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Updated: June 27, 2025
"Their Excellencies will be surprised at being waited on by women," she said; for though she hated all men-servants, she had pride for the great old house her fathers had served. "They will be surprised at so many things that they will not notice it," answered her mistress, thoughtfully. Elettra glanced at her quickly, but said nothing and went away, leaving her alone.
Elettra now brought the biscuits herself and kept them in a cupboard in the dressing-room, and she herself drew the water every night to fill the glass. So far as any food and drink which came to her room were concerned, Veronica was perfectly safe. But Elettra could not control what she ate in the dining-room.
As she bent down, Matilde took her handkerchief quietly from her pocket and laid it quite naturally in her lap. Veronica, being on the other side of the table and the urn, could not possibly see what she did. Gregorio came in. Elettra had opened the door from without, for him to pass. She stood on the threshold a moment, and looked towards the table, to see whether anything had been forgotten.
Veronica intended to go away in a cab, and it would be the question of a moment only to call one. When all was ready, Elettra went out for that purpose herself, and Veronica went without hesitation to Matilde's room. When she entered, the countess was alone, propped with pillows on a low couch near the fire.
Brave as she was, she glanced once or twice at the corner of the room where the trap-door was placed. There was a carpet over it, and a table stood there which Elettra had arranged hastily for the toilet table.
She suddenly loved the smile with which he greeted her. "You, at least, do not think that I am mad to come to Muro, do you?" she asked, standing beside him on the platform while Elettra was handing out her smaller belongings. "Not at all," answered the old man. "You are coming to take care of your own people, and it is a good deed.
When Veronica had first been seized with pain, Elettra had thrust the package of poison into her own pocket, and it was still there. By the time the antidote began to act, Elettra believed that the doctor must be in the house. Not wishing to leave Veronica even for a moment, she rang the bell. But no one came.
"It is rat-poison!" exclaimed Veronica. "The cat must have eaten some of it! How did it come here?" She looked at her maid curiously. "The cat could not have wrapped it up and folded in the ends of the paper," observed Elettra. "That is true." They looked at each other, in considerable astonishment. Then they talked about it.
It would have been impossible to talk of what had happened without speaking clearly about Matilde, and Veronica did not wish to do that, though Elettra was of her own people and devotedly attached to her. Elettra had been careful that no one in the household should learn her mistress's intention of leaving the palace.
Veronica asked whether Elettra had complained that there were mice in her room, and whether some stupid servant, having a package of rat-poison at hand, had not stuck it under the chest of drawers, not even thinking of opening the paper. Elettra was suspicious. "At all events, Excellency," she said, "remember that you found it, and that it was carefully closed."
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