There was
evidently nothing more to be discovered: Liddy reported that
everything was serene among the servants, and that none of them
had been disturbed by the noise. The maddening thing,
however, was that the nightly visitor had evidently more than one
way of gaining access to the house, and we made arrangements to
redouble our vigilance as to windows and doors that night.
Halsey was inclined to pooh-pooh the whole affair. He said a
break in the plaster might have occurred months ago and gone
unnoticed, and that the dust had probably been stirred up the day
before. After all, we had to let it go at that, but we put in an
uncomfortable Sunday. Gertrude went to church, and Halsey took a
long walk in the morning. Louise was able to sit up, and she
allowed Halsey and Liddy to assist her down-stairs late in the
afternoon. The east veranda was shady, green with vines and
palms, cheerful with cushions and lounging chairs. We put Louise
in a steamer chair, and she sat there passively enough, her hands
clasped in her lap.
We were very silent. Halsey sat on the rail with a pipe, openly
watching Louise, as she looked broodingly across the valley to
the hills. There was something baffling in the girl's eyes; and
gradually Halsey's boyish features lost their glow at seeing her
about again, and settled into grim lines. He was like his father
just then.
We sat until late afternoon, Halsey growing more and more moody.
Shortly before six, he got up and went into the house, and in a
few minutes he came out and called me to the telephone.
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