Hence, Michael, of the three, was the most careful as to what he said to the old man, and never did he venture to show any curiosity on the subject of the whence or how of the mysterious feast. But now and then he had a queer feeling that pretty Ysenda _knew_--what?--he could not define it, more clearly than by suspecting that she was in old Peter's confidence in a way that he and his friends were not. And one evening--it was a Saturday--when the three were sitting together in his cottage, he expressed something of the kind to Hodge and Giles. They were very much surprised. "She is a good, true-hearted maiden," he added. "I don't for a moment mean that she has any selfish motives for her attentions to our godfather." "That's to say you don't suspect her of trying to supplant us in his favour, as to inheriting whatever he has to leave?" said Hodge. There was some suspicion in his tone, much as he admired Ysenda. "One never knows," added Giles. "_She_ may have no thought of the kind--why should she? She is rich already--all the same, Uncle Peter may make her his heir, without her being to blame." "I think it most unlikely," replied Michael. "No such idea was in my mind. Besides," he went on, growing rather indignant, "Ysenda is just the girl to put a stop to anything unfair. She is as kind and generous as a woman can be. We all know of her goodness in any case of poverty or distress that she hears of. No, all I meant was that she may know something of Uncle Peter's dealings with the 'good people'; she is just the sort of sweet maiden that the fairies love." "Maybe," said Giles, who was not very ready to believe in anything he could not see with his own eyes, "maybe she herself is the only fairy in the matter. Maybe _she_ provides the feast." "Impossible," said Hodge and Mike, and so it was. "Anyway," persisted Giles, "I daresay it's she who tells him of the misfortunes and accidents he gets to know of so quickly." "On the contrary," replied Michael, "she has told me herself that it has often been Uncle Peter who has been _her_ informant in such matters, and that he has employed her to carry assistance to the sufferers. There was that great fire last winter at Olden Wood. She happened to see him the very same morning while it was still blazing, five miles off, and no one hereabouts knew of it! And the letter from over the sea telling of Widow Martha's son's death, reducing her to poverty, for he'd been a good son, always sending her money. _Why_," Mike went on very solemnly, "_he knew what was in that letter_ before it had reached Martha's hands!" There was no reply to this. Even Giles was much impressed, and all three started when just at that moment there came a tap at the door, for it was getting late, and being far on in the autumn the evening grew dark very early. The cousins looked at each other half timorously, for even the bravest of men--and they were by no means cowards--may be momentarily frightened by anything uncanny.