"
"Well," Stella repeated carelessly, "since I am here, I am here. Please
unlock this desk and give me some writing paper."
"I cannot unlock it," Virginia answered. "You must know that."
"But you have the keys," Stella interposed.
"If I have," Virginia declared, "it is because your father trusted me
with them."
"Perhaps," Stella said, leaning a little forward in her chair, "you have
also the keys of that wonderful little hiding place of his that he
showed me one day."
"Perhaps I have," Virginia answered, "but if so, no other person in the
world will ever know about it."
"You won't even open the desk for me, then?" Stella said.
"Certainly not," Virginia answered. "Your father's orders to me were
quite explicit."
"You do not suppose," Stella asked, "that he meant to exclude his own
daughter?"
"How can I tell?" Virginia answered. "I know nothing of the trouble
there was between you two," she added more softly, "It is not my affair,
although nothing would please me more than to see you friends again. If
you will come into the drawing-room and wait, I will go upstairs and
try and persuade him to see you."
Stella shook her head.
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