"It is perfected at last, I verily believe, Percival!" he exclaimed, as the chaplain entered. "And in the use I have hitherto made of the wondrous herb, I have not been so very far wrong! At least, I may say with assurance, it has not failed for good, and my doubts of its efficacy have been over-conscientious! With this new preparation I am, notwithstanding, more fully satisfied. Ah, Percival, who shall say what measure of good you and I may in our time be permitted to effect for the doomed house we serve? You, with your spiritual, and I with my physical forces--we may indeed ere we die see the removal of the curse! But you look weary unto death, my friend, and surely need my prescriptions for yourself?" "You can give me no better prescription than the certain knowledge of the efficacy of your great discovery," said Percival. "Rhiwallon, had I a kingdom, I would give it you for such good assurance! I love the daughter of this doomed race, and I would verily give you ten thousand kingdoms, were they mine to give, an you could swear to me that I might seek to wed her without sin in the sight of God!" "So," said the Black Horseman, his fierce black eyes glittering with what looked very like a sudden rush of unshed tears, "you love fair Shanno--the fair maid of Gwynnon? You loved her some months since, if I mistake not? Rhiwallon's eyes are keen, and are wont to take secret note of hidden things. Poor boy! And your love then has made you suffer? Think you it is perchance not returned?" The chaplain's face flushed, and his eager eyes fell with a sudden, proud humility veiled beneath their long lashes. "I have not yet sought to know whether it is returned or not," he answered steadily. "And it were too great presumption to speak openly of the glad hope my heart doth cherish. Let it suffice, Rhiwallon, that I love her! But a few weeks since did I pray and hope ere long to come to the honest conviction that I might honourably and fearlessly, in the sight of God and man, seek to win her for the helpmeet of my life; but now, with the knowledge of her parentage, lately made known to me by her mother, has come a new torment, which you alone can set at rest, if rest may come. If not--well--I shall not be the first whose heart has been crushed within him by the weight of the cruel curse!" And involuntarily his glance travelled towards the picture on the wall opposite Rhiwallon's chair, on which the Black Horseman's own eyes were fixed with an expression of infinite pain--a portrait of the fair, golden-haired Lady Gwendolen--Shanno's beautiful girl-aunt, and almost exact image. "Nay, you will not be the first," said the physician dreamily, and he sat for some minutes lost in thought, while Percival Vere waited with a sinking heart for his next words. They came abruptly. "What do you then seek to know of me, Percival?" he asked, suddenly turning his eyes full upon the young man's face.