Research Holp

Notes for #3 The Gatehouse Mystery © 1951, 2003
Page # Quote
5 Trixie writes in her letter to Mart and Brian, Tuesday evening, August 22nd.
6 Trixie writes, only two more weeks before the grind (school) begins.
7 Trixie writes, He's (Jim) just about the most wonderful boy in the world-almost a year younger than you, Brian-he had his fifteenth birthday in July-but he'll be in your grade at high, because he did two years in one. He's (Mr. Wheeler) already bought him a .30-.30 rifle and springer spaniel puppy, Patch.
8 Trixie writes, Regan is only twenty-two and loves horses and hates cars. Miss Trask hires them and fires them!
9 Her brother (Bobby) on hot nights preferred to sleep on the bare floor.
10 Honey appeared at the top of the path that sloped down to wind around the willow-bordered lake.
11 Except when it was very hot, they (Trixie and Honey) wore boyish sport shirts, patched blue jeans, and scuffed moccasins.
12 Bobby: "Point to the cottage, Trixie." Trixie: "There it is, way down by Glen Road where the lawn ends and the woods begin." The little cottage, which had been the gatehouse of the manor in the days of carriages and sleighs, was so covered with wisteria vines they could barely see it.
16 Trixie: "Are you sure it's a diamond, Honey?" Honey: "Daddy taught me how to tell the difference between real gems and imitations."
17 Honey: "After automobiles were invented, the people we bought the house from put in the new driveway which goes straight up from the road to the garage."
21 The woods, which bounded both the Wheeler and Belden properties on the north, sloped down to form the western boundary of the big estate. Both properties faced a quiet country road two miles from the village that nestled among the rolling hills on the east bank of the Hudson River.
22 Honey's home was high on a hill overlooking the Belden's little white farmhouse down in the hollow.
27 Honey: "In my jewel box on my dressing table. It's got a little secret compartment in the bottom. The box is an antique; it belonged to my great-great-grandmother."
31 Honey: "Regan is no more of a detective when it comes to the mystery of what makes a motor tick than Jim is. Miss Trask can put her finger on the trouble, but she can't always fix it." Trixie: "She's very handy with a bobby pin and a spark plug."
32 "Thanks Celia," Trixie said to the dainty blond maid.
34 Trixie: "Brian learned so much last year (driving lessons) that he'll be able to get a license when he's sixteen in October."
35 Trixie: "I'll be fourteen next May first, and Mart won't be fifteen until June first. He and I and Bobby are blond like Mother, but Brian is dark like Dad. He has thick, wavy hair and black eyes, and he's going to be a doctor."
36 Trixie: "Honey and I are going to be private detectives." Jim: "And call your agency Moll Dicks, Incorporated. I can just see your business cards. 'When the FBI gives up, we take over,' printed in red."
37 Trixie: "It's a known fact that women notice little things more than men do."
39 Jim: "Describe the driver." Trixie: "He's tall and skinny and pale. Sort of weasel-ish." Jim: "I think he's going to be our new chauffeur."
41 Honey: "He'll (Jim) be barely sixteen when he goes to college next fall." Trixie: "He must have skipped a grade somewhere along the line besides doing two years of high in one."
42 Trixie: "Brian skipped the third grade; that's why he'll graduate next June, too. Brian says FBI men are all lawyers or certified public accountants."
44 Regan: "… with a cook, a laundress, and three maids. The cook and Celia sleep in."
51 Bobby: "You're a chowpur, Dick. What's a chowpur?"
52 Miss Trask: "You'll like sharing Regan's suite much better. There's a television set and a fine radio-phonograph and a private telephone."
62 Honey: "I didn't like his (Nailor the new gardener) looks at all. He's sort of shriveled and bent and he made me think of a peanut, with no eyes to speak of."
68 Bobby: "I showed him (Dick) the wading pool and the cottage and Honey's windows."
73 Dinner at the Manor House was usually such a formal affair. She (Trixie) was always terrified of using the wrong fork or spoon; and she always managed to spill something on the snowy white tablecloth. Thursdays, the cook's night off was a much more simple affair.
74 Celia: "Trixie loves onions. He (Mr. Wheeler) loves 'em too."
76 Trixie's overnight kit consisted of a toothbrush hastily wrapped in a clean handkerchief. She always borrowed pajamas from Honey when she spent the night.
78 The big grandfather clock in the downstairs hall was striking.
81 Jim: "Nailor has lived in Sleepyside all his life and has a very good reputation. He has clipped the hedges and tended the flowers of leading citizens for years."
82 Brian: "The nursery group left yesterday afternoon. Our little charges were all about Bobby's age."
88 Trixie: "One of Honey's windows faces east and the sun wakes her up at the crack of dawn. That's why she wants to swap."
91 Mart: "It kills me to admit it, Trix, but you're really smart at times."
93 Mart: "Next year I'm going to work on a farm. I plan to go to agricultural college when I get out of high school."
98 Trixie: "And then the grandfather clock begin to strike. It dongs and whirs and wheezes like anything."
103 She (Trixie) dashed out of the kitchen, hopped over the terrace wall, and tore across the fields to the path.
116 Trixie: "If only we could all speak French like Honey."
132
  • Honey: "He (Regan) can ride over to Mr. Tomlin's on Jupe and lead Susie back." Brian: "I can do it for that matter. It's only a three-mile round trip."
  • Jim: "You can take the new horse, Starlight. He's a chestnut gelding."
137 Mart: "Remember that sewing basket some poor deluded female relative gave you last Christmas, Trixie?" Trixie: "Aunt Alicia. She tried to teach me to tat when I was eight."
138 Mart: "Revenge, he tells me, will be sweet. Saccharine-sweet!"
140 The sight of the lovely little black mare (Susie) drove all other thoughts from her mind.
141 Regan: "It kills me to admit it, Trixie, but you look enough like her (Mrs. Belden) to be her own daughter. If you ever become a lady, which I very much doubt, people might even call you pretty."
145
  • Honey: "I got a black eye when I was hit by a tennis ball at camp one summer. Nobody paid any attention to me. And I was supposed to be delicate in those days."
  • Mart: "What I want to know is why the cook hasn't got a name like everyone else around here."
146 Miss Trask: "There's a very simple explanation, Mart. So far, we have never been able to keep a cook long enough for all of us to remember her name." Honey: "Mother calls them all Rachel although we've had six different ones since Rachel quit. It was Daddy who hit on the idea of calling them all plain 'Cook.'"
150 Brian: "Bobby's favorite time for committing vandalism, I seem to remember, is after he's supposed to be tucked safely in bed."
158 Mart: "How did it happen you never were exposed to the art of driving before?"
159 Jim: "My dad, my own dad, died when I was ten."
172 Jim: "No, he (Patch) sleeps on the porch. It almost completely encircles the house."
175 Honey: "Oh, let's do have a club. When I was in boarding school, I was always reading about boys and girls who were members of secret clubs and had such fun."
176 Honey: "When we have secret meetings we could wear special red jackets which I can make easily. We might call ourselves the Glen Road Robins, and we could have the cottage for our clubhouse." Jim: "But let's not be robins, let's be bobwhites." He whistled. "Remember, girls, that was our signal when I was hiding from Jonesy."
177 Honey: "Bob-Whites of the Glen! B.W.G. Nobody could ever guess what those initials stood for. I can cross-stitch them in white on the back of our red shirts." Brian: "A motto, we should have a motto." Honey: "How about thinking of ourselves as one big family? If one of us is ever in need, we'll never fail him or her."
185 Honey: "Did Miss Trask tell you how to get to the dead-end road on the other side of the woods?" Dick: "Sure, you go right at the end of Glen Road, then you go right again." Mart: "We call it Hoyt Lane. Mr. Hoyt owns the farm, and his house is the only one on the road."
187 Mart: "I think that even though you and Jim are loaded with the stuff (money), you'll have to pretend you're as broke as the other members of the club."
188 Honey: "It would be so wonderful to earn money. You don't know how I've envied Trixie."
191 Mart: "Do you think Miss Trask would pay us what Dad pays Trix, Jim? Five dollars a week for keeping the lawns and the vegetable garden out of Nailor's hair?"
193 Trixie: "Jim has half a million dollars in stocks and bonds." Honey: "Do you really think your mother will hire me?" Trixie: "Moms like to sew and knit, but she does not like to mend."
202 "Madeleine G. Wheeler," Honey wrote with a flourish.
203 Honey: "Honey is just a nickname because of the color of my hair."
205 Trixie: "I think you're all as mean as can be. Especially Jim, who pretends to be so honorable all over the place."
207 Mr. Belden: "I'd be very glad to pay Honey fifty cents an hour for helping your mother with the mending."
210 Honey: "I've just about decided to become a dress designer instead of a detective."
214 Mart: "How come the third floor has air-conditioning, but the rest of the house hasn't?" Miss Trask: "The nearer the roof you get, the hotter it is."
216 Trixie: "My first pet was one (dragonfly), and after that I collected walking sticks."
220 Mart: "He's (Tom Delanoy) got black hair and blue eyes. And he likes both cars and horses, not to mention kids of all ages." Brian: "He's about Regan's age."
230 Miss Trask: "I like to watch the wrestling matches too. I'll invite myself to share Mr. Lytell's television set with him. His home is so near I could get back here in plenty of time."
239 Honey: "I'm trying to get Sleepyside 60303 (her house). Electrical storms do come up quickly along the river."
245 Trixie: "Celia and the cook would know if the phone rang, for there was an extension bell in the servants' sitting room on the third floor."
246 Taxi driver, "Seventy-five cents." (from the Cameo to Manor House)
247 Someone with a tiny flashlight was climbing up the side steps to the screen door of the wide veranda.
254 Trixie: "What's his name?" Dick: "Louie."
258 Police officer: "Why, Dapper Dick, every state trooper in the county has been looking for you since Tuesday."
260 Regan: "It wasn't loaded. You know I never leave a bullet in my rifle when I'm not using it."
266 Trixie: "Miss Trask, was she going to buy Susie?"
268 Regan: "You can't sit there and tell me that there wasn't a fat reward offered for the recovery of that diamond. Fat enough to convince Jed Tomlin that Susie ought to stay on here."