“Peter,” I said, “Miss Elizabeth has changed her mind, and will walk back with us; and - er - by the way, I understand that Master Reginald purchased a coat, a shirt, and a pair of trousers of you, for which he has already paid a deposit of sixpence. Now, if you will let me know their value - “

“That’s hall right, Mr. Brent, sir. Betwixt you and me, sir, they wasn’t up to much, nohow, the coat being tightish, sir - tightish - and the trousis uncommon short in the leg for a man o’ my hinches, sir.”

“Nevertheless,” said I, “a coat’s a coat, and a pair of trousers are indubitably a pair of trousers, and nothing can alter the fact; so if you will send me in a bill some time I shall be glad.”

“Very good, Mr. Brent, sir.” Saying which Peter touched his hat and turning, drove away.

“Now,” I said as I rejoined Lisbeth and the Imp, “I shall be glad if you will tell me how long it should take for my garden to look fair enough to welcome you?”

“Oh, well, it depends upon the gardener, and the weather, and - and heaps of things,” she answered, flashing her dimple at me,

“On the contrary,” I retorted, shaking my head, “it depends altogether upon the whim of the most beautiful, tempting - “

“Supposing,” sighed Lisbeth, “supposing we talk of fish!”

“You haven’t been fishing lately, Uncle Dick,” put in the Imp.

“I’ve had no cause to,” I answered; “you see, I am guilty of such things only when life assumes a grey monotony of hue and everything is a flat, dreary desolation. Do you understand, Imp?”

“Not ‘zackly - but it sounds fine! Auntie Lisbeth,” he said suddenly, as we paused at the Shrubbery gate, “don’t you think my outlaw must be very, very fond of Uncle Dick to kiss his hand?”

“Why, of course he must,” nodded Lisbeth.

“If,” he went on thoughtfully, “if you loved somebody - very much - would you kiss their hand, Auntie Lisbeth ?”

“I don’t know - of course not!”

“But why not - s’posing their hand was nice an’ clean ?”

“Oh, well - really I don’t know. Imp, run along to bed; do.”

“You know now that I wasn’t such a pig as to eat all that food, don’t you?” Lisbeth kissed him.

“Now be off to bed with you.”

“You’ll come an’ tuck me up, an’ kiss me good-night, won’t you?”

“To be sure I will,” nodded Lisbeth,

“Why, then, I’ll go,” said the Imp; and with a wave of the hand to me he went.

“Dick,” said Lisbeth, staring up at the moon, “it was very unwise of you, to say the least of it, to set a desperate criminal at large.”

“I’m afraid it was, Lisbeth; but then I saw there was good in the fellow, you know, and - er - “

“Dick,” she said again, and then laughed suddenly, with the dimple in full evidence; “you foolish old Dick - you know you would have done it anyway for the sake of that dying old soldier.”

“Poor old Jasper!” I said; “I’m really afraid I should.” Then a wonderful thing happened; for as I reached out my hand to her, she caught it suddenly in hers, and before I knew had pressed her lips upon it - and so was gone.

VII

THE BLASTED OAK

I had quarrelled with Lisbeth; had quarrelled beyond all hope of redemption and forgiveness, desperately, irrevocably, and it had all come about through a handkerchief - Mr. Selwyn’s handkerchief.

At a casual glance this may appear all very absurd, not to say petty; but then I have frequently noticed that insignificant things very often serve for the foundation of great; and incidentally quite a surprising number of lives have been ruined by a handkerchief.

The circumstances were briefly these: In the first place, I had received the following letter from the Duchess, which had perturbed me not a little:

MY DEAR DICK: I hear that that Agatha Warburton creature has written threatening to cut off our dear Lisbeth with the proverbial shilling unless she complies with her wish and marries Mr. Selwyn within the year. Did you ever know of anything so disgusting?

If I were Lisbeth, and possessed such a ‘creature” for an aunt, I’d see her in Timbuctoo first - I would! But then I forget the poor child has nothing in the world, and you little more, and “love in a cottage” is all very well, Dick, up to a certain time. Of course, it is all right in novels but you are neither of you in a novel, and that is the worst of it. If Providence had seen fit to make me Lisbeth’s aunt, now, things might have been very different; hut alas! it was not to be. Under the circumstances, the best thing you can do, for her sake and your own, is to turn your back upon Arcadia and try to forget it all as soon as possible in the swirl of London and everyday life. Yours, CHARLOTTE C.

P.S. Of course, “Romance is dead ages and ages ago; still, it really would be nice if you could manage to run off with her some fine night!

Thus the fiat had gone forth, the time of waiting was accomplished; to-day Lisbeth must choose between Selwyn and myself.

This thought was in my mind as I strode along the river path, filling me with that strange exhilaration which comes, I suppose, to most of us when we face some climax in our lives. But now the great question, How would she decide? leaped up and began to haunt me. Because a woman smiles upon a man, he is surely a most prodigious fool to flatter himself that she loves him, therefore. How would she decide? Nay, indeed; what choice had she between affluence and penury? Selwyn was wealthy and favoured by her aunt, Lady Warburton, while as for me, my case was altogether the reverse. And now I called to mind how Lisbeth had always avoided coming to any understanding with me, putting me off on one pretence or another, but always with infinite tact. So Fear came to me, and Doubt began to rear its head; my step grew slower and slower, till, reaching the Shrubbery gate, I leaned there in doubt whether to proceed or not. Summoning up my resolution, however, I went on, turning in the direction of the orchard, where I knew she often sat of a morning to read or make a pretence of sewing.

I had gone but a little way when I caught sight of two distant figures walking slowly across the lawn, and recognised Lisbeth and Mr. Selwyn. The sight of him here and at such a time was decidedly unpleasant, and I hurried on, wondering what could have brought him so early.

Beneath Lisbeth’s favourite tree, an ancient apple-tree so gnarled and rugged that it seemed to have spent all its days tying itself into all manner of impossible knots - in the shade of this tree, I say, there was a rustic seat and table, upon which was a work-basket, a book, and a handkerchief. It was a large, decidedly masculine handkerchief, and as my eyes encountered it, by some unfortunate chance I noticed a monogram embroidered in one corner - an extremely neat, precise monogram, with the letters F. S. I recognised it at once as the property of Mr. Selwyn.

Ordinarily I should have thought nothing of it, but to-day it was different; for there are times in one’s life when the most foolish things become pregnant of infinite possibilities; when the veriest trifles assume overwhelming proportions, filling and blotting out the universe.

So it was now, and as I stared down at the handkerchief, the Doubt within me grow suddenly into Certainty. I was pacing restlessly up and down when I saw Lisbeth approaching; her cheeks seemed more flushed than usual, and her hand trembled as she gave it to me.

“Why, whatever is the matter with you?” she said; “you look so - so strange, Dick.”

“I received a letter from the Duchess this morning.”

“Did you?”

“Yes; in which she tells me your aunt has threatened to - “

“Cut me off with a shilling,” nodded Lisbeth, crossing over to the table.

“Yes,” I said again.

“Well?”

“Well?”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake, Dick, stop tramping up and down like a - a caged bear, and sit down - do!”

I obeyed; yet as I did so I saw her with the tail of my eye whip up the handkerchief and tuck it beneath the laces at her bosom.

“Lisbeth,” said I, without turning my head, “why hide it - there?”

Her face flushed painfully, her lips quivered, and for a moment she could find no answer; then she tried to laugh it off.

“Because I - I wanted to, I suppose !”

“Obviously!” I retorted; and rising, bowed and turned to go.

“Stay a moment, Dick. I have something to tell you.”

“Thank you, but I think I can guess.”

“Can you?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Aren’t you just a little bit theatrical, Dick?” Now, as she spoke she drew out Selwyn’s handkerchief and began to tie and untie knots in it. “Dick,” she went on - and now she was tracing out Selwyn’s monogram with her finger - “you tell me you know that Aunt Agatha has threatened to disinherit me; can you realise what that would mean to me, I wonder?”

“Only in some small part,” I answered bitterly; “but it would be awful for you, of course - good-bye to society and all the rest of it - no more ball gowns or hats and things from Paris, and - “

“And bearing all this in mind,” she put in, “and knowing me as you do, perhaps you can make another guess and tell me what I am likely to do under these circumstances?”

Now, had I been anything but a preposterous ass, my answer would have been different; but then I was not myself, and I could not help noticing how tenderly her finger traced out those two letters F. S., so I laughed rather brutally and answered:

“Follow the instinct of your sex and stick to the Paris hats and things.”

I heard her breath catch, and turning away, she began to flutter the pages of the book upon the table.

“And you were always so clever at guessing, weren’t you?” she said after a moment, keeping her face averted.

“At least it has saved your explaining the situation, and you should be thankful for that.”

The book slipped suddenly to the ground and lay, all unheeded, and she began to laugh in a strange, high key. Wondering, I took a step toward her; but as I did so she fled from me, running toward the house, never stopping or slackening speed, until I had lost sight of her altogether.

Thus the whole miserable business had befallen, dazing me by its very suddenness like a “bolt from the blue.” I had returned to the ‘Three Jolly Anglers,’ determined to follow the advice of the Duchess and return to London by the next train. Yet, after passing a sleepless night, here I was sitting in my old place beneath the alders pretending to fish.

The river was laughing among the reeds just as merrily as ever, bees hummed and butterflies wheeled and hovered - life and the world were very fair. Yet for once I was blind to it all; moreover, my pipe refused to “draw” - pieces of grass, twigs, and my penknife were alike unavailing.

So I sat there, brooding upon the fickleness of womankind, as many another has done before me, and many will doubtless do after, alack!

And the sum of my thoughts was this: Lisbeth had deceived me; the hour of trial had found her weak; my idol was only common clay, after all. And yet she had but preferred wealth to comparative poverty, which surely, according to all the rules of common sense, had shown her possessed of a wisdom beyond her years. And who was I to sit and grieve over it? Under the same circumstances ninety-nine women out of a hundred would have chosen precisely the same course; but then to me Lisbeth had always seemed the one exempt - the hundredth woman; moreover, there be times when love, unreasoning and illogical, is infinitely more beautiful than this much-vaunted common sense.

This and much more was in my mind as I sat fumbling with my useless pipe and staring with unseeing eyes at the flow of the river. My thoughts, however, were presently interrupted by something soft rubbing against me, and looking down, I beheld Dorothy’s fluffy kitten Louise. Upon my attempting to pick her up, she bounded from me in that remarkable sideways fashion peculiar to her kind, and stood regarding me from a distance, her tail straight up in the air and her mouth opening and shutting without a sound. At length having given vent to a very feeble attempt at a mew, she zig-zagged to me, and climbing upon my knee, immediately fell into a purring slumber.

“Hallo, Unc1e Dick! - I mean, what ho, Little John!” cried a voice, and looking over my shoulder, carefully so as nor to disturb the balance of “Louise,” I beheld the Imp. It needed but a glance at the bow in his hand, the three arrows in his belt, and the feather in his cap to tell me who he was for the time being.

“How now, Robin?” I inquired.

“I’m a bitter, disappointed man, Uncle Dick!” he answered, putting up a hand to feel if his feather was in place.