leave her in the care of a wise and learned man called "Cousin
Christopher"; his description no doubt suggesting to Malvina a
friendly magician. He himself would have to go away for a little
while, but would return.

It did not seem to matter to Malvina, these minor details. It was
evident--the idea in her mind--that he had been appointed to her.
Whether as master or servant it was less easy to conjecture:
probably a mixture of both, with preference towards the latter.

He mentioned again that he would not be away for longer than he
could help. There was no necessity for this repetition. She wasn't
doubting it.

Weymouth with its bathing machines and its gasometer faded away.
King Rufus was out a-hunting as they passed over the New Forest, and
from Salisbury Plain, as they looked down, the pixies waved their
hands and laughed. Later, they heard the clang of the anvil,
telling them they were in the neighbourhood of Wayland Smith's cave;
and so planed down sweetly and without a jar just beyond Cousin
Christopher's orchard gate.

A shepherd's boy was whistling somewhere upon the Downs, and in the
valley a ploughman had just harnessed his team; but the village was
hidden from them by the sweep of the hills, and no other being was
in sight. He helped Malvina out, and leaving her seated on a fallen
branch beneath a walnut tree, proceeded cautiously towards the
house. He found a little maid in the garden. She had run out of
the house on hearing the sound of his propeller and was staring up
into the sky, so that she never saw him until he put his hand upon