etter for cutting."

It was in this appalling form that the projected operation with the
sixpence made its way through the Corporal to Lady Eleanor, who was
horrified. She at once sent for both Mrs. Mugford and Mrs. Fry to get
at the truth of the story, and gave them such a scolding for their
folly and their quarrelsomeness that they departed weeping hand in
hand, in deep sympathy with each other as two thoroughly ill-used
women. They were a little frightened too, for though they had long
known Lady Eleanor as the gentlest and kindest of creatures, they now
found out that her beautiful face could be stern, and her voice sharp
and severe in rebuke; but for all their crying they knew in their
hearts that they liked her all the better for it.

So all attempts to heal Tommy by magic were stopped; and meanwhile
Colonel George scoured the moor in all directions without the least
success in finding out anything about the strange woman and her idiot
son. He had ridden first to Cossacombe, which was twenty miles away on
the other side of the moor, and had heard that the woman had been seen
there occasionally, but the idiot never; in fact no one seemed to know
anything about him. He learned also that she had brought down some
honey for sale on the day following her appearance at Ashacombe, and
had bought a sack of oatmeal at the mill, which she had taken away on a
scarecrow of an Exmoor pony. There were of course sundry stories of
her, but these were dark and uncertain, and of no value for tracing her
to her dwelling place. Then Colonel George took long rides over the
moor, crossing it this way and that from end to end, in the hope of
finding what he sought; for he had made up his mind that this strange
couple were lodged somewhere in the waste of bog and heather. But he
failed to find the least trace of them; and indeed the moor is wide now
and was far wider and wilder and more desolate in those days, before
there was a fence or a ditch to be found in the whole of it. Then
stag-hunting began, and Colonel George felt confident that with so many
people galloping over the moorland in all directions he must certainly
learn something; but here again he was disappointed. Still he went on
trying day after day, and very often came home by Ashacombe, when he
did not fail to call at Bracefort Hall, where everybody was glad to see
him, whatever the failure of his efforts.

Thus a whole month passed away without any change in Tom