The Mystery off Glen Road

understand what he’s talking about. Mart,” she added thoughtfully, “is the one I’ve got to fool first. That’s not going to be easy. We’re practically twins, you know.”
    Honey uncovered her face and tugged at her bangs, frowning. “That I do know. In fact, you are twins for one whole month of the year, because your birthdays are exactly eleven months apart. But what that has to do with getting your ring out of the bank is beyond me. Please, Trixie,” she begged, “try to make sense for a change.”
    Trixie glared at her. “I am making sense. Mr. Lytell has promised Brian not to sell his jalopy to a dealer until next Saturday. Between now and then, I’ve got to get the diamond ring so I can give it to him as security. The only way I can possibly convince Dad that I should have it is for me to go feminine all over the place. As you pointed out, I can’t do that suddenly, so, between now and Friday, I’ve got to do it by degrees. Mart, to repeat myself, is going to be suspicious until the very end, so I’ve got to fool him first. Do I make myself clear?”
    “Yes,” Honey said in an awed tone of voice. “It’s all as simple as international intrigue, and I don’t think for one minute that you’re going to fool anybody, let alone Mart.” She grabbed Trixie’s hand and dragged her over to the full-length mirror that formed the door to rows of shelves. “Just look at yourself, Trixie Belden. Did you ever see anyone who looked less frail and feminine than you?” Trixie chortled. “I do look pretty horrible in this ragged sweater and patched jeans. And my hair should really be as long as yours and Di’s—down to my shoulders, I mean. But I can’t do anything about that. There just isn’t going to be enough time.” Honey elevated her eyebrows. “Oh, no? That seems to me to be the simplest problem of all. You can wear a wig. One with long, black Lord Fauntleroy curls would be just the thing. Then nobody would recognize you, so nobody in your family will die of horror when suddenly you appear in a formal evening gown with a long train.”
    Trixie collapsed on the floor. “Let’s not overdo this, Honey,” she finally got out. “All I’m going to do is not wear ragged sweaters and patched blue jeans for a while. Instead of changing when I come home from school, I’ll hang around in my school clothes.”
    “You can’t do that,” Honey objected. “You can’t ride in a skirt, not without a sidesaddle, and we haven’t got one, and even if we did, you wouldn’t know how to cope with it. And we have to exercise the horses or Regan will be furious. He’s furious enough, anyway, because now, with Fleagle gone, and Tom on his honeymoon, and Miss Trask so busy because Celia’s on her honeymoon, too, he—”
    “Oh, please, Honey,” Trixie interrupted. “Don’t go into all those complications. I’ll wear jeans when we exercise the horses after school. Then I’ll do just what you do—dress up for dinner. I’ve got some dresses somewhere, like the one that Moms made me wear to the wedding breakfast yesterday.
    They’re in her closet, I think, two or three of them.” She got on her hands and knees and stared at her reflection in the mirror. “Maybe some perfume and lipstick would help. Earrings, too.”
    “Oh, definitely,” Honey said, wiggling her eyebrows. “Mother’s away, so we can borrow things like that by the ton. Since you refuse to wear a train and carry a lorgnette, I feel you should go in heavily for makeup. Mascara, eye shadow, eyebrow pencil, foundation creams—oh, definitely.”
    “Don’t be sarcastic,” Trixie said crossly. “This is a very serious problem, and although we re really doing it so Brian, can have his jalopy, we can never let him know anything about my diamond ring. So I just have to be convincing when I ask Dad for it.”
    “Oh, I know,” Honey cried, stooping to give Trixie a big hug. “As I keep telling you, you’re just about the most generous girl who ever lived. But take my advice, Trixie. The only way you can make it convincing is for you to fall suddenly in love. That’s the way it happens in books. Tomboys suddenly become ladies overnight because some man has come into their life. And,” she added emphatically, “I know just the man you should fall in love with.”
    “Oh, no,” Trixie moaned. “Not Jim. He’s the only one of the boys who isn’t, as you would say, my full-blooded brother.”
    “Don’t be silly,” Honey