hild. Howbeit,
thou canst pray thy father to make inquiration."

"Oh ay! I'll pray Father to ask. Thank you, Aunt Tabitha. Was Aunt
Alice very, very pleased to see you?"

"Didn't ask her. She said some'at none so far off it. Dear heart! but
what ado is here?"

And Tabitha rose to examine the details of the "ado." Two fine horses
stood before the gate, each laden with saddle and pillion, the former
holding a serving-man, and the latter a lady. From a third horse the
rider, also a man-servant in livery, had alighted, and he was now coming
to help the ladies down. They were handsomely dressed, in a style which
showed them to be people of some consequence: for in those days the
texture of a woman's hood, the number of her pearls, and the breadth of
her lace and fur were carefully regulated by sumptuary laws, and woe
betide the esquire's daughter, or the knight's wife, who presumed to
poach on the widths reserved for a Baroness!

"Bless us! whoever be these?" inquired Tabitha of nobody in particular.
"I know never a one of their faces. Have they dropped from the clouds?"

"Perhaps it's a mistake," suggested Christie.

"Verily, so I think," rejoined her aunt. "I'd best have gone myself to
them--I'm feared Nell shall scarce--"

But Nell opened the door with the astonishing announcement of--"Mistress
Grena Holland, and Mistress Pandora Roberts, to visit the little
mistress."

If anything could have cowed or awed Tabitha Hall, it would certainly
have been that vision of Mistress Grena, in her dress of dark blue
velvet edged with black fur, and her tawny velvet hood with its gold-set
pearl border. She recognised instinctively the presence of a woman
whose individuality was almost equal to her own, with the education and
bearing of a gentlewoman added to it. Christabel was astonished at the
respectful way in which Aunt Tabitha rose and courtesied to the
visitors, told them who she was, and that the master of the house was
away at his daily duties.

"Ay," said Mistress Grena gently, "we wot that Master Hall must needs
leave his little maid much alone, for my brother, Master Roberts of
Primrose Croft, is owner of the works whereof he is manager."

This announcement brought a yet lower courtesy from Tabitha, who now
realised that members of the family of Roger Hall's master had come to
visit Christabel.

"And as young folks love well to converse together apart from their
elders, and my niece's discretion ma