You
will please send the luggage to the hotel as suggested. I will see you
early in the morning, at any rate. Come, girls."
Janus, somewhat downcast and very thoughtful, led the way to the
Compton House, a short distance down the street from the post-office
and grocery store. The girls began talking almost as soon as they had
left the store porch.
"Please, please don't discharge him," begged Hazel. "He is such a nice
man."
"And thuch nithe whithkerth," added Grace Thompson. "He lookth jutht
like an uncle of mine, who----"
"I agree with the girls, Miss Elting," interjected Harriet. "We are
able to take care of ourselves. Perhaps this is simply another crazy
man, of whom we shall be rid as soon as we leave the village for the
mountains in the morning. Please don't dismiss Mr. Grubb."
"I shall have to think this matter over," was the guardian's grave
reply. "We do not care to repeat last summer's experience. You
remember what came of relying on the assurance of a stranger." Miss
Elting referred to the manner in which they had been tricked by the man
who had charge of her brother's houseboat the previous summer, and
whose treachery had caused them so much annoyance.
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