"No inclination of mine, my dear Father," replied Gilbert.

"Who has sent you then?"

"I am sent by chance," answered Gilbert, laughing. "Early this morning I
set out, with some twenty companions, in pursuit of a boar. I was better
mounted than they, and so was the boar, for he distanced them. When the
chase was at an end I found myself entirely alone, and could hear
nothing of my men. I did not know where I was; so I permitted my horse
to choose his own course, and by some accident he has brought me here."

Father Omehr listened attentively, and added, after a pause:

"It is well you came not yesterday. Did you meet any one in the wood?"

Gilbert felt the searching eye of his companion upon him, and related
with much embarrassment all that had happened at the spring.

"I knew he was in search of something to prey upon when he left me so
suddenly. That Henry de Stramen should thus pursue a boy!--fie! It is a
stain upon his manhood!"

Gilbert looked up in the speaker's face to ascertain if he were in
earnest.

"And but for that little bell, where should you be at this moment?"

"Here, Father, most likely!"