What was Nell saying? Oh, yes, she was commenting on the size of the house, admiring it, but telling Jannet the gossip. Some said that her uncle intended to turn it into a summer hotel, and others said that he had expected his daughter’s family to occupy it with him, as well as his son’s. “Andrew was going to be married, if he hadn’t gotten all banged up in the war.”
“Oh,—too bad!” exclaimed sympathetic Jannet. “Wouldn’t his sweetheart marry him?”
“More likely he would not let her.”
“Dear me, I’ll never catch up with the why and wherefore of our family. Can you keep a secret, Nell?”
“Try me. Even Chick says that I can.”
Nell had admired the desk before, but Jannet led her to it again.
“I want to show you a secret drawer, Nell, and what I found in it, something wonderful,—my mother’s pearls, the ones she has on in the picture!”
Nell leaned over with the greatest interest, while Jannet seated herself in front of her desk, now open, and pressed the spring as she had done before. Out came the drawer, more easily than before,—but empty!
Quickly Nell looked into her friend’s face, which was blank with surprise. “Gone!” Jannet exclaimed. “Why, Nell, it’s just as it happened before! Mother lost them, too, or they were stolen from her desk. Oh, who could have done it! Why did I leave them there!”
Jannet dropped her hands in her lap and sat there looking at Nell, who drew up a chair and took one of Jannet’s hands to pat it and try to comfort her.