“No, ma’am. There wasn’t any one in that wing all day—except of course the young ladies.”
“What do you mean?” Doris demanded. “We never set foot in that part of the house.”
The housekeeper merely stared at them in feigned astonishment and shrugged her shoulders.
“I can’t understand who would want the papers,” Iris said quietly, but she looked queerly at Doris and Kitty. “Of course, the bonds may be more valuable than we thought.”
“In all the time I’ve been at the mansion nothing like this ever happened,” Cora murmured.
Kitty and Doris cast irritated glances at the housekeeper. They realized all too well that she was trying to build up an alibi for herself by calling attention to her past service.
“Perhaps it would clear up matters if you girls would tell the housekeeper what you were doing yesterday,” Azalea suggested in her gentle voice.
“Why—we weren’t doing much—of anything,” Kitty stammered.
The question embarrassed her. She could not very well tell the Misses Gates that she and Doris had taken it into their heads to explore every nook and cranny of the old mansion. It would appear to the ladies that they had abused their hospitality.
“We were in our room part of the time,” Doris said.