d not honestly
feel, and the expression of which, even if there had been light, there
was no one near enough to see.

When he reached the edge of the lake, Feltram stooped, and Sir Bale
thought that his attitude was that of one who whispers to and caresses a
reclining person. What he fancied was a dark figure lying horizontally
in the shallow water, near the edge, turned out to be, as he drew near,
no more than a shadow on the elsewhere lighter water; and with his
change of position it had shifted and was gone, and Philip Feltram was
but dabbling his hand this way and that in the water, and muttering
faintly to himself. He rose as the Baronet drew near, and standing
upright, said,

"I like to listen to the ripple of the water among the grass and
pebbles; the tongue and lips of the lake are lapping and whispering all
along. It is the merest poetry; but you are so romantic, you excuse me."

There was an angry curve in Feltram's eyebrows, and a cynical smile, and
something in the tone which to the satirical Baronet was almost
insulting. But even had he been less curious, I don't think he would
have betrayed his mortification; for an odd and unavowed influence which
he hated was gradually establishing in Feltram an ascendency which
sometimes vexed and sometimes cowed him.

"You are not to tell," said Feltram, drawing near him in the dusk. "The
secret is yours when you promise."

"Of course I promise," said Sir Bale. "If I believed it, you don't think
I could be such an ass as to tell it; and if I didn't believe it, I'd
hardly take the trouble."

Feltram stooped, and dipping the hollow of his hand in the water, he
raised it full, and said he, "Hold out your hand--the hollow of your
hand--like this. I divide the water for a sign--share to me and share to
you." And he turned his hand, so as to pour half the water into the
hollow palm of Sir Bale, who was smiling, with some uneasiness mixed in
his mockery.

"Now, you promise to keep all secrets respecting the teller and the
finder, be that who it may?"

"Yes, I promise," said Sir Bale.

"Now do as I do," said Feltram. And he shed the water on the ground, and
with his wet fingers touched his forehead and his breast; and then he
joined his hand with Sir Bale's, and said, "Now you are my safe man."

Sir Bale laughed. "That's the game they call 'grand mufti,'" said he.

"Exactly; and means nothing," said Feltram, "except that some day it
will serve you to remember by.