"If no one has taken them--"
"Miss Dinah, I've turned the whole room upside down and shaken it,"
declared Biddy. "I'll take my dying oath that them letters have gone."
"Could they--could they possibly have fallen out of the window?" hazarded
Dinah.
"Miss Dinah dear, no!" A hint of impatience born of her distress was
perceptible in the old woman's tone; she turned to the door. "Well, well,
it's no good talking. Don't ye fret yourself! What must be, will be."
"But I think Scott ought to know," said Dinah.
"No, no, Miss Dinah! We'll not tell him before we need. He's got his own
troubles. But I wonder--I wonder--" Biddy paused with the door-handle in
her bony old fingers--"how would it be now," she said slowly, "if ye was
to get Miss Isabel to sleep with ye again? She forgot last night. It's
likely she may forget again--unless he calls her."
"Biddy!" exclaimed Dinah, startled.
Biddy's beady eyes gleamed mysteriously. "Arrah, but it's the truth I'm
telling ye, Miss Dinah. He does call her. I've known him call her when
she's been lying in a deep sleep, and she'll rise up with her arms
stretched out and that look in her eyes!" Biddy's face crumpled
momentarily, but was swiftly straightened again. "Will ye do it then,
Miss Dinah? Ye needn't be afraid. I'll be within call. But when she's got
you, she don't seem to be craving for anyone else. What was it she called
ye only last night? Her good angel! And so ye be, me jewel; so ye be!"
Dinah stood debating the matter.
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