Mr. Van Meter did not smile. He sat in thought for a moment, then arose. “I shall see the young man himself. I want to talk to Vittoria and I do not propose to wait until she may have gone away. If she is going to marry Herman, he certainly will have some news of her soon.”
With this explanation, Mr. Van Meter left the room. Jannet remained, talking to her cousin till she heard Jan’s rapid footsteps in the hall. “He’s looking for me, I suspect, Cousin Andy,” she said, hurrying out. “Here I am, Jan, if you want to see me.”
“You are the very little Dutchwoman I’m looking for. Come on. I want to show you how I got into your room. I didn’t go that round-about way through the attic, nor up a ladder through a tool house! Our ancestor had one more way of getting in and out.”
“But it was so funny, Jan, that you should have come to that particular room on that particular night!”
“Not so very. I intended to stay all night with Chick and then changed my mind. But we fooled around, and I didn’t want to wake anybody up. So I opened the back door with a key I have and went to bed. Then I was too cold and I got up to prowl around after a blanket or something. There wasn’t a thing in the closet where Paulina keeps all the extra things, and I could get into your room, I knew, though it was always kept locked. I didn’t even try the door, but went in, without a light, fumbled around and finally drew off a comforter that was over the foot. I knew, you see, that you were expected, but I didn’t have the least idea that you were there. If I had happened to touch your face,—wow!”
“Was the bed kept made up, that you knew you would find something?”
“No, but I took a chance that it was made up for you. See?”
“Why didn’t you tell me all this before?”
“I didn’t know how you would take it till I got acquainted with you. Then, to tell the truth, I rather hated to do it.”
“You need not have hesitated. You needed that comforter and I had enough without it anyhow. But I surely did wonder about it, and with all the ghost stories and all, well, I haven’t known what to make of everything.”