he cause of trouble, and said
that Jason must be somebody after all, since what he had was a malady
the quality was much subject to; for to her own knowledge the "Clerk
o' the Rowls" had suffered from it when a little dancing girl from
France had left suddenly for England. Yet she made no question but
she should cure him, if Davy could contrive to hang about his neck
while he slept a piece of red ribbon which she would provide.

It was not easy for Davy to carry out his instructions, so little did
Jason rest, but he succeeded at length, and thought he remarked that
Jason became calmer and better straightway.

"But bless me, I was wrong," said he. "It was four divils the poor
boy had in his head; and two of them are gone, but the other two are
agate of him still."

When Sunday morning came Jason made himself ready for church, and
then lounged at the doorway of old Davy's cottage by the dial, to
watch the people go in at the gate. And many hailed him as they went
by in the sweet sunshine, and some observed among themselves that in
a few days his face had grown thin. In twos and threes they passed,
while Davy rang the bell from the open porch, and though Jason seemed
not to heed any of them, yet he watched them one by one. Matt
Mylechreest he saw, and Nary Crowe, now toothless and saintly, and
Kane Wade, who had trudged down from Ballure, and his wife Bridget,
grown wrinkled and yellow, and some bright young maidens, too, who
gave a side-long look his way, and John Fairbrother--Gentleman
John--who tripped along with silken bows on the toes of his shoes.
But one whom he looked for he did not see, and partly from fear that
she might not come, and partly from dread lest she should pass him so
closely by, he shambled into church with the rest before the bell had
stopped.

He had not often been to church during the four years that he had
lived on the island and the people made way for him as he pushed up
into a dark corner under the gallery. There he sat and watched as
before out of his slow eyes, never shifting their quiet gaze from the
door of the porch. But the bell stopped, and Greeba had not come;
and when Parson Gell hobbled up to the Communion-rail, still Greeba
was not there. Then the service was begun, the door was closed, and
Jason lay back and shut his eyes.

The prayers were said without Jason hearing them, but while the first
lesson was being read, his wandering mind was suddenly arrested. It
was the story o