Tell me what has happened!" and she motioned to her to
sit down again.

The woman waited for a moment and then said in a hard voice, "'Tis my
boy Jan; I can't rightly tell what's wrong wi' mun"--and then she
stopped, but seeing the sympathy in Lady Eleanor's eyes broke out
hurriedly, "Oh, my Lady, I believe that they've a-killed mun. Since I
took mun home three days agone he won't eat and won't take no notice of
naught, but lieth still; and 'twas only when I left mun for a minute
that he made a kind of crying and clung to me like. I had to carry mun
home herefrom the day I left you."

"You carried him home?" broke in Colonel George astonished.

"Yes," said the woman simply; "'most all the way, for he soon gived out
walking; and ever since he's growed weaker and weaker, till this
morning at daylight he didn't take notice of me no longer, so then I
was obliged to leave mun"--she stopped a minute and went on in a harder
voice--"I couldn't help it; I come to ask you if you could spare mun a
drop of wine or what you think might do mun good, for"--she stopped
again and buried her face in her hands.

Lady Eleanor did not speak; she only laid her hand gently on the
woman's shoulder, which sank down and down until she was bent double.
Colonel George at once slipped out of the room and presently returned
with wine, which he gave to Lady Eleanor. The woman revived when she
had drunk a little, and then Colonel George said to her: "Now, my good
woman, you must let me go back with you to your son and take with me
some things for him. Don't be afraid"--(for the woman was shaking her
head)--"I am your friend and you may trust me to keep your secret if
you have any to keep. Think, now, if I know the way, you can stay with
your son and I can bring him up whatever he wants on any day that you
please; and I'll bind myself not to show the way to any one, nor to
come back except on the day that you choose."

The woman hesitated and looked from Colonel George to Lady Eleanor, who
said: "Colonel Fitzdenys is right. You can trust him, and you will
show him the way; and I must come too in case I can be of use.
Remember that you saved my children for me."

The woman still shook her head, but she was evidently wavering.
Colonel George's tone of quiet authority at last prevailed with her,
and she consented to show them the way, saying gruffly that she would
always prefer a soldier, who knew what he was about, to a doctor. But
she refu