And half pushing Cuthbert from him before the bewildered youth had time to speak a single word, the printer disappeared within his own door, and Cuthbert was left to make his way to his uncle’s house.

“Beshrew me if I know what Master Anthony means!” said Cuthbert to himself.  “I trow there be matters stirring in London town of which we in the country know nothing.  How strange it is that one can hardly set foot in this great seething city without hearing words of mystery—­without feeling oneself enwrapped in its strange atmosphere of doubt and perplexity.  Something is doubtless astir of which I know naught; but at my uncle’s house I shall hear all.”

The shutters were just being put up at Martin Holt’s as Cuthbert stepped across the threshold.  The servant uttered a cry of astonishment as he saw his master’s nephew, and Martin himself came forward from the little room behind.

“Bless me, is it thou, Cuthbert?” he exclaimed in surprise.  “Well, boy, thou art welcome since thou art come, though we had almost begun to think thou hadst forgot us and thy promise to return.  Come upstairs and greet thy aunt and cousins.  Hast thou seen aught of Cherry, as thou comest from the south?”

Cuthbert stepped back a pace, and some of the light went out of his face.

“Cherry!” he stammered, taken aback.  “How should I have seen her?  Is she not here?”

“Not for a matter of four days.  She is helping her aunt, Prudence Dyson at the Cross Way House, to wait upon some guests the ladies are entertaining.  Methought if you had come that way you might have chanced upon her.”

A keen thrill of disappointment ran through Cuthbert’s frame.  To think how near he had been to Cherry and had never guessed it!  If only he had called at the Cross Way House that day!

“I have not been there for the matter of a week.  I was last at Trevlyn Chase; but mine uncle and his son have gone to London, as I heard.  I had hoped to find Cherry here.”

“Well, thou wilt find all but her.  Go up, go up!  Thou wilt need refreshment after thy journey, and thou shalt hear the news as we sup.  Thine old room shall be made ready for thee.  I am glad to see thy face again, boy; and would hear thy story anon.”

Cuthbert received a warmer welcome than he had looked for from the aunt and cousins upstairs.  Perhaps they were all missing the brightness that had left them when Cherry went.  Perhaps the vacant place at the board day by day was an offence to the conservative eye of Mistress Susan.  But whatever was the cause, there was no denying the cordiality of the reception accorded to him; and after the lonely life of the forest, and all his wanderings there, his strange resting places, and many hours of watching, toil, and anxious fear, it seemed pleasant indeed to be sitting at this hospitable board, warmed by the friendly glow of the fire, and discussing the savoury viands that always adorned a table of Mistress Susan’s spreading, and which did indeed taste well after the hardy and sometimes scanty fare he had known in the forest.