Talbots."

"Hath mother heard this?" asked Humfrey, recoiling a little, but
never thinking of the more plausible explanation.

"Oh no, no! tell her not, Humfrey, tell her not. She said she would
whip me again if ever I talked again of the follies that the fortune-
telling woman had gulled me with, for if they were not deceits, they
were worse. And, thou seest, they are worse, Humfrey!"

With which awe-stricken conclusion the children went off to bed.




CHAPTER VI. THE BEWITCHED WHISTLE.



A child's point of view is so different from that of a grown person,
that the discovery did not make half so much difference to Cis as her
adopted parents expected. In fact it was like a dream to her. She
found her daily life and her surroundings the same, and her chief
interest was--at least apparently--how soon she could escape from
psalter and seam, to play with little Ned, and look out for the elder
boys returning, or watch for the Scottish Queen taking her daily
ride. Once, prompted by Antony, Cis had made a beautiful nosegay of
lilies and held it up to the Queen when she rode in at the gate on
her return from Buxton. She had been rewarded by the sweetest of
smiles, but Captain Talbot had said it must never happen again, or he