True, such reading aloud as she had been forced to do for Emmie while Will had laryngitis had been on such subjects, dealing largely with specters and apparitions. And both Aggie and I recalled later that she had told Emmie that the nearness of the graveyard would make such materialization comparatively simple.
But Emmie had shown more terror than interest in the subject, and finally Will had insisted that Tish abandon it for lighter and more cheerful material.
It had been seed sown in fruitful ground, however, as shall presently appear.
To go back then: Will came home very dejected one night and said he would have to go away for a business trip. Emmie was most disagreeable about it.
“And what about me?” she demanded. “Are you going to leave me here alone?”
“It’s the first time I’ve left you for five years, Emmie,” he told her. “I’ll just have to go. And as for being alone, haven’t you got Letitia here? And Lizzie and Aggie?”
Well, I must admit that that did not seem to cheer her any, and the look she gave us was most unpleasant. But she had to let him go, although her last words were not calculated to send him away happy.
“If anything happens to me while you are gone, Will,” she said, “you know how I want things done. And my black silk dress is in the lower bureau drawer.”
“I can get back in six hours if I’m needed, Emmie,” he said brokenly. “A telegram or——”
“When I go I shall be snuffed out like a candle,” she told him in a cold voice. And with that he went away, looking as though he was on his way to the electric chair.