ied down the long Elizabethan corridor, however, she heard
another sound that came to her through an open window, that of Anthony
laughing in his jolliest and most uproarious manner and of the housemaid
Bess, laughing with him. She stayed where she was and listened. Bess had
left the library and was coming across the courtyard, where one of the
other servants met her and asked some question that Barbara did not
catch. The answer in Bess's ringing voice was clear enough.

"Lord!" she said, "they always gave me the wild colts to break upon the
farm. It is a matter of eye and handling, that's all. He nearly got me
with that plaster thing, so I went for him and boxed his ears till he
was dazed. Then I kissed him afterwards till he laughed, and he'll never
be any more trouble, at least with me. That mother of his don't know how
to handle him. She's another breed."

"Yes," said the questioner, "the mistress is a lady, she is, and gentle
like the squire who's gone. But how did they get such a one as Master
Anthony?"

"Don't know," replied Bess, "but father says that when he was a boy
in the Fens they'd have told that the fairy folk changed him at birth.
Anyway, I like him well enough, for he suits me."

Barbara went back to her sitting-room, where not long afterwards the boy
came to her. As he entered the doorway she noted how handsome he looked
with his massive head and square-jawed face, and how utterly unlike any
Arnott or Walrond known to her personally or by tradition. Had he been
a changeling, such as the girl Bess spoke of, he could not have seemed
more different.

He came and stood before her, his hands in his pockets and a smile upon
his face, for he could smile very pleasantly when he chose.

"Well, Anthony," she said, "what is it?"

"Nothing, mother dear, except that I have come to beg your pardon. You
were quite right about the coursing meeting; they are a low lot, and I
oughtn't to mix with them. But I had bets on some of the dogs and wanted
to go awfully. Then when you said I mustn't I lost my temper."

"That was very evident, Anthony."

"Yes, mother; I felt as though I could have killed someone. I did try
to kill Bess with that bust of Plato, but she dodged like a cat and the
thing smashed against the wall. Then she came for me straight and gave
me what I deserved, for she was too many for me. And presently all my
rage went, and I found that I was laughing while she tidied my clothes.
I wish you could