--"

"But the old man is dead, I was told," said Lady Eleanor.

"'Eas fai! and so he is, my Lady, and a terrible job they had to bury
mun--thunder, lightning and hailstones so big as sloes. Dead he is,
and I won't jidge mun--but not afore he'd a doed the mischief, for but
three weeks afterward my pig falls into the mill-leat. So there's my
pig a drownded, and my Tommy so dumb as a haddock--can't go to school,
can't do nought but ate his mate and sit in the corner for all the
world like a moulting hen. Ah, they witches! I wish they was
a-burned, I do." And she hid her face in her apron and sobbed.

"Hush, hush!" said Lady Eleanor gently; but just then she was startled
by a little cry from Elsie; and there was Dick, who had just leaped his
pony over a low bar, tilted right forward on the pony's neck. "Sit
fast, sir, sit fast," cried the Corporal, as Dick floundered to regain
his seat; and with a desperate effort the boy recovered himself and sat
up, flushed and smiling. Elsie clapped her hands with delight, and a
strange man's voice shouted "Bravo!" at the sound of which Lady Eleanor
started and coloured for a moment.

"'Tis surely his lordship from Fitzdenys Court," said Mrs. Fry, who had
lowered her apron a little. "'Eas, 'tis. Now, my Lady, do 'ee plase
to spake to mun about my Tommy; for it's a poor job if his lordship
can't do something for the boy, and he the lord-lieutenant as can call
out the milishy any time."

And as she spoke two gentlemen came cantering up through the park; so
Lady Eleanor bade Mrs. Fry take Tommy to the back-door and get
something for him and herself to eat.

[1] It is a fallacy to suppose that a white witch, in Devon, at any
rate, is necessarily a woman. The few that I have known were men.

CHAPTER IV

The two gentlemen dismounted at the gate giving their horses to their
groom, and then walked towards Lady Eleanor together. Both were
dressed in blue coats, buff waistcoats, and broad-brimmed white hats,
and wore riding trousers strapped very tightly over their boots. They
were evidently father and son, though the elder seemed almost as young
and alert as the younger. The old gentleman took off his hat, bent his
grey head over Lady Eleanor's out-stretched hand, and kissed it with
the old-fashioned courtesy which has now vanished. Then beckoning the
younger man forward, he said:

"I bring you back an old friend with a new title, Lady Eleanor. He has
just retu