Chapter 3 Summary

Florence hears a storm warning on the radio and spies the warning on the Coastguard sign, but the sky turned bright by mid-day. She takes a short-cut past the school and finds a young girl crying. She tells Florence her name is Melody Gipping. After Florence wipes the girl's nose with a clean handkerchief, her older sister, Christine, steps forward to claim her and announce that they had 'Kleenex' that are more hygienic.

Mr. Deben, the fishmonger, directly approaches Florence to inform her he would rather negotiate the sale of his wet fish shop privately, intimating she would be leaving the Old House. This makes her realize Mrs. Gamart had thought that she would be willing to move the bookshop to make way for the arts center.

Florence tells Mr. Deben that there has been a misunderstanding but that Mrs. Gamart would be...