fate.

After the very mysterious incident that had happened in the train,
for her to know that Elsie had disobeyed without hearing the words
she had spoken seemed not only quite possible, but very likely
indeed.

The gentleman saw Elsie's hesitation, and spoke sharply again. "If
you are obstinate, we shall have to use other methods to make you
speak. Have you ever been in prison?"

Elsie's eyes dilated with horror. "Oh, no!" she replied.

"But you are very likely to find yourself there, unless you answer my
questions better. Tell me at once where you met this lady?"

"She was in a carriage; we were on the road to Killochrie."

"Stop; how did you come there?"

"We ran away from Sandy Ferguson's cottage."

"Why did you do that? Now, tell me why."

"He was very bad to us, and robbed us of our money and our clothes.
Duncan thought he wanted to kill us, so we ran away."

"What business had you in Sandy Ferguson's cottage?"

"He took us in when we hadn't any place to go to. I thought he was
kind at first, but he wasn't."

"Then you had run away from somewhere else?"

"Yes," Elsie admitted, with a flushed face and look of shame. "We ran
away from home."

"What made you do that?"

Elsie hung her head. How could she tell this gentleman all her
suspicions? They seemed all so stupid now.

"We were jealous because mother favoured Robbie so," she faltered,
very much ashamed, and conscious that it was one of the most
foolish-sounding reasons that could be.

"Well," said the gentleman sharply, "you ran away, and you fell in
with Sandy Ferguson, who wanted to kill you, and afterwards with this
lady, who taught you to call her 'mamma.' Was she kind to you?"

"At first she was. When she first saw us on the road we were very
hungry and tired. She asked us the way, and said she was a fairy, and
would come back again. She did come back, and brought beautiful
clothes with her, which she gave to us, and she took us in a train to
a house where we had beautiful and nice warm beds. Then she told us
we were to call her 'mamma' always, and that she was our 'fairy
mother.'"

"This is very interesting," said the old gentleman, approvingly. "But
what of the gentleman? Was he there?"

"Uncle William? oh yes! He did not say much to us; but we did not
like him. He called the driver an idiot, and I was afraid of him."

Here the magistrate asked some questions of the officer standing near
Elsie. "Then he did not come in the tr