sire to learn most of all, Father; the rest can wait.
Who is the sick lady of whom you spoke to yonder physician--she that, he
thought, was your grand-daughter?"

"Who could it be, Hugh, except Eve Clavering."

"Eve!" gasped Hugh. "Eve dying of the pest?"

"Nay, son: who said so? She is ill, not dying, who, I believe, will live
for many years."

"You believe, Father, you believe! Why this foul plague scarce spares
one in ten. Oh! why do you believe?"

"God teaches me to do so," answered the old knight solemnly. "I only
sent for that physician because he has medicines which I lack. But it is
not in him and his drugs that I put my trust. Come, let us go in and see
her."

So they went up the stairs and turned down a long passage, into which
the light flowed dimly through large open casements.

"Who is that?" asked Hugh suddenly. "I thought that one brushed past me,
though I could see nothing."

"Ay," broke in the lad David, who was following, "and I felt a cold wind
as though some one stirred the air."

Grey Dick also opened his lips to speak, then changed his mind and was
silent, but Sir Andrew said impatiently:

"I saw no one, therefore there was no one to see. Enter!" and he opened
the door.

Now they found themselves in a lighted room, beyond which lay another
room.

"Bide you here, Richard, with your companion," said Sir Andrew. "Hugh,
follow me, and let us learn whether I have trusted to God in vain."

Then very gently he opened the door, and they passed in together,
closing it behind them.

This is what Hugh saw. At the far end of the room was a bed, near to
which stood a lamp that showed, sitting up in the bed, a beautiful young
woman, whose dark hair fell all about her. Her face was flushed but not
wasted or made dreadful by the sickness, as happened to so many. There
she sat staring before her with her large dark eyes and a smile upon her
sweet lips, like one that muses on happy things.

"See," whispered Sir Andrew, "she is awakened from her swoon. I think I
did not trust in vain, my son."

She caught the tones of his voice and spoke.

"Is that you, Father?" she asked dreamily. "Draw near, for I have such a
strange story to tell you."

He obeyed, leaving Hugh in the shadow, and she went on:

"Just now I awoke from my sleep and saw a man standing by my bed."

"Yes, yes," Sir Andrew said, "the physician whom I sent for to see you."

"Do physicians in Avignon wear caps of red and yellow an