put in his mother who was looking at the fire.

"A little about the King," said Chris, "and about holy things as well.
She spoke about heaven; it was wonderful to hear her; with her eyes
burning, and such a voice; and then she spoke low and deep and told us
about hell, and the devil and his torments; and I could hardly bear to
listen; and she told us about shrift, and what it did for the soul; and
the blessed sacrament. The Carthusian put a question or two to her, and
she answered them: and all the while she was speaking her voice seemed
to come from her body, and not from her mouth; and it was terrible to
see her when she spoke of hell; her tongue lay out on her cheek, and her
eyes grew little and afraid."

"Her tongue in her cheek, did you say?" asked Ralph politely, without
moving.

Chris flushed, and sat back silent. His father glanced quickly from one
to the other.

"Tell us more, Chris," he said. "What did she say to you?"

The young man leaned forward again.

"I wish, Ralph--" he began.

"I was asking--" began the other.

"There, there," said Sir James. "Go on, Chris."

"Well, after a while Dr. Bocking brought me forward; and told her to
look at me; and her eyes seemed to see something beyond me; and I was
afraid. But he told me to ask her, and I did. She said nothing for a
while; and then she began to speak of a great church, as if she saw it;
and she saw there was a tower in the middle, and chapels on either side,
and tombs beside the high altar; and an image, and then she stopped, and
cried out aloud 'Saint Pancras pray for us'--and then I knew."

Chris was trembling violently with excitement as he turned to the priest
for corroboration. Mr. Carleton nodded once or twice without speaking.

"Then I knew," went on Chris. "You know it was what I had in my mind;
and I had not spoken a word of Lewes, or of my thought of going there."

"Had you told any?" asked his father.

"Only Dr. Bocking. Then I asked her, was I to go there; but she said
nothing for a while; and her eyes wandered about; and she began to speak
of black monks going this way and that; and she spoke of a prior, and of
his ring; it was of gold, she said, with figures engraved on it. You
know the ring the Prior wears?" he added, looking eagerly at his father.

Sir James nodded.

"I know it," he said. "Well?"

"Well, I asked her again, was I to go there; and then she looked at me
up and down; I was in my travelling suit; but she said