Part 15 (2/2)
”Since we didn't find anything inside, it was certainly necessary to find something outside.”
”And you have found it?”
”Certainly.”
”The Virgin protect you!”
”SHE is with us. She will not desert us. I will even say that I believe she has a special guardians.h.i.+p over the Isles. She watches over them from evening to morning.”
”What are you saying?”
”Certainly. You don't know what we call in France 'the watchers of the Virgin'?”
”Oh, yes, they are the webs that the dear little beasts of the good G.o.d spin between the trees and that...”
”Exactly. You understand me and you will understand further when you know that in the garden the first thing that struck me across the face as I went into it was these watchers of the Virgin spun by the dear little spiders of the good G.o.d. At first when I felt them on my face I said to myself, 'Hold on, no one has pa.s.sed this way,' and so I went to search other places. The webs stopped me everywhere in the garden. But, outside the garden, they kept out of the way and let me pa.s.s undisturbed down a pathway which led to the Neva. So then I said to myself, 'Now, has the Virgin by accident overlooked her work in this pathway? Surely not. Someone has ruined it.' I found the shreds of them hanging to the bushes, and so I reached the river.”
”And you threw yourself into the river, my dear angel. You swim like a little G.o.d.”
”And I landed where the other landed. Yes, there were the reeds all freshly broken. And I slipped in among the bushes.”
”Where to?”
”Up to the Villa Krestowsky, madame-where they both live.”
”Ah, it was from there someone came?”
There was a silence between them.
She questioned:
”Boris?”
”Someone who came from the villa and who returned there. Boris or Michael, or another. They went and returned through the reeds. But in coming they used a boat; they returned by swimming.”
Her customary agitation rea.s.serted itself.
She demanded ardently:
”And you are sure that he came here and that he left here?”
”Yes, I am sure of it.”
”How?”
”By the sitting-room window.”
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