some other abode
for himself.

Lady Mardykes pleaded earnestly, and even with tears; for if Gertrude
were to leave the neighbourhood, she well knew how utterly solitary her
own life would become.

Sir Bale at last vouchsafed some little light as to his motives. There
was an old story, he told her, that his estate would go to a Feltram. He
had an instinctive distrust of that family. It was a feeling not given
him for nothing; it might be the means of defeating their plotting and
strategy. Old Trebeck, he fancied, had a finger in it. Philip Feltram
had told him that Mardykes was to pass away to a Feltram. Well, they
might conspire; but he would take what care he could that the estate
should not be stolen from his family. He did not want his wife stript of
her jointure, or his children, if he had any, left without bread.

All this sounded very like madness; but the idea was propounded by
Philip Feltram. His own jealousy was at bottom founded on superstition
which he would not avow and could hardly define. He bitterly blamed
himself for having permitted William Feltram to place himself where he
was.

In the midst of these annoyances William Feltram was seriously thinking
of throwing up the farm, and seeking similar occupation somewhere else.

One day, walking alone in the thick wood that skirts the lake near his
farm, he was discussing this problem with himself; and every now and
then he repeated his question, "Shall I throw it up, and give him the
lease back if he likes?" On a sudden he heard a voice near him say:

"Hold it, you fool!--hold hard, you fool!--hold it, you fool!"

The situation being lonely, he was utterly puzzled to account for the
interruption, until on a sudden a huge parrot, green, crimson, and
yellow, plunged from among the boughs over his head to the ground, and
partly flying, and partly hopping and tumbling along, got lamely, but
swiftly, out of sight among the thick underwood; and he could neither
start it nor hear it any more. The interruption reminded him of that
which befel Robinson Crusoe. It was more singular, however; for he owned
no such bird; and its strangeness impressed the omen all the more.

He related it when he got home to his wife; and as people when living a
solitary life, and also suffering, are prone to superstition, she did
not laugh at the adventure, as in a healthier state of spirits, I
suppose, she would.

They continued, however, to discuss the question together; and a