“What about Viney?” asked Sim. “Should she be told?”
“I’ll leave that to Dick and Betty,” said Harry. “They can use their best judgment. I only hope she doesn’t break up the little affair. She’s very queer, you say?”
“More than queer—vindictive,” declared Arden.
“But when she hears the big state news, things are going to ease up a little, I think,” said Sim.
They talked over the plan, made some changes, and when Harry left that evening all details were practically settled.
He telephoned the next day, about noon, to say that he had seen Betty and Dick and that they were delighted with the matter. They both said, Harry reported, that Viney must be told or she might break out into a sudden tantrum at the last moment when she learned about it.
“She probably won’t come to the party,” Harry said. Betty had informed him, but that would be all right, he added. The two grandchildren would escort Mrs. Howe to the old mansion the evening of the affair, at a predetermined hour, on pretense that it would probably be the last Christmas she would ever see with the old house standing.
It was the day before Christmas. Dick and Harry, with the help of a stable boy, had brought much dry wood into the old Hall. The girls had, each one, bought some little token for Granny and something for Viney, “in case,” Arden said, “she shows up at the last moment and starts a fuss. We’ll have to treat her like a child.”
Betty and Dick entered into the spirit of the affair and could not say enough in praise of the girls who had thought of it.
“Granny is going to be very happy about it all,” said Betty gratefully.