It was quite natural that my companion and I should
come together to a region which he had before visited.
"Yes," said she, "I suppose all out-of-the-way things can be made
commonplace, if one reasons long enough. As for me, of course it is
quite natural that, needing a change from the House of Martha, I should
come to my mother's island."
"Your mother!" I stammered.
"Yes," she answered. "Mrs. Raynor, who spends her summers in that house
over there, is my mother. Her brother is here, too, and she has some
friends with her. Mother Anastasia was away recently on a little jaunt,
and when she came back she said that I looked tired and wan, and that I
ought to go to my mother's for a fortnight. So I came. That was all
simple enough, you see."
Simple enough! Could anything be more extraordinary, more enigmatical? I
did not know what to say, what course to pursue; but in the midst of my
surprise I had sense enough to see that, until I knew more, the less I
said the better. Sylvia did not know that I had visited her mother's
island and her mother's house. It is possible that she did not know that
Mother Anastasia had been here. I must decide whether or not I would
enlighten her on these points. My disposition was to be perfectly open
and frank with her, and to be thus I must enlighten her.
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