ss, with an emphatic oral demonstration.

Hafrydda was so loving and tender and effusive, and, withal, so very
fair, that her friend could not help gazing at her in admiration.

"No wonder I love him," said Branwen.

"Why?" asked the princess, much amused at the straightforward gravity
with which this was said.

"Because he is as like you as your own image in a brazen shield--only
far better-looking."

"Indeed, your manners don't seem to have been improved by a life in the
woods, my Branwen."

"Perhaps not. I never heard of the woods being useful for that end.
Ah, if you had gone through all that I have suffered--the--the--but what
news have you got to tell me?"

"Well, first of all," replied the princess, with that comfortable,
interested manner which some delightful people assume when about to make
revelations, "sit down beside me and listen--and don't open your eyes
too wide at first else there will be no room for further expansion at
last."

Hereupon the princess entered on a minute account of various doings at
the court, which, however interesting they were to Branwen, are not
worthy of being recorded here. Among other things, she told her of a
rumour that was going about to the effect that an old witch had been
seen occasionally in the neighbourhood of Beniah's residence, and that
all the people in the town were more or less afraid of going near the
place either by day or night on that account.

Of course the girls had a hearty laugh over this. "Did they say what
the witch was like?" asked Branwen.

"O yes. People have given various accounts of her--one being that she
is inhumanly ugly, that fire comes out of her coal-black eyes, and that
she has a long tail. But now I come to my most interesting piece of
news--that will surprise you most, I think--your father Gadarn is here!"

Branwen received this piece of news with such quiet indifference that
her friend was not only disappointed but amazed.

"My dear," she asked, "why do you not gasp, `My father!' and lift your
eyebrows to the roots of your hair?"

"Because I know that he is here."

"Know it!"

"Yes--know it. I have seen him, as well as your brother, and father
knows that _I_ am here."

"Oh! you deceiver! That accounts, then, for the mystery of his manner
and the strange way he has got of going about chuckling when there is
nothing funny being said or done--at least nothing that I can see!"

"He's an old goose," remarked her friend