"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 shingle 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, shining-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 shining eyes a.s.suring them that she had heard something of an astonishing 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?

Who is the heir?"

Roberta laughed. "Well, here's where I resign as a detective," she declared. "I've had three cases and although each one has been successfully solved in spite of me, it has not been because of any cleverness on my part."

"But, Bobs, do tell us what Ralph said. We're bursting with curiosity."

"My partner-detective feels as chagrined about it as I do, for the solution of the mystery just turned up; we neither of us ferreted it out as we had hoped that we would."

"Bobita, you're just trying to tantalize us," Gwen declared. "Do tell us from the beginning."

"Very well then, I will. Ralph said that his dad happened to recall recently something which his father had once told him. You know it was Ralph's grandfather who was the intimate friend and legal advisor of Mr.

Pensinger.

"It seems that a week before his death, Mr. Pensinger had sent some important papers and a letter to the office of Mr. Caldwaller-Cory, the grandfather, you understand. Just as he was about to examine them, he was called away on urgent business and he left the papers on his desk, expecting to return soon. The Cory building was even then in the process of construction, but Ralph's grandfather had moved in before it was quite completed.

"That day the floor was being put down in the room adjoining the small office. Later, when Mr. Caldwaller-Cory returned, his mind was so filled with the intricacies of the new case which had just been given to him, that he did not even notice that the brown packet containing the Pensinger papers was gone; in fact, he had forgotten that it ever existed; but a week later, when he received word that his friend, Mr.

Pensinger, had died suddenly, he recalled the papers and began to search for them, but they were never found."

"Oh, I know where they were," Lena May said brightly, "under the floor."

Bobs nodded, her eyes glowing. "That's just it!" she affirmed. "Recently Judge Caldwaller-Cory said to Ralph, 'Either we will have to tear down this old building of ours or we will have to renovate it and bring it up to date.'

"Ralph is romantic enough to want to retain the atmosphere of the days of his grandfather, and so he favored the latter plan. Soon carpenters were tearing up the office floors to replace them with hard wood and the packet was found."

"And in those papers, had Mr. Pensinger made some different disposition of his property?" Gloria inquired.

Bobs nodded. "Yes," she said. "It seems that Mr. Pensinger, after his wife's death, visited Hungary, found his daughter Marilyn, who lived but a short time, and so, as he was without an heir, he had written Mr.

Caldwaller-Cory, requesting him to use the Pensinger fortune wherever he thought it would be most needed."

"What will become of this house?" Lena May inquired.

"Ralph didn't say. He wants to tell that himself. In fact, he said that he was coming right up in The Whizz and that he wasn't coming alone, either."

"I suppose that d.i.c.k De Laney will be with him," Gloria remarked as she cleared the table.

"We aren't going to be kept long in suspense," Gwendolyn said, "for The Whizz just pa.s.sed the window and there's the knocker. Shall I go to the door?"

Before her sisters could reply, that maiden was half-way down the long hall, and a second later she reappeared with Ralph at her side. Two other young men followed closely. One indeed was d.i.c.k De Laney and the other was Mr. Hardinian. His dark, expressive eyes showed that he was much mystified by all that was happening.

"Shall we go into the salon?" Gloria inquired when greetings were over.

"No indeed. This dining-room corner with its cheerful grate fire is the pleasantest part of the old house," Ralph declared. "d.i.c.k, help me bring in another chair or two."

"Now sit down, everybody, and I'll tell you the results of my conference with my father." Ralph was plainly elated about something, which, as yet, he had revealed to no one.

When they were seated, he turned at once to the tall, dark Hungarian.

"Mr. Hardinian, you were telling me last week that your temporary wooden building for the Boys' Club is to be torn down next month that a tobacco factory may be erected, were you not?"

"Yes," was the reply of the still puzzled young man. "I can't imagine where I am to take my boys. I don't like to have them bunkless even for one night."