The Phantom Treasure

ess formal which she had unconsciously acquired by long residence in a school that fostered it. But that dropped away when she was with her intimate friends, for jolly sc

tions and it was a good thing for her t

mp out a little or to motor together. Janet had some idea back in the recesses of her brain that the Marcys might take her to her uncle's home after school was out. But that plan was not to be carried out. Sh

e was rather relieved to see the lawyer by whose hands the modest fortune left her by her grandmother Eldon was administered. He was a man of medium height,

he comes in. I have what I hope will prove to be pleasant news to you, certain communications f

ey. I have just had some word of the sort myself, a fine box from the home place and a letter

to surprise you more. I thought t

I am terribly t

at your uncle wants you to go as soon as possible to th

I do that? I'll have to go

e has some idea of havi

think that I will go,-yes, I will, too

ealized as soon as she had spoken that she must do what her

hall see what Miss Hilliard has to say. Here she comes now," and Mr. Conley rose

Van Meter," said Miss Hilliard, after she had shaken h

poetical name is the s

mild giggle at that. Pieter an

ed what the older girls said, that Mr. Conley had wanted to marry Miss Hilliard and was w

ad recently traced the whereabouts of his niece, though he did not say how. He wanted to see her and to offer her a home where her mother,

ard when Mr. Conley began to speak of that last point. But Miss Hilliard said firmly that nothing of the k

and keep it together for her, very well. But I shall not hand over the responsibility just to be relieved of it. Everything is safe for Janet as long as you are in charge. Mr. Van Meter might be perfectly good and yet without judg

perty and income, with the same items of interest and rent that I am giving, a

don't want to know anything about it. W

ent, "perhaps a little more, if you go t

vously, then made her adieux as a properly tra

Mr. Conley looked at Miss Hilliard. "Anna, you h

s spirited and inclined to be independent, but she has fine ideas of justice and the rights of others, with considerable courage, too. I am hoping that she will find a loving ho

st in Janet's welfare. Meanwhile, I shall quietly inquire about Mr. Van Meter. It is probably one of

pt your affairs

lage, near the country place of the Van Meters, I suppose. How would you like to ha

ip and the assistant principal can have a chance to exercise her

he date was set. Clothes were being put in order, and a new frock or two purchased, a task easy enough in the Philadelphia department stores. Janet's w

y Loring exclaimed. "I just envy you. We'll be shut up to old lessons as u

u know. But I am crazy to see the place where she lived when she was a girl like me. If Uncle Pieter is nice, it will be all right. He d

Allie May, who sometimes thought that she had

ry some one with a large family of brothers and sisters and aunts

," laughed

rling spring suit," said goodbyes that turned out to be rather tearful in the en

me back next

mencement if your

wfully in the spr

y tones is too utterly sweet

ter Eldon. Give the Du

the taxi which was waiting outside. And funniest of all, several of the girls, who knew

cle P

r Van

o one s

e to m

Van M

Janet had been scarcely aware, was now carefully wiped away to keep it from splashing upon the new suit. "Weren't the girls lovely, Miss Hilliard?" she

inquired Mi

or I put a drop of viole

ppearance of the fine old brick building, almost flush with the stre

ry fact that Janet knew so little about what it might hol