He was old enough to remember what a change she had made in the then dull, sad, austere Old Place.

Janet had at once thrown herself into the task of being sister, rather than step-mother, to her husband's children, and bountifully had she succeeded! Still, with the exception of Betty, they all criticised her severely, in their hearts, for her weakness where her own child was concerned.

And yet poor Janet never made the slightest difference between Timmy and the others.

It was more the little boy's own clever insistence which got him his own way, and secured him certain privileges which they, at his age, had never enjoyed.

Timmy also always knew how to manage his delicate, nervous father.