The Blythes Are Quoted by L. M. Montgomery Read Free Book Online

that everyone in the house seemed accounted for except Julia ... and Lucia. He went back to his own room, stood for a moment in scowling reflection, and got into bed.
    As he did so an eerie, derisive laugh sounded distinctly just outside his door.
    For the first time in his life Curtis knew sickening fear, and the peculiar clammy perspiration it induces. He remembered what Mr. Sheldon had said ... there was something not human in it.
    For a moment he went down before his horror. Then he set his teeth, sprang out of bed and flung open the door.
    There was nothing in the great empty hall. Julia’s tight-shut door opposite him seemed to wear an air of stealthy triumph. He could even hear her snoring.
    “I wonder if Dr. Blythe ever heard that laugh,” he thought, as he reluctantly returned to bed.
    He did not sleep the remainder of the night. Lucia looked worried at the breakfast table.
    “Were ... were you disturbed last night?” she asked at last hesitatingly.
    “Rather,” said Curtis. “I spent considerable time prowling about your house and eavesdropping shamelessly ... all to no effect. I was not a bit the wiser.”
    Lucia produced the forlorn little spectre of a smile.
    “If prowling and eavesdropping could have solved our problem it would have been solved long ago. Alec and I have given up taking any notice of the ... the manifestations. Generally we sleep through them now unless something very startling occurs. I had ... hoped there wouldn’t be any more ... at least while you were here. We have never had such a long interval of freedom.”
    “Will you give me carte blanche for investigation?” asked Curtis.
    He could not help noticing that Lucia hesitated perceptibly.
    “Oh yes,” she said at last. “Only ... please don’t talk to me about it. I can’t endure to hear it mentioned. It’s weak and foolish of me, I suppose. But it has got to be such a sore subject. Once I could talk to Dr. or Mrs. Gilbert Blythe about it ... but now I can’t even bear to discuss it with them. You’ve met them, of course ... they are lovely people, aren’t they?”
    “I like Mrs. Blythe very much ... but the doctor seems a bit sarcastic ...”
    “Only when you try to talk about our ... our ‘ghost’ with him. For some reason I have never been able to understand he doesn’t believe in ... it ... at all. Oh, of course he ‘investigated’ ...but so many people have done that. And nobody ever finds out anything.”
    “I understand,” said Curtis, who understood nothing at all about it. “But I’m going to nab your ‘ghost,’ Miss Field. This thing has got to be cleared up. It is intolerable in this country ... and this century. It will completely ruin your life and your brother’s if you stay here.”
    “And we must stay here,” said Lucia with a rueful smile. “Alec would never hear of selling. Besides, who would buy it? And we love this old place.”
    “Is it true,” asked Curtis hesitatingly ... “and forgive me if I ask a question I shouldn’t. Believe me, it is not out of idle curiosity. Is it true that Miss Pollock won’t marry your brother because of this?”
    Lucia’s face changed a little. Her scarlet lips seemed to thin a trifle. People who had known old Winthrop Field would have said she was looking like her father.
    “Don’t answer if you think me impertinent,” said Curtis apologetically.
    “If it is ... and I do not know anything about Miss Pollock’s motives ... I don’t think Alec is to be pitied on that score. The Pollocks are nobodies. One of Edna’s uncles died in jail.”
    Curtis thought her little foible of family pride quite enchanting. She was so very human, this brown, sweet thing.
    During the weeks that followed Curtis Burns sometimes thought he would go crazy. Sometimes he thought they were all crazy together. Dr. Blythe was away at some medical congress and Mr. Sheldon was laid up with bronchitis ... though his nurse had been heard to say that it was more imagination