Part 21 (1/2)

”Haven't things been happening with a whirl of late?” Bobs exclaimed as she pa.s.sed a plate of hot m.u.f.fins. ”I feel dizzy, honestly I do! I'm so proud of d.i.c.k,” she added as she sank into her own place at the table.

”All of his own accord he told me that he's going back for one more year at law school and then he and Ralph are going to hang out a s.h.i.+ngle for themselves. They're going to start a new firm and be partners. Judge Caldwaller-Cory thinks that his son must be crazy, when he is already a junior member of an old and well established firm. They got the idea from Arden Wentworth, I suppose. He has made good by himself, and the plan rather appeals to d.i.c.k and Ralph.”

”They're great pals, aren't they, these two? Brothers couldn't care more for each other, I do believe,” Lena May said, as she b.u.t.tered a m.u.f.fin for her little charge.

”And to think that they are to marry sisters in the dim and distant future. That ought to cement the brotherly ties even closer than ever,”

Gloria remarked, as she smiled at Gwendolyn, who, wind-browned and sun-rosy, looked as though she had never been ill.

”Gwen, you and Ralph fell in love rather suddenly, didn't you?” Lena May inquired.

”Maybe so,” her sister replied. ”Ralph says that he has always felt sure that he would know the girl who was meant for him the very moment that he saw her, and he insists that he loved me the minute he met me at Orange Hills Inn.”

Roberta leaned over and placed her hand on that of her sister. ”I'm so glad,” she said, ”for I do believe that Ralph is almost as fine a chap as my d.i.c.k, and that is saying a great deal; and to think that if it hadn't been for the Pensinger mystery, we might never have met him.”

”By the way,” Gloria remarked, ”what has become of the Pensinger mystery?”

Roberta laughed as she arose to replenish the m.u.f.fin plate from the oven.

”I'm afraid it is destined to always remain a mystery. Ralph and I followed every clue we could possibly think of. It's a shame, isn't it, not to have this old place owned by someone, to say nothing of the money.”

After a moment's silence, Gloria asked: ”Lena May, was there any news of general interest in Dean's letter this morning?”

Their youngest sister smiled brightly. ”Oh, yes, indeed. He was so glad to get back to that New England farm where he can breathe. He said that there are wonderful possibilities in the old house and that he is going to begin work on it at once. He hopes that by the time I am eighteen, it will look like a real home; but there was another item in the letter that I am sure you will all be glad to hear. His group of nature poems has been accepted by a magazine called _The New England Homestead_, and the check they sent seems like a real fortune to Dean. The best of it is, they have asked for more.”

”Great! I for one shall be most proud to have a poet for a brother-in-law.” Then to Lena May: ”Maybe you thought you were keeping it a secret from us, little one, but you weren't, and we're glad, just as glad as we can be.”

Their youngest, s.h.i.+ning-eyed, looked up at the oldest sister, who sat at the head of the table, then she said: ”Of course I had told Glow, because she is Mother to us, but after that letter from Dean this morning, I want to tell you all.”

Then merrily Bobs exclaimed: ”Now, Gloria, we've all 'fessed up but you.

Aren't you and Mr. Hardinian going to be married some day and live happily ever after?”

”I never knew two people who seemed better suited for each other,”

Gwendolyn commented.

Gloria smiled. ”And what would you have us live on, dear? You know that it takes Mr. Hardinian's entire income to pay the expenses of his Boys'

Club. Of course the little chaps pay five cents a night for a bunk when they have work, but he has to loan money to others who are out of work, who might take to stealing if they had no other way to procure food.

However, they have never failed to pay him back when they did get work.”

Their oldest sister's enthusiastic praise of the welfare worker told how great was her admiration for that truly n.o.ble young man, if nothing more.

”Crickets, what was that?” Bobs suddenly exclaimed.

”Only the telephone, my dear,” Lena May remarked. ”Bobsy, will you answer it?”

Three minutes later that girl fairly plunged back into the kitchen, her s.h.i.+ning eyes a.s.suring them that she had heard something of an astonis.h.i.+ng nature.

”It was Ralph,” she exclaimed, as she sank down into the nearest chair.

”The mystery is solved!”

”Solved?” her sisters repeated inquiringly and all at once. ”How? When?