Detective and mystery stories; Wise, Pennington (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
Her golden hair was softly curly, and her sky blue eyes big and
expressive. But her complexion was her greatest beauty; soft as a rose
petal, the pink and white were so delicately blended as to make a new
observer suspect art's assistance. A second glance, however, removed all
such suspicion, for no hare's foot could ever have produced that degree
of perfection. Her softly rounded chin, and creamy throat were
exquisitely moulded, and her usual expression was gentle and amiable.
But Norma was no namby-pamby character, and her eyes could turn to deep
violet, and her pink cheeks flush rosily if she ran up against unjustice
or meanness. That was why her career of philanthropy was not always a
serene path, for she never hesitated to speak her mind and her mind was
of a positive type.
Always outspoken, though, was Norma. No slyness or deceit marked her
procedure, never did she say behind any one's back what she would not say
to his face.
And this was the principal reason why Norma and Eve could never hit it
off. For Eve frequently carried tales, and sometimes denied them later.
Milly, however, was friends with both girls, and secretly hoped that if
they could all get away together, the two warring natures might react on
each other for good. Then, too, both were immensely interested in
psychics, and if they were rivals in this field, so much better chance
for all concerned, to find out the things they were to look for.
"I think," said Norma, at the confab, "it would be better for two of the
crowd, say, Mr. and Mrs. Landon, to go up first and look at the house. It
sounds fine, but it may be impossible. So, why get us all up there, only
to come home again?"
"I don't think so," said Eve, promptly, while Milly giggled to hear the
two begin to disagree at once. "I think it would be a lot more fun for us
all to go and see it for the first time together. Then, if it isn't
livable, we can all come back, but we shall have had a sort of picnic out
of it, at least."
"Yes, I think that, too!" put in Vernie, who was beside herself with joy
at the outlook. "Oh, what a gorgeous party it will be! Do we go in the
train, or motors or what?"
"Hush, Vernie," said her Uncle, "we haven't decided to go at all, yet.
Where is this place, Landon?"
"The post-office is East Dryden. The house is about a mile further up the
mountain. I fancy it's a picturesque sort of a place, though with few
modern appointments. Fisher got a little more data, somehow, and he says
it's a hodge-podge old pile, as to architecture, as it's been rebuilt, or
added to several times. But I don't care about all that, I mean, if we
don't like the appointments we needn't stay. What I want is the ghost
story. Shall we send to Stebbins for that before we take the place, or go
on a wild goose chase entirely?"
"Oh, let's start off without knowing anything about it," and old Mr.
Bruce's eyes twinkled like a boy's at thought of an escapade.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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