Detective and mystery stories; Love stories; Social secretaries -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
Half an hour later Mrs. Janney met Molly Morgenthau Babbitts and laid
the situation before her. She found the much-vaunted young woman, a
pretty, slender girl, with crisply curly black hair, honest brown eyes,
and a pleasantly simple manner. Mrs. Janney liked what she said and
liked her. There was no doubt about her intelligence and as to rousing
any suspicions in the household—she would have deceived Mr. Janney—she
even would have deceived Dixon. As the case was outlined she could not
hide her kindling interest and, when she agreed to undertake the work,
Mrs. Janney felt that the nursery governess idea had been an
inspiration. The interview ended with practical details: Mrs. Babbitts
would make her reports to the Whitneys, who would figure as her
employers and would hand on her findings to Mrs. Janney. She would
arrive by the twelve-thirty train on the following day and be known at
Grasslands as Miss Rodgers. As they were separating she asked if there
was a branch telephone on the upper floor and, being told that there was
in an alcove off the main hall, requested that her room might be near it
as the telephone played an important part in her work.
Suzanne’s course had a curious resemblance to her mother’s, though her
plan of procedure was different.
From the day after the robbery she had developed an interest in the
telephone "Red Book." She had taken it to her room and turning to the
D’s studied the list of detective agencies. After much comparison and
cogitation she had copied down the name of one Horace Larkin, who
appeared to be in business by himself and whose office was in a central
and accessible part of the city.
After she had parted from her mother she went to a department store,
shut herself in a telephone booth, and called up Mr. Larkin. A masculine
voice, that of Larkin himself, had answered, and explaining her desire
to see him on important business, he had made an appointment to meet her
that afternoon at the Janney house on Fifth Avenue.
This was an excellent place for Suzanne’s purpose, closed for the
summer, its porch boarded up, its blue-blinded windows proclaiming its
desertion. An ancient caretaker occupied the basement with her niece,
Aggie McGee, to help and be company. Mrs. Janney never went there, but
now and then Suzanne did, generally on a quest for some needed garment,
so that her presence in the house was in no way remarkable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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