The Blythes Are Quoted Read Online Free PDF Page A

and occasionally his expressionless face was shot through with gleams of malice, especially when Julia, whom he hated, spoke to him. When he smiled ... which was rarely ... he looked incredibly cunning. From the beginning he seemed to have an awe of the black-coated minister and kept out of his way as much as possible, though Curtis sought him out, determined, if possible, to solve the mystery of the place.
    He had come to think lightly of this mystery. Dr. Blythe would not discuss it and he put little faith in Mr. Sheldon’s reminiscences. Everything had been normal and natural since his coming ... except that one night, when he sat up late in his dormer-windowed room to study, he had a curious, persistent feeling that he was being watched ... by some inimical personality at that. He put it down to nerves. It was never repeated. Once, too, when he had risen in the night to lower his window against a high wind, he had looked across the room at the moonlit parsonage and for a moment thought he saw someone looking out of the study window. He examined the parsonage next day but found no traces of any intruder. The doors were locked, the windows securely closed. No one had a key except himself ... and Mr. Sheldon, who still kept most of his books and some other things in the parsonage, though he was boarding with Mrs. Knapp at Glen St. Mary. Moreover, he would never have been in the parsonage so late. Curtis concluded that some odd effect of moonlight and tree shadows had tricked him.
    Evidently the perpetrator of the tricks knew when it was wise to lie low. A resident boarder, young and ... well ... shrewd ... was a different proposition from a transient guest, an old man, or a sleepy, superstitious neighbour. So Curtis concluded, in his youthful complacency ... deliberately forcinghimself not to think of the doctors. He was really sorry nothing had happened. He wanted to have a chance at the spooks.
    Neither Lucia nor Long Alec ever referred to their “ha’nts,” nor did he. But he had talked the matter over thoroughly with Alice, who had mentioned it when he went in to see her on the evening of his arrival.
    “So you are not afraid of our whow-whows? You know our garret is full of them,” she said whimsically, as she gave him her hand.
    Curtis noticed that Lucia, who had just finished giving Alice’s back and shoulders the half-hour’s rub that was necessary every night, flushed deeply and suddenly. The flush became her, transforming her into beauty.
    “Is there anything more you would like, Alice?” asked Lucia in a low voice.
    “No, dear. I feel very comfortable. Run away and rest. I know you must be tired. And I want to get really acquainted with my new minister.”
    Lucia went out, her face still flushed. Evidently she did not like any reference to the spooks. Curtis felt a sudden, upsetting thrill at his heart as he watched her. He wanted to comfort her ... help her ... wipe that tired patience from her sweet brown little face ... make her smile ... make her laugh.
    “I’m afraid I don’t take your whow-whows very seriously, Miss Harper,” he said, before Lucia was out of hearing.
    “Ah, you are so nice and young,” Alice was saying. “I’ve never known any but an old minister. This is not the most desirable circuit in the world, you know. They generally send the worn-outs here. I don’t know how they came to send you. I like youth. And so you don’t believe in our family ghosts?”
    “I can’t believe all the things I’ve heard, Miss Harper. They are too preposterous.”
    “And yet they are true ... well, most of them. I daresay they don’t lose anything by telling. And there are things nobody has heard. Mr. Burns, may we have a frank talk about it? I’ve never been able to talk frankly to anyone about it. Lucia and Alec naturally can’t bear to talk of it ... it makes Mr. Sheldon nervous ... and one can’t talk about such things to an outsider ... at least, I can’t. I tried once with Dr.