sometime!”
“So do we!” Nancy said enthusiastically.
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful to hike over hills and
breathe in the fresh clean air?”
“I’ve always wanted to spend a vacation on a
farm,” Bess declared longingly. “Just imagine
having cream an inch thick!”
“Just what you need for reducing!” her cousin
teased her.
“You wouldn’t have to worry about that” Jo-
anne smiled. “We keep only one cow.”
When the girls later left Joanne at the door
of her boardinghouse, they had the satisfaction of
knowing she was in a more cheerful frame of
mind.
“We’ll keep in touch with you, Joanne,”
Nancy promised as they said good-by.
“I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more of
each other,” Joanne called after them. “So please
do call me Jo! I’d much prefer it.”
“Jo it is!” they agreed merrily. “Good-by for
now.”
Nancy and her friends had just started back to
River Heights when Nancy checked her gas gauge
and decided to stop at a filling station. The girls
were idly watching passers-by when suddenly a
young woman, walking with mincing steps be-
cause oœ her extremely high heels, attracted
Nancy’s attention. Nancy gasped in recognition.
There was no mistaking the distinctive Orien-
tal features. The clerk in the perfume shop!
Nancy turned to her companions. “Look at
that girl who just crossed over. Isn’t she the same
one who sold you the perfume, Bess?”
“You mean the one who tried not to sell me the
perfume, don’t you?” Bess joked. “Yes, she’s the
same girl!”
Their eyes followed the girl up the street. She
had not glanced toward them, but had passed the
filling station and continued on.
“Now, what can she be doing here?” Nancy
wondered. She got out of the car and stood watch-
ing the girl, who entered an office building a short
distance farther up the street.
“That’s funny,” Nancy said to her friends, who
were peering from the car windows. “I think
that’s the very place where Jo applied for a po-
sition!”
“You don’t suppose that perfume girl has two
jobs, do you?” George questioned.
“I’d sure like to find out,” the young detective
answered.
Just then the attendant approached. Nancy
paid him and stepped back into the car.
“We must try to follow her,” she declared,
starting the motor. They pulled up near the of-
fice building into which the young woman had
disappeared.
“You two wait here and keep watch,” Nancy
.said. “If I’m not back in a few minutes, you’d bet-
ter come and see what’s going on.”
“Aye, aye, sir!” George said mockingly. “We’re
at your service! But be careful!”
Nancy alighted, hurried up the street, and
went into the building. The halls were deserted.
Evidently the girl had gone into one of the offices.
But which one? As Nancy stood uncertainly
staring up and down, she spotted a handyman
coming down the corridor.
“Did you see a girl come into the building just
a moment ago?” she inquired.
“Oriental?” the man demanded, resting on his
broom.
Nancy nodded eagerly. “Yes, she looks rather
Oriental.”
“Oh, you mean Yvonne Wong.”
“Do you know her?” Nancy said, thinking that
with the name Yvonne, the girl was probably part
French.
“No, but I heard that man she works for, with
the loud voice and the swell clothes, call her by
that name.”
“She works here?” Nancy inquired in surprise.
“Guess so. She must be a new girl. Came here
yesterday.”
“I see,” Nancy murmured, thinking Yvonne
Wong had managed a rather sudden change of
jobs. “Could you tell me in which office she
works?”
Her questions evidently had begun to annoy
the handyman. “In 305. If you’re so interested,”
he said brusquely, “why don’t you go in and ask
her what you want to know?”
“Thank you,” Nancy responded with a po-
lite smile, turning away. “I won’t trouble you any
further.”
Nancy had taken only a few steps when she
thought of one more question and came back. “By
the way,” she said in a casual tone, “what sort of
office is 305?”
The man regarded her suspiciously. “How
should I know?” he demanded bluntly. “They
don’t pay me to go stickin’ my nose in other folks’