"My brother Val."
"Is here? Oh no! you are mistaken, Elizabeth. Let me feel your hands. You ate no dinner, and you are feverish. Your eyes are very staring. Rebecca, do you suppose the child is delirious, or is she walking in her sleep?"
"I am not either, Aunt Caroline. I am not de—that long word, and I am wide awake. Val is here. He came this afternoon, and he is up in the locked room."
Miss Herrick rose to her feet, and even Miss Rebecca dropped her book.
"She is certainly ill. Rebecca, ring the bell for James to go for the doctor."
"I tell you I am not ill, Aunt Caroline," cried Elizabeth. "Val came and said that he wanted to hide, and that he must hide in that room. I got the key from your desk—you left your desk unlocked—and I let him into the room. It was very wrong, Aunt Caroline. I know it was wrong. And I am so sorry. That is the reason I am telling you, because I ought not to have done it. If you don't believe that he is here, come and see."