cottage the night I was born, and said strange things about a 'May
child'--I was born in May. We went--as I tell you--to see her, and
found her spinning. She looked up from her wheel as we entered--but
she did not seem surprised at our coming. Her eyes were very bright-
-not like the eyes of an old person. She spoke to my father at once-
-her voice was very clear and musical. 'Is it you, John Royal?' she
said--'and you have brought your fey lass along with you!' That was
the first time I ever heard the word 'fey.' I did not understand it
then."

"And do you understand it now?" asked Aloysius.

"Yes"--she replied,--"I understand it now! It is a wonderful thing
to be born 'fey'! But it is a kind of witchcraft,--and you would be
displeased--"

"At what should I be displeased?" and the priest bent his eyes very
searchingly upon her--"At the fact,--which none can disprove,--that
'there are things in heaven and earth' which are beyond our
immediate knowledge? That there are women strangely endowed with
premonitory instincts land preternatural gifts? Dear child, there is
nothing in all this that can or could displease me! My faith--the
faith of my Church--is founded on the preternatural endowment of a
woman!"

She lifted her eyes to his, and a little sigh came from her lips.

"Yes, I know what you mean!"--she said--"But I am sure you cannot
possibly realise the weird nature of old Alison! She made me stand
before her, just where the light of the sun streamed through the