"Madam, you can reserve your answer if you choose until you thoroughly establish my identity and respectability."
"It is not necessary. I am satisfied. Yes, I have articles of special value in this house."
"Who would be likely to know the fact?"
"No one beyond my niece."
"You cannot think of any one who would be apt to know that you had articles of special value in the house?"
"No."
"Is there any one whom you suspect of wishing to scare you?"
"No, the fact is we have no acquaintances in New York. We have lived abroad many years and only returned to New York about six months ago. This house came to me by inheritance. It was leased for ten years to a family whom I never knew. My agent leased it. It stood idle for six months, until I came and reopened it upon my return home about six months ago."
"When you were abroad where did you reside principally?"
"In Paris; my niece attended school in France."