Suddenly a figure stepped out between the bushes. Belinda gasped and slammed on the brakes. It was lucky that the driveway was winding so that she was not traveling at her usual speed or she would have hit him. I recognized him instantly as the old man I had questioned the day before and had given me a toothless grin when he said “Round Little Rumps.” He stood now in the middle of the driveway, staring at us with that not-quite-all-there expression on his face. He came up to the car and leaned over Belinda.

“I know you,” he said. “You were the ones who were askin’ about the fishing place, weren’t you? Didn’t you find it?”

“Oh yes, we found it perfectly, thank you.” Belinda’s voice was ultrapolite. He was leaning in a little too closely.

“Her weren’t no sort of place for young ladies like yourselves, was her, now?”

“A little run-down,” Belinda admitted.

“See, I knew. I knew as soon as I tells ’ee. I says to myself, Harry, you big duffer, you should have told the young mistress that it weren’t the right sort of place for them. So now you’re visiting here instead, are you?”

“Yes. Mrs. Summers has invited us.”

He wagged a finger in Belinda’s face. “This is your sort of place, all right, although it’s not how it used to be. Not like when the old master was alive. He were a grand gentleman, he were. And his lady too. And the young one what had the fall. But now she’s taken over, ain’t she? And all the old servants gone. Got rid of Gladys, didn’t she? And Margie? And even Will, who was so good with the horses. All gone.” He paused, staring off into the distance. I could tell that Belinda was dying to drive on, but he had one hand on the side window of the car. “The old master, he used to give me odd jobs too, you know. A proper gentleman, he were. Now they don’t want me around no more. She don’t want me around. I don’t know why. I ain’t said nothing. But I know what I saw, all right.” He paused again, staring at something we couldn’t see. “But I expect you’ll be all right,” he said, “Strangers like you. No, you’ll be just fine.” And with that he turned and stomped back into the bushes again.

“I wonder what he meant about expecting we’d be all right?” I shivered.