[Pg 13] "Very likely I shall," I assented; "but first I want to see the old castle and the woman and child who live there." "It's a good bit of a walk," said the landlord; "but the weather is fine, so I suppose you won't mind that." "No, I won't mind it," I declared—"not in the least, and Winifred is coming for me in a day or two." "And I hope she won't be a Will-o'-the-wisp to you, ma'am, and leave you in some bog or another." He spoke with considerable asperity, and but that he was just then called away I should have questioned him further; for I judged from his manner that he had suffered from some of the pranks of my new acquaintance. I smiled to myself as I wondered if the girl had been leading him a dance over mountain and moor, or what was the nature of the particular trick she had played upon the stony-visaged landlord. [Pg 14] [Pg 14] CHAPTER II. AT THE CASTLE. CHAPTER II. AT THE CASTLE. It was a lovely May morning when the landlord of the inn came to tell me that Wayward Winifred was waiting. "Why do they call her by that name?" I asked of him. "Oh, then, sure, ma'am, it's just because of her whimsical ways! You might as well try to stick a pin through the down of a thistle or take a feather from a swallow on the wing, as to know what the crathur will be doin' next." He looked all round as if he feared that the walls might have ears; and, seeming in a more communicative mood than before, he continued his narrative: "There's them that says," he whispered, coming close to me, "that all's not right with her; and it's as well you should know it before you go off to the castle with her. She knows too much for one of her years, and she's that wild and whimsical, there's no stoppin' her whichever way she goes. And she keeps queer company sometimes." "But who were her parents?" "Well, you asked me that before, ma'am, but it's a long story. Some will have it that she's not of mortal stock at all. But, to be sure, that's the old people, with their queer consates," he added, somewhat shamefacedly.
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