the pale brown that the sun knows how to waken in a shallow pool in a
hill-stream, set in a dark fringe of lashes that were like the rushes
round the pool. Before she could speak, it was told of her eyes that
they would quietly follow some visitor, invisible to others, but
obvious to her. Occasionally, after the mysterious power of
speech--that is almost as mysterious as the power of reading--had come
to her, she had scared the nursery by broken conversation with
viewless confederates, defined by the nursery-maid as "quare turns
that'd take her, the Lord save us!" and by her mother, as "something
that she will outgrow, and the less said about it the better,
darlings. Remember, she is the youngest, and you must all be very wise
and kind--" (a formula that took no heed of punctuation, and was
practically invariable).

But as Christian grew older the confederates withdrew, either that, or
the protecting shell of reserve that guards the growth of
individuality, interposed, and her dealings with things unseen ceased
to attract the attention of her elders. It was John, her senior by two
years, who preserved an interest, of an inquisitorial sort, in what he
had decided to call the Troops of Midian. There was a sacerdotal turn
about John. He had early decided upon the Church as his vocation, and
only hesitated between the rôles of Primate of Ireland and Pope of
Rome. He had something of the poet and enthusiast about him, and
something also of the bully, and it was quite possible that he might
do creditably in either position, but at this stage of his development
his ecclesiastical proclivities chiefly displayed themselves in a
dramatic study, founded upon that well-known Lenten hymn that puts a
succession of searching enquiries, of a personal character, to a
typical Christian. A missionary lecture on West Africa had supplied
some useful hints as to the treatment of witches, and Christian's