CHAPTER XXVIII
DALE’S HEROINE
Two weeks later Dale Meredith came into Emily Grimshaw’s office andunder his arm he carried a new book manuscript. It was the day thatPauline took over Judy’s position—with her father’s consent. Dr.Faulkner was home now, as busy and professional as ever. But he had notbeen too busy to listen to the smallest detail of Irene’s remarkablestory. She wanted his advice as a brain specialist. Was it fair withinsanity in the family——
Dr. Faulkner had not let her finish the sentence. Of course it wasfair. Sarah Glenn had once been a patient of his and he declared thatshe was only slightly eccentric—not insane until her brother haddriven her to it.
“And don’t you know that this type of insanity cannot be inherited?” hehad asked Irene. “There’s no need to worry your pretty head about that.Under the same conditions, perhaps. But those conditions cannot existwith Jasper Crosby in prison. And do quit calling him Uncle Jasper.He’s no blood relation, only a stepbrother, and Glenn was really yourgrandmother’s maiden name.”
“Oh, Father, if you had only been home before!” Pauline had exclaimed.
The doctor had smiled that rare smile of his. “Dr. Bolton’s daughterdid wonders without me,” he had said.
Then Pauline knew that her father would not object to Judy’s plans forher. He hadn’t wanted her to work before. Now it pleased him to knowshe was filling Judy’s position.
* * * * *
“You’ve been working hard, Dale,” Pauline said, glancing up from themanuscript he had just given her. She was seated at her new desk,looking very professional.
Judy stood beside the table straightening out a few of her things asshe wanted to leave the office in perfect order.
But Dale Meredith expected these girls to show more than a professionalinterest in his story. He had put his heart into it—and his experience.
Judy smiled. “Is it another detective story?”
“It’s the greatest detective story you’ll ever read. The detective is asixteen-year-old girl.”
“Sounds interesting. What does she look like?”
For answer Dale walked over to the little mirror where Judy usuallystood to arrange her hat. He took it down from the wall and held it sothat Judy’s bright hair and clear gray eyes were reflected in itssurface.
“There! That’s my detective. Irene is the heroine. She has the originalmanuscript reading it now. Our whole future depends on what she thinksof the ending.”
“Really, Dale? Is it as serious as that?”
“It was serious enough for me to invest in this. Do you think she’lllike it?”
He took from his pocket a tiny square box. Opening it, he displayed aring that would, had Judy known it, play an important part in anothermystery that she was to solve. It was a beautiful thing. Beautifulchiefly because it was so simple, just a solitaire set in a gold bandand decorated with almost invisible orange blossoms.
“I even had it engraved,” he said and then blushed, a thing Judy hadnever known Dale Meredith to do before.
“I don’t know why I’m showing it to you girls,” he said. “Perhaps Ishouldn’t. She might rather show it herself.”
Snapping shut the lid, he put it hastily back in his pocket. He stoodas if waiting for something.
“I’ll be almost afraid to read your story if it’s all true, Dale,” Judysaid. “It will be so much like—like—” She floundered for a word.
“Like spying on me?”
“Something like that.”
“Well, it isn’t all true—only the important part. You’ll both read it,won’t you?”
“Of course we’ll read it. That’s what we’re being paid for, isn’t it,Pauline?”
The book was a revelation. Dale had made a murder mystery out of thevery thing that had happened to Irene. Jasper Crosby’s scheme to wreckthe tower had worked in the story, killing the grandmother instead ofIrene. The names were different. But for that Judy saw herself movingthrough the pages of his story, playing the part of the clever girldetective. She saw Pauline’s faults depicted. All the petty jealousiesshe had felt were revealed, used to cast suspicion upon her and thenexcused, baring the real girl underneath. The Golden Girl of Dale’sstory was Irene in her mother’s dress. Dale, himself, was the narratorand the suspense, the worry and, finally, the romance of the story werethings he had felt and written with feeling. Judy found a new andlovelier Irene in Dale’s description of her. She marveled that heunderstood every one of them so well. The boys came, appropriately, atthe end and, through it all, the spark of humor was the literary agent.
When Emily Grimshaw came in neither Judy nor Pauline looked up. Theydid not hear her enter the room. Finally she stood over them and spokein a sharp tone.
“What’s this you’re reading? Didn’t I tell you to get done with yourtypewriting first? Letters are important but manuscripts can alwayswait to be read.”
“This one can’t,” Judy replied, smiling up at her employer. “This isDale Meredith’s new detective story. Irene is the heroine, Pauline oneof the suspects and I am the detective.”
“So! And I suppose I am the criminal.”
Judy startled the old lady by kissing her.
“You are your own sweet self, Miss Grimshaw. It will surprise you whata lovable person you are. Why don’t you read the book and getacquainted?”
Turning pages broke the silence in the office all that day. Clientsthat came in were hastily dismissed. Other work waited. Dale Meredithhad written life itself in the pages of a book that would make himfamous.
He called for the girls at five o’clock.
“What did you think of it?” He asked when they failed to mention hiswork.
“Wonderful!” Pauline breathed.
“And you, Judy?”
“I’m still filled with it,” she replied, “too much to talk. Anyway, I’mgoing home and there won’t be time to talk. Irene is going also.”
“Why on earth?”
“Because Peter has promised to take her in his car.”
“He’s been taking her out a good deal lately,” Dale said, his browdarkening.
“Why shouldn’t he?” Pauline asked. “Peter is a nice boy and Irene needssomebody to help her plan things.”
“She knows I’d be glad to help her.”
“I’m sure she does. But she needs Peter’s legal advice,” Judyexplained. “He says the chief thing they talk about is what to do withSarah Glenn’s house. Irene says she wants to live in it.”
“Alone?” Pauline asked.
“No, with her father. He’s still depending on her and she is so glad tobe able to take care of him the way she’s always wanted to. His room isto be that big sunny one in the front of the house. There’s room forIrene’s piano in it and he loves to hear her play. But the tower roomshe wants kept just the way her mother had it. Oh, she’s talked of itso much—even to selecting the kind of flowers she wants in the garden.”
“She told me,” Dale said, but his simple remark set Judy wondering howmuch they had told each other. It seemed strange for little Irene to behaving a real romance. She was so young! Too young, Judy would havethought if she had not realized how much Irene needed the love andsense of security that a man like Dale Meredith could give her.
Bright-eyed and smiling, Irene looked the part of a heroine when shemet them at the door. Dale promptly took possession of her and, for anhour, nothing more was heard from either of them except a low murmur ofvoices on the roof garden.
In the meantime Arthur had arrived dressed in his flying gear and readyto take Judy home. She and her cat were both to fly with him in hisopen plane.
It was decided that Irene would ride with Horace in Peter’s car andstay with the Dobbs family while she was in Farringdon. That short staywas to be more eventful than she knew, for her fortune was to be toldin “The Mystic Ball.” But now she was content to plan for the
futurewithout it. She and Dale fully expected to come back and live in TowerHouse, for that was what they had named it.
“We named it that,” Irene said. “Dale and I.”
“It sounds romantic,” Judy answered. “May I come and visit?”
“You certainly may. And you must come for the celebration.”
“You mean the housewarming as soon as you and your father have TowerHouse fixed up?”
Irene’s eyes danced. “Oh, no! Dale’s supervising that. I meancelebrating the success of his new book. I read it today. And it willbe a success,” she said softly. “Thanks to you, Judy, it’s all true,even the happy ending.”
THE END
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcriber's Notes
page 23 - added closing double quote "DISCUSS TERMS MONDAY"
page 44 - joined "breath" and "takingly" across line breakAnd Irene was breathtakingly lovely in the new dress.
page 88 - added a period at the end of the sentence"It really would be better to notify the police"
page 117 - added a period at the end of the sentence"Perhaps the two descriptions were the same"
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends