She listened to it all very quietly and without any comments whatever, except for an indignant and scornful sniff once in a while. "Well," demanded Marcia, when it was over and they were waiting for her to speak, "what do you think of it?" "I think," she remarked cryptically, "that you needed Minerva Brett here to manage this affair for you. _She_ would have given you a little better advice than to go off on a wild goose chase down to Pennsylvania on the wrong trail!" They stared at her in open-mouthed amazement. "You might explain yourself, Minerva," mildly suggested the captain. "I _might_, but I'm not going to!" she replied firmly. "At least, not just at present." And with a tantalizing smile, she sweetly bade them all good night and departed to her room. "Janet," said Marcia, that night, as she curled her arms up over her head on the pillow, "isn't it heavenly to go to sleep with that horrid weight lifted from your mind? We seem to be just as far as ever from solving the riddle about Cecily, but at least, the darling isn't the granddaughter of a mandarin! But, do you know, I can't help but wonder where that poor little granddaughter is, and what became of her. She sort of seems like a real person to me now." "I don't wonder about her, and what's more, I don't care," sighed Janet. "As long as it wasn't Cecily. What's puzzling me is how your aunt expects to solve the riddle? What can _she_ know about it?" "Well, I don't bother about _that_," returned Marcia, "because I'm glad to let somebody else have a hand in working at it now. I'm content to leave it to Aunt Minerva!" CHAPTER XX AUNT MINERVA TAKES COMMAND For an entire week thereafter Aunt Minerva went her own mysterious way, calm and unruffled herself, but keeping the rest of her family on tenter-hooks of excitement. She wrote mysterious letters which she would allow no one but herself to mail, and received mysterious replies, the contents of which she kept a dark secret. They watched her with the feeling that they were quite outside the game now, and that she had the keys of the situation entirely in her own hands. Which was indeed the truth! At last one day, after receiving a particularly bulky communication, she deigned to speak. "Can you carry a message for me to Miss Benedict?" she inquired of Marcia and Janet. "Yes!" they replied eagerly, but humbly. "Ask her if she could possibly grant an interview in her own house to the four of us here--and one other. It's very important." "Oh, Aunt Minerva, you _know_ she never receives _any_ strangers in the house!" expostulated Marcia. "I know that, of course. And you told me the reason, which I quite appreciate. But there's bound to come a time, even in her peculiar experience, when it's expedient to break a rule like that. The time has come now, and you can tell her that I'm sure she'll be very sorry if she does not grant this request. The matter intimately concerns her, or I would not dream of intruding on her."