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During his absence she went back of the counter.
BOBS,
A GIRL DETECTIVE
By CAROL NORTON
THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY
AKRON, OHIO NEW YORK
Copyright MCMXXVIII
By THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING CO.
PRINTED IN U.S.A.
BOBS, A GIRL DETECTIVE
CHAPTER I
FOUR GIRLS FACE A PROBLEM
“Now that the crash is over and the last echo hasceased to reverberate through our ancestral halls, theproblem before the house is what shall the familyof Vandergrifts do next?”
“Gloria, I do wish you wouldn’t stand there grinninglike a Cheshire cat. There certainly is nothingamusing about the whirlwind of a catastrophe thatwe have just been through and are still in, for thatmatter.” Gwendolyn tapped her bronze-slippered toeimpatiently as she sat in a luxuriously upholsteredchair in what, until this past week, had been thelibrary in the Long Island home of the proud familyof Vandergrifts.
Gloria, the oldest of the four girls, ceased to smilebut the pleasant expression, which was habitual tothe blue eyes, did not entirely vanish as she inquired,“What would you have me do, Gwen? Fretand fume as you are doing? That is no way to readjustyour life to new and changed conditions.Face the facts squarely, say I, and then try to findsome way to surmount your difficulties. Now firstof all, we ought——”
The dark, handsome Gwendolyn, whose naturalselfishness was plainly portrayed in a droopingmouth and petulant expression, put her fingers inher ears, saying: “If you are going to preach, Ican assure you that I am not going to listen; so youmight as well save your breath until——”
“Hush. Here comes Lena May in from the garden.Don’t let her hear us scrapping. It effects hersensitive soul as discord effects a true musician.”
Lena May entered through the porch door, herarms filled with blossoming branches.
“Look, sisters, aren’t apple blossoms even sweeterthan usual this year?” the slip of a girl began, thenpaused and glanced from one face to the other.“Gwen, what is wrong?” she asked anxiously.
But it was Gloria who replied, “Nothing at all,Pet. That is, nothing ‘wronger’ than usual, if youwill permit my lapse of grammar.”
But the dark-eyed sister threw down the bookwhich she had been trying to read, as she exclaimed,“You both know perfectly well than nothingcould be in more of a muddle than our livesare at the present moment and your ‘look for thesilver lining,’ philosophy, Gloria Vandergrift, doesn’thelp me in the least.”
The fawn-like eyes of the frail, youngest sisterturned inquiringly toward the oldest. “Has anything