"Penny, darling," Mrs. Warrender was saying, "I was telling Jon that I've got another surprise for you tomorrow, but I may want your help, too, in getting everything ready for Monday. And that reminds me to tell you both about Mr. Grandon. I want you to remember that he is my manager and that he is really running the Dolphin for me. I want you to be polite to him - and none of your amusing little games with him, please, Penny! But there's no need to have anything much to do with him. Remember that he has got his work to do and that our side of the house is nothing to do with him."

Jon remarked:

"Don't you like him, Mother? You don't sound as if you do. Why are you telling us to be so careful about him?"

Mrs. Warrender laughed.

"I don't know. I suppose that I don't really like him and yet he's very efficient. I don't think he's English somehow, but old Uncle Charles must have thought a lot of him because he left a letter with him for me which recommended him very strongly... Anyway, whether we like him or not, I can't do without him. You see, running a place like this is not just a game, and when the first guests come it will be very different for us all."

"Well, let's see this Mr. Grandon, anyway," said Jon. "Can't you ring for him or something?"

His mother looked shocked.

"Of course I can't," she said. "I wouldn't dare. Anyway, he's out and won't be back until late tonight... What would you like to do now? Go and unpack and then meet for supper at eight in our own sitting-room?"

Jon got up and stretched.

"What about all those papers, Mother - the papers that your old Uncle Charles left and that you said I could go through?"

"Oh, yes! Those are part of my surprise, but we'll look at them tomorrow."

So Jon went upstairs to unpack his books and move his furniture round. Penny, who always postponed action of that kind if she could, wandered out into the street again.

The shadows were lengthening now as she leaned against the low wall and looked down over the gently swaying tamarisks to the road and river below. The tide was running out and she could see a few seagulls wheeling above some rubbish on the muddy banks and some blue-jerseyed fishermen, looking rather like toy models, leaning against the rails of the bridge. Up here she was above the world, and as she gazed first out over the darkening marsh and then up their little cobbled street past the wicked-looking Dolphin, she could almost imagine that she was living in a different time.

At supper Penny was her usual cheerful self, but she was ready for bed when her aunt suggested it.