"My reason," he said, slowly, "is, I admit, a selfish one. If you girls have enjoyed your visit, I'm very glad, but what I wanted, was to study you."
"I knew it!" exclaimed Bernice. "I thought you were studying us—our characters."
"Yes, just that. And I wanted to study the characters of my two nieces. Now you know you can't judge much of girls, unless you see them with their comrades, their chums; or at least with other girls of their own age. So I asked you each to bring a girl friend with you. As it happened, Bernie brought two, and Alicia none, but that didn't matter. And I'm exceedingly glad to have met and known the two D's."
The courteous old gentleman bowed to Dotty and Dolly who smiled and bowed in return.
"Well," Uncle Jeff went on, "here's the reason I wanted to study my two nieces. Because I want to take one of them to live with me, and to inherit, eventually, my house and the greater part of my fortune."
There was a silence, as each of his hearers thought over what this would mean.
Either Bernice or Alicia was to be chosen to live in that big city house, practically to be mistress of it, to have a life of wealth and luxury and at last to inherit Mr. Forbes' great fortune, and all his valuable collections and belongings.
Dotty broke the silence. "It's great!" she exclaimed, "just great! And which one are you going to choose?"
"I have chosen," said Mr. Forbes, slowly, "it remains to be seen whether the one I have selected will accept. But now, you all can see why I was so alarmed and anxious over the episode of the lost earring. I HAD to find out if any of you girls had yielded to temptation. And if so, if it was one of my nieces, or one of their friends."
"And if it had been one of your nieces, you would have chosen the other!" cried Bernice.