“I can’t swear to it, but that is what tradition says. I think it is supposed to have to do with the influence of Elijah’s spirit on Mount Carmel. Mustaph, our guide at the hotel, said he actually knew someone who was cured.”
“How came you to hear of it, Raie?” asked Patricia, with surprise. She was sorry the girl had mentioned it to Anne, thereby raising false hopes.
“I heard of it when I was staying with the Princess: the cave is not far from the Mount Carmel Hotel.”
“And does the Princess believe in it?”
“She neither believes nor disbelieves, because it’s a sort of faith-cure. When I asked her, she answered by quoting Shakespeare: ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’ But the Carmelites evidently accept it as a fact.”
“It is not well to believe too much in such superstitions,” said Patricia thoughtfully. “I should advise you not to think about it, Anne.”
The nurse looked from the one to the other in a tremor of excitement. “Oh, but, my lady, if it should be true! If it should be true!” she cried, scarcely able to contain herself. “Think what it would mean to me to see my Tom growing in mind and body like other boys! Think what a comfort he would be to me in my old age. Surely if the cave is so near by it would be sinful not to try it. Maybe the Lord has brought me out to the Holy Land for this very purpose, else why should it happen that I should come to this very place?”
“If faith is wanted, you will not be found lacking,” her mistress said, with a sigh, as she handed her pet back to the under-nurse. “But if you are disappointed, Anne, remember that I warned you. Every countryside has its legends and superstitions. At Burstall Abbey we had a magic well.”
“I am sorry I have put the poor creature in such a state of excitement,” Raie said, as they left the nursery. “Surely, though, she would not be so foolhardy as to take her little boy to the cave? I would not spend a night there for all the gold of Ophir.”
“Anne will do anything if she thinks it is of God,” rejoined her friend, as she turned into her own room. “She seems to see the working of Providence in every event.”