List questions Vera asks Framton about the "people round here" and about her aunt.

Vera
only asks Framton one direct question about his knowledge of the people in the area and one
direct question about her aunt.

"Do you know many of
the people round here?" asked the niece, when she judged that they had had sufficient
silent communion.

The girl is fishing for information.
There would be no point in asking Framton her other question if he said he did know some people
"round here." 

"Hardly a soul," said
Framton. "My sister was staying here, at the rectory, you know, some four years ago, and
she gave me letters of introduction to some of the people here."

What he means by "Hardly a soul" is that he has met a few
people because of the letters of introduction. This is a good example of how awriter will convey
information to the reader through dialogue, which is usually more interesting than straight
prose . When Vera is satisfied that Framton knows nothing about the people in the area and that
his sister probably doesn't know about anything that could have happened there in recent years,
she asks her other question.

"Then you know
practically nothing about my aunt?" pursued the self-possessed young lady.

        "Only her name and address," admitted the
caller.

The author has to establish that Framton is a perfect victim for the
practical joke she intends to play. When she refers to the open window, it is not exactly a
question.

"You may wonder why we keep that window
wide open on an October afternoon," said the niece, indicating a large French window that
opened on to a lawn.

This gives the girl her opportunity
to tell her story about how the three hunters got sucked into a bog exactly three years ago and
how her aunt, who had a mental breakdown, has been expecting them to return every evening since
theoccurred. Vera has to tell her story quickly because she has no idea when her aunt will put
in an appearance.

Perhaps we should suspect that the girl has some ulterior
motive for asking Framton her two direct questions when they first meet. But we do not realize,
until after Framton flees in terror, that this innocent fifteen-year-old girl had been setting
Framton up for a scare when the three hunters, supposedly dead for three years, return towards
the open window in the gathering dusk and her giddy aunt says exactly what Vera knows she was
going to say.

"Here they are at last!" she
cried. "Just in time for tea, and don't they look as if they were muddy up to the
eyes!"