Page:Chipperfield--Unseen Hands.djvu/67

Rh Her face quivered, and she bowed her head for a moment.

"You spoke of touching upon my grief. Does that mean that you think my sister and her oldest son—that they could have been killed? Their deaths were so plainly the result of what worldly people call accident that I believed our trial was the Lord's will, and was endeavoring to resign myself to it, although no one will ever know what my sister was to me. Is there a possibility that their deaths were the result of some evil human design?"

"That is what I must determine." Odell drew his chair closer. "When did Mrs. Lorne run the needle into her finger?"

"A little over five weeks ago, some time during the first part of August."

"Did it occur here in this house? Was anyone present at the time?"

"Yes, I was." Miss Meade shuddered. "If I had only known what it was to bring about! But she thought nothing of it at the time and wouldn't even trouble to use the witch hazel which I brought from my bathroom. Christine was always a—a rather dominant person and disliked advice."

Her voice trailed off vaguely, and Odell gently urged her on.

Will you tell me about it, please, every detail you remember?"

"I will try, Sergeant Odell; but you must forgive me if I give you rather a—a rambling account. I am not accustomed to telling things; I usually listen."

While she paused it came to Odell that her last sentence epitomized what her years must have brought her. He was