— XII —FOR OLD SAKE’S SAKE
As Sybil thought over Nebelsen’s revelations, she found it difficult wholly to resist the impression they made upon her. They had aroused the superstition which, in spite of education, is more or less latent in so many of us.
What if this wild story were really true? She could not forget all she had been told when she first bought that most ill-chosen gift. Had not misfortune attended all who had had anything to do with it? The man who dug it up, the ship which brought it over, the curiosity dealer himself.
And then there was her own experience. It had been the means of betraying her to her aunt at the worst possible moment, and so separating her from Ronald, who otherwise would never have had reason to doubt her so unjustly. He had used this idol to point the
