" It seemed as though the two were in a
partnership of sorrow or of search.
The third figure was of Saint Anne, standing a little behind and
looking upward. A strange composition, oddly incomplete, giving an
impression of sadness, of unrest and of loss irredeemable.
A clock was chiming the parts of an hour when the little Madonna
stepped from the frame and tiptoed across the room. To her own
reflection in the mirror opposite she shook her head in a sorrowful
negative. She peeped into a cupboard and behind the draperies of the
mantlepiece, but there was nothing there. She paused before an
engraving of Raphael's Holy Family, murmured "Happy Lady" and passed
on.
On a small davenport table next to one of the two inexorable armchairs
she found the old lady's workbasket. That was a great piece of good
fortune, since nightly it was locked away with the tea, the stamps and
other temptations that might persuade a soul to steal should
opportunity allow.
In the many years of her dwelling in the house, but three times only
had she found it unguarded.
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