Whenne thatte ye Pappist Churchmanne
Woulde seke Hys Soul's contente
He tookened up ye Wysshinge Stone
And trode ye Prior's Vent.
"Deuced odd! What does it all mean?"
"I haven't the slightest idea," I said. "Nor has anybody else. It seems like a gratuitous slap at a certain religion, and as the author of the lines was noted for her religious bias, that is probably as good an explanation as any other."
Our conversation had attracted the attention of the others, and Mrs. Hilyer drew Nikka and the Count in front of the chimney-piece.
"You don't suppose there could be some secret meaning to those words, do you?" she asked.
"I wish you'd pick it out for me," I countered.
That was a query I had often put to myself.
"A key to something else, you know," she went on. "Our ancestors were fond of that sort of thing. They loved mystery, and life wasn't as safe in those days as it is in ours.'