“Then,—well, Mrs. Van Meter told me to make all the trouble I could for you, and she was the one that found that secret room and played ghost sometimes. She sent me back here.”
Vittoria paused, perhaps half afraid to go on, but her listener made no comment. “I did it once in a while, half for fun, too, to scare Hepsy and Paulina, but you never heard any of it, so why would your wife want me to do it? Then, when the girls were here, I didn’t want them snooping around where I had my box, so I concluded that I’d give them a good scare. I did, too, but Jannet almost caught me last night. And when Hepsy told me that she asked about what perfume I used, I knew that she knew. I went to a show with Herman first and I had some of Hepsy’s new perfume on my handkerchief and on my dress. I did not think of it when I slipped on the things I wore to scare them.
“I whipped around, ahead of Jannet, and went around through the attic again to get my things; and then I was going to stay all night in Jan’s room, but I heard them coming and went the other way, sticking the things under Jan’s bed. They found them, Paulina said. I went to stay all night with a girl I knew, not where I usually stay. That was all.”
“Paulina said that you went into the trunks to get your costume.”
“Perhaps she thought so; but I never opened a trunk. These things I found in a box that was tied up in paper and in the back part of the attic.”
“Very well, Vittoria. Have your box taken out of the attic and do not go there again, please. I would put my savings in the bank, or if you care to give them to me, I will put them in my safe. Now I want to ask you if you remember some incidents connected with my sister, Jannet’s mother.”
Jannet, behind the curtains, was thoroughly awake by this time and with half a mind to go out now, for perhaps she should not hear what was to follow. She sat up, but decided not to go out. Vittoria was in the mood to tell now. Her uncle’s voice was not unkind and she knew that Vittoria must be relieved to think that she need not lose her place and the money which she wanted to make.
“I have kept it in mind,” her uncle continued, “that you served my former wife very faithfully, even if mistakenly at times. She had trained you and had given you some education. It was to be expected that you should have a regard for her.” Then Jannet heard her uncle tell Vittoria the incident of the telegram and what Paulina had said.
Vittoria remembered the occasion. “Yes, I’ll tell you more, Mr. Van Meter,” she said excitedly. “I did not care very much for your wife when she stood over me and threatened me with all sorts of things if I did not tear up a letter that had come to you. ‘It is from his precious sister,’ she said, ‘and I shall say to my husband, if he asks, that I have not destroyed any of his mail.’ And the telegram was from her, too, and she begged you to help her find her husband and baby.”
There was silence for a little. Jannet heard her uncle’s slow tapping on his desk. Finally he said, “Do you remember anything else, Vittoria? Were there any other letters?”