for it by being cast
out from the companionship of my fellows. Since then"--the coat made
the slightest of pathetic gestures--"I have wandered alone."

It ought to have sounded so ridiculous to them both; told on English
soil in the year One Thousand Nine Hundred and Fourteen to a smart
young officer of Engineers and an elderly Oxford Professor. Across the
road the doctor's odd man was opening garage doors; a noisy milk cart
was clattering through the village a little late for the London train;
a faint odour of eggs and bacon came wafted through the garden, mingled
with the scent of lavender and pinks. For Commander Raffleton, maybe,
there was excuse. This story, so far as it has gone, has tried to make
that clear. But the Professor! He ought to have exploded in a burst
of Homeric laughter, or else to have shaken his head at her and warned
her where little girls go to who do this sort of thing.

Instead of which he stared from Commander Raffleton to Malvina, and
from Malvina back to Commander Raffleton with eyes so astonishingly
round that they might have been drawn with a compass.

"God bless my soul!" said the Professor. "But this is most
extraordinary!"

"Was there a King Heremon of Ireland?" asked Commander Raffleton. The
Professor was a well-known authority on these matters.

"Of course there was a King Heremon of Ireland," answered the Professor
quite petulantly--as if the Commander had wanted to know if there had
ever been a Julius Caesar or a Napoleon. "And so there was a Queen
Harbundia. Malvina is always spoken of in connection with her."

"What did she do?" inquired Commander Raffleton. They both of them
seemed to be oblivious of Malvina's presence.

"I forget for the moment," confessed the professor. "I must look it
up. Something, if I remember rightly, in connection with the daughter
of King Dancrat. He founded the Norman dynasty. William the Conqueror
and all that lot. Good Lord!"

"Would you mind her staying with you for a time until I can make
arrangements," suggested Commander Raffleton. "I'd be awfully obliged
if you would."

What the Professor's answer might have been had he been allowed to
exercise such stock of wits as he possessed, it is impossible to say.
Of course he was interested--excited, if you will. Folklore, legend,
tradition; these had been his lifelong hobbies. Apart from anything
else, here at least was a kindred spirit. Seemed to know a thing or
two. Where