"Duchess," I exclaimed, as I jotted down the address upon my cuff,
"I owe you a debt of gratitude that I can never - "

"Tut, tut !" said her Grace.

"I think I'll start to-day, and - "

"You really couldn't do better," nodded the duchess.

* * * * *

And so it befell that on this August afternoon I sat in the shade
of the alders fishing, with the smoke of my pipe floating up into
the sunshine.

By adroit questioning I had elicited from mine host of the Three
Jolly Anglers the precise whereabouts of Fane Court, the abode of
Lisbeth's sister, and guided by his directions, had chosen this
sequestered spot, where by simply turning my head I could catch a
glimpse of its tall chimneys above the swaying green of the treetops.

It is a fair thing upon a summer's hot afternoon within some shady
bower to lie upon one's back and stare up through a network of
branches into the limitless blue beyond, while the air is full of
the stir of leaves, and the murmur of water among the reeds. Or
propped on lazy elbow, to watch perspiring wretches, short of breath
and purple of visage, urge boats upstream or down, each deluding
himself into the belief that he is enjoying it. Life under such
conditions may seem very fair, as I say; yet I was not happy. The