y and girl wooing certainly, but none the less hearty for that.
The love had been growing silently for many weeks, the young folks
scarcely knowing what they were learning to be to each other. And
now these sudden burning words had revealed all, and Cherry felt
more than ever that she trod on air and moved in a dream; only this
time there was the pleasant sense that the dream would not vanish
away in smoke, but would become more and more a living reality.

But there was something Cuthbert had said which yet required
explanation, and presently she looked up and asked:

"What didst thou mean when thou spokest of a lost treasure? What is
it, and who has lost it?"

And then Cuthbert forthwith plunged into the story of the lost
treasure of Trevlyn, as he had heard it from his cousin Kate; and
Cherry listened with parted lips, thinking that it was almost like
living in some play to be hearing this strange tale.

When she heard of the gipsies and their vengeful words, she stopped
suddenly short and gazed intently at Cuthbert.

"This is the second time thou hast spoken of gipsies," she said, in
a whisper. "Thou hast yet to tell me the tale of how thou didst
spend a night in the gipsies' cave. Cuthbert, were those gipsies
thou didst light upon that night of thy flight the same as have
stolen the treasure from Trevlyn?"

"Cherry, I trow that they are," he answered, in a very low voice,
bending his head closer over her as he spoke. "Listen, and I will
tell thee all. There was an old fierce woman, with hair as white as
driven snow, among them, who, when she heard the name of Trevlyn,
launched at me a glance of hatred that I never can forget; and I
knew well by her looks and her words that, had she had her will, I
should have suffered the same fate that her mother had done from
the hands of my grandfather. I knew not then that it was her mother
who had been burnt by him as a witch; but I saw the evil purposed
me, and knew she was my foe. But a stately woman--the old gipsy's
daughter, as I later learned--interposed on my behalf, and her all
obeyed as queen, even her mother bowing down before her. She
protected me, and bid me sit at table with them, saw me served with
the best, and at night showed me herself to a ruinous bed chamber
where, however, a weary man might comfortably lodge. There she left
me, but bid me not to undress; and presently after I had slept, I
know not how many hours, I was awakened by her entrance with a d