o stare, for you know he couldn't
draw a line. And when--But I say, Gertrude, for Heaven's sake, don't
devour everything I say with those great pitiful eyes of yours. I am a
regular brute to talk about him."

"No, Ted, no. It makes me so happy to hear you, and to know that you
know how good he really was, and how much he must have been aggravated
before--"

"For goodness' sake, don't cry. Christian was a very good fellow, a
capital fellow. I never thought I could have got on so well with any one
who was--I mean who wasn't--well, of course I mean who was really a
gipsy. I don't blame him a bit for resenting being bullied about his
parents. I only blame myself for not looking better after him. But you
know that well enough--you know it's because I never can forgive myself
for having managed so badly when you put him in my care, that I am
backing you through this mad expedition, though I don't approve of it
one bit, and though I know John will blame me awfully."

("It's the clergywoman," whispered Mrs. Hedgehog excitedly, "and I must
and will see her."

When it comes to this with Mrs. Hedgehog's sex, there is nothing for it
but to let the dear creatures have their own way, and take the
consequences. She pushed her nose straight through the lower branches of
an arbutus in which we were concealed, and I myself managed to get a
nearer sight of our new neighbours.

As we crept forward, the clergywoman got up from where she was kneeling
amongst the flowers, and laid her hand on the young gentleman's arm. I
noticed it because I had never seen such a white hand before; Sybil's
paws were nearly as dark as my own.)

"John will blame no one if we find Christian," she said. "You are very,
very good, Cousin Ted, to come with me and help me when you do not
believe in my dream. But you must say it is odd about the flowers. And
you haven't told me yet what they are."

"It is the bulbous-rooted fumitory," said the young man, pulling a piece
at random in the reckless way in which men do disfigure forest
flower-beds. "It isn't strictly indigenous, but it is naturalized in
many places, and you must have seen it before, though you fancy you
haven't."

"I have seen it once before," she said earnestly--"all in delicate
glaucous-green masses, studded with purple and white, like these; but it
was in my dream. I never saw it otherwise, though I know you don't
believe me."

"Dear Gertrude, I'll believe anything you like to tell me, if y