THE SORCERESS THE SORCERESS BY MRS. OLIPHANT AUTHOR OF "THE SON OF HIS FATHER," "THE CHRONICLES OF CARLINFORD," "THE ROSE IN JUNE," "THE GREATEST HEIRESS IN ENGLAND," "WHITELADIES," "WITHIN THE PRECINCTS," "IT WAS A LOVER AND HIS LASS," "ADAM GRAEME," ETC., ETC. NEW YORK JOHN A. TAYLOR AND COMPANY 119 POTTER BULDING COPYRIGHT, 1893, BY JOHN A: TAYLOR AND COMPANY THE SORCERESS CHAPTER I. It was the most exciting event which had ever occurred in the family, and everything was affected by it. Imagine to yourselves such a young family, all in the very heyday of life, parents and children alike. It is true that Mrs. Kingsward was something of an invalid, but nobody believed that her illness was anything very serious, only a reason why she should be taken abroad, to one place after another, to the great enjoyment of the girls, who were never so happy as when they were travelling and gaining, as they said, experience of life. She was not yet forty, while Charlie was twenty-one and Bee nineteen, so that virtually they were all of the same age, so to speak, and enjoyed everything together--mamma by no means put aside into the ranks of the dowagers, but going everywhere and doing everything just like the rest, and as much admired as anyone. To be sure she had not been able to walk about so much this time, and had not danced once, except a single turn with Charlie, which brought on a palpitation, so that she declared with a laugh that her dancing days were over. Her dancing days over! Considering how fond she had always been of dancing, the three young people laughed over this, and did not take the least alarm. Mamma had always been the ringleader in everything, even in the romps with the little ones at home. For you must not think that these three were all of the family by any means. Bee and Betty were the eldest of I can’t at this moment tell how many, who were safe in the big nursery at Kingswarden under the charge (very partial) of papa, and the strict and steady rule of nurse, who was a personage of high authority in the house. Papa had but lately left “the elder ones,” as he called them, including his pretty wife--and had gone back to his work, which was that of an official at the Horse Guards, in some military department of which I don’t even know the name, for I doubt whether the Intelligence Department, which satisfies all the necessities of description, had been invented in those days.