"Miss you!" repeated the old woman in a tremulous voice. "Miss you, my white bird that flew into my old arms from the cruel storm? Sha'n't I miss you? But it won't be for long. Ay! when one has kept company with the angels for a while, one's pretty like to miss them when they fly back home. But you'd best take Gib. The Wise Woman knows why. Only I don't tell all my secrets. And it won't be for long." Haldane had been laying fresh sticks on the embers while she spoke. Now she turned to Stephen. "She'd best have Gib," she said. "He's like another creature since she came. She'll take care of him. And you'll take care of her. I told you last time you were here as I'd do the best for her, not for you. But this is the best for both of you. And maybe the good Lord'll do the best for me. Ermine says He's not above keeping a poor old woman company. But whatever comes, and whatever you may hear, you bear in mind that I did my best for you." "Ay, that I'm sure you've done, Mother," replied Stephen warmly. "As for Gib, I'll make him welcome for your sake; he looks rather comfortable now, so I think he'll get along." It certainly was not too much to say that Gib was another creature. That once dilapidated-looking object, under Ermine's fostering care, had developed into a sleek, civilised, respectable cat; and as he sat on her lap, purring and blinking at the wood-fire, he suggested no ideas of discomfort. "Ay, I've done my best," repeated the old woman with a sigh. "The Lord above, He knows I've done it. You'd best be off with the morning light. I can't be sure--Well, I mustn't tell my secrets." Stephen was inclined to be amused with the Wise Woman's reiteration of this assertion. What fancy she had taken into her head he could not guess. It was some old-womanly whim, he supposed. If he could have guessed her reason for thus dismissing them in haste--if he had seen in the embers what she saw coming nearer and nearer, and now close to her very door--wild horses would not have carried Stephen away from the woman who had saved Ermine. Haldane's bidding was obeyed. The dawn had scarcely broken on the following morning, when Stephen and Ermine, with Gib in the arms of the latter, set forth on their journey to London. Haldane stood in her doorway to watch them go.