Will.’ Now, what connection can there be between those two things, Katy?”

CXXXV

“I don’t know!” said Katy, disappointed. “Is that all, are you sure? It doesn’t seem to mean anything, does it?”

“Wait a minute!” added Mary. “Here in the Sonnet-margin she has written, ‘Will S.—Yours. Look!’”

[64]“Look where?” wondered Katy. “What Will S. have you, Mary?”

[64]

At the word “Look!” Mary had glanced up at the portrait of Aunt Nan, and it seemed to her as if the eyes in the picture were cast down on something below them. Mary’s own eyes followed the look, and fell on the bust of Shakespeare in the middle of the mantelshelf. “Does she mean—perhaps she does—that bust of Will Shakespeare?” said Mary. “It is mine now, of course. ‘Whoever has her wish’—‘Wears yet a precious jewel in his head’—‘Something rich and strange.’”

“Oh, Mary! It all fits together!” cried Katy, clapping her hands. “Do have a look at that bust, dear! If it is your Will.”

“That’s just what I will do!” cried Mary, running to the mantelpiece, with Katy close behind her, and Caliban following them both.

The bust was a plaster one about six inches high, and it stood on a black marble block like a little pedestal. Mary had dusted it many times and she knew it was not fastened to the pedestal and that it was hollow. But was it also empty?

While the girls were looking at the bust, Caliban suddenly made two leaps, one to a chair, then to the mantelshelf which he reached without[65] a slip. Then he took up his pose beside the bust of Shakespeare, and sat blinking wisely at them.

[65]

“Do look at Caliban!” cried Katy. “He certainly looks as if he knew secrets!”

“Perhaps he does,” said Mary. “Maybe there is a secret about this bust. I am going to see. If you please, Master Will S.”

She took down the bust and shook it gently. Nothing rattled inside. Nothing fell out. She poked with her finger as far as she could reach. There seemed to be nothing in the interior.

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