The Mysterious Visitor

came quietly into the room and sat on the foot of the bed. In a soothing voice, she said, "Sit up, Di, and tell the girls what you told me before dinner. Everything is going to be all right."
    Di tearfully obeyed. "Mother wants to give me a Halloween party," she began. "She told me to invite all of you and the boys and girls in our class on Monday. But I didn’t. I couldn’t. Because it won’t be any fun. Mother wants it to be a very elaborate affair, with Harrison hovering around like a grim ghost." She clenched her fists and
    rubbed her eyes with them. "I can’t seem to make her understand that we don’t want that kind of party. Oh, Honey, you’ve got to help me."
    "But how?" Honey’s wide hazel eyes were filled with sympathy.
    "Your mother," Di said, "is my mother’s very own ideal. If your mother would tell her that it would be much better to let me give the kind of party the Beldens give, why, then she would." "It’s really quite simple," Miss Trask put in. "I’m sure, Honey, that Mrs. Wheeler would like very much to invite Di’s parents to the dinner she’s giving next Friday night. When she telephones Mrs. Lynch tomorrow morning, she could suggest at the same time that Di’s friends would have much more fun if the party Di gives is simply an informal affair."
    Di nodded. "Do you think your mother would do that, Honey? I mean, explain that most of the kids will come in homemade costumes and won’t like it at all if they see Harrison hanging around in that prim way of his."
    "Of course," Honey cried enthusiastically. "Harrison can be given the night off, so you can run things the way you like, Di. Mother’s very good about explaining things like that. She knows how I feel about butlers. We haven’t had one since Miss Trask came to five with us. And I’m glad."
    "And Regan," Miss Trask reminded her. "Regan takes the place of a butler in this household, except that he doesn’t buttle."
    "I wish we had a Regan on our place," Di said enviously. "When he was giving me a riding lesson, I sort of poured my heart out to him, and he was so sympathetic." Suddenly she covered her pretty face with her hands. "Oh, I forgot. Uncle Monty! He’ll ruin everything."
    "Uncle Monty?" Trixie repeated. "I didn’t know you had an uncle, Di."
    "I didn’t," Di sobbed. "He suddenly turned up on Monday night. He’s Mother’s long-lost brother, who left home to make his fortune when she was just a baby. She has never heard from him until now."
    "How exciting," Honey cried. "What on earth makes you think he’ll ruin everything, Di?"
    Di stared dismally up at the ceiling. "Maybe he won’t. Let’s not talk about him. Let’s start making plans for Halloween. Maybe Uncle Monty will have gone back to Arizona by then."
    "If he hasn’t," Miss Trask put in, "Mrs. Wheeler will certainly invite your mother’s brother to the grown-up party here that evening."
    "Oh, no!" Di’s voice was so high-pitched it was almost a scream. "Please, Miss Trask, don’t let Mrs. Wheeler invite him out here."
    Honey tactfully changed the subject to plans for the Halloween party, but Trixie couldn’t help thinking: That afternoon Di Lynch had talked to someone on the phone. She had sobbed, "Oh, please don’t. Please don’t." Then she had hung up and said to herself, "I hate him. I hate him!" Could the person Di hated so violently be her newly found Uncle Monty?

Trixie Is Suspicions • 4

    EXCEPT FOR special occasions, Trixie had to be home by nine o’clock, so she left right in the midst of exciting plans for the Halloween party. But her vivid imagination kept her awake and restless for a long time after she climbed into her bed.
    She couldn’t help thinking about Di’s uncle who had suddenly turned up. In mystery stories long-lost relatives who suddenly turned up always turned out to be someone else impersonating the long-lost relative. What little Di had said about her uncle made Trixie feel sure that she didn’t like him.
    "Maybe he’s an impostor," Trixie kept thinking, until she fell asleep.
    As she did her chores the next morning, she let her imagination run away with her. It would be such fun to solve another mystery! If Di’s uncle wasn’t her mother’s brother, who was he? What was he doing at the Lynches’? What was his scheme?
    The practical side of Trixie’s nature answered these questions coldly: "Don’t be silly! Just because Di doesn’t like him doesn’t mean he’s an impostor. Besides, you don’t know for