The Mystery off Glen Road

the clubhouse,” Trixie said. “His idea of a good joke would be to set it on fire or something.”
    “That’s the point,” Honey said worriedly. “But if we don’t keep an eye on him, he might do something dreadful like playing a practical joke on Regan. He might fill the saddle-soap cans with cold cream or tie knots in the reins.”
    Trixie shuddered. “What a goon! And I have to be nice to him.”
    Honey smiled suddenly as she went on to add, “More than that, you have to act as though you were in love with him.”
    “Rub it in; rub it in,” Trixie said sarcastically. “I’ll have you know, Honey Wheeler, I don’t have to put on that act unless there’s an audience. That means that when I’m alone with him, which I hope will never happen, or when you and I are alone with him, I can pretend he isn’t there. So let’s do all we can to keep me away from him when the others are around. Thus, the answer to the whole ghastly Ben Riker problem is to make the boys keep an eye on him. We’ll just tell them flatly that they have to. After all, he is a boy.”
    Honey giggled. “They’ll flatly refuse to cope with him unless he’s in a straitjacket, and you know it. But seriously, Trix, he isn’t awful all of the time. He can be very nice and lots of fun when he isn’t playing practical jokes.”
    “You’re wasting your breath on me,” Trixie said sourly. “Sell Ben’s good points to Jim. Make him love him as though he were a beloved sibling, and all of our problems will be solved.”
    “Don’t be silly,” Honey interrupted. “Jim despises boys like Ben who have too much spending money and never do any work. What—who—I mean, whom I was thinking of is Di Lynch. Ben is very good-looking in that playboy way, and Di is so pretty. If we introduced them, they might go for each other; then that would be that. All you’d have to do is look jealous for a while and then broken-hearted, and pretty soon you could become resigned to your fate and be your normal self again.”
    Trixie burst into loud, joyous laughter. “You’re a genius, Honey. Di is the perfect answer. Invite her out this afternoon.”
    Honey nodded. “If they get along today, I’ll ask her to spend the whole Thanksgiving vacation with us. Lucky for us, Miss Trask likes house parties. She’ll be sure to approve.”
    “Only one thing worries me,” Trixie said after a while. “Di might come out in jeans. That would ruin everything. Ben hates tomboys. How can we tactfully tell her to wear a dress?”
    “I’ll say we’re having a little party,” Honey said calmly. “It’s getting warmer by the minute, so we can have hot chocolate and cookies on the veranda around four o’clock, and with all of us there it will be a party; in a way.”
    “Well, count me out,” Trixie said firmly. “I couldn’t possibly stand a party today and again on Thursday, so soon after the wedding.”
    “What party is there going to be on Thursday?” Honey asked.
    “Honey Wheeler!” Trixie cried. “You know Moms always asks a lot of people to drop in on Thanksgiving all afternoon and evening. Your parents and you and Jim were invited weeks ago. Miss Trask and Regan, too. It’s what you call an open house, but it’s a party just the same. Moms serves a buffet supper of ham and turkey and coleslaw and all, which I have to help her with and at the same time keep Bobby from doing any of the awful things he always does when we have company.”
    Trixie stopped for breath, and Honey said, “I knew you were having open house on Thursday, but I didn’t think of it as a party, but of course it is. Your mother asked Ben, too. I hope she asked Di.”
    “All of the Lynches are coming,” Trixie told her. “And the neighbors, of course. Dozens of' people, but they seldom stay very long and don’t all arrive at once. But let’s get back to your party. Please, Honey, don’t make me come to it.”
    “All right, I won’t,” Honey said, smiling. “But the boys are going to think it’s awfully odd, after the way you’ve been saying all week that you could hardly wait until Ben arrives.”
    “Oh, I’ll be here when he arrives, all right,” Trixie said bitterly. “But I don’t have to become his Siamese twin, do I? And there’s no sense in your telling me I have to look jealous and broken-hearted and resigned. I don’t know how to look any of those things.”
    “I’d love to see you try,” Honey said wistfully. “It would be so funny.”