with their peculiarly disconsolate eyes.

'Eh! look's the abron un! Abron, like me!' cried Hazel.

Reddin suddenly gripped the long coils that were loose on her
shoulders, twisted them in a rope round his neck, and kissed her. She
was enmeshed, and could not avoid his kisses.

The cob took this opportunity--one long desired--to rear, and Reddin
flogged him the rest of the way. So they arrived with a clatter, and
were met at the door by Andrew Vessons--knowing of eye as a blackbird,
straw in mouth, the poison of asps on his tongue.




Chapter 3


Undern Hall, with its many small-paned windows, faced the north
sullenly. It was a place of which the influence and magic were not
good. Even in May, when the lilacs frothed into purple, paved the lawn
with shadows, steeped the air with scent; when soft leaves lipped each
other consolingly; when blackbirds sang, fell in their effortless way
from the green height to the green depth, and sang again--still,
something that haunted the place set the heart fluttering. No place is
its own, and that which is most stained with old tumults has the
strongest fascination.

So at Undern, whatever had happened there went on still; someone who