des, I
want your services very much--but, before broaching that point, let me
ask why you have invited me to come to see you here. Hafrydda gave me
your message--"

"My message!" repeated the Hebrew in surprise.

"Yes--to meet you here this forenoon on urgent business. If it is
anything secret you have to tell me, I hope you have not got your
wonderful old witch in the back cave, for she seems to have discovered
as thorough a cure for deafness as I found for leprosy at the Hot
Swamp."

"Wonderful old witch!" repeated Beniah, with a dazed look, and a tone of
exasperation that the prince could not account for. "Do you, then, not
know about that old woman?"

"Oh! yes, I know only too much about her," replied Bladud. "She has
been staying at the palace for some time, as you know, and rather a
lively time the old hag has given us. She went in to see my mother one
day and threw her into convulsions, from which, I think, she has hardly
recovered yet. Then she went to my father's room--the chief Gadarn and
I were with him at the time--and almost before she had time to speak
they went into fits of laughter at her till the tears ran down their
cheeks. I must say it seemed to me unnecessarily rude and unkind, for,
although the woman is a queer old thing, and has little more of her face
visible than her piercing black eyes, I could see nothing to laugh at in
her shrivelled-up, bent little body. Besides this, she has kept the
domestics in a state of constant agitation, for most of them seem to
think her a limb of the evil spirit. But what makes you laugh so?"

"Oh! I see now," returned the Hebrew, controlling himself by a strong
effort. "I understand now why the old woman wished to be present at our
interview. Come forth, thou unconscionable hag!" added Beniah, in the
voice of a stentor, "and do your worst. I am past emotion of any kind
whatever now."

As he spoke he gazed, with the resigned air of a martyr, at the inner
end of his cavern. Bladud also looked in that direction. A moment
later and the little old woman with the grey shawl appeared; thrust out
the plank bridge; crossed over, and tottered towards them.

"Dearie me! Beniah, there's no need to yell so loud. You know I've got
back my hearing. What want ye with me? I'm sure I have no wish to pry
into the secrets of this young man or yourself. What d'ye want?"

But Beniah stood speechless, a strange expression on his face, his lips
firmly compres