Jan made a face, turning to Jannet with lifted shoulders. “Excuse me for livin’,” he remarked. “I’d like to tell Uncle Pieter that ghosts are often troubled by remorse.”
“Not any of ours,” quickly said Jannet. “Don’t go to getting me scared really and truly, Jan!” But afterwards, when Jannet thought of Jan’s remarks, she wondered why he wanted to mention “remorse” to Uncle Pieter. Why hadn’t she asked Jan? She would at the first opportunity, if she didn’t forget it.
CHAPTER VII
TWO NEW MYSTERIES
There was some secret between Jan and Old P’lina, Jannet could see, but it was scarcely polite to intercept their glances. Jannet told herself that she must mind her own affairs strictly. Yet it was hard to do it in this environment. Jannet felt that Jan was joking considerably when he talked of the ghosts of the old house, but Paulina wasn’t she was sure. For some strange reason, nevertheless, Jannet grew more and more fond of her pretty, quaint room. Perhaps the face upon the wall accounted for that. In that sweet presence nothing would harm Jannet, yet Jannet was enough of a little girl not to be entirely unshaken by the stories, especially when remembering the blue comforter. It had never appeared again. Paulina did not inquire about it and Jannet did not mention it to Paulina.
The April days were warm, though in this climate they are often very cool indeed. It could not last, Jan said, but they would make the most of it. Forsaking Chick and his other friends, Jan devoted himself to taking Jannet riding over the farm and all about the country. One would have thought that he owned it all, so anxious was he to impress Jannet favorably.
The Clydes came over to meet Jannet, who now always used the two n’s in her name. She was “as Dutch as kraut,” Jan told her, and on the land of her ancestors. With this she was quite content. She liked Nell Clyde and felt a little shy with the two boys, but no more so than they felt with the girl from the Philadelphia school.
A cruel fate was taking Chick back to school after the short Spring vacation, but Jan, though with no grounds that Jannet could see, still hoped to escape. He introduced Jannet as his twin, Jannetje Jan, and they all had several rides together on the roads near home. As Nell was being tutored at home, Jannet expected to have her companionship after the boys had gone back to school. Tom, a little older, was not always with the rest, but all the boys were often in Jan’s shop, not far enough from Jannet’s room to prevent her hearing the sounds of their conversation and laughter.
No one as yet suggested that it was time for Jannet to go on with her lessons, and Jannet was enjoying her rest far too much to make any inquiry concerning them. At odd times she browsed among her uncle’s books and it was when she opened one of them that she made a discovery. A little torn strip of paper fell out of the book from where it might have been used as a book-mark by some one.
Idly Jannet looked at the bit of paper which she held in her hand still, though turning the pages of the book to see whether it looked interesting or not. But seeing the name “Jannet” in full, she laid aside the book and examined the paper more closely.
It was part of a letter, or note, she decided. Perhaps some one had picked the scrap from a waste paper basket at hand and used it as a marker without looking at it. Surely,—well, how odd! “Please, please, Pieter, help me find them,” it said. “I have”—here the paper was torn, but below in the irregular places were the words “money” and “gone.” Then below, where one could see through the edge, torn to a gauzy film, the signature, “Jannet,” was plain.