e so softened and humbled as he now looks to be."

"May the Lord lead him forth by the right way! What do you advise, true
friend?"

"I see two courses, Madam, which under your good leave I will lay before
you. Mr Louvaine can either lie hid in the country with some friend of
yours,--or, what were maybe better, some friend of your friend: or, if
he would be doing at once towards the discharging of his debts, he can
take the part Mr Floriszoon hath chosen, and serve some tradesman in
his shop."

"Trade! Aubrey!" shrieked Mrs Louvaine in horror. "He never will! My
boy hath so delicate a soul--"

"He said he would," answered Mr Marshall quietly, "and thereby won my
high respect."

"Nay, you never mean it!" exclaimed Temperance. "Bless the lad! I
ne'er gave him credit for half the sense."

"If Aubrey be brought down to that, he must have learned a good lesson,"
said his grandmother. "Not that I could behold it myself entirely
without a pang."

Edith, who had hitherto been silent, now put in a suggestion.

"Our Charity is true as steel," she said. "Why not let Aubrey lie close
with her kindred, where none should think to look for him?"

"In Pendle?--what, amid all the witches!" said Temperance.

"Edith, I'm amazed at you! I could never lie quiet in my bed!" wailed
Mrs Louvaine. "Only to think of the poor boy being bewitched by those
wicked creatures! Why, they spend Sunday nights dancing round the
churchyard with the devil."

"And the place is choke-full of 'em, Charity says," added Temperance.
"She once met Mother Demdike her own self, muttering under her breath,
and she gave her the evillest look as she passed her that the maid ever
saw."

"Ay, saying the Lord's Prayer backwards, of course."

"Well, I can't say," said Temperance, dubiously: "it did not seem to do
Charity any ill. I shouldn't wonder, truly--"

"For mercy's sake, stop her!" cried Mrs Louvaine. "She's going to say
something wicked--I know she is! She'll say there are no witches, or no
devil, or something horrible."

"Nay, I'll say nought o' the sort," responded Temperance. "Whether
there be witches or no, the Lord knows, and there I leave it; but that
there is a devil I'm very sure, for he has tempted me over and over
again. All I say is, if Charity could meet a witch, and get no ill, why
should not Aubrey too?"

"I won't have it!" cried Mrs Louvaine in an agony. "My poor darling
boy! I won't have it! My fatherless chi