w a little nearer to
her cousin. "Cuthbert, dost thou believe in old saws? Dost thou
believe those predictions which run in old families, and which men
say work themselves out sometimes--in after generations?"

"I scarce know," answered Cuthbert, "I hear so little and see so
little. I know not why they should not be true. Men of old used to
look into the future, and why not now? But why speakest thou thus,
sweet cousin?"

"Marry that will I tell thee, Cuthbert; but my mother chides me for
such talk, and says it befits not a discreet and godly maiden. Yet
I had it from mine own grandam, my father's mother, and she was a
godly woman, too."

"And what did she tell thee?"

"My grandam was a Wyvern," said Kate, "as perchance thou knowest,
since the match pleased not thy father. And she was not the first
Wyvern who had married a Trevlyn. It was Isabel Wyvern, her aunt,
who had wedded with the redoubtable Sir Richard who had burnt the
old witch, and I trow had he been married when the old beldam was
brought before him he would have dealt more mercifully with her;
for the Wyverns ever protected and helped the gipsy folk, and
thought better of them than the rest of the world. Well, be that as
it may, my grandam had many stories about them and their strange
ways, their fashion of fortune telling and divining, and the
wonderful things they could foretell. Many a time had a Wyvern been
saved from danger and perhaps from death by a timely warning from
one of the gipsy folk; and from a child she went fearlessly amongst
them, though all men else shunned and hated them."

"But the prediction--the prediction?" demanded Cuthbert eagerly.

"I am coming to that," answered Kate. "It is a prediction about the
descendants of the Wyverns. My grandam knew it by heart--she had a
wondrous memory--but my mother would never let me write down such
things. She loved them not, and said they had better be forgotten.
But though I cannot recall the words, the meaning stays still with
me. It was that though death might thin the ranks of the Wyverns,
and their name even die out amongst men, yet in the future they
should bring good hap to those who wed with them, and that some
great treasure trove should come to the descendants in another
generation. Now, Cuthbert, though the name of Wyvern has died
out--for the sons went to the Spanish main, and were killed
fighting for the honour of England and the Queen in the days of
Elizabeth; and the daughter