“I shall speak to Cuthbert about it⁠—after the wedding,” said Mrs. Bebberly Cumble.

“The wedding isn’t till next year,” said Vera, in recounting the story to her best girl friend, “and meanwhile old Betsy is living rent free, with soup twice a week and my aunt’s doctor to see her whenever she has a finger ache.”

“But how on earth did you get to know about it all?” asked her friend, in admiring wonder.

“It was a mystery⁠—” said Vera.

“Of course it was a mystery, a mystery that baffled everybody. What beats me is how you found out⁠—”

“Oh, about the jewels? I invented that part,” explained Vera; “I mean the mystery was where old Betsy’s arrears of rent were to come from; and she would have hated leaving that jolly quince tree.”