“Probably not. But you soon will. He’s a young architect who used to plan a lot of houses for my father before he died. You know the two new bungalows that were put up here this year—beyond Flicks’?”
“I heard there were two. But we haven’t seen them yet.”
“Well, Ditmar drew plans for them both. And he and his young wife live in one of them.”
“I see. But why would your mother suspect Mr. Ditmar of setting fire to her cottage?” asked Jane.
“That’s easy,” replied Mary Louise. “So Ditmar would get the job of designing a new one! But that seems dreadful. Is this man the criminal type, Cliff?”
The latter shrugged his shoulders.
“How can anybody tell who is the criminal type nowadays, when every day we read in the newspapers about senators and bankers stooping to all sorts of despicable tricks?”
“True,” agreed Jane. “And is your mother going to rebuild?”
“It wouldn’t be Mother—it would be I who would do it,” explained Clifford. “Because Dad left the place to me, and all this land up here at Shady Nook that hasn’t been sold yet. But I don’t expect to do anything for a while. Mother’s comfortable at the Royal, and I don’t mind. Though I do like the people at Shady Nook a lot better.”
“Oh, well, you can come over as much as you like,” said Mary Louise.