A New Home
Later that day, the news began to spread that the Headmistress had recovered from her fainting-fit
and had then marched out of the school building tight-lipped and white in the face.
The next morning she did not turn up at school. At lunchtime, Mr Trilby, the Deputy Head,
telephoned her house to enquire¹ if she was feeling unwell. There was no answer to the phone.
When school was over, Mr Trilby decided² to investigate further, so he walked to the house where
Miss Trunchbull lived on the edge of the village, the lovely small red-brick Georgian building
known as The Red House, tucked away in the woods behind the hills.
He rang the bell. No answer.
He knocked loudly. No answer.
He called out, "Is anybody at home?" No answer.
He tried the door and to his surprise found it unlocked. He went in.
The house was silent and there was no one in it, and yet all the furniture was still in place. Mr
Trilby went upstairs to the main bedroom. Here also everything seemed to be normal until he
started opening drawers and looking into cupboards. There were no clothes or underclothes or
shoes anywhere. They had all gone.
She's done a bunk³, Mr Trilby said to himself and he went away to inform the School Governors
that the Headmistress had apparently⁴ vanished.
On the second morning, Miss Honey received by registered post a letter from a firm of local
solicitors⁵ informing her that the last will and testament⁶ of her late father, Dr Honey, had suddenly
and mysteriously turned up. This document revealed that ever since her father's death, Miss Honey
had in fact been the rightful owner of a property on the edge of the village known as The Red
House, which until recently had been occupied by a Miss Agatha Trunchbull. The will also
showed that her father's lifetime savings⁷, which fortunately were still safely in the bank, had also

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