The Mystery of the Missing Heiress

door to her elder brother who was clipping the grass. “Come and hear the letter from Holland! There, now, Moms. Begin.”
    “You’d think it was a letter from the President of the United States,” Mrs. Belden said, laughing. She turned the flame low under the boiling kettle. “Here goes. It’s headed ‘The Hague, eighteen Seestrasse.’ ”
    “A neighbor did get it; see, Mart?” Trixie gloated.
    “All right.All right. Just let Moms read it,” Mart countered.
    Brian waited, clippers in hand. “I sure second the motion, Trixie.”
    Trixie just glared at both boys and settled herself to listen.
    “ ‘Dear Miss Belden:’ ”
    She only got that far when Bobby collapsed, giggling.
    “What is the matter with you?” Trixie asked impatiently.
    “Miss Belden. Miss Belden. Only teachers are Miss.’ Trixie s not a ‘Miss.’ ” A giggle caught in his throat, and he spluttered, choking.
    “I'll try again,” Mrs. Belden said. This time she skipped the “Miss Belden.” She knew Bobby.

“Your letter came as a surprise to me but a welcome one. After all these years, there is now word from the family of my friend Betje Maasden.
I had not known there was any relative of Betje’s still living. We had heard that her sister married again and died in some eastern city in your country.
“It is true, tragically, that my friend and her husband were drowned when their automobile fell into the canal.
“It is not true, however, that their daughter, Juliana, was drowned. She was saved. Since there seemed to be no living relative, I took Juliana into my home, and we have loved her dearly. My own two children were grown, and it made me happy to have a young child in the family again. Ample funds were left in trust for Juliana by her father.
She was sent to a private school here.
“Eight years ago my daughter, Mrs. Walter De Jong, and her husband moved to the United States, where he Is in charge of his company’s American office. They now live in the Bronx. My daughter and I thought Juliana might have greater educational advantages in the States, so she went with them and is now in your country, where she attended college. She is engaged to be married to a young attorney in The Hague.
“Juliana will be so happy to have the news, which I shall write to her, that she has a young cousin, James Winthrop Frayne. You will be getting in touch with one another soon, I am sure, and both you and Juliana will write to me of this happy occasion.”

    The letter was signed “Minna Schimmel.”
    “Whoopee!” Trixie cried. “The Bronx isn’t far from here. Why didn’t she give the Dejong family’s address?”
    “What difference does it make? We can look it up in a directory, I suppose,” Mart said. “Where are you going?”
    “To tell Jim, of course. May we possibly be excused, Moms? Brian and Mart and me? This calls for a Bob-White emergency meeting. Please, Moms! I’ll work even harder than ever after the meeting.”
    “I know better than to try and stop you, Trixie. Go ahead, all of you. I’ll call Honey and tell her to meet you at the clubhouse. She can call Diana and Dan.”
    “Oh, Moms, you’re the greatest!”
    “I’ll go, too,” Bobby said. “I want to know what you do.”
    “Oh, I’m sorry,” Trixie said. “Meetings are for Bob-Whites only, Bobby. In a few years you can be a Bob-White yourself.”
    Bobby’s lip trembled. “I’m the one who brought you the letter...
    “Who’ll taste the catsup for me, so I’ll know when it’s just right?” his mother asked.
    “Let Reddy taste it. Let me go, Trixie!”
    Mrs. Belden steered Bobby to a low kitchen chair near the stove, where the catsup was cooking.
    “You stay with me, Bobby, because I don’t want to stay alone. After they’re all gone, I’ll tell you where I’ve hidden a brand-new jigsaw puzzle.”
    “All right... but I never get to go anywhere! I can'telephone Honey,” he told his mother. “I know her number.”

    When all the members reached the clubhouse, Trixie opened the letter and read it dramatically. “Isn’t it exciting? A cousin you never knew you had, Jim.”
    “Yeah,” he said slowly and reached for the letter. “I like to think I still have at least one living relative.”
    Honey gasped. “Oh, Jim! You know that since Daddy and Mother adopted you, all of our relatives are your relatives, too.”
    “I know,” Jim said quickly, “and you’ve all sure been wonderful to me. But it isn’t quite the same as blood