"""Romance at a short notice was her speciality." What does this statement mean and tell about Vera in the story "The Open Window?"""

Vera can be
described as a fun-loving and adventurous girl who is very inventive and shrewd. She uses her
ability to think on her feet to be a ruthless prankster. Shes not just a terrific story-teller
but is also a great actress. She will concoct stories according to the available situations, and
then she will narrate them with such believable earnestness that nobody can doubt what she
says.

The word romance used in the quote is meant to describe Veras ability
to come up with fictitious stories and narrate them in an interesting and convincing
manner.

Framton Nuttel is a nerve patient and has been in the countryside on
his doctors advice. He is on a formal visit to Mrs. Sappletons house. His sister had advised him
to interact with neighbors instead of locking himself up in his room. His sister used to be Mrs.
Sappletons neighbor before she had moved to some other place some four years ago. Nuttel knows
nothing about Vera's aunt.

These are few of the facts Vera learns during her
brief interaction with Nuttel. She must have found him to be a gullible person, because when she
spots the open window facing the lawn, immediately she is ready with a story to amuse herself at
the cost of Nuttels gullibility.

Using all her skills of an adept actress and
a convincing story-teller, Vera begins narrating her invented story about her aunt, Mrs.
Sappleton:

Her greathappened just three years ago€¦that would be since your
sister's time."

Nuttel is convinced that Mrs. Sappletons husband and her
two brothers had died tragically by drowning in a treacherous piece of bog. Since then, she
has been out of her senses. She keeps the widow open, believing they will be back home any
time.

Things turn out as Vera had wished. When three men and the dog are seen
through the open window walking towards the house, Nuttel is shocked and scared. Believing that
hes watching real ghosts walking towards him, he bolts out of the
house.

Vera must have been celebrating the success of her prank. But then
again, she does so in her unique style. Neither does she burst into laughter nor does she reveal
to others what has actually happened. Instead, she wears an expression of pity and seriousness
in her face.

When her aunt expresses disappointment over the way Nuttel had
left without a word of goodby or apology, Vera comes up with another story. She
says:

"I expect it was the spaniel€¦he told me he had a horror of dogs.
He was once hunted into a cemetery somewhere on the banks of the Ganges by a pack of pariah
dogs, and had to spend the night in a newly dug grave with the creatures snarling and grinning
and foaming just above him. Enough to make anyone lose their
nerve."

Quite convincingly, she says this in her uniquely calm,
consistent and credible tone.

Thus, we see that the final statement of the
story aptly describes Vera:

Romance at short notice was her
speciality.