to make up his full tale betimes."

Yram had heard her son complain that there were no shelters on the
preserves, and state his intention of having some built before the
winter. Here too, then, the man's story must be false. She changed the
conversation for the moment, but quietly told a servant to send high and
low in search of her son, and if he could be found, to bid him come to
her at once. She then returned to her previous subject.

"And did not this heartless wretch, knowing how hungry you must both be,
let you have a quail or two as an act of pardonable charity?"

"My dear Mayoress, how can you ask such a question? We knew you would
want all you could get; moreover, our permit threatened us with all sorts
of horrors if we so much as ate a single quail. I assure you we never
even allowed a thought of eating one of them to cross our minds."

"Then," said Yram to herself, "they gorged upon them." What could she
think? A man who wore the old dress, and therefore who had almost
certainly been in Erewhon, but had been many years away from it; who
spoke the language well, but whose grammar was defective--hence, again,
one who had spent some time in Erewhon; who knew nothing of the
afforesting law now long since enacted, for how else would he have dared
to light a fire and be seen with quails in his possession; an adroit
liar, who on gleaning information from the Professors had hazarded an
excuse for immediately retracing his steps; a man, too, with blue eyes
and light eyelashes. What did it matter about his hair being dark and
his complexion swarthy--Higgs was far too clever to attempt a second
visit to Erewhon without dyeing his hair and staining his face and hands.
And he had got their permit out of the Professors before he left them;
clearly, then, he meant coming back, and coming back at once before the
permit had expired. How could she doubt? My father, she felt sure, must
by this time be in Sunch'ston. He would go back to change his clothes,
which would not be very far down on the other side the pass, for he would
not put on his old Erewhonian dress till he was on the point of entering
Erewhon; and he would hide his English dress rather than throw it away,
for he would want it when he went back again. It would be quite
possible, then, for him to get through the forest before the permit was
void, and he would be sure to go on to Sunch'ston for the night.

She chatted unconcernedly, now with one guest