"I have not wooed in earnest," he said carelessly, and hitched forward his cloak of sky-blue tuftaffeta with an air.

"I sheered off quickly enough, I warrant you, when I found the nature of the commodity I had to deal with." "Ah!" I said.

"When I left the crowd they were going very fast.

You had best hurry, if you wish to secure a bargain." "I'm off," he answered; then, jerking his thumb over his shoulder, "If you keep on to the river and that clump of cedars, you will find Termagaunt in ruff and farthingale." When he was gone, I stood still for a while and watched the slow sweep of a buzzard high in the blue, after which I unsheathed my dagger, and with it tried to scrape the dried mud from my boots.

Succeeding but indifferently, I put the blade up, stared again at the sky, drew a long breath, and marched upon the covert of cedars indicated by Hamor.
As I neared it, I heard at first only the wash of the river; but presently there came to my ears the sound of a man's voice, and then a woman's angry "Begone, sir!" "Kiss and be friends," said the man.
The sound that followed being something of the loudest for even the most hearty salutation, I was not surprised, on parting the bushes, to find the man nursing his cheek, and the maid her hand.
"You shall pay well for that, you sweet vixen!" he cried, and caught her by both wrists.
She struggled fiercely, bending her head this way and that, but his hot lips had touched her face before I could come between.
When I had knocked him down he lay where he fell, dazed by the blow, and blinking up at me with his small ferret eyes.