"
"Would you like me to light a fire to air the room, Miss Penfold?"
"Certainly not," Miss Penfold said decidedly, "there is no occasion
whatever for it. If I have not returned by the time you have finished
the room, come and tell me when you have done. I always make a point
of locking the door myself."
So saying Miss Penfold went out, leaving the door wide open behind
her.
"Have you left her alone there?" Eleanor asked her sister as she
entered the sitting-room.
"Certainly I have," Miss Penfold said coldly. "I do wish you would not
be so nervous, Eleanor. The woman can have no interest in this matter.
She may have heard of it from the other servants, but it can be
nothing to her. You know as well as I do that there is no chance of
her stumbling upon it by accident. It was different with the last
girl. Of course they were always talking about the will, and she might
have tried, as a matter of curiosity, to find it, or she might have
been bribed by those Withers or by that man Tallboys; but it is
different now. This woman can have no interest in it, and will only
want to get her work done as soon as possible. My being always in the
room with her as I was with Martha might excite comment. I should
never have done it in Martha's case if you had not been so absurdly
nervous; for you know very well there was no real danger of her ever
finding the place however closely she looked for it.
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