“Why, nothing.”
“You’re burning something you don’t want me to see!”
“It’s nothing. Just an old doll.”
The wooden object had not yet caught fire, and Penny could still see it plainly.
“Why, it’s an effigy doll!” she exclaimed, then observing the face clearly, she added in a shocked voice: “A likeness of your mother!”
The scarlet string around the doll’s body caught fire, and soon tongues of flame began to consume the wood. Only then did Lorinda speak.
“Now it is destroyed! But I cannot so easily destroy the evil that threatens my mother!”
“Why, Lorinda! What do you mean? Why are you burning this doll?”
Lorinda sank down on the sand, her eyes upon the fire. “I hadn’t intended anyone to know. You swear you will never tell Mother?”
“Of course not.”