AUNT JANE'S NIECES AT WORK

LIST OF CHAPTERS

I MISS DOYLE INTERFERES

II THE ARTIST

III DON QUIXOTE

IV KENNETH TAKES A BOLD STEP

V PLANNING THE WORK

VI A GOOD START

VII PATSY MAKES PROGRESS

VIII THE HONORABLE ERASTUS IS ASTONISHED

IX OL' WILL ROGERS

X THE FORGED CHECK

XI A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE

XII BETH MEETS A REBUFF

XIII THE BOOMERANG

XIV LUCY'S GHOST

XV SIGNS OF THE TIMES

XVI A CLEW AT LAST

XVII MRS. HOPKINS GOSSIPS

XVIII ELIZA PARSONS

XIX PATSY INDULGES IN EAVESDROPPING

XX PRICKING A BUBBLE

XXI THE "RETURNS" FROM FAIRVIEW

XXII THE AWAKENING




CHAPTER I

MISS DOYLE INTERFERES


"Daddy," said Patricia Doyle at the breakfast table in her cosy New York
apartment, "here is something that will make you sit up and take
notice."

"My dear Patsy," was the reply, "it's already sitting up I am, an'
taking waffles. If anything at all would make me take notice it's your
own pretty phiz."

"Major," remarked Uncle John, helping himself to waffles from a fresh
plate Nora brought in, "you Irish are such confirmed flatterers that you
flatter your own daughters. Patsy isn't at all pretty this morning.
She's too red and freckled."

Patsy laughed and her blue eyes danced.

"That comes from living on your old farm at Millville," she retorted.
"We've only been back three days, and the sunburn sticks to me like a
burr to a kitten."

"Pay no attention to the ould rascal, Patsy," advised the Major,
composedly. "An' stop wavin' that letter like a white flag of surrender.
Who's it from?"

"Kenneth."

"Aha! An' how is our lad?"

"Why, he's got himself into a peck of trouble. That's what I want to
talk to you and Uncle John about," she replied, her happy face growing
as serious as it could ever become.

"Can't he wiggle out?" asked Uncle John.

"Out of what?"

"His trouble."

"It seems not. Listen--"

"Oh, tell us about it, lassie," said the Major. "If I judge right
there's some sixty pages in that epistle. Don't bother to read it
again."

"But every word is important," declared Patsy, turning the letter over,
"--except the last page," with a swift flush.