A strange light flickered for a moment in the old woman’s watery gray eyes, then died. She merely stared at Penny.
“No soap!” commented Louise. “Let’s get out of here.”
Penny, however, was persistent.
“Julia, you must have seen her—a girl like me,” she emphasized. “Does she sleep here?”
“Sleep—sleep—” the word seemingly had aroused an unpleasant chain of thought in the old woman’s twisted mind.
“Where is the girl’s room?” Penny probed.
Julia did not act as if she had heard the question. She was mumbling to herself, a look of horror upon her face.
“What’s she saying?” Louise demanded, unable to catch a word.
Penny bent closer. Distinctly she heard the old woman mutter: “The canopied bed! In the chapel room—”
Then old Julia stiffened and she flattened herself against the wall of the passageway, her eyes wide with fear.