It must have been in the late afternoon when she wakened. She had not known when Cousin Di and Jan came and looked at her, and debated whether to waken her for dinner or not, nor when Uncle Pieter came and looked down upon her with a smile. "Poor little Jannetje Jan," he said, pulling the curtains together and going back to his desk to wait for some one.
It was when conversation was going on between her uncle and some one else that she wakened. "You can wait outside, Herman," she heard her uncle say. "It will be better for Vittoria to talk to me alone, and I can assure you that she will receive every courtesy."
Jannet felt very uncomfortable, though at first still drowsy. But after all, she was the one who made the first discovery. It was not eavesdropping, she hoped, and she could not help it, anyway. She almost drowsed off to sleep again in the first few minutes, while Vittoria was answering Mr. Van Meter's questions about where she had been. Vittoria was decidedly sulky and did not want to answer any questions. Finally Mr. Van Meter told her that perfect frankness was her only course. "So far as I know, you have done no real harm in playing the ghost, but we want to know why you did it, and of course we want no more of it. It was most dangerous for the girls to be locked in and frightened."
"You don't intend to send me away, then, till I get married?"
"Not as long as you make no trouble for us. And we want no gossip about this, either, for our own sakes and that of you and Herman."
This seemed to relieve Vittoria, who began to talk. "I did it first to get even with Paulina who scared me once. I told her that I did not believe in the family ghosts. She did, but since nothing happened, she made something happen and I caught her at it, hiding in the attic where I had my box with my savings in it. She was more scared than I was, for she really believes in ghosts.
"Then,--well, Mrs. Van Meter told me to make all the trouble I could for you, and she was the one that found that secret room and played ghost sometimes. She sent me back here."
Vittoria paused, perhaps half afraid to go on, but her listener made no comment. "I did it once in a while, half for fun, too, to scare Hepsy and Paulina, but you never heard any of it, so why would your wife want me to do it? Then, when the girls were here, I didn't want them snooping around where I had my box, so I concluded that I'd give them a good scare. I did, too, but Jannet almost caught me last night. And when Hepsy told me that she asked about what perfume I used, I knew that she knew. I went to a show with Herman first and I had some of Hepsy's new perfume on my handkerchief and on my dress. I did not think of it when I slipped on the things I wore to scare them.