She paused again, and a little shiver of expectancy ran through me. At last we were to learn how Philip Vantine had met his death!
“I sat down,” continued Julie. “I told him the story from the very beginning. He listened with much interest; but when I proposed that he should restore to me the letters, he hesitated. He walked up and down the room, trying to decide; then he took me through that door into the room beyond. The cabinet was standing in the centre of the floor, and all the lights were blazing.
“‘Is that the cabinet?’ he asked me, and when I said that most assuredly it was, he seemed surprised.
“‘It is an easy thing to prove,’ I said, and I went to the cabinet and pressed on the three springs, as I had seen madame do. The little handle at the side fell out, but suddenly he stopped me.
“‘Yes, it is the cabinet,’ he said. ’I see that. And no doubt the drawer contains the letters, as you say. But those letters do not belong to you. They belong to your mistress. I cannot permit that you take them away, for, after all, I do not know you. You may intend to make some bad use of them.’
“I protested that such a suspicion was most unjust, that my character was of the best, that I was devoted to my mistress and desired to protect her. He listened, but he was not convinced. In the end, he brought me back into this room. I could have cried with rage!
“‘Return to your mistress,’ he said, ’and inform her that I shall be most happy to return the letters to her. But it must be in her own hands that I place them. The letters are here, whenever it pleases her to claim them.”
“I saw that it was of no use to argue further; he was of adamant. So I left the house, he himself opening the door for me. And that is all that I know, madame.”
There was a moment’s silence; then I heard Godfrey draw a deep breath. I could see that, like myself, he was convinced that the girl was telling the truth.
“Of course,” he suggested gently, “as soon as you reached home you related to your mistress what had occurred?”
Julie grew a little crimson.
“No, monsieur,” she said, “I told her nothing.”
“I should have thought you would have wished to prove your devotion,” went on Godfrey, in his sweetest tone.
“I feared that, without the letters, she would misunderstand my motives,” said Julie, sullenly.
“And then, of course, without the letters, there would be no reward,” Godfrey supplemented.
Julie did not reply, but she looked very uncomfortable.
The veiled lady rose.
“Have you any further questions to ask her?” she said.
“No, madame,” said Godfrey. “The story is complete.”
Julie resumed her veil, shooting at Godfrey a glance anything but friendly. The veiled lady turned to me and held out her hand.
“I thank you, Mr. Lester, for your kindness,” she said. “Come, Julie,” and she moved toward the door, which Rogers hastened to open.