bert's confidante and friend. It
was taken for granted by this time that this should be so. Nobody
was surprised to see them often together, and Cherry had never
found the house on the bridge so little dull as when Cuthbert came
in night by night to give her the most charming and exciting
accounts of his doings and adventures. Once, too, she had gone with
him to see some sights. They had paraded Paul's Walk together, and
Cuthbert had been half scandalized and wholly astonished to see a
fine church desecrated to a mere fashionable promenade and lounging
place and mart. They had watched some gallants at their tennis
playing another day, and had even been present at the baiting of a
bear, when they had come unawares upon the spectacle in their
wanderings. But Cuthbert's ire had been excited through his
humanity and love for dumb animals, and Cherry had been frightened
and sickened by the brutality of the spectacle. And when Martin
Holt had inveighed against the practice with all a Puritan's
vehemence, Cuthbert had cordially agreed, and had thus drawn as it
were one step nearer the side of the great coming controversy which
his uncle had embraced.

These expeditions together had naturally drawn the cousins into
closer bonds of intimacy. Cherry felt privileged to ask questions
of Cuthbert almost at will, and he had no wish to hide anything
from her.

"I will tell thee that adventure some day when we are alone," he
answered. "I have often longed to share the tale with thee, but we
have had so much else to speak of. I was taken prisoner by the
robbers, and conveyed to a ruined mill, where some of their
comrades and some wild gipsies dwell, as I take it, for the greater
part of the inclement winter. I thought my end had surely come when
first I saw the fierce faces round me; but there was one who called
herself their queen, and who made them quit their evil purpose. She
put me to sit beside her at the board, and when the morning came
she fed me again and bid me ride forth without fear. She told me
certain things to boot, which I must not forget: but those I will
not speak of till you know the whole strange story. I may not tell
it here. I would not that any should know it but thee, Cherry. But
some day when we can get into some lonely place together I will
tell thee all, and we will think together how the thing on which my
mind is set may be accomplished."

Cherry's eyes were dilated with wonder and curiosity. Her cousin