. She looked at Anne
Bullard, and the message in her eyes was plain enough. But the girl
ignored it. She stood across the bed from me and eyed me steadily.

"My dear," said Miss Emily, in her high-bred voice, "if you have
anything to do, Miss Blakiston will sit with me for a little while."

"I have nothing to do," said the girl doggedly. Perhaps this is not the
word. She had more the look of endurance and supreme patience. There was
no sharpness about her, although there was vigilance.

Miss Emily sighed, and I saw her eyes seek the Bible beside her. But she
only said gently: "Then sit down, dear. You can work at my knitting if
you like. My hands get very tired."

She asked me questions about the house and the garden. The raspberries
were usually quite good, and she was rather celebrated for her lettuces.
If I had more than I needed, would I mind if Mr. Staley took a few in to
the doctor, who was fond of them.

The mention of Doctor Lingard took me back to the night of the burglary.
I wondered if to tell Miss Emily would unduly agitate her. I think I
would not have told her, but I caught the girl's eye, across the bed,
raised from her knitting and fixed on me with a peculiar intensity.
Suddenly it seemed to me that Miss Emily was surrounded by a conspiracy
of silence, and it roused my antagonism.

"There are plenty of lettuces," I said, "although a few were trampled by
a runaway horse the other night. It is rather a curious story."

So I told her of our night visitor. I told it humorously, lightly,
touching on my own horror at finding I had been standing with my hand on
the burglar's shoulder. But I was sorry for my impulse immediately, for
I saw Miss Emily's body grow rigid, and her hands twist together. She
did not look at me. She stared fixedly at the girl. Their eyes met.

It was as if Miss Emily asked a question which the girl refused to
answer. It was as certain as though it had been a matter of words
instead of glances. It was over in a moment. Miss Bullard went back to
her knitting, but Miss Emily lay still.

"I think I should not have told you," I apologized. "I thought it
might interest you. Of course nothing whatever was taken, and no damage
done--except to the lettuces."

"Anne," said Miss Emily, "will you bring me some fresh water?"

The girl rose reluctantly, but she did not go farther than the top of
the staircase, just beyond the door. We heard her calling to some one
below, in her clear youn