."

As soon as Leuesa was out of hearing, Derette turned to Stephen with a
changed expression on her face.

"Stephen!" she said, in a low whisper, "you have been to see after
_them_. Tell me what you found."

"I never said nought o' the sort," answered Stephen, rather staggered by
his cousin's penetration and directness.

"Maybe your heart said it to mine. You may trust me, Stephen. I would
rather let out my life-blood than any secret which would injure them."

"Well, you're not far wrong, Derette. Gerard and Agnes are gone; they
lie under the snow. So does Adelheid; but Berthold was not buried; I
reckon he was one of the last. I cannot find Rudolph."

"You have told me all but the one thing my heart yearns to know.
Ermine?"

Stephen made no reply.

"You have found her!" said Derette. "Don't tell me where. It is
enough, if she lives. Keep silence."

"Some folks are hard that you'd have looked to find soft," answered
Stephen, with apparent irrelevance; "and by times folk turn as soft as
butter that you'd expect to be as hard as stones."

Derette laid up the remark in her mind for future consideration.

"Folks baint all bad that other folks call ill names," he observed
further.

Derette gave a little nod. She was satisfied that Ermine had found a
refuge, and with some unlikely person.

"Wind's chopped round since morning, seems to me," pursued Stephen, as
if he had nothing particular to say. "Blew on my back as I came up to
the gate."

Another nod from Derette. She understood that Ermine's refuge lay south
of Oxford.

"Have you seen Flemild?" she asked. "She has sprained her wrist sadly,
and cannot use her hand."

"Now just you tell her," answered Stephen, with a significant wink,
"I've heard say the White Witch of Bensington makes wonderful cures with
marsh-mallows poultice: maybe it would ease her."

"I'll let her know, be sure," said Derette: and Stephen took his leave
as Leuesa returned with her purchase.

He had told her nothing about Ermine: he had told her every thing.
Derette thanked God for the--apparently causeless--impulse to mention
her sister's accident, which had just given Stephen the opportunity to
utter the last and most important item. Not the slightest doubt
disturbed her mind that Ermine was in the keeping of the White Witch of
Bensington, and that Stephen was satisfied of the Wise Woman's kind
treatment and good faith. She was sorry for Gerhardt and Agnes; but sh