"Don't try to hoodwink me any longer," remonstrated the lady,
unbelieving.

"I've never in my life set eyes on her before," he solemnly averred.

She scrutinized him sharply.

"Hand on heart?" she doubted.

And he, supporting her scrutiny without flinching, answered, "Hand on
heart."

"Well, then," concluded she, with a laugh, "it looks as if I were even
more of an old witch than I boasted--and my thumbs pricked to some
purpose. Here's the lady of the piece already arrived. There, she's
going away. How well she walks! Have after her--have after her quick,
and begin your courtship."

The smiling young woman, her lilac dress softly bright in the sun, was
moving slowly down the garden path, towards the cloisters; and now she
entered them, and disappeared. But John, instead of "having after her,"
remained at his counsellor's side, and watched.

"She came from that low doorway, beyond there at the right, where the
two cypresses are; and she came at the very climax of my vaticination,"
said her ladyship. "Without a hat, you'll hardly dispute it's probable
she's staying in the house."

"No--it certainly would seem so," said John. "I'm all up a tree."