“Yes! they do come, very often, and plenty of other people with them; the Earl of Watherhouse and Lord Drinkwater, and Lady Mountacue, and more than I know the names of. But—but—did Mamma tell you why they come?”
“No! not exactly! To see her and the Baron, I suppose!”
“Well! yes! for that too perhaps,” stammered Bobby. “But there is another reason. Mamma is very wonderful, you know! She can tell people things they never knew before. And she has a room where—but I had better not say any more. You might repeat it to her and then she would be so angry.” The two were on their way to the Wiertz Museum at the time, and Harriet’s curiosity was excited.
“I will not, I promise you, Bobby,” she said, “what has the Baroness in that room?”
Bobby drew near enough to whisper, as he replied,
“O! I don’t know, I daren’t say, but horrible things go on there! Mamma has threatened sometimes to make me go in with her, but I wouldn’t for all the world. Our servants will never stay with us long. One girl told me before she left that Mamma was a witch, and could raise up the dead. Do you think it can be true—that it is possible?”
“I don’t know,” said Harriet, “and I don’t want to know! There are no dead that I want to see back again, unless indeed it were dear old Pete, our overseer. He was the best friend I ever had. One night our house was burned to the ground and lots of the things in it, and old Pete wrapped me up in a blanket and carried me to his cabin in the jungle, and kept me safe until my friends were able to send me to the Convent. I shall never forget that. I should like to see old Pete again, but I don’t believe the Baroness could bring him back. It wants ‘Obeah’ to do that!”
“What is ‘Obeah,’ Miss Brandt?”
“Witchcraft, Bobby!”
“Is it wicked?”