still talking with a patient
simplicity. "What time will they be back?"

"Not yet," she whispered. "Mabel said not till two o'clock. What time
is it now, father?"

He pulled out his watch with his disengaged hand.

"It is not yet one," he said.

"Very well, listen, father.... I was in this house; and I heard that
talking; and I ran along the passages, till I saw light below a door;
and then I stopped.... Nearer, father."

Percy was a little awed in spite of himself. Her voice had suddenly
dropped to a whisper, and her old eyes seemed to hold him strangely.

"I stopped, father; I dared not go in. I could hear the talking, and I
could see the light; and I dared not go in. Father, it was Felsenburgh
in that room."

From beneath came the sudden snap of a door; then the sound of
footsteps. Percy turned his head abruptly, and at the same moment heard
a swift indrawn breath from the old woman.

"Hush!" he said. "Who is that?"

Two voices were talking in the hall below now, and at the sound the old
woman relaxed her hold.

"I--I thought it to be him," she murmured.

Percy stood up; he could see that she did not understand the situation.

"Yes, my child," he said quietly, "but who is it?"

"My son and his wife," she said; then her face changed once more.
"Why--why, father---"

Her voice died in her throat, as a step vibrated outside. For a moment
there was complete silence; then a whisper, plainly audible, in a girl's
voice.

"Why, her light is burning. Come in, Oliver, but softly."

Then the handle turned.

CHAPTER V

I

There was an exclamation, then silence, as a tall, beautiful girl with
flushed face and shining grey eyes came forward and stopped, followed by
a man whom Percy knew at once from his pictures. A little whimpering
sounded from the bed, and the priest lifted his hand instinctively to
silence it.

"Why," said Mabel; and then stared at the man with the young face and
the white hair.

Oliver opened his lips and closed them again. He, too, had a strange
excitement in his face. Then he spoke.

"Who is this?" he said deliberately.

"Oliver," cried the girl, turning to him abruptly, "this is the priest I
saw---"

"A priest!" said the other, and came forward a step. "Why, I thought---"

Percy drew a breath to steady that maddening vibration in his throat.

"Yes, I am a priest," he said.

Again the whimpering broke out from the bed; and Percy, half turning
again to silence it,