On the porch the old woman had tottered out. "What was it?" she asked.
"Death."
"Ave Maria purissima!" croned the hag.
And the girl, turning her back to the darkness in which the horse had vanished, answered, as is the custom, "Who conceived without sin."
Fausta re-entered the house, but her mother loitered on the porch. The next morning the gold had disappeared.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
The Pace that Kills.
A Transaction in Hearts.
Eden.