"Uncle ****," said the Imp in his thoughtful way, "I think I'll be a bandit for a bit.""Anything you like," I answered rashly, "so long as we get away while we can.""All right," he whispered, "I won't be a minute," and before I could stop him he had scrambled down the steps and fallen to upon the ice cream.
The wonderful celerity with which the Imp wolfed down that ice cream was positively awe-inspiring. In less time almost than it takes to tell the plate was empty. Yet scarcely had he swallowed the last mouthful when he heard Mr. Selwyn's voice close by. In his haste the Imp dropped his cap, a glaring affair of red and white, and before he could recover it Lisbeth reappeared, followed by Mr. Selwyn.
- "It certainly is more pleasant out here!" he was saying.
Lisbeth came straight towards the cap-it was a moral impossibility that she could fail to see it - yet she sank into her chair without word or sign. Mr. Selwyn, on the contrary, stood with the empty ice plate in his hand, staring at it in wide-eyed astonishment.
"It's gone!" he exclaimed. "Oh!" said Lisbeth.
"Most extraordinary!" Said Mr. Selwyn, fixing his monocle and staring harder than ever; "I wonder where it can have got to?""Perhaps it melted!" Lisbeth suggested, "and I should so have loved an ice!" she sighed.
"Then, of course, I'll get you another, with pleasure," he said and hurried off, eyeing the plate dubiously as he went.
No sooner was Lisbeth alone than she kicked aside the train of her dress and picked up the tell-tale cap.
"Imp!" she whispered, rising to her feet, "Imp, come here at once, sir!" There was a moment's breathless pause, and then the Imp squirmed himself into view.
"Hallo, Auntie Lisbeth!" he said, with a cheerfulness wholly assumed. "Oh!" she cried, distressfully, "whatever does this mean; what are youdoing here?Oh, you naughty boy!"
"Lisbeth," I said, as I rose in my turn and confronted her, "Do not blame the child - the fault is mine - let me explain; by means of a ladder - ""Not here," she whispered, glancing nervously towards the ball-room. "Then come where I can.""Impossible!"
"Not at all; you have only to descend these steps and we can talk undisturbed.""Ridiculous!" she said, stooping to replace the Imp's cap; but being thus temptingly within reach, she was next moment beside us in the shadows.
"****, how could you, how dared you?"
"You see, I had to explain," I answered very humbly; "I really couldn't allow this poor child to bear the blame of my fault - ""I'm not a 'poor child,' Uncle ****," expostulated the Imp; "I'm a gallant knight and - ""- The blame of my fault, Lisbeth," I continued, "I alone must face your just resentment, for - ""Hush!" she whispered, glancing hastily about.
"- For, by means of a ladder, Lisbeth, a common or garden ladder - " "Oh, do be quiet!" she said, and laid her hand upon my lips, which Iimmediately imprisoned there, but for a moment only; the next it was snatched away as there came the unmistakable sound of some one approaching.
"Come along, Auntie Lisbeth," whispered the Imp, "fear not, we'll rescue you."Oh! surely there was magic in the air to-night; for, with a swift, dexterous movement, Lisbeth had swept her long train across her arm, and we were running hand in hand, all three of us, running across lawns and down winding paths between yew hedges, sometimes so close togetherthat I could feel a tress of her fragrant hair brushing my face with a touch almost like a caress.Surely, surely, there was magic in the air to-night!
Suddenly Lisbeth stopped, flushed and panting.
"Well!" she exclaimed, staring from me to the Imp, and back again, "was ever anything so mad!""Everything is mad to-night," I said; "it's the moon!""To think of my running away like this with two - two - " "Interlopers," I suggested.
"I really ought to be very, very angry with you - both of you, she said, trying to frown.
"No, don't be angry with us, Auntie Lisbeth," pleaded the Imp, "'cause you are a lovely lady in a castle grim, an' we are two gallant knights, so we had to come an' rescue you; an' you never came to kiss me good-night, an' I'm awfull' sorry 'bout painting Dorothy's face - really!""Imp," cried Lisbeth, falling on her knees regardless of her silks and laces, "Imp, come and kiss me." The Imp drew out a decidedly grubby handkerchief, and, having rubbed his lips with it, obeyed.
"Now, Uncle ****!" he said, and offered me the grubby handkerchief. Lisbeth actually blushed.
"Reginald!" she exclaimed, "whatever put such an idea into your head?""Oh! everybody's always kissing somebody you know," he nodded; "an' it's Uncle ****'s turn now."Lisbeth rose from her knees and began to pat her rebellious hair into order. Now, as she raised her arms, her shawl very naturally slipped to the ground; and standing there, with her eyes laughing up at me beneath their dark lashes, with the moonlight in her hair, and gleaming upon the snow of her neck and shoulders, she had never seemed quite so bewilderingly, temptingly beautiful before.
"****," she said, "I must go back at once - before they miss me." "Go back!" I repeated, "never - that is, not yet.""But suppose any one saw us!" she said, with a hairpin in her mouth. "They shan't," I answered; "you will see to that, won't you, Imp?""'Course I will, Uncle ****!"
"Then go you, Sir Knight, and keep faithful ward behind yon apple tree, and let no base varlet hither come; that is, if you see any one, be sure to tell me." The Imp saluted and promptly disappeared behind the apple tree in question, while I stood watching Lisbeth's dexterous fingers and striving to remember a line from Keats descriptive of a beautiful woman in the moonlight. Before I could call it to mind, however, Lisbeth interrupted me.
"Don't you think you might pick up my shawl instead of staring at me as if I was - ""The most beautiful woman in the world!" I put in.
