Amy’s parents agree to let her stay with Aunt Clare until school is out. Louann wants to go, too, but arrangements are made for her to spend time with a friend (Mrs. Peck) after school. Louann is upset, and Amy is relieved.

Ellen calls to ask if Amy wants to come over. Her parents and other family went out for the afternoon. Amy invites Ellen to Aunt Clare’s, wanting to show Ellen the dollhouse. Louann gives Amy a vase she covered with pictures of roses to take to Aunt Clare’s house. Amy objects, saying the vase is “one of Louann’s dearest treasures” (30). Louann insists and then leaves Amy alone.

At Aunt Clare’s, Amy shows Ellen the dollhouse. The girls sit the dolls at the dollhouse’s dining room table. Aunt Clare doesn’t understand Amy and Ellen’s fascination with the dollhouse, and Amy notices how Aunt Clare sounds different when she talks about the dollhouse, “as if she were angry but wanted to hide it” (35-36).

Aunt Clare tells the girls to come down for a snack. The girls go, and Amy suddenly remembers she left the dollhouse open. She goes back upstairs to close it and hears a sound “like the scurrying of a mouse” coming from near the dollhouse (37).