“I used to like to poke around in attics, too,” said Mrs. Holt, “but I outgrew that long before I came here. Perhaps there are boxes of your mother’s in the attic, and there may be chests of bygone ancestors,—who knows? But you wouldn’t want me to go there with you, would you? I’m not fond of cobwebs and low ceilings to bump my head.”
How nice Cousin Di was! She knew what girls liked to do. “Oh, no,” said Jannet, “I’ll go by myself. I would love it if there were old chests and trunks that I could look into. But they would be locked, too, wouldn’t they?”
“I suppose that they will be.”
Cousin Diana went to her desk and soon handed to Jannet a jingling bunch of keys marked “Attic Keys.” “There are more of them than I recalled. Keep them as long as you want them, but lock everything up when you leave the attic, please, and elsewhere, too.”
“I will,” promised Jannet, receiving more keys.
“Not many of the help are in the house at night, but any of them might take a notion to rummage around there by day; and while there can not be anything of any great value there, we do not want to lose what has been thought worthy to keep. I feel a sense of responsibility, now that I am temporarily in charge.”
“Has Paulina keys?”
“Yes, I believe so. I have never directed her to clean the attic.”
“If Paulina wanted to, I don’t believe that she would need to be directed.”
Cousin Diana answered Jannet’s mischievous look with a smile. “I see that you already appreciate Paulina,” she remarked.