she fear spies or miracles? She would
sit where she was and see what happened. Nor had she long to wait, for
presently a voice, a hoarse, manly voice, whispered--

"Emlyn! Emlyn Stower!"

"Yes," she answered, also in a whisper. "Who speaks?"

"Who do you think?" asked the voice, with a chuckle. "A devil, perhaps."

"Well, if it be a friendly devil I don't know that I mind, who need
company in this lone place. So appear, man or devil," answered Emlyn
stoutly. But in secret she crossed herself beneath her cape, for
in those days folk believed in the appearance of devils for no good
purposes.

The statue began to creak, then opened like a door, though very
unwillingly, as though its hinges had been fixed for a long, long time
and rusted in the damp, which was indeed the case. Inside of it, like a
corpse in an upright coffin, appeared a figure, a square, strong figure,
clad in a tattered monk's robe, surmounted by a large head with fiery
red hair and beetling brows, beneath which shone two wild grey eyes.
Emlyn, whose heart had stood still--for, after all, Satan is awkward
company for a mortal woman--waited till it gave a jump in her breast and
went on again as usual. Then she said quietly--

"What are you doing here, Thomas Bolle?"

"That is what I want to know, Emlyn. Night and day for weeks you have
been calling me, and so I came."

"Yes, I have been calling you; but how did you come?"

"By the old monk's road. They have forgotten it long ago, but my
grandfather told me of it when I was a boy, and at last a fox showed me
where it ran. It's a dark road, and when first I tried it I thought I
should be poisoned, but now the air is none so bad. It ran to the Abbey
once, and may still, but my door and Mrs. Fox's is in the copse by the
park wall, where none would ever look for it. If you would like a cub to
play with, I will bring you one. Or perhaps you want something more than
cubs," he added, with his cunning laugh.

"Aye, Thomas, I want much more. Man," she said fiercely, "will you do
what I tell you?"

"That depends, Mistress Emlyn. Have I not done what you told me all my
life, and for no reward?"

She moved across the chancel and sat herself down against him, pushing
the image door almost to and speaking to him through the crack.

"If you have had no reward, Thomas," she said in a gentle voice, "whose
fault was it? Not mine, I think. I loved you once when we were young,
did I not? I would have given myse