"What—what is this?" gasped the Colonel. "Who are you, boy?"
"I am my great-aunt's little nephew," said Hugh. "But no matter for me. You must sit down when the evil spirit is upon you. You might hurt some one. Why do you look so at me, great-aunt? Why don't you help Mr. Saul?"
"Come away, Hughie, love!" cried Mrs. Beadle, in an agony of terror. "Come, dear, and don't ever speak to the Colonel so again. He's only a babe, sir, as doesn't know what he is saying."
"Go away yourself!" roared the Colonel, recovering the power of speech. "Depart, do you hear? Remove yourself from my presence, or—" he moved forward. Mrs. Beadle turned and fled. "Now," he said, turning to the child, "what do you mean, child, by what you said just now? I—I will sit down."
He sank heavily on a garden seat and motioned the child before him. "What do you mean, about Saul—eh?"
"But you know," said Hugh, opening wide eyes of wonder,—"are you so old that you forget?—how the evil spirit from God came upon King Saul, and they sent for David, and he played with his hand till the evil spirit went away. Now you remember?" He nodded confidently, and sat down beside the Colonel, who, though still heaving and panting from his recent outburst, made no motion to repel him. "I said Mr. Saul," Hugh continued, "because you are not a king, you see, and I suppose just 'Saul' would not be polite when a person is as old as you are. And what do you think?" he cried joyously, as a sudden thought struck him. "The ostrich gentleman plays most beautifully with his hand. His name isn't David, but that doesn't matter. I am going to find him."
"Play, Jack," whispered Hildegarde. "Play, quick! Something old and simple. Play 'Annie Laurie.'"
Obeying the girl's fleeting look, Jack laid fiddle to bow, and the old love tune rose from behind the laurel-bush and floated over the garden, so sweet, so sweet, the very air seemed to thrill with tenderness and gentle melody.
Colonel Ferrers sank back on the seat. "Hester's song," he murmured. "Hester's song. Is it Hester, or an angel?"
The notes rose, swelled into the pathetic refrain,—