know nothing of the affairs of others, if they do not
choose to tell me of their own free will."

She looked at me and sighed a little, at the which I marvelled somewhat,
for it was ever her custom to trust in God and so to go forward without
question.

"You are young and ill prepared for trial, yet you have wandered
alone--silly lassie that you are--into a wilderness of wolves."

"There is trouble everywhere," I answered.

"And danger too," she said; "but there is trouble that we seek for
ourselves, and trouble that God sends to us. You will do well, when you
are safe at home, to wander no more. Now go to bed and rest."

"Shall I not get a meal for your guest?" I asked; for I was well aware
that the man had not yet left the house.

[Sidenote: "Ask no Questions!"]

"Do my bidding and ask no questions," she said, more sternly than was
her custom. So I took my candle and went away silently, she following me
to my chamber. When I was there she bid me pray to God for all who were
in danger and distress, then I heard that she turned the key upon me on
the outside and went away.

I undressed with some sullenness, being ill-content at the mistrust she
showed; but presently she came to the chamber herself, and prayed long
before she lay down beside me.

And now a strange time followed. I saw no more of that visitor that had
come to the house lately, nor knew at what time he went away, or if he
had attained the end he sought. My mistress busied me mostly in the
lower part of the house, and went out very little herself, keeping on me
all the while a strict guard and surveillance beyond her wont.

But at last a charitable call came to her, which she never refused; and
so she left me alone, with instructions to remain between the kitchen
and the street-door, and by no means to leave the house or to hold
discourse with any that came, more than need be.

I sat alone in the kitchen, fretting a little against her injunctions,
and calling to mind the merry evenings in the parlour at home, where I
had sported and gossiped with my comrades. I loved not solitude, and
sighed to think that I had now nothing to listen to but the great clock
against the wall, nothing to speak to but the cat that purred at my
feet.

I was, however, presently to have company that I little expected. For,
as I sat with my seam in my hand, I heard a step upon the stairs; and
yet I had let none into the house, but esteemed myself alone there.

It ca