But after, what seemed to the frightened girl, a very long time she ventured to poke her head out again, just as she heard a stealthful step on the stairs.
“Oh!” she gasped aloud. Then “Vita!” she called faintly.
“Yes, I come. Sh-s-!”
Nora had not expected to hear that voice. She merely called Vita because she did not want to call Cousin Ted, and she felt the intruder was dangerously near. But there was Vita!
“What is it? You have bad dream?” asked the maid in a whisper, standing now beside the bed.
“No, it was no dream.” Nora’s voice was not very low, in fact she was angry. “I did hear things and there’s no use telling me it was the wind. It wasn’t,” she snapped.
“Sh-s-!” again Vita warned. “It is no good to wake cousins. I was up the stairs for that old window. It slam—you hear it?”
“What could slam a window tonight?”
“I do-no!” in the way foreigners have of not understanding when ignorance is more convenient. “I must go to bed now. You all right?”
“Say Vita!” charged Nora. “If you don’t tell me the truth I’ll—I’ll—just shout!”