, overspent on food and fuel, and