Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/250

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242
THE VANITY BOX

key, and was vexed with himself, so he ordered another one made. He got a locksmith to go up to the Tower——"

"No doubt the police have learned that by this time."

"I suppose so. Anyway, after he'd had the new key a few days, he found the borrowed one, somewhere about the house. When he returned it, he kept the other, which used to be in the desk, he says, until he thought that some one was using it; after that he put it out of sight; but when he moved, he took the key away with him, thinking to use it, as he did, afterward—to open the Tower door, and meet me."

"Was it he who unlocked the door of the ground-floor room?"

"Yes. Because we had talked there, the first time we met; and he was in that lower room, waiting for me when I arrived, that second day—the day. But it smelt musty and damp, for the sun never gets in; so we went upstairs, and sat in the room above instead, where it was pleasanter. I'm sure, though, we did not leave the door open. We shut it after us, and I supposed then that Ian locked it; but it seems he forgot. We were making plans for his going to America, and sending for me, when we heard voices. You know whose."

"Well?"