“Why are you so sure of this?” asked Mr. Mudge.
“Because, when I went to the cabinet fully five minutes after he had gone it was all there.”
Mr. Mudge’s gray eyes gave a snap which reminded me of the springing of a trap. “Indeed!” he said. “How many more of you young ladies investigated the cabinet during that eventful night? Will you kindly inform me, Miss Roseveldt, for what purpose you opened the cabinet, and why we are only informed of the fact in this inadvertent way.”
Winnie crossed the room and deliberately placed her arm around Milly. “Milly, dear,” she said, “the truth is always the best way, though it may seem the hardest way; and, whatever you may have to confess, I for one shall love you just the same.”
“Perhaps it is just as well,” Milly replied cheerfully, “though Adelaide and I did not intend that Tib should know it. You remember that it was the eve of Tib’s birthday; Adelaide and I each wanted to give her fifty dollars toward her European fund. So after we were sure that she must be asleep, I slipped out into the parlor and took the money from Adelaide’s pigeon-hole and from my purse, and laid it on Tib’s shelf, where we intended she should find it in the morning. Professor Waite had gone when I did this, so he could not have taken it. Adelaide told me to put hers with mine, for she didn’t see the use of both of us going into the parlor. We were afraid we might wake the other girls.”
“You did waken me, Milly dear,” Winnie said. “I heard you, and standing just behind my door I saw you go to the cabinet as you have said, and take out Adelaide’s money and count out fifty dollars, and then take the gold pieces from your own little purse. Then I went back to bed and did not see any more until you went away, when I stepped out and examined the cabinet, and the money was gone.”
Milly did not then comprehend the terrible suspicion which had been in Winnie’s mind, and she was very much pleased to find her testimony corroborated. “Adelaide saw me, too,” she said. “You were watching me all the time, weren’t you, Adelaide?”
“Yes,” Adelaide replied. “Tell about the note, too, Milly.”
“Oh! that isn’t of any consequence. After I had put the money in Tib’s compartment, I thought it would be a good idea to write her a note with it, and I pulled out the shelf in the cabinet that serves as a writing desk, but I didn’t write anything for I heard a noise in Tib’s room. It must have been Winnie going back to bed. So I shoved the shelf in and scooted back to my own room. We didn’t say anything about it in the morning because Adelaide and I didn’t feel like boasting of the presents we had given Tib, especially as she never received them.”
There was a great light in Winnie’s eyes. It was evident that the suspicion which had poisoned her life ever since the robbery had vanished. To Winnie’s satisfaction, at least, Milly had cleared herself.