Molly, you're certainly full of surprises. But what did you mean by
snakey-noodles? Wasn't it beautiful?"

Then Molly explained to them about the snakey-noodle box.

"Of course, the rest was just wild guessing, but from the way she took
it I'm pretty sure I'm right."

"It was better than jiu-jitsu," said Otoyo. "It was, I think, the
jiu-jitsu of language."

They all laughed at this quaint notion, and Molly relaxed on the couch
like a very tired young warrior after the battle.

"Judy, you're foolish to be afraid of that girl," said Margaret sternly.

"I'm not exactly afraid of her," answered Judy, "but you see it would
have gone particularly hard with me just now to have her go to Miss
Walker with that story about the ghost. It was true that one evening, in
a wicked humor, I planned the whole thing with her and that little Anne
who is just as afraid of her as I suppose I am. I don't think Miss
Walker would have given me another chance. Everything would have been
against me, the rope ladder and all the things I had said."

"But then you could have proved an alibi," said Nance. "You were up here
the night the ghost chased Molly and me."

"So I could," Judy exclaimed. "I was so scared I forgot all about that
night. There's something about Adele that makes you lose your senses.
She leans over you and looks at you and talks to you in a hot, rapid
sort of way. I just saw myself, after all the trouble everybody had
taken with me, being sent away in disgrace. I didn't believe I could
prove anything when she began talking. I just went under."

"Well, don't you ever do it again," put in Nance.

"Say 'snakey-noodles' the next time she comes at you," said Edith. "Oh,
dear, that exquisite name," she continued, leaning back in her chair so
as to indulge in a fit of silent laughter.

"I can tell you another interesting bit about this Miss Windsor," here
put in pretty Jessie. "Do you remember that shabby little woman in black
who came down on the same train with Molly's Mr. Lufton?"

"Nonsense," broke in Molly.

"I remember her," said Judy. "Adele said she was a dressmaker, I
believe."

"Well, she told the truth for once. She is a dressmaker, but she happens
to be Adele's mother, too."

"Her mother," they gasped in chorus.

"Yes. When Mama and I were in New York for the Christmas holidays, we
were recommended to go to a French place called 'Annette's' for some
clothes. There was a French woman named Annette who came