I am, indeed. Tell me, hast thou yet heard aught of my brother
Hubert?"

"Nought! I might say naught, so sad are the tidings a wandering
palmer brought us," and she told him the story of Charybdis.

"Lady," he said, 'I hope better things. Nay, I am persuaded his
race is not yet run, and that I shall yet see him again in the
flesh; weaned by much affliction from some earthly dross which yet
encrusts his loving nature."

"What reason hast thou to give?"

"Only a conviction borne upon me."

"Wilt thou not return with me?"

"I may not. I have a mission at Mayfield, whither I am bound."

"But thou wilt come soon?"

"On Sunday, if I may, I will preach in the chapel of thy castle."

Need we add how eagerly the offer was accepted? So they parted for
the time.

______________________________________________________________

It was a day of wondrous beauty, the first Sunday in July that year.

Sweet day, so calm, so fine, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky.

The little chapel was full at the usual hour for the Sunday morning
service, which, with our forefathers, was nine o'clock, the hour
hallowed by the descent of the Comforter on the day of Pentecost.
The chaplain said mass. After the creed Martin preached, and his
discourse was from the epistle for the day, which was the fourth
Sunday after Trinity.

"Ah," he said, "this day is indeed beauteous, as were the days in
Eden. It is a delight to live and move. There is joy in the very
air; yet beneath all lies the mystery of pain and suffering.

"Gaze forth from the height, beside the mill at Cross-in-Hand, upon
God's beauteous world. See the graceful downs beyond the forest,
stretching away as far as eye can reach, like a fairy scene. How
lovely it all is; but let us penetrate beneath the canopy of leaves
and the cottage roof. Ah, what suffering of man or beast they hide,
where on the one hand the wolf, the fox, the wild cat, the hawk,
the stoat, and all the birds and beasts of prey tear their victims,
and nature's hand is like a claw, red with blood--and on the other,
beneath the cottage roofs, many a bed-ridden sufferer lies groaning
with painful disease, many children mourn their sires, many widows
and orphans feel that the light is withdrawn from the world, so far
as they are concerned.

"And yet is not God good? Doth He not love man and beast? Ah, yes;
but sin hath brought death and pain into the world, and the whole
creation groaneth and trav