in his
bed-chamber; "yet not nearly so ancient as Ormiston. I always feel
it is fitting we should live in an old castle, we are so ancient
ourselves."

"Are we?" said John: "I never knew that before."

"Ormiston," she said, "is perhaps as pure a Saxon word as now exists.
It was during the Roman invasion our ancestor led an army through a
dense mist against the invaders: just as he came up with them the sun
shone out and the mist. The legions were taken by surprise, for the
advancing enemy had been hidden by the mist, and they were utterly
routed. The Saxon king--"

"What was his name?" asked John.

"John," she said, "don't seek to be wise above what is revealed. The
king called our ancestor to the front and made him earl of Ormiston on
the spot--'Gold-Mist-on;' that is, 'Be ever in the van;' and a proud
race were the earls of Ormiston, and well they answered to the name.
But their fortunes waned when the modern upstart, the Norman William,
laid his greedy hands on everything for himself and his mob of
pirates, and at present we are only middle-class people, but our blood
must be the bluest of the blue."

"Mine must be as blue," said Edwin, "for the Forresters came in with
the trees, and the trees were early settlers."

"But the mists were first by a very long time," answered Bessie.

"I don't believe that story," said John. "I have read about the
Cakeholy business somewhere, but you have made that Or-Mist-on affair
out of your own head: isn't that true, Bessie?"

"I am not bound to answer unbelievers, John."

"Besides," said John, "Ormiston is far; liker French than Saxon."

"Mr. Parker," said Bessie, "there was an abbot John of Cakeholy who
flourished in the thirteenth century: his ghost is said to revisit its
old habitation, or rather the place where it stood. I should like to
meet it and have a talk over things; it would be very interesting."

"Would you not be terrified?" asked Mrs. Parker.

"If I saw what I believed to be a ghost, I should die of terror," said
Bessie; "especially if I was alone and it was the dead of night; but I
have no faith whatever in ghosts."

"It is getting rather chilly," said Mrs. Parker.

"Perhaps we had better go down now, then," Miss Ormiston said. "Mr.
Forrester, would you come out of your brown study and let us pass?"

"Certainly. I'll see you all safe off the battlements. I wasn't in a
brown study: I was in a mist."

"Then take care: people in a mist always think t