er laughter came to me on the wind. I
was close upon her when she reached the gate, and darting through,
turned, flushed but triumphant.

"I've won!" she mocked, nodding her head at me.

"Who can cope with the duplicity of a woman?" I retorted! "But,
Lisbeth, you will give me one--just one?"

"It would spoil the pair."

"Oh, very well," I sighed, "good night, Lisbeth," and lifting my cap I
turned away.

There came a ripple of laughter be hind me, something struck me softly
upon the cheek, and stooping, I picked up that which lay half unrolled
at my feet, but when I looked round Lisbeth was gone.

So presently I thrust "them" into my pocket and walked back slowly
along the river path toward the hospitable shelter of the Three Jolly
Anglers.

II

THE SHERIFF OF NOTTINGHAM

To sit beside a river on a golden afternoon listening to its whispered
melody, while the air about one is fragrant with summer, and heavy with
the drone of unseen wings!--What ordinary mortal could wish for more?
And yet, though conscious of this fair world about me, I was still
uncontent, for my world was incomplete--nay, lacked its most essential
charm, and I sat with my ears on the stretch, waiting for Lisbeth's
chance footstep on the path and the soft whisper of her skirts.

The French are indeed a great people, for among many other things they
alone have caught that magic sound a woman's garments make as she
walks, and given it to the world in the one word "frou-frou."

O wondrous word! O word sublime! How full art thou of delicate
suggestion! Truly, there can be no sweeter sound to ears masculine
upon a golden summer afternoon--or any other time, for that
matter--than the soft "frou-frou" that tells him SHE is coming.

At this point my thoughts were interrupted by something which hurtled
through the air and splashed into the water at my feet. Glancing at
this object, I recognised the loud-toned cricket cap affected by the
Imp, and reaching for it, I fished it out on the end of my rod. It was
a hideous thing of red, white, blue, and green--a really horrible
affair, and therefore much prized by its owner, as I knew.

Behind me the bank rose some four or five feet, crowned with willows
and underbrush, from the other side of which there now came a
prodigious rustling and panting. Rising to my feet therefore, I parted
the leaves with extreme care, and beheld the Imp himself.

He was armed to the teeth--that is to say, a woo