In a lesser way there is the interruption of the boys going back to school in England, and then returning. They, too, have their stories to tell; but once they are told, that is that. Even though she is so much younger, Villana is their leader again when they are back at Carriglas, organising the games they play, all of them roaming in summer over the island, climbing up and down the cliffs, discovering new caves. When, every August, Sarah’s brother comes she feels more than ever a poor relation because Hugh by now belongs so easily with the family. For her own part, she is still beholden, and she has duties. She worries when the children do not return from their excursions on the island and sets out in the evening to look for them, hearing with relief their voices on the cliff path or among the rocks. In their father’s absence they are reprimanded by their grandmother for the wildness of one of their games. This is an agitated entry in the diaries because Sarah has spoken to the children on the score and her strictures have been ignored. But to Mrs Rolleston she claims there’d been a misunderstanding, and in the end the matter is passed over.

‘There is to be a war, you know,’ Mrs Rolleston said this morning, and did not add anything to that. Linchy is courting Brigid, another diary states at a time when that war was well advanced. John James follows in his father’s footsteps when he is old enough, finding himself almost at once in the trenches. There is the news of Colonel Rolleston’s death. There is the news of Villana’s engagement to Hugh, received after Sarah has left Carriglas and is back at Dunadry Rectory.