hey did not grudge him his
wonderful discovery, but they were eager to visit the fugitive
themselves, and to carry him food and drink.

The days that followed were days of absolute enchantment to the
boys, who delighted in waiting on Warbel and passing hours in his
company. He told them entrancing stories of adventure and peril. He
was devoted to his three youthful keepers, and wished for nothing
better than to enter service with their father.

Later on, when all hue and cry after the missing man was over, and
when Lord Mortimer's young kinsman was so far recovered that it
would be impossible to summon Warbel for any injury inflicted on
him, Bertram conducted him to the hut of one of his father's
woodmen, who promised to keep him safe till the return of the
knight.

When Sir Oliver came back, Warbel was brought to him, told a part
of his tale, and was admitted readily as a member of the household;
but the story of his incarceration in the secret chamber remained a
secret known only to himself and the three boys. So delightful a
mystery as the existence of this unknown chamber was too precious
to be parted with; and it was a compact between the boys and the
man, who now became their chief attendant and body servant, that
the trick of that door and the existence of that chamber were to be
told to none, but kept as absolutely their own property.

Chapter II: The Household At Chad.

The office of mistress of a large household in the sixteenth
century was no sinecure. It was not the fashion then to depute to
the hands of underlings the supervision of the details of domestic
management; and though the lady of the Hall might later in the day
entertain royalty itself, the early hours of the morning were spent
in careful and busy scrutiny of kitchen, pantry, and store or still
room, and her own fair hands knew much of the actual skill which
was required in the preparation of the many compounds which graced
the board at dinner or supper.

Lady Chadgrove was no exception to the general rule of careful
household managers; and whilst her lord and master went hunting or
hawking in the fresh morning air, or shut himself up in his library
to examine into the accounts his steward laid before him or concern
himself with some state business that might have been placed in his
hands, she was almost always to be found in the offices of the
house, looking well after the domestic details of household
management, and seeing that