Half-an-hour later Llewellyn, the guide, ushered Master Rhys and his young charge, whose heart was beating with some excitement at the prospect of the interview, into the room where Lady Rosamond, ever a picture of youth and beauty and gay contentment, stood looking forth from one of the casements, her arm linked in that of her friend, whose pale and statuesque style of beauty formed a marked contrast to her own brightness and vivacity. Primrose gazed on the lady of the mysterious castle with a sort of fascination, withdrawing modestly into a corner of the deep casement after being presented to her, while the vicar and the two friends interchanged civilities. Her face was one of striking interest, the complexion very pale, and the expression of the features marked with a deep melancholy. Her eyes were wonderfully large and dark, and deep shadows lay beneath them, as though they had watched and wept greatly. Much of both pride and sweetness lay in the curves of the beautiful mouth, and face and form both generally betokened a character of great strength and individuality, a woman in whom great pride and haughtiness were tempered and chastened by infinite sorrow--a woman who could love intensely and suffer in proud silence--who might have sinned perchance for those she loved, and be still repenting in tears and bitterness. Her raven hair was already deeply tinged with grey, yet her face was still young in spite of its many lines of pain, and she could scarcely be over forty years of age. Her voice, too, charmed Primrose; it was deep and low and full, like the tones of an organ, and when she turned and spoke to the young girl, calling her out from her quiet corner, a light broke out amidst the shadows on her face which made her very beautiful. Primrose felt herself entranced, while at Lady Bryn Afon's bidding she told her the strange story of her babyhood and adoption by Jack, of all his great love and care for her during her lonely childhood by the riverside, of the mysterious visits of the Black Horseman, and the occasional glimpses of the gay outside world, gained during the earl's short and far-between sojourns at the castle. She told also of the good old vicar's kindness, and of all she had learned from him in her daily tasks in his study, and of her love for his tiny church on the hillside, where the green branches waved across the windows, and round which the summer breezes played their soft whispered accompaniment to the chanting within; and next she confessed her great desire to offer herself as a candidate at the Confirmation which the Lord Bishop of St. David's had given out to be held at the ensuing Michaelmas, and for that reason to obtain in the meanwhile the knowledge of her rightful name from her unknown mother. And as Lady Bryn Afon bade her talk without fear of all that was in her heart, saying that from what her husband had told her she had long felt a deep interest in