Page:The Strange Case of Miss Annie Spragg (1928).djvu/270

 was better still, she might bury it again, even deeper than it had been before. Yes, that was it. She would have the workmen bury it once more, and then Gertrude would return and Lulu would recover and all these troubles would disappear. Perhaps it was silly to think such things, but you could never tell about superstitions. Sometimes they were quite right. She would not have the thing about leaning against the ilex, watching everything that passed in the garden.

Presently she began to worry again about the Annie Spragg affair. Isolated there on the side of the mountain she could not discover what was happening, nor (what would have been the most valuable of all knowledge) the attitude the Church was taking toward the miracle. She was aware that she must discover this before she spoke again to Father d'Astier. If the Church looked upon Annie Spragg as an imposter then she must wash her hands of Annie Spragg and support the Church by telling all the dark things she knew about Annie Spragg. If the Church chose to regard the affair in the light of a miracle then she must espouse the cause of Miss Annie Spragg and appear as her friend. It was all perplexing enough without having the ungrateful Gertrude disappear just when she was most needed.

At noon she ate nothing but retired to her room for a siesta. In her agitation she had not closed an eye all night. More than that, Gertrude had not been there to will away the currents of evil directed against her by her enemies. Lying awake and alone in the house she had kept hearing ominous noises in the garden and in the rooms below. 